1.
This happened in 2012, shortly before Aryeh Deri returned to Shas.
""He's coming back," announced the headline of Yedioth Ahronoth on the eve of Sukkot. On one of the days of the holiday, I went up to the house at 28 HaKabalen Street, where he was waiting for the deposit to be returned to him. The keys were then in the hands of the person whose house was visible from the window of the house - the late Rabbi Yosef, who lived at 45 HaKabalen Street.
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In the rooftop sukkah, they finished another 'minyan in the Sukkah of Aryeh', in house number 45 they haven't yet decided whether to bring back the exiled leader or not. I sat with him for over an hour, he reminisced, recounted fascinating stories, and then I fired the question. "The Emanuel affair was one of the greatest traumas for the Shas leaders. What would you have done, if you had been at the helm of the movement at the time? Would you have dealt with the phenomenon of discrimination in a different way? This is an issue that is very troubling in many homes, people are crying... How do you solve this problem?"'
I was reminded of this question this morning, when I heard Yael Cohen's voice crying out from the bottom of her heart in the Knesset's State Audit Committee, during a discussion, one of many, about the discrimination against Sephardic girls.
If you thought racism had disappeared from the world, listen to Yael, cry with her, and you will realize that to this day, no significant change has really taken place. Unfortunately.
2.
It seemed to me then that I had stepped on a painful abscess in Deri's. As I formulated the question, he shook his head again, as if he agreed with the question itself.
""Two things need to be done. One - which we have already started, but have not continued to the end - to introduce 'unified pride' to all members of the Eastern Jewish community. Just as among the Hasidim there is no concept that a Hasid will not send his children to Hasidic institutions, we needed to continue, as we started with the Talmud Torah, in the small and large yeshivahs, even with the girls - to do everything so that a Sephardi would not be ashamed to send them to our own institutions.".
That's what he said then. Has the 'single pride' he spoke of in the 12 years that have passed since then been there? Possibly. But, apparently, not enough.
If an ultra-Orthodox mother sits on a Knesset committee, screams her heart out, and says that her daughter was placed in a school where "girls smoke drugs," just because it's a 'Sefardi school' and she, what can I do, was born to Sephardic parents (as if that were a disadvantage) - that says it all.
I didn't give in to him then. I mentioned that Shas' elected officials themselves send their children to Ashkenazi educational institutions. The situation, by the way, hasn't really changed over the years. Son-in-laws also choose many of them from yeshivahs like 'Mir' and 'Hebron'.
Arie, talented as always, pulled out a fascinating story.
""It was in '95... after we established the Talmud Torah and encountered the big problem of girls. After all, there is no problem in elementary school, the problem starts in high school. And it started after the Hasidim began to establish their own schools, and then there were few Hasidic girls left, and Lithuanian and Sephardic girls became a very significant part until they began to filter out percentages."'
Shortly after the owner of 'Peni Menachem' from Gur made the decision to withdraw from 'Beit Yaakov' and establish Gur's Hasidic schools, Aryeh Deri entered him for a pointed conversation. "I explained to him what this does to us... I was very close to him... I remember how he told me then: 'The time has come for you to start establishing institutions for yourself.' I saw that there was no other choice, I spoke with the rabbi and we decided to establish the first school, 'Beit Margalit', named after the Rebbetzin, a high school.
""As you said, I decided that if I didn't set a personal example, it wouldn't work... My eldest daughter Simcha just finished eighth grade, she was accepted into all the seminaries, but to her credit, she was a good daughter and she accepted the rabbi's words and went there. 'If the rabbi wants'... I won't forget it. The rabbi's office was at Rabbi David's at Yechva Da'at. He sat there for maybe five hours. I invited about 30 parents who had daughters in eighth grade, all of whom were outstanding students of the rabbi or public representatives or who earn their living from the Shas... The rabbi spoke to them one by one, convinced them with his humility and righteousness, with the girls and with the mothers, promised that with God's help there would be a matchmaking and more and more, the persuasion worked... The school was built. But out of everyone the rabbi spoke to, maybe two girls or three came to the opening of the school year... Our public, unfortunately, did not cooperate in the matter.
""My daughter graduated there and I don't regret it... At that time, I took all my little girls out, we established an elementary school, and they had to travel to study in trailers in a remote neighborhood. But I realized that I had a responsibility and everyone was looking at me. If I didn't set a personal example, it wouldn't work... But unfortunately it didn't last long... When I entered 'Ma'ashiyahu', my wife, who was alone at home, had a very difficult time with the travel and I agreed to take the girls back to school in Har Nof.
