February 7, 2013

THE HAGUE (JTA) — A Belgian court reportedly has lifted an injunction forcing a haredi girls school in Antwerp to enrol two boys.

The injunction, which according to the Joods Actuaal monthly was lifted on Feb. 7, was issued by a judge last month following a petition by Moshe Friedman, an anti-Zionist haredi activist excommunicated by the haredi community of Antwerp.

Unable to enroll his children in the community’s schools, he petitioned to have his sons, Yosef and Yaacov, attend the publicly funded Benoth Jerusalem elementary school.

Belgian law does not permit schools to only accept one gender, though separate classes for boys and girls are permissible. Friedman’s lawsuit was the first case where a haredi parent petitioned the authorities to make a school co-ed.

The Antwerp Court of Appeals lifted the injunction obtained by Friedman due to child welfare considerations raised by the school in appealing the earlier ruling, according to Joods Actueel. The review process may take several years. In the meantime, the boys’ enrollment will be nullified and they will no longer attend the school, according to Joods Actueel.

Freidman, 40, was born in Brooklyn and is married to a Belgian woman. In 2006 he attended a conference of Holocaust deniers in Tehran, where he was photographed hugging Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. 

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