Sefardic Rabbi Stops Desegregation Bid Due To Death Threats

Rabbi Ya'acov Yoseph announced on Saturday night that he was ceasing his activities against racial discrimination in the Emmanuel Beit Ya'acov school, following a recent influx of threats on members of his family, including his children and grandchildren. “So long the threats were aimed at me, I continued my struggle. But now that my family members are being targeted, I'm quitting."

Court rethinks Emmanuel mothers' jailing

Rabbi leaves activity against racism after receiving threats.

By JONAH MANDEL, ABE SELIG AND JPOST.COM STAFF

Rabbi Ya'acov Yoseph, the spiritual mentor of the group that filed the petition against the Emmanuel school, has decided to stop his activities against racial discrimination, after he and his family have been threatened. In addition, the High Court of Justice on Sunday will decide whether to enforce its order to imprison the mothers from Emmanuel, who did not show up on Thursday for the beginning of their two-week incarceration.

Rabbi Ya'acov Yoseph announced on Saturday night that he was ceasing his activities against racial discrimination in the Emmanuel Beit Ya'acov school, following a recent influx of threats on members of his family, including his children and grandchildren. “So long the threats were aimed at me, I continued my struggle. But now that my family members are being targeted, I'm quitting,” he was quoted by Kikar Hashabat as saying.

Yoseph is the spiritual mentor of Yoav Laloum, who along with his NGO Noar Kahalacha filed the original petition against the segregation at the Emmanuel school. He is also the son of Shas spiritual leader and senior Sepharadi adjudicator Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, who repeatedly spoke out against turning to a secular court for arbitration, rather than to a rabbinical court. Haredi assailants had also affronted Ya'acov Yosef on more than one occasion on Thursday, but he was not harmed.

Israel Radio cited Ya'acov Yosef as saying that there remain 33 rabbis dedicated to fighting racial discrimination in the haredi world, but they will remain anonymous to ensure their safety and steadfastness in their struggle.

Twenty-two mothers and thirty-five fathers were supposed to begin two-week jail terms for holding the court in contempt, after they refused to return their daughters to the school, once the walls dividing between the “hassidic track” and the rest of the schools were removed at the court's order. Most of the fathers involved showed up at the police station on Thursday and began serving their time.

The court ruled that the segregation within the school was illegal as it was racially motivated, evident in the fact that it divided between Sephardi girls and the Ashkenazi ones from Slonim hassidut families. The Slonim parents insisted that the motivation behind the separation was religious stringency, and as proof cited the fact that a number of Sephardi girls were accepted to the hassidic track. Three Sephardi fathers were among those imprisoned on Thursday.

A few of the missing mothers are pregnant, some are breastfeeding, and most have many children. Devora Fuksman, one of them, gave birth to a girl on Thursday night. Her husband, Yehuda, stayed by his wife during the birth of his twelfth child, and reported to the Maasiyahu Prison on Friday morning. Two more fathers still have not reported to jail.

After the parents' lawyer requested that the mothers not be jailed, the Attorney-General met with representatives of the Ministry of Welfare and Social Services, who advised him to take the children's welfare into consideration. The ministry is prepared to take care of the 250 children whose parents were sentenced, and has appointed a social worker to each family.

Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein has already recommended that the Court waive its order to incarcerate the mothers of Beit Ya'acov school pupils.

Late Thursday night, Weinstein held a meeting at the Justice Ministry, in which he praised the police on their non-violent behavior during the protests accompanying the jailing of the Emmanuel fathers.

On Friday, Yoav Laloum and the Noar Kahalacha NGO that originally petitioned the court against the racist division in the Beit Ya'acov school, requested of the High Court to free the fathers.

"Incarceration is not an effective way to enforce the High Court's decision in this matter," they wrote in their new petition. The court did not convene for a discussion on the matter on Friday, and said it would debate the issue on Sunday.

