http://www3.haaretz.co.il/eng/scripts/showArchiveArticle.asp?id=43819
Ha'aretz, Sunday, April 04, 1999
Chabad schools are shunning Ethiopians
Education Ministry and local
authorities remain silent
By Aliza Arbeli, Ha'aretz Correspondent
The educational institutions of the Chabad Hasidic
movement do not accept Ethiopian children, despite
the fact that the schools are under the supervision
of the Education Ministry and receive state funding.
The late Lubavitcher Rebbe expressed doubts over the
Jewish origins of Ethiopian immigrants to Israel and
instructed that they be excluded from Chabad
institutions.
In Chabad kindergartens, elementary and secondary
schools, Jews from Ashkenazi and Sephardi
backgrounds can be found, including recent
immigrants from the former Soviet Union. But not a
single Ethiopian Jew is enrolled in the educational
network.
The situation is especially problematic in outlying
areas with large concentrations of Ethiopians. In
many areas, Ethiopians find themselves in
homogeneous classrooms, hindering their integration
into Israeli society.
Menachem Brod, spokesman for Chabad, confirms that
Ethiopian children are not accepted in the Hasidic
movement's institutions. "This is an instruction
from the Lubavitcher Rebbe and also a ruling by our
rabbis," he said.
He also reiterated that the Ethiopians are not being
singled out, since Chabad policy applies to anyone
whose Jewishness is in question.
According to Brod, "The problem with the Ethiopians
arose with the arrival of immigrants in Operation
Solomon, when they were flown by their leader and
refused to undergo conversion according to halacha,
as the Operation Moshe immigrants did. Therefore,
their Jewishness is in question... It is true that
the state registered them as Jews, but the state
registered many immigrants as Jews whose Jewishness
is questionable and even non-Jews have been
registered as Jews."
Local authorities and the Education Ministry have
accepted the Chabad ban on Ethiopians without
protest.
Even the Israeli Association of Ethiopian Immigrants
backtracked on plans to appeal to the High Court of
Justice.
In Kiryat Malachi, there are some 5,000 people
living in a Chabad neighborhood and 3,000 Ethiopians
out of a total population of about 22,000. The
Chabad residents include immigrants from Georgia and
Bukhara, as well as an Ashkenazi contingent
considered especially fanatic. Most of the Ethiopian
children attend the government religious schools,
while Chabad runs a comprehensive network of schools
that are off limits for Ethiopians.
"It is outright racism. Ethiopian children are
accepted in all of the educational institutions in
town, including those of Shas, but just for the
Chabad Hasidim the Ethiopians are not Jewish
enough?" complains Abraham Tatazai, an Ethiopian
representative in Kiryat Malachi.
Political considerations explain why the local
authorities have done nothing to oppose the Chabad
policy. The electoral power of the Chabad residents
translates into three seats on the town council. The
previous mayor, Moshe Shimon, included Chabad
representatives on his slate and did not protest
Chabad's exclusionary policy despite a severe
shortage of classrooms in the government schools.
On the other hand, new mayor (and younger brother of
Tourism Minister Moshe Katsav) Lior Katsav has vowed
to address the issue. "As the one responsible for
education in the municipality, I visited the Chabad
schools and it was lightheartedly suggested to me
that I register my son in the school when he comes
of age. I responded that my son would not study in a
school that does not accept immigrant children,"
Katsav said. "I intend to talk with Chabad leaders
and the Education Ministry in order to find an
arrangement for voluntary acceptance of the
immigrants. I don't think that a forced solution
would help in this case."
The chairman of the parents committee in Kiryat
Malachi, Eli Ezriel, has already tried to talk with
the Education Ministry, but has only a pile of
frustrating correspondence to show.
"I turned to late Education Minister Zevulun Hammer
and also current Education Minister Yitzhak Levy; I
turned to the chairman of the [Knesset] Education
Committee; and the Minister of Absorption. I tried
to contact [MK] Addisu Messele and received no
reply. I received evasive answers to the dozens of
letters I sent."
Rabbi Yeruslavski, the leader of Chabad in Kiryat
Malachi, says that the policy of not accepting
Ethiopian children is an internal matter and has
nothing to do with racism. "We have principles. We
also did not accept children from the [former Soviet
Union] if there is any doubt to their Jewishness,"
the Chabad rabbi said.
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