""We have no place for Sephardim": When a father faces discrimination in a Betar seminary

July 1, 2022   

Last night (Friday night), Yair Sharki published on Channel 12 extraordinary recordings of a father of a girl of Mizrahi origin who asked to enroll his daughter in a seminary in Beitar Illit - and was refused because of her origin. The father, who is courageously fighting for his daughter, a 14-year-old girl, told Sharki: "As a father, I see how her self-confidence is declining, how she is breaking down, and I slowly feel how this thing is really affecting her emotionally. We actually sent her to take the exam at a seminary that we think is the best for her in every way." According to him, the days pass, and his daughter tells him that her classmates are receiving positive responses one after another - but only they have not received a response. When he thought that it might be an incorrect address or a problem with the mailing, the father called the person responsible for the registration process. In response, he was told: "We will not accept her, we need to maintain a balance of Ashkenazi and Spanish girls." "I didn't know how to deal with this answer, because it's never occurred to me," he says. The father tried not to involve his daughter in the process: "I'm taking her out of the picture, because I don't think it's in my daughter's best interest for her to be really involved in the intricacies of the story. I'm just telling her that, God willing, it's a matter of days, that the problem isn't her. It's not that she's not good enough. There's some kind of problem that doesn't actually have anything to do with her - that she's Sephardic." The father emphasizes that this hurts not only the daughter, but the entire family. Another seminary where she was tested, also defined as Ashkenazi - rejected her, but at least without the explicit reason. Usually the excuses are that the students are not at the spiritual or academic level. The father walks around armed with certificates and tests. "I have certificates here for eighth and seventh grade - in the proceedings everything is 'praiseworthy,' very good, very good, very good. We receive comments of appreciation from the student." According to him, when he contacted the seminary and asked why they did not accept his daughter, he received a laconic written response: "Unfortunately, we cannot accept your daughter. We wish you success in all your endeavors." A conversation with a teacher at the same institution, in an attempt to pressure the principal, also provided the painful answer again. "Taking a small, successful, talented, God-fearing girl and telling her, 'You can't enter my seminary because your name is not Weinberg or Hershkowitz, because you are Sephardic. I am ashamed to use that term,'" says the father. When asked if he would consider sending his daughter to a Sephardic seminary, he said: "Even if there were another seminary, I don't think it is permissible or right to come and ignore this discrimination. There is a seminary here that is not ashamed to tell parents - you were not accepted because you are Sephardim." After the seminary rejected the appeal, the family filed an appeal with the Haredi district of the Ministry of Education. The father emphasizes that the Ministry of Education is not handling the problem with the necessary seriousness: "Instead of the Ministry of Education taking the time with applications, with committees... we played them the recordings, they received the recordings, they received the material. How are they not outraged?!" According to him, "They provide the budgets, they provide the level of education, and they are the ones who are supposed to intervene. A lot of female students are sitting at home, families are falling apart because of this, families are being destroyed because of this. People are not sleeping at night. I want to tell you about myself personally - I don't fall asleep at night, I get up at night to see my daughter, who falls asleep well and then I can go back to sleep. Families are being destroyed just because of a sectarian issue. It is unacceptable that such a thing would happen in the State of Israel." The seminar's response: "The two women recorded were not part of the decision-makers regarding the admission of any candidate, and in any case were not exposed to the system of considerations. In any case, the seminar completely disavows these statements, which do not represent it, and in fact 50% of the seminar's students are of Sephardic origin. The seminar insists that its decision regarding the candidate (who just happens to be of Sephardic origin) is based on her low achievements in the seminar's entrance exams." The response of the person responsible for the registration, heard in the recordings: "The things were distorted and taken out of context. The conversation took place in a difficult and embarrassing situation of a quarrel and arguments between former spouses. Due to privacy concerns, we cannot detail the true story." The Ministry of Education's response: "The minister instructed the professional authorities to take strong action against all manifestations of discrimination and racism and to take all possible measures against the Shifleh institution, including the application of sanctions. As for the case in question, the referral is under review, after which the parents will receive a formal notification.".