Laloum to Yishai: Act against segregation in haredi schools

Driving force behind Emmanuel school petition threatens interior minister with more legal action if racial discrimination not dealt with.

By JONAH MANDEL
yoav laloum 311 (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
yoav laloum 311
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
The driving force behind the Emmanuel school High Court of Justice petition is threatening Shas chair Interior Minister Eli Yishai with another legal intervention if he does not keep his word and take concrete actions to put an end to racial discrimination at haredi schools.
In a letter last week, Yoav Laloum reminded Yishai of his recent commitment to form a rabbinical committee that would oversee and regulate the acceptance of girls to high schools, one of the resolutions following the Emmanuel affair.
Claims of discrimination rose again two months ago when 10 Sephardi girls were not accepted to the local Ashkenazi school in Modi’in Illit, following which Shas MK Haim Amsalem sent a letter to the United Torah Judaism faction, demanding their intervention. Yishai also issued a similar letter a short while afterward, in which he reiterated the need for the rabbinical committee, and said he’d act to bring about its imminent creation.
Now, wrote Laloum in his name and on behalf of his Noar Kahalacha NGO, is the time for enrollment in the next school year, and cases of Sephardi girls not being accepted are already surfacing.
“Following the orders of our rabbis...we will act to eradicate the disgraceful phenomenon of discriminating against Sephardi girls in haredi educational institutions in any way, even – if there will be no other choice – by legal proceeding.
We hope there won’t be a need for such measures,” Laloum said.
“And on this occasion,” he added wryly, “we’d be grateful to hear if all the Shas ministers and MKs transferred their children to Shas’s Ma’ayan Chinuch Torani network, as per the order of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, head of the Council of Torah Sages.”