A court in Antwerp, Belgium has ordered a hasidic school in Antwerp to
enroll the children of former Neturei Karta Rabbi Moshe Aryeh Friedman.
Rabbi Moshe Aryeh Friedman
Former Neturei Karta Rabbi Wins Court Case Against Hasidic School
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
A court in Antwerp, Belgium has ordered a hasidic school in Antwerp to enroll the children of former Neturei Karta Rabbi Moshe Aryeh Friedman.
Friedman – a Satmar hasid – is widely viewed in the hasidic community as a troublemaker and an eccentric, and is accused by the community of using his children as pawns and proxies in his longstanding war against it.
Last week the Antwerp court ruled that the Yesode Hatora School had no grounds to refuse to enroll six Friedman’s eight children, the JTA reported today.
Yesode Hatora School has two gender-segregated divisions, one for male students and the other for females. The school refused to enroll Friedman’s children last year as part of the community’s ostracism of Friedman.
In response, Friedman tried to enroll his boys in the all-girls Benoth Jerusalem Public School, basing himself on Belgian law which forbids having gender-segregated schools.
A Belgian court issued an injunction forcing the school to enroll the boys, but later lifted it. Friedman appealed that decision.
Friedman told JTA this week that he would not withdraw his appeal until after each of his children find “the adequate educational framework they deserve.”