Ari Hart is an Orthodox Jew who disapproves of the actions taken by the Jewish-dominated school board in East Ramapo, Néw York.
In that district, the majority of the populace is Orthodox Jews, whose children attend yeshivas. Most students in the public schools are black and Hispanic. The school board takes good care of the yeshivas but it shortchanges the public schools.
Today, the state assembly passed a bill to install a state financial monitor for the district, to protect children in public schools.
Ari Hart chastises his co-religionists.
He writes:
“The board has drastically increased the funding going to yeshivas, but it has cut public school classes and extracurricular activities, attempting to sell public school assets at below market prices to private yeshivas, and more. These ethically and at times legally dubious actions have been documented by everyone from newspapers like this one to the New York City Bar Association to the New York State Supreme Court.”
Hart writes
:
“As an Orthodox Jew, when I first learned about what was happening in East Ramapo and about the attitudes of the board, I was shocked and disgusted. The Talmud teaches, “The world endures only for the sake of the breath of school children.” The public actions of this school board over the years have been in flagrant violation of that and so many other Jewish values and teachings. The Torah we share demands over and over again we never trample the stranger, the immigrant and the poor — apt descriptions of many in the public school district. They have also caused a massive Chillul Hashem — desecration of God’s name. The leadership of the school board to date has grossly violated both American and Jewish values. This is not the way to use Jewish power in America.
Instead, we need to find a way to both advance our interests and needs while taking the needs of our fellow citizens into account; rather than just grabbing more and more slices of the pie and leaving those around us hungry, we work together to grow the pie so there is enough for all. This would be a moral use of Jewish power, using it to call out those who are acting unjustly, even when they are from our own community. That is why thousands and thousands of Jewish New Yorkers are lobbying their legislators to pass these bills, which will provide needed oversight. Ultimately, this is about those school children in East Ramapo, and it’s about the very legacy that Jewish New Yorkers will leave on this great state.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I read a long piece on this situation in Mother Jones or The Nation last year. The Orthodox are disciplined and organized and get every single one of their adults to vote. Thus they dominate the school board and impose harmful policy on the majority. In a way it’s a microcosm of America. To me it raises the question: what can we as educators do to get poor and minority voters to vote? Can we do more? If so, what? What is the invisible cultural/mental infrastructure that’s required to turn a citizen into a dedicated voter?
More voters wouldn’t help East Ramapo. The Hassidic community is the majority, they have control of the board while they vote as a block. Many language minority parents in the community cannot vote at all. I had an Orthodox Jewish student teacher that was very critical of the Hassidim. Among her complaints were widespread fraudulent behavior, intermarriage of first cousins, very little interest in educating girls, and the marrying of under age girls to older men. These were her complaints, not mine. This woman who spoke Yiddish went on to teach in Kiryas Joel. If you are interested, google it.
I’ve been following this Ramapo insanity from afar.
You want to know what privatizers and corporate reformers are all about when their mask falls off? Check this out.
Below is some of the most riveting video—outside of NY State Ed/ Commissioner John King’s aborted “Open Forum”—- I’ve ever seen during this whole corporate reform privatization fiasco of the last thirteen years… and I’ve watched a lot of this.
(NOTE: Bullies don’t grow UP. They just grow OLDER.)
PART ONE:
In Ramapo, the low point came when Christopher Kirby, the lawyer representing the Orthodox Jews gutting the public schools, kept smirking and intimidating one of the parents testifying during a school board meeting. Kirby does it at the beginning of the video, then leaves the room, and everything’s fine… but not for long.
For the next couple minutes, with Kirby out of the room, the woman then calmly makes her case that the Ramapo district is not serving the needs of her special ed child, while praising what her teachers are attempting despite being under-funded.
Nothing explosive… just a mom sharing her child’s story… until all Hell breaks loose…
At 3:10
Kirby comes back in the room (OFF-SCREEN) and tries to intimidate the parent again with the smirking. The woman testifying points this out, and another parent steps in and asks for the Chair to do something, and Kirby blurts out…
KIRBY: “I’ll smirk if I want to! I’ll LAUGH if I want to!”
