In the haredi town of Elad, Israel, work does not pay. More than 100 girls, Sefardim and Ashkenazim, were denied places in the only two girls high school yeshivas (known as seminaries) in Elad for one reason and one reason only – their parents work for a living.
Haredi Girls Schools Ban All Girls Whose Parents Are Employed
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
In the haredi town of Elad, Israel, work does not pay.
More than 100 girls, Sefardim and Ashkenazim, were denied places in the only two girls high school yeshivas (known as seminaries) in Elad just because their parents work for a living, the haredi news website Kikar HaShabbat reported today.
Until now, the haredi town’s Ashkenazi-run schools were notorious for excluding Sefardi girls just because of their ethnic origin.
But now over half of the girls who applied to attend two girls schools, Zeleznik and L’daat Chachmah, were turned down and now have no school placement for the new academic year.
L’daat Chachmah was created to accept all haredi girls no matter their background, the sect or group their family belongs to, or their ethnic origin. Zeleznik, which opened more recently, is meant to serve only top students and children of influential and important haredi figures like local rabbis and politicians.
Zeleznik banned most Sefardi students but was forced by the High Court of Justice and the Education Ministry to integrate. It tried to do that by having a separate predominantly Sefardi section that had no actual interaction with with the Ashkenazi girls and the tiny number of “elite” Sefardi girls who were allowed to join them. But this was also stopped by the Education Ministry and in response, Zeleznik decided to ban all girls whose parents work. That would exclude almost every “undesirable” student and the exclusion would not be based directly on ethnic discrimination.
But precisely because that discrimination was cultural rather than ethnic and because it made Zeleznik look especially religious in comparison to L’Daat Chachmah, L’Daat Chachmah decided to do the same thing, and it also banned all girls whose parents (primarily fathers) work for a living rather than study full time in yeshiva.
To add to the absurdity, all the girls banned from both schools are graduates of the same Beis Yaakov girls grammar school in the city.
Because the current national coalition government depends on haredi political parties to stay in power, it is unclear whether the Education Ministry will take action against the two schools.
[Hat Tip: Marty Bluke.]