High Court Supports Sefardim In Words, But Not With Deeds

Israel's High Court of Justice heard Sefardi petitioners yesterday who are upset that Ashkenazi haredi schools are still discriminating against Sefardi applicants, with some of these Ashkenazi haredi schools still having quotas in force that limit the number of Sefardi students to no more than 30% of the student population despite an explicit High Court ruling issued last year forbidding this and related discrimination.

 

Israel's High Court of Justice heard Sefardi petitioners yesterday who are upset that Ashkenazi haredi schools are still discriminating against Sefardi applicants, with some of these Ashkenazi haredi schools still having quotas in force that limit the number of Sefardi students to no more than 30% of the student population despite an explicit High Court ruling issued last year forbidding this and related discrimination.

The Sefardim also complained that the state was not enforcing the law, and that it was refusing to share statistical information that would prove this ongoing anti-Sefardi discrimination is happening with the Sefardi petitioners.

In its defense, the Jerusalem Post reports that the state replied that gathering this statistical information was difficult – despite the fact that there is no evidence the state has ever seriously tried to gather it. People change their last names and mask their ethnicity by doing so, the state also claimed, adding that there is also the problem of classifying the progeny of mixed marriages between Ashkenazim and Sefardim.

The state also claimed that the discrimination is not systematic and that it needs to be approached on a case-by-case basis.

Israel's High Court reportedly expressed sympathy for the Sefardi petitioners, urging them to continue their petition and gather the specific documentation the High Court says it needs in order to issue a further ruling in their support .

In other words, the High Court asked the Sefardim to rpove what can only be proved by having access to statistics the state is either refusing to gather or is hiding, and the High Court failed to order the state to cough up the statistics it has or gather the ones it should be gathering.

And so goes another day in Israel's never ending battle with insanity.

Comments

[Sarek]

I have a dream today.

I dream that someday my children will one day live in a nation where they will be judged not by the shape of their Torah scrolls but by the shape of their character.

I have a dream today.

I dream that someday, Israel will rise up and say, "it doesn't matter if you say 'aw' or 'ah', or use tuf instead of suf."

I have a dream today.

[Dutch]

The court got burnt once, in Emmannuel when the chreidim beat them to a pulp. The court does not want to get involved again. Victory is sweet.

[Marc]

I am ashkenazi and my wife is seohardic, That makes our son 1/2 separdic. He is a very smart kid. Why sephardim want to send kids to ashkenazic schools is beyond me, especially given the fact that Avraham was born near Iraq, the Talmud that we follow was compiled in Iraq, the halacha was codified by the Rambam and Yosef Cara (both separdic) and virtually all the commentators on the Chumash besides Rashi and Onkilos, were separdic, (Eben Ezra, Rashba, Abarbenel, Sephorno)

[Nigritude Ultramarine]

"I am ashkenazi and my wife is seohardic, That makes our son 1/2 separdic."

No, it does not.

[Nigritude Ultramarine]

"[...] especially given the fact that Avraham was born near Iraq [...]"

So? Sephardic Jews don't come from Iraq anyway.

"[...] and virtually all the commentators on the Chumash besides Rashi and Onkilos, were separdic, (Eben Ezra, Rashba, Abarbenel, Sephorno)"

Sforno was Italian; he was born in Italy around 1470 to 1475. I have not come across a source that puts his family on the Iberian Peninsula.