The story with Emanuel is a long one…

Emanuel is home to a community of Slonimers and a community of Sefardim – the majority of which are not religious.
There is only one elementary school for girls there -the Beit Yaakov in controversy. Until this law suit came into being, the school had 2 tracks – the religious track which serviced the religious girls i.e. the Slonimers and a handfull of Sefardi girls who are religious – and the non-religious track which serviced the non-religious girls – all of them Sefardim. Both tracks were quite happy with this arrangement.

Mr. Lelom, who receives funding from a extreme left anti-chareidi organization, has no personal interest in Emanuel, as he does not live there nor do his family members. His law suit is motivated by an agenda to vilify charedim as racists, and not at all to promote the interests of the Sefardim in Emanuel. 80% of the parents from the non-religious track signed a petition to stop the lawsuit because they are happy to keep their daughters ‘segregated’. The teaching staff for both tracks of the Beit Yaakov consisted of Slonimer mothers – those now going to jail – and so Lelom’s victory has left the ‘vicitimized’ Sefardi girls with no teachers and has done nothing to help their education.

When this lawsuit began, the Slonimer parents consulted with the Slonimer Rebbe who advised them against mixing the tracks and bringing their daughters into contact with mixed dancing, television, treife food, etc etc. The parents sent a request to the bagatz to allow them to explain their position. This request was ignored, and until 1 1/2 months ago, all of the proceedings were based off of information provided by Mr. Lelom.
In the meantime, they took their daughters out of school, and started ‘home schooling’ them.

The week before Lag B’Omer, the Slonimer parents were subpoenaed to court to deal with their ‘contempt of court’ for not integrating the classes (and for not sending their daughters to a recognized school).

In court, the parents explained that their decision to keep the classes separate was not racist – in fact there were Sefardi girls in the religious class! – it was merely a religious matter. One track preferred a sheltered religious approach to education, and the other did not.
(One parent – a ZAKA volunteer – went further and said that racism is obviously not part of their lives – when he ‘cleans up’ after a bombing he cleans up dark skin with the same broken heart that he cleans up white skin.)

The court was taken aback by hearing this ‘new’ information and ordered a compromise – that they create an acceptance board with members agreed to by both parties, kick all the girls out of school, re-accept them and place them in an appropriate track via this acceptance board.
Lelom did not accept this compromise. And so the parents were again ordered to send their girls to Beit Yaakov and mix the classes.

Despite the fines and threat of jailing, the parents adhered to the Slonimer Rebbe’s advice. They were told that the court would not oppose them if they decided to send their daughters to school outside of Emanuel. However, when they arranged for their daughters to attend a chassidish Beis Yaakov in Bnei Brak – the misrad hachinuch threatened to close the school down if they accepted the girls from Emanuel. The court would not allow the Slonimers to open a private school in Emanuel either.

The rest of the Charedi world has joined the Slonimers in this because this case is setting a precedent for the bagatz (who’s wisdom comes from where? This country does not even have a constitution that they can claim to base their decisions on!) to coerce parents in issues regarding the education of their children. The protest today, and the parents’ willingness to go to jail, is meant to demonstrate that we chareidim intend to educate our children in the way we chose – under the guidance of our gedolim and NOT under the coercion of the bagatz. And that we chareidim are willing to make sacrifices to uphold our freedom of religion – freedom to practice Torah true Judaism in this country that calls itself Jewish.

The judge (the only Sefardi judge on the bagatz – hmmm… sounds kind of racist….) stated clearly that he sees no reason why a Rabbi’s opinion should have any baring once he has made a ruling. And he compared this to the ‘separate but equal’ and desegragation struggles in the US 50 years ago.
The Slonimers have stated clearly that they answer to G-d alone (not to some arrogant man who believes in judicial activism), and compared this to the sacrifice and triumph of the Chashmonaim when the Greeks tried to undermine their Judaism.

We should be zoche to see Hashem’s name sanctified, and raise our children to give Him nachas!

S.

No, Mr. President, you’re getting it all wrong. It’s the Rabbanim and the Torah that is the only law of the Jewish land. The secular judicial system have no right interfering in religious affairs.

It’s bad enough that they interfere in governmental matters that is not their business. The Supreme Court must learn to bug out of issues not pertaining to them.