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Thursday, January 15, 2009

Tear Down That Wall!

My first thought when seeing this headline was "What the hell!?", but here goes:
Court: No more wall separating Ashkenazim, Sephardim

Petition filed with High Court about more than a year ago after haredi school was suspected of ethnic discrimination. Judges rule courtyard wall separating Ashkenazi, Sephardic students must be taken down

Kobi Nahshoni Published: 01.15.09, 15:26 / Israel Jewish Scene

After a year of deliberations, High Court Justices Edmond Levi, Hanan Meltzer and Edna Arbel ordered the Beit Yaakov religious school and the Independent Education Center to nullify within a week all discriminatory practices and protocols that separate between Ashkenazi and Sephardic students, including the removal of a wall in the school's courtyard, unifying the two teachers' rooms meant for two different "learning tracks" and cancellation of the unlawful levies on parents of students in the "Ashkenazi-Hasidic track."
Read the whole piece, but... really!? We've all heard about anti-Sephardi discrimination in Charedi schools in Israel, but - wow.

On the flip side, if you're the Sephardi here: Why would you send your daughter to a school that has walls separating your kids from everyone else?

10 comments:

  1. Why send your kid to a school that whites-only bathrooms and drinking fountains?

    someone, somehwere, sometime needs to stand up

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  2. Agreed, and I thought about that, but this is not the same: There ARE (plenty of quality) schools which are not putting up walls and discriminating against Sephardim.

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  3. The irony in ALL of this, is that this is done by people that supposedly believer in ahavat israel and achdut and all that good stuff.

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  4. I actually know of two Ashkenazim with Sefardi-sounding last names who have CHANGED THEIR NAMES because they had a hard time getting their kids into school.

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  5. I've said it before and I'll say it again now: we don't have to worry about goyish anti-semitism: we Jews do such a good job of descriminating against each other.

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  6. It took a year of deliberations to reach that obvious conclusion?

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  7. In this month's Where What When in Baltimore, an article relates that charedi schools in Israel are also separating kids who come from American born kollel couples. They'll probably have a harder time challenging this in the Supreme Court, but it is also pretty bad.

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  8. Here's what happened with the Chinuch Atzmai Situation in Israel- written here on my blog.
    It's pure discrimination, plain and simple. And no, the problem hasn't been resolved yet. Rabbanim have said it'll take years to clear up.

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  9. So sorry- I think the link isn't working. Here ya go:

    http://israelchronicles.blogspot.com/2008/12/chinuch-atzmai-situation.html

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  10. And Anon- I know Sephardim who have done it as well- it's quite common among those with Ashkenaz moms and Sephardi dads.

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