""The second thing, if it were up to me, I would completely cancel all the big seminars. I would make it so that elementary school continues until the twelfth grade in its place... Every girl enters from the first grade until graduation - and then there is no reason in the world that girls cannot continue in the same school... Why do we need such big schools with two thousand girls? Why let them travel long distances? Obviously, this is a very big war, but it has to be done.".
Promised. Does it even exist? I listened to Mom this morning, and I'm no longer sure. They've done a lot, that's clear, but apparently, the solution is still not in sight.
3.
""You are aware that the directors of the large seminaries, who have a lot of power, will fight, this is pressure, threats against grandchildren...", I told him then. He assured me that he was not moved by the pressure.
This will be harder than 'Masayahu', I said. You have no idea what this is about...
""I know the matter, I'm not a tourist... And as someone who was very close to Rabbi Elyashiv, zt"l, who was a pure Halacha man, I can personally testify that he invited Education Minister Limor Livnat and told her, and she was in shock when he told her, that according to Halacha she must cut budgets for all seminars that discriminate between Sephardim and Ashkenazim... This is public money, he told her. She was shocked! But this is Rabbi Elyashiv's ruling, and that no one should sell me stories...
""As public figures, we must go 'to the end' on this issue. What is this concept of a home that observes Torah and mitzvot, but because the father works he becomes the head of the household. Since when has it been like this in Haredi Judaism? Look at what's happening in America... We have a lot of distorted things within the Haredi community, I know it's difficult, I know these are things that have taken root... Didn't we study together in independent schools as children? This one's father worked, this one's father was a rabbi... Can anyone sit and study Torah all day? Does someone who sets times for Torah and educates their children according to a pure view become a second-class citizen? An institution that discriminates must be fought to the end. In budgets, in legislation - we must not accept this!"'
And no, we are not cutting even a single shekel today for the institution that discriminates.
""Maran Rabbi Schach was 95 years old, and when mothers came with children who were not accepted, he would personally call Rabbi Shraga Grossberg, 'Come urgently,'" he told me, and promised: "I will personally fight independent education... It's a matter of life and death!!!... So independent education really doesn't discriminate, it enrolls students according to regions. But the seminaries? Well, listen to Yael Cohen's cries.
4.
So this morning, in the State Audit Committee, the cry went up. Much to the embarrassment of Shas MKs, some of whom participated in the discussion.
And as always, the committee can be painted with political colors. The State Audit Committee belongs to the opposition, and the opposition's job is to attack the government and the coalition members.
""They were looking for Shas," as one of the party representatives put it.
It may be true, but still, things need to be examined for themselves: are the claims true or not? And let's face it: it's impossible to hear the mother's cries and not agree that the pain is here and now.
Chairman Mickey Levy, a member of Yesh Atid, was truly shocked. So was the initiator of the discussion, MK Meir Cohen, also a member of Yesh Atid: "The lawsuit reveals an Excel file from the Jerusalem Municipality, which shows how systematic sectarian classification of female students for Haredi seminaries is carried out. This is a social injustice that we must act with all our might to eradicate. Under the auspices of the Ministry of Education, the failure to accept Mizrahi students continues in the 21st century in the democratic State of Israel.".
And one Yael Cohen, the mother of a daughter who was not accepted, cried from the depths of her heart: "We'll see you with a child at home for six months without a seminar.".
She slammed the MKs: "Every Spanish mother knows that when she reaches ninth grade, her child will start at home. If after the holidays she will be in school, she is lucky or someone in the school. We will see you with a child at home for six months, locked in a room, ashamed to talk to people because she doesn't know that she has 30 other friends at home, none of them know that the other one is at home.".
The result: Opposition members requested an opinion that would ask the State Comptroller to investigate the discrimination, and Torah Judaism and Shas opposed it. Only the Sephardic Likud MKs - Eliyahu Revivo, Moshe Saada and Osher Shekalim - remained embarrassed. They requested to study the issue in order to vote according to their conscience, and received a postponement of the decision until next week.
And in the meantime? Mothers will continue to shed tears, daughters will continue to hide at home in shame. The world will behave as it has always done and the cry will rise to the heavens.
Because a Knesset committee or a state comptroller will not solve this mess, which is a disgrace to all of us and constitutes a huge blasphemy.
The solution must come from within the ultra-Orthodox public, and one hour earlier.