The woman, voice breaking and on the verge of tears, tries to continue when Kirby taunts her,
KIRBY: (devilish smile) “I’m—still—smirrrr-king.”
In response, the woman starts crying hysterically, particularly at the Hassidic board members who do nothing to rein in Kirby’s bullying.
WOMAN: (thru her tears) “YOU ALL SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELVES TO LET HIM SIT THERE AND LET HIM TREAT ME LIKE THAT, and you just sit there!!! I’m not attacking anyone. I’m just telling what good job our teachers are doing.”
This goes on for a bit, until Kirby again persists in taunting her.
KIRBY: (mocking tone) “I’m STILL smirrrr-king.”
This abomination was nothing compared to what happened later. It was but a prelude to…
PART TWO:
If that wasn’t bad enough, there was an appalling confrontation later that night where Kirby was on the verge of violence towards the parents in the parking lot. He threatened to beat up the father… challenging him to a fight… impugned his manhood…
One of the Hassidic school board members—these fine Men of God and the clients paying Kirby—-is present during all this.. He just stands there and does almost nothing until finally—FINALLY!!!—stepping in at the end.
At 00:30
Kirby, knowing that he’s being taped on multiple cell phones, gets out of his car, stands, and gives them the finger, and taunts them.
(BTW, as you peruse this video, here’s a question:
Can you imagine what Chris Christie, or other corporate reformers such as teacher-basher Campbell Brown would do with video of a teacher—particularly a teacher union leader—acting like Kirby, all the while knowing full well cameras were rolling? Think about THAT one.)
KIRBY: (standing, mocking) “Take a picture!”
AT 00:40
HUSBAND: (to his wife, not Kirby) “He’s an a——.”
KIRBY: (walks quickly towards them) “YOU’RE the a——! You hide behind a bunch of women?!”
WOMAN: (sensing imminent violence) “We’re calling the police! Ramapo Police are on the way!”
KIRBY: (to the HUSBAND) “Go hide behind your women!… Call me an a—– when we’re alone!”
HUSBAND: “Where should I meet you?”
KIRBY: (sarcastic) “You really want to fight? I can tell. You hide behind what? Seven women here?”
WOMAN: “He’s not hiding behind anybody. Who are YOU hiding behind? Your paycheck?”
—and here comes the dreaded c-bomb
KIRBY: (to the WOMAN) “SHUT UP, YOU FAT C—!”
WOMAN: (to KIRBY) “You just- … That’s it! That’s it!”
KIRBY: (mocking/mimicking) ” ‘That’s it! That’s it!”
OTHER WOMAN: “Don’t let him leave.”
KIRBY: (normal screaming voice) “F— YOU! YOU F—ING B—-!”
Finally, the Hassidic Board Member—this great Man of God—steps in and asks Kirby to leave.
Again, bullies don’t grow UP. They just grow OLDER.
To Christopher Kirby, if you’re reading this… why don’t you come on this board and explain yourself and/or apologize?
If a teacher would lose his/her credential over behavior such as this—and in California, such a hypothetical teacher would be banned from teaching for life after a video such as this went to the Commission on Teacher Credentialing up in Sacramento—shouldn’t a lawyer be disbarred for this, since he is acting in his capacity as a lawyer?
The client works for them, not the other way around.
Secretly, though, this Hassidic board member was likely loving this whole thing. At the time, and later when he and the other Hassidic board members viewed the video, they all were probably high-fiving each other:
“That’s right! That’s what we’re paying your firm $1 million bucks-a-year of our citizens’ taxes for! That’s it! Beat up on the non-Hassidic, assimilated Jews! That’s that they get for assimilating, and trying to stop us from gutting their mixed ethnicity, non-religious schools!”
Think about it… as the radio show (ABOVE & also BELOW) details, the Hassidic board made a phony public statement of indignation and a promise to both fire Kirby and the firm Minerva & D’Agostino… just to placate people in the short run… but then, when the hubub died down, they showed their true colors. Nothing happened either to potty-mouthed thug Kirby or his firm. He and they are still representing the Hassidic board, and pulling in the $1 million/year of tax money—including the taxes of Kirby’s victims in the video. That’s right. They’re paying to be abused like that.
