Attorney Yoav Lalom recounts, in the 'Haredit Dovorot' podcast with Esti Shoshan, his personal, chilling childhood story, a story that began when he was "a 7-year-old boy.".
""My parents, who were fairly recent converts, immigrated to Jerusalem, wanting to go to a more ultra-Orthodox place, for the sake of the children. We lived in the city of Karmiel, a painfully secular city, and the parents wanted to become stronger. In parentheses - for the ultra-Orthodox who will listen to this podcast - So it didn't achieve the goal. In the Haredi concentration camps, the children were more spoiled than in Karmiel. In Karmiel, they were much more protected.
But no matter, my parents moved to Jerusalem, I remember myself as a 7-year-old child, This summer I finished the second grade at the Talmud Torah in Kiryat Ata, where I studied, it was run by Shari Roth's father, theJournalist. Her father ran the school in Kiryat Ata, a blessed righteous man, deceased.
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My parents are moving to Jerusalem and I am replacing Talmud Torah, it is impossible to continue studying in Kiryat Ata, it does not make sense to travel from Kiryat Ata to Jerusalem. The parents are converting, with all that this implies, they are not familiar with the Haredi nuances and Haredi discourse and we will soon see where this will lead me later. The sweet Ashkenazi neighbors we had accompanied My parents at every step, literally, as if in guidance, in understanding the ultra-Orthodox bugs, and in trying to prevent my parents from getting into trouble with these bugs.
And then these neighbors said to my parents: Listen, try to register the boys, Start with the little kids, with the little problems, and move on to the big problems later. And I was the little problem, I have two older brothers, and I was the little problem. So I remember going with my dad. Another piece of advice they gave was: Go enroll yourself in a Spanish school.
Those were the infancy days of Shas, we're talking about the years '86-'87, There are Sephardic institutions - institutions that were established and Shas was established following them. There are two ultra-Orthodox Sephardic institutions in Jerusalem: 'Yakiri Yerushalayim' and 'Sukkah David', they exist to this day. Old institutions. And I remember coming with my father to the buildingsFrom the makeshift schools back then, not the buildings they are in today. To the very makeshift classrooms, to the crown tables and crown chairs that were inside the classrooms... and those two principals say to my father: 'Look, I really want to have him, but there really isn't room.' And that's not the excuse of today's principals of 'there's no room,' he really put my father in the classroom and showed him there was no room. And my father comes out of there and he doesn't understand. In his head, what does it mean, the child has to go to school next year...
From there we go. To the 'Traditional' Torah Talmud in Jerusalem on Tachkemi Street, where we don't pass the guard... He asks us: Why did you come?
It's Talmud Torah of the independent education or was it private, I don't remember exactly the ownership, but I think it was owned by the independent education. The guard says to my father why did you come... Now there's no registration, you can't enter. That is, they didn't allow a stranger who wanted to enter the school to enter.
From there we continue to the Talmud Torah 'Sanhedrin' in Jerusalem, which was next to the former Biblical Zoo, where the old seminary is located today, where the Emmanuel demonstration will later be, under the bridge next to the school... And my dad passes the guard and we enter the principal's...
And my father tells him, like a good Baal Teshuvah, the whole truth in his face: Hello, we come from Kiryat Ata, the son studied in Kiryat Ata, we are residents of Karmiel, we repented, and Yoav Looking for a place to study. He said all the reasons not to accept me...
And the principal tells him: 'Look, I have a place in the second grade, but it's not a place for blacks.'. Those were the words he said to my father. I hear those words, and later I will check with my father once-twice-thrice to make sure I really remember the details correctly as a child...
And then I remember my walk with my dad, leaving school when I'm being dragged, I'm literally being dragged, he's dragging me. And we are on the bridge, cross, go up towards Malkei Yisrael Street, start walking towards Schneller, towards the house of my uncle who lives in the Mea Shearim neighborhood. . Then I look up and see for the first time, and perhaps almost the only time in my life, my father crying.
My father is a strong man, a very strong man, I'm a mollusk next to him. And I really, I consider myself a strong man, but when I put myself next to him, it's no comparison at all. A strong man mentally, physically and everything. And I never saw my father cry in his life, except for that incident and at my grandfather's funeral. Those are the two places I saw my father cry. As a child, I don't understand anything, I just don't understand how my father is crying, what, how this happened.
Then a miracle happens and we are stopped by a Haredi woman, a Yad Laachim activist. Today this probably wouldn't happen... She stops and asks my father: 'Sir, why are you crying?'. My father sees an ultra-Orthodox woman who asks him, he tells her, and she, Shocked by what she hears... She comes back with us all the way, 'Yad L'Achim' so they took care of education... She comes back with us all the way to school, She makes me and my dad sit on the bench outside the principal's room - and she goes into the principal's room and just screams.
I still remember when I tell this story, the bench shaking from the screams. Truly a righteous woman, I don't know if she is alive or not, but she is a righteous woman and well-known in Haredi society. And when she finishes screaming, she just opens the door, pulls me by the shirt like this, sits me down in front of the principal and tells him: 'You will test him, you will not tell him 'no' without testing him.'.
And he examines me.
Now I learned, in independent education there is a core, not of the Ministry of Education but there is a core of independent education, so those 5 minutes of daily halacha or I don't remember the name of the exact book that is studied in all schools... He tested me and I knew the material. I wasn't a bad student, I was a reasonable student.
That day, it's the happy ending, I was accepted. I studied there until the eighth grade and I have a bookshelf from that principal who said 'he had no place for black people,' a bookshelf with personal dedications that I have from him. He loved me very much, I did a lot of activities, I was a very naughty student. In this case, because of that lady's intervention, that was probably the reason I was accepted.
Now, you understand, this particular school has 70 percent Spanish, so there will be no misunderstandings. That's how it is. In the independent education schools. But when you come in the middle of the track, it's probably more complicated or something like that, I don't know how to understand. I have no explanation.
