{"id":227577,"date":"2010-01-25T12:53:56","date_gmt":"2010-01-25T17:53:56","guid":{"rendered":"tag:blogs.rj.org,2010:\/rac\/\/2.2371"},"modified":"2010-01-25T13:15:50","modified_gmt":"2010-01-25T18:15:50","slug":"irac-attorney-general-take-on-haredi-jerusalem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/227577","title":{"rendered":"IRAC & Attorney General Take On Haredi Jerusalem"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n\"Anat.jpg\"<\/span>Anat Hoffman is the Executive Director of the Israel Religious Action Center in Jerusalem. This post originally appeared as a message in IRAC’s January 26, 2009 newsletter, The Pluralist. To sign up for updates from IRAC, visit www.irac.org. <\/em><\/p>\n

One of the first Hebrew words immigrants to Israel learn is savlanut<\/em> – patience. They’ll need it; it’s a word they won’t easily forget. But it will take them some time longer to understand its root, sevel<\/em>, as the source of all Hebrew words for suffering. <\/p>\n

I’ve always liked the direct connection Hebrew makes between patience and suffering, and have grown especially fond of it over my years here at IRAC, where so much of our work is an exercise in patient suffering. We’ve had Reform conversion cases that have dragged on for eight years, and campaigns against religious councils that have lasted almost two decades. <\/p>\n

So often we find ourselves in opposition to the State. We send you stories about suing the government, or petitioning the Supreme Court against the government for the umpteenth time – which is why it’s heartening to report that recently the office of the Attorney General has joined our side. <\/p>\n

In a petition of ours against the Jerusalem Municipality’s decision to
\nprovide full and exclusive funding for Haredi schools, the Attorney
\nGeneral has joined IRAC in arguing that such funding is illegal in its
\nblatant discrimination and disregard for other schools in Jerusalem. <\/p>\n

Especially troubling is the automatic preference for Haredi schools at
\nthe expense of all others in Jerusalem. According to Tali Aviv, a
\nmember of IRAC’s very capable legal team, the best illustration of the
\nJerusalem Municipality’s discriminatory allocation of educational funds
\ncan be found in East Jerusalem, where public schools are overcrowded,
\nand many children are forced to attend private schools for lack of any
\nother option. These schools aren’t given any additional funds at all,
\nso it would seem logical to provide these private schools with money
\nrather than give it exclusively to Haredi ones. But this is a classic
\nexample of how the Jerusalem Municipality works: it caters to Haredi
\npolitical power, and to their coalition within the municipality.<\/p>\n

Today IRAC submits a written summation of our arguments to the
\nCourt, and then in two weeks’ time the Jerusalem Municipality and
\nHaredi networks will present their own before the Court can reach a
\nverdict. “It will be an important moment,” Tali says, “because
\nmunicipalities across Israel look to the Jerusalem District Court for
\nguidance in handling similar cases of their own.” <\/p>\n

And it’s quite clear that discriminatory funding, especially when it
\ncomes to Haredi communities, is a relevant and prevalent issue that
\nwon’t go away any time soon.<\/p>\n

We hope the addition of the Attorney General’s name to our
\npetition will strengthen our case and draw attention to the issue at
\nhand. And we want the case decided this year, not a decade hence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anat Hoffman is the Executive Director of the Israel Religious Action Center in Jerusalem. This post originally appeared as a message in IRAC’s January 26, 2009 newsletter, The Pluralist. To sign up for updates from IRAC, visit www.irac.org. One of the first Hebrew words immigrants to Israel learn is savlanut – patience. They’ll need it; […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4316,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-227577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4316"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227577\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}