School Called ‘Impure’ After Muslim Wedding
Parents of students who attend the public-religious Ohel Meir school in Afula in northern Israel are demanding that it be spiritually purified following a Muslim wedding that took place there. They are up in arms that the wedding was allowed to happen in the hall where the school’s Torah scrolls are kept, and are threatening to keep their children out of the school synagogue until a purification ceremony is carried out.
“We’re talking about a serious event that should never have happened,” one parent told the Israeli news website Walla! “I am not prepared to let my child pray in a space in which a Muslim wedding took place…this was an impure act.” One father said that he thought a delegation of rabbis needed to enter the school synagogue and perform a special prayer service in order to purify it.
School authorities say they are dealing with the matter, and city officials have passed the responsibility on to the Ministry of Education.
A religious source involved in the matter told Walla! that the parents were overreacting and were likely being influenced by LEHAVA, an organization that works to prevent the intermingling and intermarriage of Jews and Arabs. “It was an innocent mistake,” the source said. “And precautions will be taken so it won’t happen again.”
A spokesperson from the local coalition of social organizations blamed LEHAVA for the “exaggerated response.” He went on to say, “With all due respect to the values in Judaism, the fact that the notion of needing a purification ceremony for a Muslim wedding to have taken place is unthinkable…It is worth reminding LEHAVA and the parents at the school that in Israel 20% of the citizens are Arabs, who are entitled to free expression of religion, including the right to freely celebrate Muslim weddings.”
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
