Final preparations are underway in both Yerushalayim and Bnei Brak and police and chareidim are preparing for the prison march to escort the Emanuel Beis Yaakov parents to prison. Gedolei Yisrael will be among the participants in both cities.
The Yisrael HaYom daily calls the upcoming event “The mother of all protests”, realizing the magnitude of what will be taking place on Thursday afternoon.
In Yerushalayim, the event will get underway at 2:00pm, with the parents standing on the Bar Ilan Bridge in shabbos clothing, wearing handcuffs, and ribbons that say “Prisoner L’Shem Shomayim”.
The event will begin with tehillim and then divrei chizuk from rabbonim and representatives from Emanuel. They tzibur will then escort the parents to the Russian Compound detention center via Yirmiyahu, Bar Ilan, Shmuel HaNavi and Shivtei Yisrael Streets. Women will gather only on Minchas Yitzchak Street.
In Bnei Brak, the event will begin at 1:00pm, at Chazon Ish Street, corner of Nechemia Street. Maran Shevet Halevy HaGaon HaRav Wosner Shlita will recite tehillim, words from an Emanuel parent’s representative and kabolas Ohl Malchus Shomayim. They will then head down Ezra Street, to Nechemia and Ben-Yaakov to the exit of the city and then to join the Jerusalem atzeres. Rabbonim Shlita in Bnei Brak have instructed women to remain at home and recite tehillim.
Participants are urged to bring water. There will be stations for water and first aid in both cities but organizers remind the tzibur today, Thursday, is expected to be a very hot day. Persons who have a shofar are urged to bring it as well.
According to organizers in the Agudas Yisrael office, “hundreds of thousands of members of the chareidi tzibur are expected to take part in the marches”.
During the course of the day, MKs Meir Porush, Moshe Gafne, Uri Maklev and Eliezer Moses will be stopping in at the homes of Maran Posek HaDor HaRav Elyashiv Shlita and the Slonimer Rebbe Shlita for instructions as events unfold, the daily HaMevaser reports. Chareidi MKs are also in contact with members of the Council of Torah Sages of Agudah for continuous instructions and to keep the Rabbonim Shlita apprised of events.
Rav Elyashiv has authorized sending a message to all mosdos, that all talmidim and avreichim are to take part, stating the event is not bitul Torah.
Following a meeting on Wednesday of Eida Chareidis askanim, the decision was made that the Eida will also take part in the event. Gavaad HaGaon HaRav Weiss Shlita is also expected to personally attend.
The Council of Torah Sages of Shas is also planning to convene on Thursday morning, presumably to decide how to react to the major event in the Ashkenazi chareidi community.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
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4 Responses
this whole this seems quite silly. people are bored and have OK lives, so they look for trouble en mass. I have a job and wouldn’t take half a day off for this. surely learning is more chashuv than work, so surely it’s not worth missing learning to protest for half a day, let alone go to prison for two weeks. grow up people!
How do the girls, of who this who issue revolve around, feel?
How would you feel if the whole school refused to come because you are not “frum” enough to be in the same classroom as other children?
Take a moment and reflect.
This article was written by a friend, a member of the Slonimer community in Betar:
The story with Emanuel is a long one…
Emanuel is home to a community of Slonimers and a community of Sefardim – the majority of which are not religious.
There is only one elementary school for girls there -the Beit Yaakov in controversy. Until this law suit came into being, the school had 2 tracks – the religious track which serviced the religious girls i.e. the Slonimers and a handfull of Sefardi girls who are religious – and the non-religious track which serviced the non-religious girls – all of them Sefardim. Both tracks were quite happy with this arrangement.
Mr. Lelom, who receives funding from a extreme left anti-chareidi organization, has no personal interest in Emanuel, as he does not live there nor do his family members. His law suit is motivated by an agenda to vilify charedim as racists, and not at all to promote the interests of the Sefardim in Emanuel. 80% of the parents from the non-religious track signed a petition to stop the lawsuit because they are happy to keep their daughters ‘segregated’. The teaching staff for both tracks of the Beit Yaakov consisted of Slonimer mothers – those now going to jail – and so Lelom’s victory has left the ‘vicitimized’ Sefardi girls with no teachers and has done nothing to help their education.
When this lawsuit began, the Slonimer parents consulted with the Slonimer Rebbe who advised them against mixing the tracks and bringing their daughters into contact with mixed dancing, television, treife food, etc etc. The parents sent a request to the bagatz to allow them to explain their position. This request was ignored, and until 1 1/2 months ago, all of the proceedings were based off of information provided by Mr. Lelom.
In the meantime, they took their daughters out of school, and started ‘home schooling’ them.
The week before Lag B’Omer, the Slonimer parents were subpoenaed to court to deal with their ‘contempt of court’ for not integrating the classes (and for not sending their daughters to a recognized school).
In court, the parents explained that their decision to keep the classes separate was not racist – in fact there were Sefardi girls in the religious class! – it was merely a religious matter. One track preferred a sheltered religious approach to education, and the other did not.
(One parent – a ZAKA volunteer – went further and said that racism is obviously not part of their lives – when he ‘cleans up’ after a bombing he cleans up dark skin with the same broken heart that he cleans up white skin.)
The court was taken aback by hearing this ‘new’ information and ordered a compromise – that they create an acceptance board with members agreed to by both parties, kick all the girls out of school, re-accept them and place them in an appropriate track via this acceptance board.
Lelom did not accept this compromise. And so the parents were again ordered to send their girls to Beit Yaakov and mix the classes.
Despite the fines and threat of jailing, the parents adhered to the Slonimer Rebbe’s advice. They were told that the court would not oppose them if they decided to send their daughters to school outside of Emanuel. However, when they arranged for their daughters to attend a chassidish Beis Yaakov in Bnei Brak – the misrad hachinuch threatened to close the school down if they accepted the girls from Emanuel. The court would not allow the Slonimers to open a private school in Emanuel either.
The rest of the Charedi world has joined the Slonimers in this because this case is setting a precedent for the bagatz (who’s wisdom comes from where? This country does not even have a constitution that they can claim to base their decisions on!) to coerce parents in issues regarding the education of their children. The protest today, and the parents’ willingness to go to jail, is meant to demonstrate that we chareidim intend to educate our children in the way we chose – under the guidance of our gedolim and NOT under the coercion of the bagatz. And that we chareidim are willing to make sacrifices to uphold our freedom of religion – freedom to practice Torah true Judaism in this country that calls itself Jewish.
The judge (the only Sefardi judge on the bagatz – hmmm… sounds kind of racist….) stated clearly that he sees no reason why a Rabbi’s opinion should have any baring once he has made a ruling. And he compared this to the ‘separate but equal’ and desegragation struggles in the US 50 years ago.
The Slonimers have stated clearly that they answer to G-d alone (not to some arrogant man who believes in judicial activism), and compared this to the sacrifice and triumph of the Chashmonaim when the Greeks tried to undermine their Judaism.
We should be zoche to see Hashem’s name sanctified, and raise our children to give Him nachas!
S.
To:UKbloke (1)
See where daas baal habayis takes you! Rav Elyashiv & other gedolei hador, who know what Learning means & how important it is, specifically authorized this event, stating the event is not bitul Torah.
HOW DARE YOU DISAGREE!! I would venture to call you an APIKORES of the first degree!
By the way this is not an ad-hoc wild demonstration / protest organized by a few hot heads (in lieu of sports). This is a VERY civilized calm event, for a very important matter. Read your sources.