Later that Friday, the young boys whose fathers are imprisoned showed up at the gates of the Ma'asiyahu Prison in their Shabbat finest, to strengthen the spirit of their missing parents. The boys and adults who brought them there held signs wishing the fathers a “git Shabbos” and expressing their support. They also sang traditional Slonim Shabbat tunes and danced. Their request to enter the prison to meet the fathers was turned down by the Prisons Service.

MK Yohanan Plessner (Kadima) called on Saturday for the prime minister and the education minister to remove Deputy Education Minister Meir Porush (United Torah Judaism) from office, who on Tuesday had announced that he would move his offices to the gates of the jail where the fathers are being held. Plessner said that it was unacceptable that MK Porush would use his office and government resources to lead a protest against a ruling of the High Court.

In a similar reaction to Porush's expression of discontent from the court's ruling, MK Nitzan Horowitz issued a statement inviting “Porush and his friends, who hold the Zionist State and its rules in contempt, to leave the government and put an end to the suffering they undergo when accepting fundings and supports from the state they do not recognize.”

“Porush's stance does not represent the Ministry's,” Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar told Channel Two on Saturday, in response to his deputy minister's stance against the court's ruling and in support of the parents right to heed their rabbi. Sa'ar further noted “the quiet and non-violent demonstrations” on Thursday, which were “a manifestation of the legitimate right of protest.”

Rabbi Yaakov Yosef was assaulted twice (1, 2) in the past four days by mobs of hasidim, and needs a personal guard of 10 men to protect him. Israeli police do not seem to have taken any steps to protect him or to catch the assailants. On advice of police, Rabbi Yosef's disciple Yoav Laloum is in hiding due to the death threats he has received. No haredi leader has spoken out against this violence or these threats.

Comments

[Dr. Dave]

Time to cut off all funding, public and private to these animals.

[Reader]

There is no need to cut the funding (at first), but it is of utmost importance TO ABOLISH RELIGIOUS PARTIES!
This will keep both the government and the haredim honest by eliminating the religious parties swing vote and the need of the government to bribe them.
This is the only reason why the government is treating them with kid gloves.
Haredim gloated when 9000 people, 2/3 of them children were thrown out of Gush Katif and they didn't riot when its Jewish graves were moved.

[Bill]

The haredim are the most vicious and spiteful anti-Jews in the world.

(Rodfim is the halachically-appropriate term of art)

[Shmarya]

(Rodfim is the halachically-appropriate term of art)

I think that is over the line.

Please stop it.

[Abracadabra]

We're doomed.

The world hates the Jews, the world hates Israel which represents the Jews, and Israel hates itself. Hareidim are birthing 12 kids or more. They will be the majority in Israel in 10 years and will run the country into the ground.

Our enemies should not even bother with nuclear weapons - we'll kill each other soon enough.

And I'm sorry to say, but the non-Hareidi of Israel are just as much to blame. They knew this day would come, and just hid their heads in the sand, exempting Hareidim from all army service (even administrative army services), handing oodles of money over to the Hareidim for living expenses, encouraging them to have tons of children (the more kids, the more welfare benefits), encouraging them NOT to work by only exempting them from the army if they don't work, allowing them to leave out secular core curiculum classes in the Hareidi schools that the state funds - which leaves them without basic marketable skills, allowing them to teach anti-government hatred in government funded schools, etc.

The State and it's non-Hareidi citizens could have nipped this in the bud 10, 20, 30 years ago, and didn't. They let it go. So the wound festered and now infects the whole body. What did they think would happen?

Well, now we're doomed. I just thought you should all know.

[dovy]

Bleeping coward.

[danny]

Shmarya... it's time to start banning posters who go over the line.

[Mr. Apikoros]

It's a fact. The haredim are indeed the most vicious and spiteful anti-Jews on the planet. They give the Taliban a good run for their money, and the KKK as well.

