End the Apartheid

Every child deserves a Torah education

Disclaimer:
The following is NOT a political post. It's not an endorsement of any candidate nor of voting altogether.

In today's world of deception (עלמא דשיקרא)  in which the population is incessantly bombarded with lies, lies, and more lies, we must pause and acknowledge when true words are spoken, irrespective of who spoke them. קבל את האמת ממי שאמרו

In our present times, the vast majority of rabbis are silent about halachically unjust vaccine mandates. Jewish schools and yeshivas enforce these mandates and ban unvaccinated children from attending, in clear violation of Torah law that requires Torah education for every child in the community. [1]

When challenged, these administrators and their rabbinic authorities respond that they're private businesses, not community Talmud Torahs, and consequently are not responsible to educate every child.

However, these same yeshivas are constantly holding fundraisers and claim to be charitable institutions deserving of community support.

What utter hypocrisy. If you have an exclusionary policy, then you're not a community institution by definition. You're an exclusive private club. How dare you beg for community support.

I stopped donating to such institutions. Don't support apartheid. Use your maaser funds to support genuinely charitable causes, not private businesses that exclude Jewish children.

And now, a public person has finally spoken out and said just that: President #45, Donald J. Trump.

“I will not give one penny to any school that has a vaccine mandate or a mask mandate,” Trump said in a recent campaign rally in Richmond, VA. [2]*

YES!! Someone finally had the temerity to say it.

Now if only rabbis would follow suit.

Don't support apartheid yeshivas! Tell these schools to STOP excluding Jewish Children. Cease and desist.

The Holy Temple was destroyed because of such divisive exclusion. [3]

The policy in most contemporary Jewish institutions are "Kamtza and Bar Kamtza" on steroids. Ten-thousand Jewish children were banned from attending Talmud Torah in NY State alone. And this shocking practice continues unabated in Jewish schools throughout the United States. The Jewish communities of Baltimore, Chicago, Miami, and many other cities, have exclusionary policies that are halachically unjust. Shomu shomayim.

The silence is deafening.

Thank you Donald Trump for stating the obvious, that it's wrong and unethical to support such compromised institutions.

Let's pray for a return to sanity. Communities everyone must rein in these errant institutions or replace them with new ones that will serve the community and educate every Jewish child without exception or prejudice. And THAT's how we’ll merit to rebuild the Holy Temple! May it be speedily in our days.

Notes:

[1] Bava Basra 21a. Hilchos Talmud Torah by the Alter Rebbe (Baal HaTanya), 1:3. I've written exhaustively on this crucial topic in the past five years, but alas it's fallen largely on deaf ears, at least as far as the establishment is concerned.

[2] https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/4517350-trump-vaccine-rhetoric-public-health/

*EDIT: it's just been brought to my attention that Trump may have made this comment in the context of the covid vaccine only, but not about other vaccines of the so-called childhood schedule. This might be the case, so I will reiterate that this post was not necessarily an endorsement for Trump. Rather, I chose to showcase his statement because it was the right words that we all should be saying about all vaccines.

[3] Gittin 55b

Credit: Artwork by Alex Levin