Zichron Gavriel Israeli racism Or Smartphone At haredi school?

 

A headline in Thursday's (December 4, 2014) Israel HaYom email edition reads: Religious school shut for refusing to admit Sephardi students. (Click on the link to read it yourself.)

Why not admit the two brothers, one 5 and the other 6?

One reason suggested by Zichron Yaakov Regional Council Head Eli Abutbul

"It is obvious that they are trying to get them to leave," he said. "The haredi community is saying that it is because one of the parents uses a smart phone [forbidden in certain ultra-Orthodox circles], but that is just a terrible excuse."

Responding for the school, Attorney Ori Keidar, , said, "We have mixed (Ashkenazi and Sephardi] students, but these children do not come from a conservative haredi background."

That begs the question: Just what IS a "conservative haredi background."

According to the Israel HaYom article, Two students, brothers aged 5 and 6, were not accepted to study at the school, despite having been with the same group of students in kindergarten. Their parents went to the Education Ministry's appeals committee six months ago to complain that the refusal was based on their ethnic background.

The article continues:
The Education Ministry, which funds about 60 percent of the religious school's activities, ordered the school to accept the students, but when the two young boys arrived for their first day, they were met by the parents of the other children, who were protesting their acceptance to the Ashkenazi school.

Racism bottom line

Meanwhile, reports Israel HaYom, the conflict between the brothers' parents and the ultra-Orthodox community in the area has worsened. The boys' parents say that members of the community protest outside their home and have thrown stones causing property damage. They were even offered large sums of money to move to another city and to enroll their children in a school there.

This and similar acts by Ashkenazi haredim - and probably Sefardi haredim from Shas and similar "we're Jews and you're not" groups as well - blemishes Israel's pretty good efforts to integrate Jews from all countries and all traditions. It gives non-traditional groups, e.g., Conservative/UK Reform and Reform/UK Liberal, more reason to point the finger at traditional Jews, even the non-haredi Jews, and say "We're not like THEM."

Fortunately not all Jews are Litvaks and Syrians (outside of Israel) who live in closed societies.

The two boys would, in my opinion, be better off in a regular government school where they will get a complete education without sacrificing Jewish knowledge. (I briefly taught in an Israeli pubic school in Zefat; I lack the talent - and patience - to be a teacher.)

You cannot legislate kindness nor intelligence; that's proven everyday in the U.S., the U.S. Jewish community is a bad example of quiet racism, despite what the Torah demands of us.

As one parent told the Israel HaYom reporter, he is not concerned about the school's closure, which he thinks will not last. "Despite all the threats -- everything will go back to what it was."

That' sad.

Sefardi or Ashkenazi? Who calls Ashdod & Ashkelon home?

 

It would be interesting to see who lives in Ashdod and Ashkelon; who are in the majority.

I'd wager that the majority of the residents are from - or descended from Jews who once lived in - Moslem-dominated countries; e.g., North Africa, Syria, Iraq and Iran, Egypt.

Most of the people I know here in the States who claim Ashdod or Ashkelon as their home are Sefardi.

At the same time, most of the people who bewail the efforts of the mayors of these two Israeli towns to protect their citizens are Ashkenazi. Those criticizing the mayors include the Ashkenazi prime minister, the Ashkenazi mayor of Jerusalem - one must wonder about his position given the terrorists attacks in his city - the president, and others none of which are Sefardi.

Why is this?

Perhaps because the Sefardim understand the Moslems, and because they know the reality of Israel's "talk the talk but don't walk the walk" government that, if you would poll the pols, is mostly Ashkenazi.

I'm not going to suggest that all Ashkenazim are fools or appeasers; Begin was neither and he was Ashkenazi.

And I am not going to suggest that all Moslems - Israeli Moslems or otherwise - are planning terror attacks against Israeli Jews and non-Jews.

I AM suggesting that the Sefardim are better equipped to deal with Moslems.

My Father-in-Law (ע''ה) grew up in Morocco. He worked with Moroccan Moslems; he competed with Moroccan Moslems; he co-existed with Moroccan Moslems. He showed them respect and it was returned.

My Father-In-Law was a big man, physically. He would not be pushed around.

When the family made aliyah in the 1960s, he was settled in Bet Shean, a town in the Jordan Valley that was too hot for the Ashkenazim - besides, Bet Shean is on the Jordan border so if attacks came from that direction, the Sefardim could buffer the Ashkenazim farther from the border.

If you think that is a "sepur Savta," I suggest you look at all of the places the Ashkenazi governments settled immigrants from Moslem countries.