[Abracadabra]

And Bill -

Hareidim in Israel are following their rabbis and doing what they believe to be the right thing to do. They are taught from birth to blindly follow their leaders. Their biggest problems right now are their leaders, who have mostly been hijacked (at ages 90 and up) by powerhungry thugs who are using their names and manipulating them and the information they are fed in order to get these elderly men to say what they want. But the public doesn't know that. They just know what their religious leaders tell them is good, is holy, and is the right thing to do. Poor misguided people. Not unsimilar to the Arabs who grow up on a diet of hate for Israel.

And it's always good for the leadership to have a common enemy. It strengthens existing leadership and raises moral when people have a "higher purpose". They genuinely believe they are fighting for their rights to religious schooling, and that the Israeli government is against their religious schooling.

There are also too many young hot-headed, zealous boys and young men with nothing else to focus their energies on and no other way to get it out of their system. So, they riot and attack. It's classic mob mentality.

The greater majority is just doing what their rabbis say they should do. They aren't bad people, just grossly misguided ones.

[upset]

What a biased one sided misleading article lacking the basic facts I am surprised that any self respecting news outlet would publish it. I would expect to see a follow up article explaining the opposing view.

[Shmarya]

What a biased one sided misleading article lacking the basic facts I am surprised that any self respecting news outlet would publish it. I would expect to see a follow up article explaining the opposing view.

And what would that opposing view be?

That it is okay to assault people you disagree with?

That threats of violence are kosher?

[Mr. Apikoros]

The definition of "rodfim," which I just looked up, is "People with murderous intentions."

Those who made death threats against this rabbi and his family are indeed "rodfim." And if this rabbi was assaulted twice in a week by mobs of these scum, that's all the proof anyone needs.

[A. Nuran]

That crosses the line from political protest to out and out terrorism. If Israel is to survive they must treat those people like terrorists. That includes the rabbis who are "just" leading prayers for the deaths of their political enemies. It is, as the British say, action likely to cause a breach of the peace.

[harold]

After the parents' lawyer requested that the mothers not be jailed, the Attorney-General met with representatives of the Ministry of Welfare and Social Services, who advised him to take the children's welfare into consideration. The ministry is prepared to take care of the 250 children whose parents were sentenced, and has appointed a social worker to each family.

Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein has already recommended that the Court waive its order to incarcerate the mothers of Beit Ya'acov school pupils.

What a PR nightmare, 250 children being taken away from their mothers, many of them pregnant. I would love to get a video of the separation of the mothers from their family. All this for a period of two weeks - again I say - and then what?

Creativity is needed here, not the caveman and his stick way of handling all problems - BONK, BONK, jail, jail. Come on guys, you can do better.

Listen, seculars and Chassidim are in separate schools and that is all right. You have boys yeshivas and girls yeshivas and that is all right. The genie has been let out of the bottle. You do have and acknowledge and embraced separation already on various levels. It is clear that the levels of separation are not sufficient to create a harmonious environment of education and more work needs to be done. Imagine the chaos that would happen if the government decides – no segregation between boys and girls! Come on guys get practical and not theoretical!

[harold]

Group: Emanuel Arrests Illegal

Reported: 09:13 AM - Jun/20/10

The “Shurat Hadin” organization had filed a petition with the High Court, demanding that the parents who refused to send their children to the Beit Yaakov school in Emanuel be released immediately. The petition claims that Judge Edmond Levy, who sent the parents to prison last week for refusing to comply with the court order to send their children to the school, overstepped his bounds.

The petition quotes an Israeli Basic Law that states that such court orders can be issued only against institutions, not individuals.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/188513

[Shmarya]

The petition quotes an Israeli Basic Law that states that such court orders can be issued only against institutions, not individuals.

It is highly unlikely that Israeli law stops the Supreme Court from ordering imprisonment for contempt of court violations.

Courts must have the power to jail people who refuse to follow their rulings.

Jewish religious courts in Europe had that power until the late 1700s, and used it.

