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Aug 15, 2010

Haredi reps in a bind

What a dilemma.

The city of Jeruslame, like many other places, has a sever shortage of space for school buildings. Yet, at the same time, there is a great need for more. Especially among the Haredi sector which continues to grow in leaps and bounds.

One school building that has become available is a building located in Ramot A. Mayor Nir Barkat decided to award the building to the Rapaport School, that has outgrown its current location and has continued expanding. Rapaport is known as a "Haredi Leumi" school, with serious secular studies. That means the haredi rabbonim are against it.

But Barkat gave them this school building. Besides for it the type of school Rapaport is, it is also not a local neighborhood school - local to Ramot. Its students come from all over Jerusalem. At the same time, Ramot has a severe shortage of schools specifically for its own local schools. And now an available building is being given to a non-local school. And one that is not exactly haredi.

The one thing going for it, even if this building is not Rapaport's first choice because of location, is that it is in Ramot A. While much of Ramot has become haredi, Ramot A is still not. It is very diverse with a large secular community and Dati Leumi community remaining there.

Regardless, Barkat awarded the building to Rapaport and Rabbis Elyashiv and Steinman have seriously condemned the decision and censured Barkat, along with starting a campaign against Rapaport. This puts the haredi reps in city council in a bind. Barkat has threatened that any member of the city coalition that votes against will be tossed out of the coalition. The haredi reps don't really want to vote against, but they don't know how they can vote in favor considering Rav Elyashiv's opposition.

We wait and see how they will find a way to stick to their seats...and it promises to be an interesting week, between the fights in Jerusalem, the new developments in Bet Shemesh (Meier Balaish is threatening to leave the coalition over a dispute in which he feels Abutbol disrespected him), construction issues in RBS C with bones being discovered, and more...

11 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Oy, a religious school that provides a good education. Quick. stop that!

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  3. And the Charedim actually question why others feel that they discriminate?

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  4. this post was bile inducing....you are basically admitting to the mafia like tactics used in the hareidi world to keep everyone in line. at some point you have to stop and ask yourself, is there any difference?

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  5. Awesome. We made aliya 3 weeks ago and my kid is going to get off the bus on his first day in an Israeli school to... demonstrations by Jews who don't want him there? Let's hope not.

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  6. Also, your insistence that it's not a local school is a bit disingenuous. Plopping a charedi school in the middle of a mixed DL/chiloni neighborhood would also not be "local" at least culturally. Geographically, maybe. How do you know many more of the DL kids wouldn't start going to Rappoport now that it would be near their house. In any case, as you admit, school building shortage in Jm is rampant, so the local argument doesn't hold much water.

    This will be yet another mark against the gedolim for pushing back against this fine example of frum schooling.

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  7. Frumkeit Not KrumkeitAugust 15, 2010 6:48 PM

    Uberemma,

    MAzel tov on your aliyah (and on your wise decision to not get sucked up into the charedi system which many new olim do).

    Rappaport provides a high level of chiunch that allows kids to be frum, bnei torah and to think on their own.

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  8. Frumkeit Not KrumkeitAugust 15, 2010 6:49 PM

    Uberemma,

    MAzel tov on your aliyah (and on your wise decision to not get sucked up into the charedi system which many new olim do).

    Rappaport provides a high level of chiunch that allows kids to be frum, bnei torah and to think on their own.

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  9. welcome. yishuv tov to you.Mazel tov!

    lets hope not, but if it happens (and I dont think they said they would protest outside the building - they seem to be directing their fight more toward the mayor than the school itself), you will have the benefit of jumping right into the fire, and there is something to be said for that too... :-)

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  10. I just read the Yated article on this matter. They are claiming, and they claim to have documented proof of Barkat and Saar saying this, that Barkat and Gideon Saar are, by putting Rapaport in a building in Ramot, attempting to influence the haredi education system, by showing people that there is an alternative and hopefully slowly haredi parents will begin sending their kids there.

    This, they say, is an improper attempt at intervention in the haredi educational system.

    That is besides for all the stuff about it being a haredi neighborhood, rapaport is not local (only 11 kids from the whole area go to rapaport), etc. That too is an interesting argument, because at the same time they boast about how they, over the course of many years, have taken over the neighborhood as the chilonim moved out when they bought more and more.

    So it seems it is ok for them to come in to a neighborhood and change the style of residents, but it is not ok for others to try to do the same.

    ReplyDelete

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