“The school believes that women have a choice about whether they want to drive or not, and our policy is to accept all children who are members of our community, which we have been doing for the last 40 years.”
[All related posts on the Belz hasidic sect's ban on women driving automobiles are linked at the bottom of this post.]
The Hackney Gazette has a widely misunderstood report on the Belz hasidic group's ban on females driving automobiles.
The key section is this:
…The letter [reissuing the ban and warning mothers that if they are caught driving, their children will be expelled from Belz schools] was signed by leaders from Belz educational institutions [across England] and endorsed by the group’s rabbis.
But Ahron Klein, chief executive of the schools, said: “The headteacher sent out the letter on behalf of the spiritual heads of the community who had not taken into account the implications of such a policy.
“Neshei Belz, which is our women’s organisation, also issued a statement saying that our values may be compromised in driving a vehicle although they added that they respect individual choices made in this matter.
“However, the message that children will be excluded has not come from the school’s board of Governors who did not approve the letter in advance.
“The school believes that women have a choice about whether they want to drive or not, and our policy is to accept all children who are members of our community, which we have been doing for the last 40 years.”
He added: “Our main focus is the success of our children and this will always remain the case.”
The key phrase is "our policy is to accept all children who are members of our community."
When a hasidic sect punishes a family for an infraction of the group's rules by expelling every one of the family's children from the sect's school, that family is no longer a member in good standing of that hasidic sect. The expulsion is a form of shunning. It means those children will likely not be able to marry into Belz families, and that in their childhood years they will be excluded from activities meant for the sect's children.
The ban and the punishment for violating it was endorsed by the Belzer Rebbe – the equivalent in British secular terms of the king or queen (in the days before modern democracy) endorsing his/her council's decision to, say, ban that person from England. Just as no one would openly challenge the king, no one will openly challenge the rebbe, and until the rebbe issues a clear public statement lifting the ban and the punishment for violating it, both are in force.
So what Ahron Klein is really saying is a form of intentional doublespeak.
This isn't secret information or information that is difficult to come by. There are academics and other experts who could easily be interviewed who would have noted this.
For whatever reason, the Hakney Gazette didn't do that interview. Neither did the JTA and The JC (Jewish Chronicle), both of which should know better.
The ban and the punishment for breaking it has created a furor in British secular media, and many in the Jewish community are aghast at the "damage" this reporting has allegedly done to the status (and even the security) of the Jewish community.
But what truly does the damage is the failure of Jewish institutional leadership to openly condemn things like the Belz driving ban before the secular media finds out about them.
British communal leadership most often tries to cover up scandals and misbehavior rather than outing it and cleaning it up.
As for The JC, its reporting sometimes reads like a press release issued by a Jewish community organization rather than actual news reporting.
A good example of this is The JC's coverage of Shechita UK, an organization which frequently misrepresents facts. But The JC never reports that and most often fails to speak with Shechita UK's critics or present any of the information that refutes Shechita UK's positions. That appears to be because the JC's editor believes shechita is "under attack" and must be protected. Reporting the truth about Shechita UK would likely "endanger" shechita even further, and The JC would be blamed for that.
A similar process is likely in place with the Belz driving ban – a story that was first reported in Hebrew by Behadrei Haredim and in English by FailedMessiah.com and then reported The JC 9 days later, but without crediting the original sources. In fact, in an email sent to readers today, more than two weeks after the story was broken by others, the JC's editor actually touts The JC's first story on the ban as if The JC broke the story, meaning he is perpetuating his paper's unethical conduct.
At any rate, Ahron Klein's alleged walkback of his rabbis' women's driving ban is clearly no walkback at all and won't be until the Belzer Rebbe retracts his endorsement of the ban and of the punishment for violating it.
Related Posts:
Belz Hasidic Leadership In London Reiterates Ban On Women Driving, Threatens To Expel Children From Belz Schools If Their Mothers Drive.
More News On The Belz Hasidic Women's Driving Ban.
British Government Lashes Out At Hasidic Sect’s Ban On Women Driving, Could Defund Sect Schools.
Hasidic Group Apologizes For Women Driving Ban’s Language But Says Ban Justified.
Belz School That Bans Women From Driving Applies For Government Funding.