Those Hassidics were probably loving the whole grotesque behavior on display in the video. These noble “men of God” probably watch it over and over just for laughs, “Play it again! Let’s see the part where he calls the husband a c—sucker, and the part where he calls his wife the c-word!”
For any of you who think that’s not the case, WHY ARE KIRBY AND HIS FIRM STILL EMPLOYED BY THEM???!!! Couldn’t they have Kirby or D’Agostino speak at a board meeting and make a public apology to those parents? Nope. NEVER GONNA HAPPEN!
On that score, could you imagine what would happen to teachers or parents whose indignation manifested itself, on video, in expletive-filled threats of violence towards any corporate reform people? They’d lose their credential, be fired, and likely banned for life from teaching. Campbell Brown would post it all over the internet.
Most of us who have lived for many years have learned one sad fact: Although almost all major religions teach their members to care for those who are less privileged, the majority of these “religious” people do not adhere to the tenets of their faith. It’s too bad because if all the Christians and Jews in America truly practiced their respective faiths, all our poor children would be well cared for and properly educated.
BEAUTIFUL!!! As you mention great truths are found in all major religions but sadly these truths are forgotten. Catholics, Protestants annihilated each other in the name of the Prince of Peace. Sunnis and Shiites war against each other. And this Orthodox Jew points out wide discrepancies between Jewish best writings and what is actually done.
Do Unto Others etc etc etc. Forgotten when political factions usurp these basic premises. Sadly too, each faction can “prove” that they have the facts on their side. We are right, therefore you must be wrong.
Ultimate good, ultimate truth, ultimate beauty? Education? How far homo sapiens have to go.
If you examine its practices, much of Christianity today is actually Satanism in disguise –it doesn’t just deviate from true Christianity, it’s its diametric opposite (e.g celebrating selfishness and wealth). The true Christians are the liberal atheists!
Here’s a radio program that includes a recap of the Ramapo situation, including the parking lot incident from the point of view of the parents:
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/534/a-not-so-simple-majority?act=2#play
Go to 39:45
—————————–
NARRATOR: “Still though, the most remarkable example of the bizarro role that the school board’s law firm has taken on in this conflict… ”
——————————-
and on it goes with the account of the parking lot imbroglio.
According to this radio show, the Hassidic-controlled board were then met with an outcry to fire both this lawyer, Christopher Kirby, and Kirby’s law firm, Minerva & D’Agostino.
In response, they released a statement publicly promising to do so. However, they were just making a phony promise. They ultimately never did anything. Both Kirby and his law firm remain as the board’s legal representatives, with nothing happening to them.
Both the board and the law firm have utter disdain for the community. They can say or do anything, and get away with it.
The program then addresses the elephant in the room—anti-Semitism.
at 48:47
————————————–
NARRATOR: “If I can, I need to change gears here. Talk about part of the story that you may have noticed, that this whole story treads near some of the most destructive anti-Semitic stereotypes in existence… ”
—————————————-
… and on it goes with anti-Semitic incidents arising in the aftermath of the divisive “Us vs. Them” schism in the community caused, at least in part, by the Hassidic-controlled board’s actions.
What’s really appalling is that the Hassidic Jewish board members regularly refer to the parents advocating for their public schools as anti-Semitic, (presumbably self-hating) Jews… and yes… you guessed it… Nazis.
In their school board campaigns, the Hassidic school board candidates’ commercials showed images of Hitler, Nazi soldiers goose-stepping, and pictures of emaciated concentration camp prisoners—indicating that those non-Hassidic Jewish (!) pro-public school parents and their candidates were continuing in the Nazi tradition, with their ultimate goal to be to re-boot the Holocaust. The commercials even included the violin theme from SCHINDLER’S LIST playing on the soundtrack.
Truly crazy stuff…. and I thought the school board campaigns in L.A. were bad.
They even took a picture of parent activist Peggy Hatton (sp?)—the woman who was called a “f—ing b—” and a “fat c—” in the parking lot by Christopher Kirby, their attorney—and put a Hitler moustache on her face, then tweeted it around the community.