And Israel's state-sponsored rabbinic courts have that power and use it.

Arutz Sheva is far from an objective source, and its reporting is often wrong.

[R]

The only reason this is happening is because the so called rabbis and holy people are not saying otherwise. They teach hate and the kids grow up to hate.
They don't allow their kids to mix, they don't allow them to marry.
So to stick the kids in one school is stupid to begin with. They need to start with the Rabbis and then with the parents. The children are only pawns in the hate game.
To lock up the parents is futile. The parents are only listening to their false holy rabbis. I think maybe the Rabbis should be locked up and anyone with actual authority over these parents because as we know charedi parents never make any decisions for themselves.
The kids will only hate the sephardim more and they will be the future bin burners and violent animals.

[Reader]

Actually, Israel's radical Left is no better.
It appears that Israel not only has a 5th column (Israeli Arabs), but a 6th column (Haredim), and the 7th column (radical Left).
And the ones who are normal support this whole _________ (fill in the blank).

[Reader]

the 5th, and the 6th... sorry.

[who knows]

Radical left and Haredim are in the same group of destroyers of Israel. They actually help each other a lot.

[Adam Neira]

Would any of these Rabbis heed the wisdom of Moshiach if he showed up in the Holy Land ? Or would he turn up, audit the zeitgeist and decide to move back to his home base and wait till the waters parted properly ? It is imperative that the religious Jews of all people should be united at this time. Those who believe in the Thirteen Articles of Faith should be leading the way for their brethren and the rest of the world. Moshiach needs a support team, but he cannot lead without a certain level of obedience.

[SJ]

Once again, followers of halacha show the exemplary self control that halacha instills in people. ROFL. XD

[nachos]

I guess the religious Jews are really the "self hating Jews."

[effie]

"Hareidim in Israel are following their rabbis and doing what they believe to be the right thing to do. They are taught from birth to blindly follow their leaders. Posted by: Abracadabra"

Then the state should stop fostering this behavior. Stop all the welfare, the stipends, the bribes. Let them get jobs and serve in the IDF. Maybe the exposure will allow them to not be blind sheep. Nevertheless, taxpayers should not be funding this crap.

[Bill]

Shmarya,

Please educate me.

What does a "rodef" mean in Halacha?

[Shmarya]

What does a "rodef" mean in Halacha?

A pursuer. Someone about to murder another person.

For example, a man is running down the street with a gun shooting at another man.

A rodef should be stopped and it is okay to kill him if that is the only way to stop him.

[Abracadabra]

Effie -

YES!!!! That is what I have been saying for years! But the lawmakers and government of the State of Israel have not been listening to me! (I even offered the advice free of charge!)

I agree with EVERY statement you made on your June 20, 2010 at 10:53 AM post.

The problem is that the Hareidim are too emboldened at this point, and there are too many of them at this point, and doing all that will prompt a civil war. If those things would have been instituted 30 years ago, Israel would have had a chance. But Israel was too busy fighting it's enemies, settling in Russian, Ethiopian and other refugees from around the world, and all rightly so! So, who is to blame for the current mess? Probably no one.

My whole point was that it is not so simple. And that the Hareidim (other than the thugs and hooligans) are not bad people, they are trained and raised from birth to be unquestionable followers of their rabbis.

So now it's just one huge mess. Our enemies hate us and want to destroy us and we hate each other and want to destroy each other.

We're all doomed.

Remember - you heard it here first:
Gloom & Doom Prediction By Abracadabra on Failed Messiah.

[Reader]

Abracadabra,
paradoxically, it is the secular government that has emboldened them by enabling and funding their lifestyle in return for holding together coalition government in order to vote in various "concessions" such as land giveaways, construction freezes, accords, roadmaps, 2-state solutions, etc.
The haredim are now like a cuckoo who is about to push his adoptive siblings out of the nest. (And to find themselves alone nose-to-nose with the Arabs - which they have been dreaming about for a long time).