More School Discrimination

A while back, I posted about an outrageous allegation in Haaretz that ultra-Orthodox Lakewood schools had begun to deny admission to students based on their Sephardi lineage. Now comes this. Apparently, ultra-Orthodox Ashkenazi schools in Israel (evidently separating students by ethnicity is already the accepted norm over there), have been rejecting students of newly Orthodox parents.

In recent years, a new type of discrimination has emerged in Ashkenazi ultra-Orthodox educational institutions. In addition to their discrimination against girls from Sephardi backgrounds, children whose parents found religion in adulthood are also being sidelined.

This discussion was broached by writer Avigail Meizlik, herself a Baalat Teshuva, in the Charedi weekly that she writes for, Mishpacha. She relates her personal experience, and questions the message that this practice sends to these newly religious families. She even goes so far as to suggest that these Charedi communities might be better off curtailing their efforts at bringing nonobservant people into the fold, as they then do not make enough of an effort to find a place for them.

"There are so many organizations and people devoting their lives to attracting people to a religious lifestyle," wrote Meizlik, "Why bother? Why convince them to make such a difficult, painful change? Why call upon them to come and live a Torah lifestyle if no one has any intention of giving them the opportunity to live such a lifestyle? Perhaps the time has come to stop investing in outreach and to redirect the immense energies of these organizations to the existing newly religious families."

Some of the responses she got were surprising in their exclusivity:

The following week's article was written by Yael Berg, who came out in defense of the discrimination. The newly observant, explained Berg, tend to meet with their non-religious relatives and the children are exposed to their relatives' culture, "their speech patterns, music, body language and concepts," she wrote.

Yael feels that this encounter with secular culture sometimes causes the children to backslide, and they are liable to negatively affect youths who have been ultra-Orthodox from birth.

"I feel that the pain of the girl who has not been accepted is preferable to the anguish of families whose daughters are affected by a girl who was erroneously accepted," wrote Berg.

I'm glad she feels that way, but who is she to rate one Jew's anguish against anothers? The editor of Mishpacha, Moshe Grylak, has a similar reaction to Berg's comments:

He also agrees that "the rejection unfortunately also stems from elitist arrogance - an evil sickness the causes apathy and hardheartedness toward the suffering of those we reject."

Another, similar opinion to Berg's, worded even less tactfully, was wriiten in a letter to the magazine:

Zippora Beit Levi, a teacher at the Beit Yaakov school system, wrote to Mishpacha that she feels the ultra-Orthodox community is having enough trouble with its own rebellious youth "without importing `trouble' from outside."

If the "trouble" already exists, who's to say that the solution is discriminating against a group of people who are giving up so much to try to be a part of her community?

One suggested solution to the impasse that seems to have gained traction in both camps, is the proposal for separate schools for the newly observant. However, as Meizlick states, the Ultra-orthodox offer this option from "on top of their high horses."

It is much easier for the "Frum From Birth" types to create a system where they don't have to worry about their children coming into contact with anyone not exactly like them, but does that really make their children stronger in their faith, or take into account their resposibilities to those in the community who may not be as "blessed" as their children were to be born into the right cradle?

(hat tip)