"My child is Jewish and knows where he comes from. Stop the pettiness and hassle, it makes wrinkles," "Wedding at First Sight" star Achva Sitbon told a user who attacked her in response to a video she shared from her son's kindergarten, in which a cross hanging on the wall can be seen in the background for a few seconds.
For the past four years, Sitbon has been living in Barcelona with her husband Yonatan, his daughter Laia and their son Daniel. Yesterday, she excitedly shared a video of herself picking up three-and-a-half-year-old Daniel from his non-Jewish kindergarten, with a cross appearing in the background for a few seconds. The footage enraged a user who chose to react angrily to its existence, prompting Sitbon not only to respond directly to her in the video, but to post another series of videos on the issue to her Instagram account, where she has nearly 70,<> followers.
"Yesterday I uploaded the sweet video of me picking up Donnie, and one of the followers could only see the cross that hung in the classroom," she shared. "I understand that someone from Israel can't see it, but I'm not in Israel. You don't expect a picture of a menorah or the president to hang in my son's classroom, do you?
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A post shared by Achva Sitbon Ronen | Brotherhood Stebon Ronen (@achva_si)
"We are in a different country. It's not a religious school, there's no religious studies there. There's a little cross on the wall, and it doesn't bother me personally," she clarified. "What hangs on the wall doesn't define the children or what they will become. What is relevant and what hangs on the wall? We are in a Catholic country."
The star added: "My child knows where he's coming from, he knows he's Jewish and we'll talk a lot more about it. We are Jews living in the Diaspora, what is relevant to what is on the wall? Let there be a cross, let there be a Buddha." She added: "I understand that there are people who are more religious than me and these symbols make them move uncomfortably in their chair, but yes, a cross. I don't live in Israel."
"What is relevant?" Brotherhood Sitbon // Photo: Ronen Ackerman
Sitbon didn't stop her words at this point, continuing: "You have to open your mind because there's no one right way to grow or do things. No one said that my way was right or that sitting in a classroom in Israel with a menorah was the right way. The cross is the last thing that will determine what kind of person he will be. It's very important to me that he be a good and ethical person."
Summing up her remarks, Sitbon said that each person will do what is best in his eyes. She also said that at first she wanted to send her son to the only Jewish educational institution outside the city, and changed her mind when she realized that the standard of education in the city itself was higher. "He accepts Jewish religion and values at home," she stressed to her followers.
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