[1] The Hasidic school was founded and attended by members of both the Sephardi and Ashkenazi communities,[2] with Rav Shimon Ba'adani as final Rabbinic authority.
[3] The Hasidic school was sued by Yoav Lallum, who does not reside in Immanuel,[4] and his group "Noar KeHalacha", with assistance from the New Israel Fund[5][6][7][8] and the "Tmura" and "Achoti" organizations;[9] the allegation—that this was solely an ethnic split between Sephardim and Ashkenazim.
[10][11] Rabbi Shimon Baadani, is the spiritual leader of the Yemenite community in Emanuel, all of whose daughters study the Hassidic class at 2010, most of whom are of Ashkenazi descent.
[12] In a 2009 Israeli Supreme Court ruling, a claim was accepted regarding separation on the basis of origin between Mizrahi and Ashkenazi students at the Beit Yaakov girls' elementary school in Emanuel.
A compromise reached between the parties led to the parents' release from prison, and with the approval of the Ministry of Education, a separate Hassidic school was opened for girls, which the state and local council prevented from budgeting That they meet the conditions of admission to the institution.
Among other things, it was claimed that the discrimination was legitimized following the decision of Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, the leader of the Lithuanian ultra-Orthodox community, who set a quota that requires seminary directors to accept Spanish students at least 30% every year, for affirmative action.
Rabbi Bar Lev of Immanuel states, "Ministers Pinchasi and Margi of the Shas party were concerned about reports in the media about alleged discrimination.
In a report submitted by Bass to the Ministry of Education on March 2, 2008,[33] he described the chain of events against the background of the special social situation in Emanuel.
[41] Rav Luria explained that the split was crucial to the integrity of their children because of a new modern element that moved into town and threatened their lifestyle and the strict education that Haredi Jews give to their children—in terms of dress, exposure to television and media, music, choice of careers, etc.
It became clear to both sides that we need to part ways, and simply turn to the model that's already implemented in all other Haredi centers", the parents association told the media.
[41] The contending parents then turned to Yoav Lalum, founder and head of the No'ar KaHalakha organization, which is a New Israel Fund grantee, whose stated aim is to fight against discrimination in Haredi schools.
In response to his request the Ministry's Chief Executive appointed the former attorney general to The State Comptroller of Israel, Mordechai Bass, to review the case and determine if the new section is part of a Segregation effort.
Page 6 Attorney Bass notes the founding of the Sephardic girls' school in Emanuel, Beit Rachel and Leah, under the Mayan-Shas network, which at the time had only a small first grade.
The day following the release of the Bass report, as he realized that the Education Ministry would not intervene, Lalum decided to turn to the legal system—something almost unprecedented in Haredi history.
Lalum, however, had already done that before, and with permission of his spiritual guide Rabbi Ya'akov Yosef, eldest son of the renowned Sephardi Rabbi Ovadia Yosef (although they had an estranged relationship in the past), he petitioned the Supreme Court of Israel on 4 February 2008 to order the Education Ministry, the local municipality board of Immanuel, the Haredi Independent Education Center and the parents' organization of the Beit Yaakov school, to stop their aid to and/or close the new section.
[citation needed] The three judges selected by Chief Justice Dorit Beinisch to hear this case were Edmund Levy, Hanan Melcer, and Edna Arbel.
[43] But in the meantime the Ministry refused to get involved in the discrimination issue, saying that it lacks the criteria to decide this, and therefore the Independent Education Center should be liable to assure there is no segregation in the school.
The branches have to be mutually dependent ...[46] Professor Daphna Barak-Erez has commented: "One of the most significant impacts of Judge Aaron Barak on Israeli law is found in the change which he led with regard to all matters of justiciability.
"[48] Ben-Dror Yemini, journalist on legal affairs for Maariv, comments, "when there is a case against Sephardim or the religious, Edmond Levy is put at the forefront to avoid any accusations of anti-Sephardic or anti-religious bias.
In his brief, he pleaded that the Court not allow "a clash that is of a religious, value-oriented and conscience driven nature, that does serious harm to the legal rights of the parents as anchored in the Basic Laws of the State of Israel.
What requires us to balance between the competing rights.Levy then determines that: A institution may hold a unique trend in which students will study ways of religion and worldview of a certain community.
This is a gap, on "[Whom] it is said that it speaks for itself" (Vice-President M. Cheshin in HCJ 240/98, Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel V. Minister of Religious Affairs, P"D 52(5) 167, 178 (1998)).
A review of the code reveals that we aren't dealing with "a trend that aims to teach the Hasidic way of life", but with an attempt to separate between the segments of the population on a sectarian basis, and this under the guise of cultural difference.
Same is with school's demand to the parents of students that they live by the religion standard of the institution, and the request—that's good that it was omitted from the provisions of the regulations—that the Prayer language would be only in the Ashkenazi accent.
All these are there only to serve an unacceptable purpose, and this is to close the Hasidic trend's doors to Sephardi girls only because of their origin.Therefore: We order the Independent Education Center to remove any indication, both formal and substantive, of the phenomenon of discrimination that was common at the school.
Like Levy, Arbel also pointed to the proposed article that all prayers should be in Ashkenazi accent as proof that the "real intention" of the separation was segregation between Sephardim and Ashkenazim.
"This broad and unrestrained requirement through the code shows in my opinion the real desire that stands behind it, to separate between communities and not between different religious levels".
[54] Melcer wrote longer comments, wherein he tried to compare this ruling to the historic Brown v. Board of Education that ended segregation in the US and outlawed the "separate but equal" mentality.
"Ohel Rachel and Leah", under the Sephardic Shas-based "Ma'ayan HaChinuch HaTorani" education network had been founded in the same year that the Beis Yaakov Chassidi was founded—2007 (see Bass report, page 6 paragraph 10).
Ezra Gershi, one of the original petitioners and then mayor of Immanuel, sent an official municipality letter to Yoav Lelum declaring the matter closed.