Moslems have an Eastern mentality, akin to the Chinese and Japanese. Sefardim, having lived with Moslems for centuries, understand that mentality. Understanding it means being able to deal with it.

The Ashkenazi, with his European mentality cannot comprehend the Moslem mind and lacks the ability to deal with the Moslem mentality. The Ashkenazi simply wants to do what is "politically correct "and damn the consequences" - the murders on the streets and in the synagogues, the rockets raining down on civilians.

At one time several Moslems invaded Bet Shean and killed several residents.

The residents and the Army killed the terrorists. The residents, 90% of whom were from North Africa, doused the Moslems' bodies with gasoline and set them afire. Moslems believe they won't get their promised 70 virgins if the body is burned. It was decades before another Moslem tried to attack anyone in Bet Shean - and he was caught as he rode an Egged bus toward the town.

Burning bodies is not "politically correct" and I am certain the Ashkenazim in government "tisked-tisked" and rung their hands over what the cruel Sefardim did to those poor Moslem terrorists - but it sent a message that kept Bet Shean "terrorist free" for decades.

My personal, American, attitude is similar to my Father-In-Law's: if you push me, I'll push you back - harder. I won't start something, but I intend to finish it.

It's time the Ashkenazi leadership realized that its threats to act against terrorists and its promises to protect Israel's citizens are just words with no value; the Moslems know that between the Ashkenazis' desire for "political correctness" and Europe's (and, unfortunately North America's) bleeding hearts will protect them from justified retribution.

It's time the Ashkenazi leadership learned a lesson from the Sefardim and became more concerned with Israel's citizens and less concerned with "political correctness."

Mourning in Nissan

Making a mountain out of a mole hill

One of the Israeli haredi political party Shas’ sub-leaders (all of whom report to R. Ovadia Yosef), claim that "Holocaust Remembrance Day does not apply to haredi [ultra-Orthodox] Jews.”

According to an article in the Israel HaYom ( http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=8537), Shas party Co-chairman Aryeh Deri said in an interview with haredi radio station Kol Barama set to air Thursday night said that “"Personally, I don't see any sanctity or distinctiveness in this day. Israel's Chief Rabbinate has designated the 10th of Tevet [the Hebrew month corresponding to December-January] as a general mourners' day, and that is they day when, religiously speaking, we remember the victims of the Holocaust.”

The month of Nissan, in which Passover falls, traditionally allows only limited mourning (death in immediate family excepted).

While Deri’s remarks, if accurately translated by Israel HaYom, are harsh, he does have a basis for his position.

Holocaust Remembrance Day 5773 (2013) was aligned with the beginning of the Warsaw (Poland) ghetto’s uprising. Deri challenged the date choice, noting there were other uprisings in other ghettos at different times.

According to the Israel HaYom article, Deri allegedly said "No one can come and tell us about the Holocaust. The Holocaust Remembrance Day that 'they' declared because of the Warsaw ghetto doesn't apply to us as haredi Jews," he said.

From my personal perspective, and while I might agree with Deri and the haredim regarding mourning during the month of Nissan, I contend that the holocaust indeed applies to Sefardim – a group Shas purports to represent - both directly and indirectly.

The nazis destroyed Sefardi communities throughout the Mediterranean region – Rhodes and Soloniki to name but two. According to a table at http://www.holocaustchronicle.org/holocaustappendices.html, 80 percent of all Greek Jews were murdered by the nazis; in Italy, “only” 20 percent of the Jewish population was murdered.

Map by worldatlas, copyright GraphicMaps.com

Indirectly, the nazis – with the enthusiastic help of the Muslims – managed to slaughter Jews in Iran, in Israel, and elsewhere in the Muslim world. While not round-ups a la Europe, the Muslims simply murdered Jews where they found them, similar to pogroms in Russia, the Ukraine, and elsewhere in that region.

My personal “bottom line”: While I would prefer the Holocaust Remembrance Day be linked to the Hebrew calendar, as is Israel Independence Day, and that the link be to a date in a month other than Nissan, Deri and his boss need to open their eyes to the fact that the holocaust was not “just” an Ashkenazi thing; indeed, it was not “just” a Jewish thing. See the table at http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/NAZIS.TAB1.1.GIF for a breakdown of the nazis’ victims and how they were “eliminated.”

It’s a shame that Deri and his fellow haredim can’t pick their fights a little more sanely. If the haredim are trying to recruit people to their side, to see their point of view, Deri’s remarks are counter-productive. The remarks can only serve to drive observant Jews farther from the haredi camp and to set fast the helonim in their opinion of the haredim.

This mountain, all things and timing considered, should have been left as a mole hill.