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What’s Chabad’s View on Emanuel Case?


Some are asking where Chabad Chassidus stands regarding the Emanuel issue and the allegations and denials surrounding charges of discrimination in the Emanuel Beis Yaakov.

It is a known fact that Chabad mosdos are open to all, regardless of ethnic background, prompting some to wonder if the chassidus is for or against the battle. Following are excerpts from Rav Brod’s release.

Chabad spokesman Rav Menachem Brod explains, in a carefully worded statement, that it is clear that the presence of the Chabad community at the Emanuel protest was not a statement of siding with either party, not the Chinuch Atzmai officials who deny discrimination charges, explaining girls were accepted or rejected on the basis of religious lifestyle suitability, or the Sephardi parents who insist their daughters were humiliated. Rav Brod feels this is a matter that must be adjudicated by a beis din.

Chabad’s participation signaled the movement’s agreement with the outrage over the blatant involvement of the nation’s High Court of Justice in chareidi chinuch, further stating if the state would have halted state-funds to the school one would be able to understand the logic – but in this case, the court was bold enough to attempt to force the parents’ hands, to compel them to accept the court’s definition of acceptable chinuch over the words of the rabbonim.

Chabad’s way he explains is an open-door policy to all ethnicities, providing one is a descendent of the Avos and Imahos, in line with the teachings of the Rebbe ZT”L. He explained the Rebbe felt responsible for all Klal Yisrael.

Rav Brod warns the court’s involvement set a very dangerous precedent for chareidi chinuch, further warning that “we know where this involvement begins but we cannot know where it ends”.

He concludes by stating discrimination based on ethnic background is unacceptable and it must be uprooted from the community. He states it is contrary to the Torah’s way.

“The Emanuel Beis Yaakov case revealed just how painful this can be, when Jews are met with the pain and humiliation of discrimination. Whatever the case may be, the solution must be found internally, not via the secular courts”.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)



5 Responses

  1. In 1957, the Rebbe addressed heads of Chabad institutions in Israel on the issue of racial discrimination, especially regarding the already persecuted Sephardim.

    The Rebbe writes (free translation of Igros Kodesh volume 15, page 136, letter 5051):

    I have already written a number of times to all the heads of Chabad institutions concerning the discrimination facing our Sephardic brethren.

    It must stop immediately.

    The primary reason for its utter discontinuation is that the souls are unidentifiable to us. Who knows who is greater?

    Moreover, we are all equal in that we have One Father.

    It is shocking that after what the Alter Rebbe articulates in Tanya ch. 32 concerning our equality, it still remains imperative to remind and reiterate the point. And from overseas!

    And even though I wish not to intrude in the general management of the institutions, I must point this out as a rule that should run through every single policy adopted by the educational institution.

    http://www.chabad.info/index.php?url=article_en&id=19430

  2. As I recall, although not a posek, the Lubavitcher Rebbe in 1985 went even further than Rav Feinstein’s ruling that the Falashas had the staus of “sofek yehudi”, and held that they were “goy gamur”.

    Are any Falasha or Falash Mura in attendance at Chabad schools anywhere today? If not, would they be admitted, even after having undergone bona fide geirus?

    Maybe Chabad have brought their (understandable) fear & aversion of the Bnei Chom of Crown Heights and applied it to all the pigmented in Eretz Yisroel!

    As Rabbi Avigdor Miler said: “Judaism is NOT color-blind!”

  3. Chabad in Brooklyn (and perhaps elsewhere) has 2 streams; those for the children of Chabad parents, and one for everyone else. So it would seem that Rav Menachem Brod should check his facts before ‘pontif’icating.

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