Herzliya city council member Elad Zadikov was dismissed from the coalition and the Torah culture portfolio due to his opposition to the dissemination of anti-family values in kindergartens.
Zadikov wrote a strongly worded letter to the mayor, Moshe Fadlon following articles on Arutz Sheva revealing the Hoshen organization's infiltration into kindergarten activities in various places, including Herzliya.
Zadikov - who is a council member from the Gesher faction, which represents mainly baalei teshuva - returnees to Torah observance - claimed to the mayor that he is turning the Herzliya education system "into the first in Israel to impart deviant tendency values as a normal model, even to be emulated."
"On behalf of what public," he asked, "were you allowed to poison the minds of our kindergarten children and introduce a spirit of lasciviousness and confusion into the tender souls of Herzliya's 3,4,5-year-olds!? The fact that they are affiliated with the general public education system does not allow anyone to confuse basic concepts and the traditional values of home and family unit."
Fadlon responded to Zadikov that "the education system in our city is among the most advanced and enlightened in the State of Israel. This is not the case with your letter which is full of inaccuracies, scientific and ethical ignorance, fear and lack of understanding of the age we live in. Perhaps if during your childhood, the education system was somewhat different, your letter would not represent so deep a confusion between superstition and fact."
He added:
"In 1920 women's suffrage was recognized in the United States, in 2001 the first female combat pilot finished the pilot's course in Israel, and ever since then the civilized world has realized that there is nothing to prevent women from also being in 'men's' trades, this does not hurt femininity in the family unit or in future education - the opposite is correct.
"In Israel, like in the entire world, the right is recognized to choose one's spouse, irrespective of sex, to establish a family unit, and live a dignified and equal life.
"Sexual orientation is not an incurable disease, is not contagious, and according to all the studies is not subject to education. What is given to education is accepting people as people, and the ability to look at difference, whether physical, emotional, or sexual, and this without making generalizations.
"Unfortunately, your approach is what has often brought harm to another in an attempt to expel him rather than to accept him, leading to physical injury.
"What you say in your letter, as well as in the committee you attended in the Israeli Knesset, carries libelous and offensive themes in their spoken parts, and constitutes incitement and is misleading in the written parts.
"In the old days special religious police were established who acted to harm non-virtuous girls and people with homosexual orientation, all under the shadow of a law which was canceled in 1988 (prohibiting homosexual relations in Israel).
"It would be proper for a Herzliya city council member to undergo broad educational training on individual rights, science, and human nature, accepting those who are different, and educational methods, so that a compilation of such nonsense will never again be written.
"The education system in Herzliya will continue to educate their children to love and accept one another, to mutual support and full equality, both among the religious public and different communities, and also on the subject of women.
"I do not see a place for a council member in the coalition who subscribes to dark medieval views against women and whole communities, to yet serve in a post responsible for Torah culture.
"In light of your words, and until you wise up and accept those different from you, on my authority, I am informing you that you are dismissed from your job in the coalition, and as holder of the Torah culture portfolio.
"Parenthetically I will note that I reserve for myself the right to take legal measures, if asked, for your words of slander and lies to the Israeli Knesset.
"Best regards,
Moshe Fadlon
Mayor"
To be reasonably fair, it would be better to also publish his original letter which caused such an outburst. Without it is hard to say if the mayor acted like an intelligent professional or like a militant leftist zealot...
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