Yediot Aharonot reported today news so appalling, so racist, that I was surprised that 2006 was the dateline on the article.

Meet Rav and Shmuel Street in the ultra-Orthodox town of Kiryat Sefer in central Israel: A corner street, a great view, and lots of children with side curls playing around. But there is something else this street has: It is the only street in Israel where Jews of Middle Eastern descent are not allowed to move to.

The Brachfeld neighborhood's reception committee decided to ban additional Sephardic families from entering streets and buildings in which 35 percent of the tenants are Sephardic....The reception committee recently decided that there are too many residents of Middle Eastern descent in some of Brachfeld's streets and buildings. Therefore, Sephardic Jews wishing to live in the town cannot live on Rav and Shmuel Street and are directed to other streets.

Of course no one's being racist:

"The rate of people becoming newly religious is higher among the Sephardim, and the spiritual risk in letting such families enter the neighborhood is higher," a top go-getter at Kiryat Sefer said. "It's not that we are racist, but we worry for our children's future. This scattering is also in favor of the Sephardim," he added.

It should be mentioned that newly religious Jews of East European or Western origin are considered problematic by the ultra-Orthodox community as they sometimes bring with them behaviors from their secular past, such as watching television. "I am trying to sell my apartment, and if a Sephardic client comes along, I'll have a problem because I'll be surpassing the percentage in my building," one of Brachfeld's residents said.

"It's an economic issue. People don’t want Sephardim to live in the neighborhood, because then Ashkenazim will not buy apartments and the value of the apartments will decrease," the resident added.

No, not racist at all.

This disgusts me, and is not fitting for religious individuals to act like this.

However, the only way to combat ignorance is education.

Loolwa Khazoom, a Persian Jew writing for UCLA's Jewish Student Magazine Ha'Am(The People), says succinctly the core of the proactive process which will help us to rid ourselves of such intra-Jewish tension:

... I have found Jewish community leaders unwilling to make it a priority to fund projects that will educate our community about Mizrahi, Sephardi, and Ethiopian Jewish heritage before it is too late.

I find it imperative that Jewish organizations acknowledge the responsibility they have in reflecting Jewish diversity and that they give a much higher energetic and financial priority to educating themselves and their constituents about Jewish multiculturalism. Mizrahi, Sephardi, and Ethiopian individuals should not bear the burden of educating our fellow Jews at our own expense. When we go to Jewish events and prayer services, we have the right to expect to see our Jewish heritage reflected in them.

Just as the community pays to have individuals do Israel education outreach; just as the community pays to have individuals do Holocaust education outreach; so must the community pay to have individuals do Jewish multicultural education outreach.

Until this reality happens, it is clear to me that the Jewish establishment does not hold Mizrahi, Sephardi, or Ethiopian Jewish people or traditions as being as valid and valuable as it holds Ashkenazi people and traditions. Until there is a shift in this paradigm, I anticipate that the Jewish establishment will continue to resist enacting the kind of changes that need to happen in our community, to reflect Jewish multiculturalism.

Harsh words. But necessary. Education is the key to combatting ignorance. Her article is fascinating, it relates that once, upon telling a mainstream Jewish organization of her feelings of exclusion and ways to remedy them, she was told about "great Yemenite food" at this one restaurant in Israel.

I can only imagine how patronized she must have felt. (Actually I kind of know.)

Learn about a Jewish community. It might save yours from getting split apart.