Posted on 06/17/2007 3:43:58 PM PDT by hecht
Vienna court to rule in case of Natorei Karta rabbi's kids By DINAH A. SPRITZER / JTA PRAGUE
Moishe Arye Friedman's children may be paying for the infamy of their father, an anti-Zionist Satmar Natorei Karta member who attended a Holocaust denial conference in Teheran.
Five of his children were expelled from their private Orthodox school in Vienna about a month after Friedman was shown in media outlets worldwide warmly shaking hands with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last December.
Despite a court order, hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines and the threat of closure, Machzikei Hadas won't let them return - a position that apparently is receiving unqualified support from the school's parents, the umbrella group of Vienna Jewry and a number of Orthodox rabbis who serve the parents.
The Friedman children are in educational limbo while a trial to determine whether Machzikei Hadas had the right to expel them starts on Tuesday in a Vienna district court. Some legal experts predict the case may go on for months or even years.
Meanwhile, the children are not attending school. The Education Ministry offered them placement in public schools, but Friedman said those schools were were not suitable for religious children.
At the heart of the conflict is the question of whether the school is punishing the children because of their father's actions or, as the school maintains, protecting its students from youngsters who parents fear enthusiastically support their father's anti-Israel opinions and Holocaust revisionism.
The Friedman children were told they would not be welcomed back to school following their monthlong vacation in the United States at the end of January.
Friedman, 35, sued to demand their reentry, but a Vienna district court upheld the expulsions. In March, however, a federal court ruled that until the case was concluded, the four older children - girls aged eight to 13 - must be allowed back into Machzikei Hadas. The court accepted Friedman's argument that the children were being unfairly punished for his activities.
The Austrian Supreme Court upheld that ruling on June 1.
Machzikei Hadas, however, is defying the court order to allow the children to return. It has incurred fines of 600,000 euros - about $800,000 - plus several thousand more for each day the children are not permitted entry.
Still, parents of Machzikei Hadas students are sticking by the school, the oldest of four Jewish schools in Vienna and one of only two that serves mainly haredim. Several spoke with JTA on condition of anonymity, saying they feared Friedman would retaliate against them.
"This is a private school for the needs of our community. We should have the right to decide who our children should mingle with," said a father with two children at the school. "Friedman's kids cheer every time there is a suicide bombing in Israel. This is not something I want my children exposed to."
Josef Klein, the principal at Machzikei Hadas, offered several arguments on why the school had a right to keep the children from returning, including the nonpayment of school fees over eight years. He also said Friedman signed a contract stating that the children's behavior must be in accordance with school standards.
"Following a suicide bombing in Israel, his son, who has finished the school already, cheered and told his fellow students that he too would like to be a suicide bomber," Klein said. "He also came to school and said 'My father is the most important rabbi in Vienna, he has contacts with all the police and if you say something he will get your father in jail.'
If he hasnt paid tuition in 8 years ,they should have been kicked out 7 years ago.
Words fail me. And the article says they haven't paid school fees in 8 yrs, yet still the school can't keep them out. Good for the school for sticking to their guns despite the fines.
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Does Revelation 2:9 apply?
“...I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan.”
Unbelievable.
From the sound of the article, they're well on their way to becoming Islamists.
?!
Dissolve the school on Friday, reincorporate the school on Monday, nad move on, School no longer exists so legal case goes away. The new school does not have to let the Islamist ‘Jews’ in the door.
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