Religious schools don't want Ethiopian Children

B”H 

The daily reality in our country is that children of immigrants from Ethiopia don’t face an easy task finding a school. There are plenty of schools which do not accept them for several reasons: Schools in wealthy areas (let’s look at northern Tel Aviv as well as Ramat Aviv) neither want nor have Ethiopian kids studying at their institutions. The wealthy simply don’t want them because the poor Ethiopians don’t fit. On the other hand, secular Ramat Aviv is gossiping about religious Ashkenazi schools not willing to accept either Ethiopian or Sephardi children. Does Ramat Aviv accept them into its own schools ? No ! 

It has been in the Israeli news for quite a while and it is always repeating itself. After the summer vacation, Ethiopian children hardly find schools accepting them. This is very sad but, many times, there are good reasons. 

In Petach Tikwah

Photo: Miriam Woelke
 

The Municipality of Petach Tikwah (near Tel Aviv) sent a bunch of Ethiopian girls to the Chabad school OR CHAYA, as other schools weren’t willing to accept those them. Chabad, however, refused taking those girls too, and Israel’s secular Jewry is screaming out. OR CHAYA simply said that there is no real proof that those girls are Jewish. 

True, as Ethiopian immigrants are accepted as Jews by Sephardi Jewry only. This decision was made years ago by former Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. The Ashkenazi part of the Chief Rabbinate (Rabbanut) stipulates that only those Ethiopian immigrants are accepted as halachically Jewish who undergo an Orthodox conversion course ! Otherwise they are not accepted as Jews according to Ashkenazi standards. Nevertheless, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef said that only those Ethiopians are recognized as Jewish when they are able to provide documents. This alone may be very difficult for people from African countries. Fact is that many Ethiopian immigrants are NOT Jewish. Many are married to Gentile women and thus, the children are not Jewish anymore. 

I don’t understand why the Petach Tikwah Municipality is sending Ethiopian kids to the Ashkenazi Chabad ? Doesn’t anyone think and imagine in advance what will happen ? Why not sending them to Sephardi SHASS schools ? 

See also YNET !

Where Israelis would like to live

Expensive real estate property at Kikar Rabin (Rabin Square) in Tel Aviv.

Photo: Miriam Woelke

B”H

Renting or buying an apartment in Tel Aviv has become unbelievably expensive. Even when you "only" rent a small place, take into consideration that a huge amount of your salary is going into rent and cost of living. Paying all the bills is not easy unless you are among those who either earn a lot or who are willing to live a very simple life. No cinema, not going out all the time, no luxury.

However, we should have a life with at least a small amount of pleasure and many people who are planning to move to Tel Aviv prefer moving to the outskirts. First it used to be Givatayim or Ramat Gan. Then people started moving to Holon, Rishon LeZion, Bat Yam or Rosh HaAyin. The growing demand caused the rents and real estate prices to rise. Again, people started looking for cheaper solutions and even moved as far as Nes Ziona or Rehovot. 

Now, the most popular city close to Tel Aviv is actually Petach Tikwa. I still know Petach Tikwa from the days where it used to be a small town with not much to do. Then a huge shopping mall was built and when I was in Petach Tikwa this January, I was shocked how much the town had changed. New building complexes anywhere you look. Furthermore, the town was and is an important industrial area as well as a hightech center.  

Petach Tikwa has a high amount of religious inhabitants and many Holocaust survivors from Hungary used to live there.