Tzedek-Tzedek

The behavior affecting the innocent children at Orot Banot is intolerable. The silence from RBSA is equally intolerable. The time has come to express our support to the girls,their parents and the entire Givat Sharet community at large. One can only imagine the thoughts running through the minds of these young and impressionable girls as they trek off to school each day. Will I be screamed at? Will someone try to throw something at me? There has been a need to bring therapists into the school to help the kids. Can you imagine? How would we feel if our children would be terrified to go to or return from school? What is most concerning is that the source of this fear is other Jews! This is the time to show achdus and unity for others in our own community. Let us show these children that it is in fact only a very small group that behaves in such a way and the rest of us will not stand for it. Nothing can justify what is happening to the girls. The famous words of a German ...

  (This photo courtesy of Yissachar Ruas) The recent chaos surrounding the opening of the new school building for Orot Banot, in Beit Shemesh, seems to have reached a resolution, and the girls, staff and parents started the new school year this morning in their spanking-new school building – on the red-letter-day of 1 st September. There has been a lot written about the dispute – how it started, the various claims of the parties involved, the protest activities etc – in the local, national and even international press (a friend who returned from a trip to the USA said people he met in the USA were asking him about "what's the story with Orot Banot?!"). For those unfamiliar with the dispute, I refer you to Haaretz , YNet ,   Arutz 7 , Jerusalem Post , the protestors' Facebook Page , and the RBS blog Life In Israel. At the milestone 1 st September point, the traditional start of the Israeli academic year, I declare the Victors are: The Young Girls - who can...

Here's a view of the protests at Orot Banot girls school in Bet Shemesh. See previous posting for the background....

             Photo Courtesy of Yissachar Ruas                        (Above Two Photos Courtesy of Michal Stein) Over a thousand Bet Shemesh residents are reported to have demonstrated outside the building slated for "Orot Banot" National Religious girls' school last night. The dispute is over the use of the new school building, located in Ramat Neriya, Bet Shemesh, which was built by the Orot Banot's parent organization, Shaalei Torah. The problems surfaced with objections and threats by other local residents, " Kanoim " (loosely translated as extremists, militants, fundamentalists, whatever...), who live in neighboring buildings designated for Chareidim. The Bet Shemesh Municipality, under the Shas Party Mayor, Moshe Abutbol, has withdrawn its support for the Orot Banot school, and ordered the school out, apparently in response to the threats of violence against persons and ...