Belgian court to decide: will Haredi education be liquidated?

Belgian Jewry catches its breath towards the hearing to be held tomorrow (Wednesday), at the Constitutional Court, which will decide the fate of the Haredi education system in the country.

Some Haredi educational institutions in Belgium teach general studies regularly and are recognized by the Ministry of Education. For example, HaTorah Elementary School is recognized and budgeted accordingly for the content of secular studies adopted by it. But Hasidic schools such as the Bobov, Belz, Vizhnitz, Satmar and others, are not fully accredited.

The new education minister who took office recently, passed a crash law in Parliament, which states that a child who does not attend an accredited school, must undergo a comprehensive test at the end of the year. If it turns out that the student did not learn general studies, the state is entitled to embed him in the educational system, as it sees fit.

In light of the new law, all children are equal before the law and every child in Belgium must undergo once a year the Ministry of Education exams.

The new law endangers the Hasidic education especially, where there are no general studies. An appeal against the law was submitted to the local court, and the court determined that the only possible repeal is at the constitutional court in Brussels.

Community activists have harnessed first class top lawyers and filed an appeal on the issue. All Rebbes and Rabbis in Belgium are informed of the proceedings.

In fact, there are other countries like England, where the law requires running tests for secular studies once a year, but there activists detected a legal loophole for solving the situation. "The feeling here is that they have closed us on all sides. This is something fateful, since failure to revoke the law is really an existential threat to all educational institutions in Belgium", say residents to Behadrey Haredim.

At the request of the Rebbe of Shatz of residents of the city, all boys and girls of the educational institutions were asked to say these days chapter 83 of Tehillim for the success of the campaign. The rabbis further asked that the public will supplicate in its prayers to cancel the law and women will plead while lighting Shabbos candles.

The court is expected to give its decision tomorrow, or at the latest in a few days. Antwerp residents are now very tense and biting their nails prior to the case law, which, as noted above, will determine the fate of the state of education for good or ill, G-d forbid.

'בחדרי' גם ברשתות החברתיות - הצטרפו!