The few opportunities I had to share about the condition of my son, 10.5-year-old Michael, who suffers from severe motor and cognitive disabilities, were around the struggle of ultra-Orthodox parents to equalize the rights of their disabled children with all children in Israel.
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Did you divide? For thousands of years we dreamed of Jerusalem, so now we want to dirty it?
But, whenever I address this issue, I honestly have difficulty presenting my arguments in the face of the skepticism that grips my listeners.
They simply don't believe me.
Does the Ministry of Education abuse disabled Haredi children just because they are disabled? They ask.
Why, for God's sake, would they do this? They wonder.
The Haredi MKs, the elected representatives of the parents of disabled Haredi children, are not acting on this issue? Where is the rationale? They don't believe it.
These are some of the claims.
But I, thank God, still never tire of saying it again and again, of declaring it again and again without a shadow of falsehood or self-interest:
The Israeli government, especially the Ministry of Education, is persecuting the special Haredi children [with CP, autism, retardation, Down syndrome, other syndromes, and more], and is trying to 'tease' the activists in the struggle, out of a perception, probably justified, that in the end the parents will get fed up. Because, how much is too much?
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For those who find it hard to believe, here's our story in a nutshell. Literally. I promise not to bore you with numbers:
90 percent of special education children in the Kosher stream are Haredi. These children are discriminated against compared to children in regular education with respect to kindergarten teachers' salaries at a level of almost 50 percent.
What do I mean? A kindergarten teacher in Haredi special education earns thousands of shekels less each month than a kindergarten teacher in 'regular' education. If one earns 11,500 shekels, the other earns 7,000 shekels. Who pays the gap? The institutions.
Where do institutions get money from? So it's clear they don't have any.
They 'scrape' the bottom of their meager budget and end up paying the kindergarten teachers the difference. They know that if they don't do it, the professional kindergarten teachers will leave and choose to work in 'regular' institutions.
So who is hurt? The children. The money allocated for cutting-edge technology like eye-tracking computers, unique musical instruments, televisions, and more was diverted to pay kindergarten teachers, and the unfortunate ones are left without the equipment that a special secular child receives.
Madness? Absolutely. Absurdity? Absolutely.
Following the struggle we waged, two members of the Finance Committee at the time – MK Mickey Levy and MK Shlomo Kerei – joined forces and forced the Ministry of Education to compare the conditions of poor Haredi children with those of secular children. More concretely, 90 million shekels were allocated for special Haredi education.
Why did the Haredi MKs sit idly by? Why didn't they do anything? Aren't the parents of these children the people who voted (and perhaps) will vote for them in the future as well?
My answer is that the plight of the poor children is important to them. But it's not important enough. It's probably not as important as the yeshiva budget, for example, or the kashrut reform. There, Gafni would probably 'blow up' the yeshiva.
A few disabled Haredi children and their few institutions do not really endanger the very fabric of Haredi society.
So the damage was repaired, and the Ministry of Education was forced to equalize the conditions, but then it became clear that its hard-nosed officials were continuing to create difficulties.
Kindergarten teachers who try to log into the Ministry of Education website to fill out their details and compare their salary as promised encounter a series of glitches that prevent them from receiving what they are entitled to. In other cases, by the way, they transfer billions without asking for any information.
Why do they do this? Where does the 'strange' opacity come from, one should say? Only God knows.
Another optional hypothesis: They act this way because they can. And also because no one cares.
If the ultra-Orthodox MKs don't raise a voice of protest, why should the officials move? In other words: if the nights of Gafni, Porush, and Deri are not awake, why would those of Moshe Sagi, the deputy director of the ministry, be any different?
And Sagi's name does not appear in this column by chance. Sagi, one of the ministry's senior officials and a good friend of Degel Hatorah Chairman Gafni, appeared before the Finance Committee, and when asked by its members (again, MK Kerei, thank you) why his ministry is harassing horticulturalists, he presented statements that, to put it mildly, are not necessarily accurate.
The contradictions that emerged in his words did not embarrass him, but mostly left the participants, and us parents, wondering:
Why Moshe, why? How long will this strange, not to say surreal, struggle continue? Is there anyone, including you – Mr. Sagi and your assistants, who really thinks that Haredi children are entitled to fewer resources than secular ones? We don’t think so. We believe that you are fundamentally good.
So why? When we addressed our painfully honest claims to the office, we received a harsh response letter that, of course, defended the local employees and, with an implicit threat, threatened us, the parents of special children who care for the poor kindergarten teachers... with a defamation lawsuit.
Did we say surreal?
