Moshe Friedman loses this round on coed classes


THE HAGUE - The Belgian judge who forced a girls' school to admit two sons of Moshe Friedman refused a separate petition to enroll the haredi Orthodox pariah's daughters at a boys' yeshiva.

According to the Belgian Jewish publication Joods Actueel, the judge on Monday cited procedural issues in rejecting the motion by Friedman, a father of eight who filed a request for an injunction against the Yavne Yeshiva, a boys' religious seminary.

Last month the judge issued an injunction ordering a girls’ school, Benoth Jerusalem, to admit two of Friedman’s sons. They started studying there on Jan. 7.

Friedman, 40, is an anti-Zionist campaigner who has been excommunicated by the institutions and many members of Antwerp’s haredi community, including the Jewish school that refused to enroll his children. In 2006 he attended a conference of Holocaust deniers in Tehran and hugged Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad.

In rejecting Friedman’s petition against the Yavne Yeshiva, the judge said she could not issue a temporary injunction in summary proceedings on a “permanent issue.”

Benoth Jerusalem is appealing the injunction forcing it to enroll the two boys, Joods Actueel reported.