MK Moshe Gafne went on the offensive, blasting Slonim Chassidus for opening a separate school in Betar Illit. “Why? Is it impossible to learn together?”
The opening of the Slonim Beis Yaakov in Betar has angered the litvish community as its officials explain that to date, everyone in the Torah city learned together. There is also a great deal of anger over the letter sent to the parents of the new Beis Yaakov in the name of the Slonim Rebbe Shlita.
The rebbe tells the parents “וכולי תקווה שיצאו מכאן נשים כשרות וצנועות ברוח ישראל סבא וברוח חסידות סלונים ושהכל ילך ללא תקלות”.
“It is my hope and the women who emerge from the school will be modest and live a lifestyle in line with their elders and Chassidus Slonim and hope each child advances with stumbling”.
The rebbe also makes mention of the machlokes surrounding the opening of the school, dismissing the validity of the anger of opponents.
In a closed forum, Gafne came out strongly against Slonim for opening the school. An audio tape of his words was released by Kikar Shabbos News, quoting him attacking Slonim for opening this school as well as regarding the new Gur a school in Haifa.
Gafne in an excited tone adds “We (the litvish community) are proud of our children and in this case, they remain with the Sephardi girls. Today, the Torah world is Ashkenazim and Sephardim together”.
“Why did Gur in Haifa take their girls and move to a separate school in Haifa a few months ago? They all learned together, chassidim and litvish, Ashkenazim and Sephardim, so why did they move their girls to a separate school”?
Regarding what occurred in Emanuel, Maran HaGaon HaRav Sholom Elyashiv ZT”L explained it was all about money and he was unwilling to be pulled into the fight until Justice Edmond Levy of the High Court said “We will force their hand – they will listen to a judge if not a rav”. Then Rav Elyashiv stated a large protest was required. “I told Maran Rav Elyashiv then ‘We cannot protest if the rav is not there’ and he said ‘I will’”.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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11 Responses
Typo or truth?
“and hope each child advances with stumbling”.
Those who send their boys to Litvisher chadorim are combining the Yiddisher Mesorah from their children. Minjogim kept for hundreds or thousands of years are ignored in favor of new ideas. Even the so-called “derech halimud” of the intense “iyun” that barely involves using a gemara for days at a time has no basis in Yiddisher history or minhag. Most mesivtos in America, I believe, don’t usually overdo this. I don’t know about Mesivtos in EY.
Why is a chasidus not allowed to open their own school where they can teach the girls slonim values and minhagim? Sorry, it makes no sense to me.
which Slonim is this? the ווייסער or the שווארצער? is it Rav Wienberg or Rav Berezovski?
Interesting, Is this just a postscript to what happened in Emanu-El
What I gathered from the Emanu-El affair
Slonim takes over a Chinuch Atzmai school
rejects some sephardim
Rav Yaakov Yosef & Yoav Lalum schedule meetings with the Slonimer Rebbe (which somehow magically gets cancelled, I’m not jealous of where those people who orchestrated the cancellations will end up in the next world)
after 3 years of attempted meetings Rav Yaakov Yosef instructs Yoav Lalum to take it to the high court
parents of the school make a mockery out of the court acting like it’s a circus prompting the judge to a radical verdict and jailing the parents.
Rav Elyashiv calls for a mass protest
Rav Yaakov Yosef keeps quiet for a few days and than opens up about Chinuch Atzmai’s historical pattern of racism and empty promises to his father that things will change, he also says that he was not approached by anyone for clarification.
Please correct translation of the Rebbe’s words.
so what? do the litvaks treat chasidim nicely? How many chabadniks to the litvaks ‘allow’ in their cheder systems? totally ZERO!
How many kippa s’ruga kids are in litvashe gans? ZERO.
Gafne should realize that after the litvaks pulled shtick on the chassidim, he can expect the chasidim to look out for themselves and not trust the litvaks.
I have a better idea…
All chareidim in 1 party in the Knesset to strengthen their force on religious issues……
Background on “Modi’in Ilit” which everyone calls Kiryat Sefer:
They tried to build a city void of Hasidim. I Lived there in 2000-2001. This was the point their plan to have a Torah city without Hasidim began to fall apart. Just then they were trying to sell Brachfeld, and they came up to the sudden realization, that Litayim were not buying. So they opened it to Hasidim out of desperation, against their own desires, for a variety of reasons, first being so the whole thing wouldn’t go belly up and people go bankrupt. They seem to have had some ideas ok they can sort of corral the Hasidim up there in Brachfeld. But already some had managed to buy in Kiryat Sefer proper, the plans for all Litvish city fell apart. They had no hope to, since they were drawing on Bne Brak folks who do not have the same need to separate the communities as the Yerushalayim crowd.
I remember the out-cry when Karlin built their Beit Kenneset and also a school no less! Oy! “who gave them land! Who gave them ishurim! Who gave them blah blah this and that, what about us!” Well, the fact is, they had the money to pay for building their Beit Kenneset and their school, so both sort of went up pretty quick. It would happen for others to if they had the money to move forward.
The sina.
I spent a lot of time in Beitar when I was in Yeshivah, and the attitude towards sefardim was palpable (I was chilling with Ashkenazim). It was ugly. The mayor sorry I am forgetting his name, he was the first mayor and was mayor for a long time, had to threaten to chain the schools shut if “certain” girls were going to be discriminated against. And as I recall, he did just that, he padlocked at least one school on opening day.
Its human nature, for people to be wary of what is to them the unknown. The litai who for whatever reason would ever open a Sefer of the Ben Ish Hai, who would for whatever reason would actually be mashlim a minyan at gasp, a Sefardi “place” once every few months, is that much less likely to have an issue with the “unknown”.
The ignorance is incredible. Oh we do not discriminate! Tcha, keep talking to yourself!
to #5 yid pashut:
You change the facts to fit your agenda.
you make it sound like it was a open-shut case of discrimination of Ashkenazim versus Sephardim. Nothing could be further from the truth.
FACT: There were many sephardim in the school. The ones who were rejected were the ones who refused to adhere to the tznius and other i.e. [internet, smartphone etc.]standards that the chassidim wanted.
I personally saw some sephardi parents go to jail in the Emanu-El affair.
#5 wrote “What I gathered from the Emanu-El affair Slonim takes over a Chinuch Atzmai school” -Total and utter nonsense. Slonim BROKE AWAY, from the BY. They did not “take over any school” -The Ashkenazi and frummer Sephardi parents refused to send their daughters to a school where some sephardi parents insisted on their right to maintain lower standards than the Chassidim. -THAT’s why they were jailed. -Please don’t change the facts.
By the way -Rav Yaakov Yosef on his death bed regretted that he gave his consent to the “other” sephardim to go to the secular courts. [At least that’s what HAMODIA reported.]
In N.Y. & N.J. Most Schools have certain standards and those who don’t accept or don’t have those standards don’t get accepted. Every parent or religious group has a right to withdraw their children from a school that they feel is not in line with their hashkafa.
To #7: Kugel: Really now, how many chabadniks or kippa srugas are trying to get their kids into livish chadorim? Will Slonim or any other chassidishe cheder accept kippa sruga kids? While the social problems are real and acute, let’s not get carried away with absurd and irrelevant claims and objections. Let’s try to work on the true problems.
#8: in hock: Your marvelous suggestion will probably have to wait for the arrival of Moshiach…. How unfortunate!