They suspect the reason is that because one of them had not been accepted to the girls high school, they ran away.
Whether that is the reason or not doesn't really matter.
The fact is that she was not accepted, and the reason given to anybody who tried to help her get accepted was that the "quota for Sephardim" has been filled to the maximum.
So, does the fact that the school, any school - Rechasim, Petach Tikva, Emannuel, Bet Shemesh or anywhere else, have 30% or 40% or 20% Sephardim mean there is no discrimination?
Of course not. The quota itself is discriminatory.
The fact that it exists, the fact that not every girl who is appropriate for the school can get in for the mere reason of being their Sephardic origin, that is discrimination.
Do any of your readers remember or have relatives who remember the Ivy League "Jewish Quota"?
ReplyDeleteIt seems bizarre to me that a State which celebrates its secularism allows this to continue.
ReplyDeleteIt is even more bizarre to me that the gang at Cross Currents insists that the existence of a quota proves there is no racism because if there was racism, there were be 0% Sephardim in the world.
It is most bizarre to me that Ethiopians are considered Sephardim in the first place!
In the early days of the state there weren't many girlsof non-Ashkenazic origin in the Bet Yaakov system (R Ovadiah's daughters were the only ones in Jerusalem), so the system was able to retain an Ashkenazi aura and flavor without discriminiation.
ReplyDeleteLater when the BY system gained popularity in certain "Eidot HaMizrach" circles, there was no problem of discrimination since the same shools were made of Hasidic and non-Hasidic girls allowing a minority of Sephardic girls without them changing the schools character.
After the Lithuanian world broke with the Aguda (the crack was in 84 when they voted Shas but the break was in 88 when they started Degel) Chasisdim started their own schools, many of which used Yiddish as the language of instruction.
This left the "Litai" schools as the only option relevant for for Eidot HaMizrach girls wanting a BY education. The Litai world wants to influence the Eidot HaMizrach world without being influences by them. That is the reason for these quotas, and every year there is pressure from the top to increase the quota percentage.
However there is no way the that the Israeli judicial system will either understand or tolerate this.
In the early days of the state there weren't many girlsof non-Ashkenazic origin in the Bet Yaakov system (R Ovadiah's daughters were the only ones in Jerusalem), so the system was able to retain an Ashkenazi aura and flavor without discriminiation.
ReplyDeleteLater when the BY system gained popularity in certain "Eidot HaMizrach" circles, there was no problem of discrimination since the same shools were made of Hasidic and non-Hasidic girls allowing a minority of Sephardic girls without them changing the schools character.
After the Lithuanian world broke with the Aguda (the crack was in 84 when they voted Shas but the break was in 88 when they started Degel) Chasisdim started their own schools, many of which used Yiddish as the language of instruction.
This left the "Litai" schools as the only option relevant for for Eidot HaMizrach girls wanting a BY education. The Litai world wants to influence the Eidot HaMizrach world without being influences by them. That is the reason for these quotas, and every year there is pressure from the top to increase the quota percentage.
However there is no way the that the Israeli judicial system will either understand or tolerate this.
just two words: Affirmative action
ReplyDeleteCorrect, Rafi.
ReplyDelete