Haredim Exclude Sefardim From City-Run Community Center

Incident newest in a long string of haredi anti-Sefardi bias.

The Jerusalem Post reports:

Segregation of Sephardi girls in haredi seminaries is not a new issue. The humiliation experienced by girls who had to stay at home for months without studying because of their parents' ethnic origins has been written about at length. The haredi establishment has always argued that these are private institutions and thus have the right to set their own rules. But now the municipality is being faced with an attempt to enforce these rules in a community center, a facility that falls under the auspices of the municipality.

In response to complaints filed by local residents, the municipality's legal adviser Yossi Havilio has ruled that an advertisement placed by the neighborhood administration in the haredi part of Ramot inviting young girls registered at the Beit Ya'acov seminaries and boys studying in heder (the elementary classes in haredi stream education) to register for after-school activities "totally ignores non-Ashkenazi children" and is therefore "incompatible with the requirements of the law."

The words "Sephardi" or "Ashkenazi" were not mentioned, of course, but in Ramot and elsewhere, the institutions mentioned above are synonymous with Ashkenazi institutions, and the very realistic fear of Sephardi haredi parents is that their struggle for equality is far from reaching a satisfactory conclusion. Not only are schools inaccessible to their children, but now even the community center is forcing them out.…

Comments

[PulpitRabbi]

Disgusting.

By the way, I wonder whether they also exclude Dati Leumi children (whether Mamlachti Dati, Torani or of any other educational stream), or whether there aren't any in that neighborhood.

[Yochanan Lavie]

Sephardim should stop wearing black hats.

[avrahamrosenblum]

There is something gone wrong with ashkenazic judaism --all of the various streams. there are some good aspects of it but in general it is a disaster. The sfardim would do alot better to stay away from any place where there are charedim. They should Run As fast As They Can.

[Ben]

Amar's mullah like turban and hand kissing ritual is better then a black hat?

[Ben]

Sephardim are not any better then Ashkenazi. They have their own idocies and a lots of them.

[radical feminist]

Sephardim are not any better then Ashkenazi.

Maybe not but we eat better.

[A. Nuran]

We used to be all be Jews.

[Mike Green]

New ysehivisheh blog at briskyeshivish.blogspot

[alternative childcare]

RF: You are in Seattle, right? You have all the nonas at Ezra Bessaroth making that great food every Shabbat, I don't know if that's reflective of the rest of the world...

[radical feminist]

AC, yes I am from Seattle, but the Sephardi in Israel still give us a run for the money.

[A. Nuran]

RF, is Brenner's Deli still around? I have fond childhood memories of the place. Is there any good kosher food in the area? It's very scant in Portland.

[radical feminist]

Can't say, haven't been in Seattle in a while.
What I will say is the Chabad Shabbat meals are AWFUL. My mother use to work there and took pity on them one year for their annual Chanuka party and made their ladkas. They begged her to volunteer cooking after that but it was way too much work I think.
You're right about Portland. I went to medical school there. We had a kosher fleishig restaurant on NW 21st and Lovejoy, but they went out of business. Now I think you can only get kosher meals from Chabad.

[Ben]

Exclusion case given in the article is only suspected. It is unlikely to be true. Nobody is going to stand next to the door and check whether you are sefardi or ashkenazi.

On the other hand, it is the sefardim that looked down on ashkenazim historically and not the other way around. Some sefardi communities to this day would not marry an ashkenazi (if one one to remain part of the community). Syrians being probably the most racist community of all.

The problem goes both ways.

[The Shinto Man]

Gentiles do not convert to this religion called "Judaism"

[Ben Amalek]

Left unasked is why any parent, sephardic or not, would want their child educated in a haredi institution. Or is child abuse now legal in Israel?

[Yakira]

Ben, you are right that it goes both ways; furthermore, this type of idiocy needs to cease in all Jewish communities. All Jews need to come together as one community and respect each other's differences.