Emmanuel separation 'like what Nazis did'

Ynet - Rabbi Gadassi, the Sephardic rabbi of Beit Yaakov girls' school in Emmanuel, harshly criticized Ashkenazi rabbis Wednesday for the discrimination at the school. Dozens took part in a demonstration of support for Rabbi Yaacov Yosef, who led the struggle against the discrimination. The demonstrators and rabbis spoke against the separation of the girls, comparing it to the separation demanded by the Nazis in 1933.


"In 1933 anti-Semitism began in Germany, may its name and memory be blotted out," Gadassi said, speaking about the barrier set up at Emmanuel to divide the students. "The first thing was… to move Jews to the back of the classrooms at the universities. I told the rabbi of the Ashkenazim at Emmanuel, you've gone even further, you've begun a barbed-wire fence… you've told women not to say hello to one another."

In an interview with Shas journal, party chairman slams those who criticized his stand on Emmanuel discrimination affair, asks 'how many Sephardic judges does the High Court have? Are the haredim the only ones with racism?'

Gadassi said that his daughter's Ashkenazi friends had begun to turn against her because of the messages they had received.

"My daughter had two friends, twins, from the Borstein family," he said. "They used to come to visit, eat soup and hilbeh, sit in the house. They used to come for a few hours each day. They didn't want to leave because they received so much warmth and love. And then, the day after they put up the barrier, my daughter greets her friend, and she turns her head away, doesn't want to talk to her."

The rabbi also referred to the High Court case, saying they had received confirmation from the presiding judge whose name he didn't want to say for fear he would be harmed.

"We won't mention his name because they may threaten him," he said. "They've become a Slonim mafia.

He also criticized the High Court, saying that in numerology, the High Court is equal to Haman (the villain in the Book of Ester).

Sources close to Rabbi Yaacov Yosef rejected the Nazi comparison, saying that "nothing (in the case) is similar or even comes close to the terrible Holocaust."

More information on the dispute