Emmanuel: Foster homes for kids of jailed parents
Parents prepare to be sent to prison for refusing to honor court order on school policy deemed discriminatory
Residents of Emmanuel are preparing for the arrest of 40 couples who intend to violate a High Court of Justice decision by refusing to send their daughters to the town's Beit Yaakov school.
On Tuesday, members of the Slonim Hasidic Dynasty began attempts to find foster families for their 250 children, whose parents are to be taken to prison for two weeks. One of the parents told Ynet Tuesday that they were determined to fight the decision by accepting the prison sentence.
Zilbershlag added that there was no discrimination in Emmanuel. He admitted the haredi faith was littered with examples of girls who had not been accepted to schools because of their oriental background, but that this was not the case in Emmanuel.
"Here it is based solely on religion. The parents are unwilling to accept students whose parents do not practice a proper haredi lifestyle, such as not smoking on Saturday," he said, adding that Emmanuel was "the exact opposite of any racial discrimination" and that it should not be criticized.
"Israeli society tends to blame haredim, but the haredim come from a place of incredible cognizance that the education of children depends on that of their parents," Zilbershlag continued.
He said the parents were not looking for trouble, but that those who were going to prison would "defeat the High Court" because they were unwilling to "sacrifice their children to the court's hobbies".
Rabbis urge cash donations for fined parents
But the Education Ministry said it would continue to uphold the High Court's decision. Dr. Shimshon Shoshani, the ministry's director-general, told a Haifa conference he had been trying to stop the discrimination at the school for a while now, unsuccessfully.
"But once I realized there was a group of parents there who say only rabbis will decide what their children will study, I gave up. In this case only a court could decide," he said.
Even before the court had made its decision, Emmanuel parents launched a campaign for donations to parents who would be forced to pay fines. On Tuesday, haredi papers published ads backed by rabbis calling on members of the faith to donate cash.
The campaign, dubbed "The fund for saving pure education in Israel", showed pictures of the school bound with iron chains and a sign saying "Closed by order of the High Court of Justice".
Condemning the campaign was Rabbi Uri Regev, who heads Hiddush, an organization for freedom of religion in Israel. "It is shocking to read about Ashkenazi haredi rabbis declaring a donations campaign for the obstruction of Sephardic girls' paths to their schools," he said.
Regev called on the Education Ministry to halt all funding to independent education until the court decision on Emmanuel had been implemented. "By continuing to fund this system the Education Ministry is assisting the undermining of the rule of law," he said.
