Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Israeli Ortho ism

The Israeli court system recently ruled that schools which were barring admission to Sephardi children  were breaking the law.

According to the article in Haaretz: 
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/high-court-desegregate-west-bank-school-or-face-jail-time-1.296299
This is what the attorney for the parents had to say for disobeying the ruling:

"According to the parents' attorney, whenever there is a faith-oriented religious dispute, the rabbis' decisions overrule the courts "which is more powerful than the decision of any other authority."

1st. A lawyer cannot make a claim that there is law to supersede their obligation as members of the court: why is this argument allowed to be made by a member of the court?

2nd. Until now this was just a few parents who were the face of the Ashkenazi side, according to this lawyer, these parents are following orders. Whose? Which rabbis are really behind banning sephardi children from schools based on their geographic heritage?

3rd. This is a more general thought on the image created by the Israeli Haredi community:  Why are orthodox Jews so docile and subservient in other countries? The behavior the Haredi group exhibits in Israel does not occur outside of Israel.










1 comment:

Jason said...

The haredi are aggressive in Israel, but generally good citizens in the US because of their demographic strength in Israel. I can think of some parallels in the US...