Haaretz
Even someone who has been involved in as many struggles and conflicts as Yoav Laloum, the fearless fighter against discrimination in the ultra-Orthodox community, could not have foreseen the storm that erupted in the Haredi world this week. Nothing prepared Laloum for the huge protests that came in the wake of the High Court of Justice's ruling ordering the incarceration of parents of Ashkenazi girls in the Orthodox settlement of Immanuel if they continued discriminating against the Mizrahi girls in the Bais Yaakov school in the town. The demonstrations in Jerusalem and Bnei Brak were backed by the Haredi rabbinical establishment, and were accompanied by marches of support for the parents who are going to jail.
What hurt him most of all was the declaration of Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, who condemned the petition submitted to the court, and in effect aligned himself with the Ashkenazi rabbis. "Shas has abandoned me," said Laloum last night, who is now in hiding, after receiving death threats and being told by the police to leave his Jerusalem home. "In effect it has abandoned the Sephardi community. It should have waged this battle over discrimination, but they're also afraid." Later he said that "Rabbi Ovadia's statement is actually directed at me." [...]
Even someone who has been involved in as many struggles and conflicts as Yoav Laloum, the fearless fighter against discrimination in the ultra-Orthodox community, could not have foreseen the storm that erupted in the Haredi world this week. Nothing prepared Laloum for the huge protests that came in the wake of the High Court of Justice's ruling ordering the incarceration of parents of Ashkenazi girls in the Orthodox settlement of Immanuel if they continued discriminating against the Mizrahi girls in the Bais Yaakov school in the town. The demonstrations in Jerusalem and Bnei Brak were backed by the Haredi rabbinical establishment, and were accompanied by marches of support for the parents who are going to jail.
What hurt him most of all was the declaration of Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, who condemned the petition submitted to the court, and in effect aligned himself with the Ashkenazi rabbis. "Shas has abandoned me," said Laloum last night, who is now in hiding, after receiving death threats and being told by the police to leave his Jerusalem home. "In effect it has abandoned the Sephardi community. It should have waged this battle over discrimination, but they're also afraid." Later he said that "Rabbi Ovadia's statement is actually directed at me." [...]
I don't envy the hot seat Yoav Laloum will be occupying for 11 months.
ReplyDeleteRav Ovadia Yosef came out against Yoav Laloum and his filing a case in secular court!
ReplyDeleteWhy is this rasha merusha being given a platform here?
ReplyDeleteWhat's interesting is that neither ROY nor Deri are behind him.
ReplyDeleteWhat's even more interesting is that by his own description, their crime was abuse of public funds, vandalism (of the building), etc... but NOT racism!
But in fact the entire debate between us revolves around whether the girls' blouses will be buttoned up to the wrist or 10 centimeters below the elbow. There's no argument about the fact that everyone, all the parents, meet the stringent requirements of halakha. We're not talking here about Shabbat observance, yes or no. The argument is about stringencies. If you want stringencies, impose them on yourself. Once and for all, you have to understand that if the father wears a blue shirt that doesn't make the home any less a house of Torah.
Add to that that the main Bet Yaakov is still running, and is far larger.
-micha
R' Ovadia not backing him is interesting, his own great grand-children were denied admission.
ReplyDeleteAs were the grand-children of Rav David Batzri.
From what I can tell the sephardic world is pretty split on this issue, and it mostly revolves around politics.
When they refused to attend a din Torah, which was summoned first, then there is recourse to the secular authorities.
ReplyDeleteThat's not true, Rabbi Berger.
ReplyDelete"Many in the Haredi community claim that the crux of the problem is not racism but cultural differences, a position that infuriates Laloum.
"If that's isn't racism, what is it? Everyone knows that there's racism that is reflected in discrimination in the Talmud Torah schools, the [teachers] seminars," he says. "But the problem here is deeper. It's a matter of Ashkenazi control and hegemony. A relatively small community that is trying to impose its extremist lifestyle on all of society. In Immanuel there are 30 Hasidic families, as compared to a Sephardi public of 500 families. But the head of the local council is Ashkenazi and he is already serving his second term. "
Furthermore, have you ever spoken to Sephardim who live in Israel? They can tell you all about their experiences, and if you don't think there is racism after that, I'd be shocked. This whole affair certainly stems from a deeper problem within the haredi (particularly ashkenazi) society.
Thats what he says(sleeve lenght). Slonim says shabbas, nival peh, and more,
ReplyDeleteonly ponivizh is allowed to go to secular courts. oh i forgot satmar too.
ReplyDeletewho are we fooling? everyone goes.
as for the rally, it was the biggest chillul haShem of all times. all in the name of religion of course. Sometimes, I wonder if marx was only partially right, he said its the opium of the masses. i say its the opium of the leaders.
Yes, he says the whole matter is racist when speaking in the abstract. But when Laloum defines this "racism" it's because chassidim want chumeros not in the Shulchan Arukh (or even halakhah altogether) that Sepharadim do not care about. At least not these Sepharadim.
ReplyDeleteYes, there is a lot of racism in Israel, including r"l the chareidi community. But if this particular battle isn't about race, it's wrong to recast it in terms of that battle. Again, 27% of the school is Sepharadi, and for a Chassidic school, that's high -- not racism.
The difference is between whether racism is nebich prevalent, or whether people are willing to fight for it by going to jail, if you say gedolei Torah support it, etc...
And that's just not supportable from this case.
-micha
micha who told you that 27% of the student body is sefaradi? so you accept what the slonimers say at face value? what if I told you that was wildly inaccurate! and for a school that claims to be colorblind why even keep such statistics seems pretty handy doesnt it, or is it not a means to enforce a quota?
ReplyDeleteThe mayor of Emmanuel gave the 27% number. He is a Teimani who does not himself use the school.
ReplyDeleteThe only prejudice showing, O Anonymous commenter, is your own.
-micha