It’s all in ACT TWO of the radio show:
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/534/a-not-so-simple-majority?act=2#play
Regarding the radio program above dealing with the Ramapo situation:
——————————————————
Here’s the link to the PROLOGUE: (4.5 minutes long)
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/534/a-not-so-simple-majority?act=0#play
Here’s the link to ACT ONE: (25 minutes long)
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/534/a-not-so-simple-majority?act=1#play
Here’s the link to ACT TWO: (26 minutes long)
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/534/a-not-so-simple-majority?act=2#play
—————————————————–
It’s all worth a listen…
I just saidTHIS IN MY COMMENT. I am jewish… they re anti-everthing but their own sect, and the teachings of the talmud are lost on them, as they are corrupt to the core.
And is this a reflection of what Cuomo also calls “justice” when he talks to certain groups pushing his tax credit/voucher plan? http://www.buffalonews.com/city-region/albany-politics/cuomo-backs-150-million-tax-credit-for-private-education-20150518
Just wondering?
As I thank the owner of this blog for this brave posting, I humbly remind her that a “better education for all” is only possible all of us keep the heat on—
Everyone. And that includes, sometimes especially means, us. Just as when a speaker at a public rally called Michelle Rhee an “Asian bitch” the owner of this blog, well, here’s part of the posting—
[second half of posting start]
A reader on this blog asked me my reaction to the ethnic slur made referring to Rhee. I wrote a comment, then decided to say it louder in a post.
I don’t play by the same rules as Rhee. She goes around the nation insulting teachers and trying to persuade the public to support reactionary legislatures and governors who take away their right to have a collective voice, cut their pensions and their health benefits, and remove any job security from them. That’s wrong and I will say it’s wrong again and again.
But I won’t condone the use of ethnic or racial slurs.
My rules include civility, courtesy, fairness, and reason. Is it fair that someone who makes $50,000 to give a speech for one hour attacks teachers who make that much in a year? Is it fair that she belittles people whose jobs are so hard and so valuable to society?
I don’t think so. I will argue it, say it, and insist upon it. But without any slurs based or race, ethnicity, or gender.
[second half of posting end]
Link: https://dianeravitch.net/2013/04/06/why-i-apologized-for-something-i-did-not-say/
Means and ends are not just related; they’re two sides of the same coin. We won’t ever win the fight for a “better education for all” by imitating the immoral practices and mealy-mouthed lies of the heavyweights of the self-styled “education reform” movement.
Public education is a never-ending story. It is, as a numbers & stats person put it, an “asymptote” = “a line that continually approaches a given curve but does not meet it at any finite distance.” In other words, the job is never finished because perfection is a goal that is always out of reach—but always worth striving for.
Yes, the rheephormsters in all their many hues, shapes, sizes, colors and styles are a varied lot. But it’s all within a narrow band of differences because they share fundamental core beliefs: 1), the soft bigotry of low expectations towards public school staffs and students and parents and their associated communities; and 2), the hard bigotry of mandated failure in all its many guises, from the scores of standardized tests used to stack rank students and make them fail to using VAM to destroy genuine teaching and learning to defunding and starving public schools of the resources needed to do their jobs.
Again, to the owner of this blog: show no favor. Let everyone feel the heat.
Politeness and civility are not weaknesses.
“I will be as harsh as truth, and uncompromising as justice… I am in earnest, I will not equivocate, I will not excuse, I will not retreat a single inch, and I will be heard.”
William Lloyd Garrison.
Thank you again for the posting.
😎
Right now I’m reading “A Conspiracy of Decency” by Emmy E. Werner. It explains why the Danish people saved almost all their Jewish countrymen when other countries cooperated with Hitler’s evil intentions. What comes across so far is that Danish society was a true community of people, without regard to differences in religion or anything else. A Dane was a Dane and the Danish people weren’t about to stand by while innocent people were rounded up and “deported” to other countries. Instead they conspired to rescue innocent people in their country and helped them to escape to Sweden.
These courageous acts provide us with the answers to our own problems with poverty and inequity in education. If we could see “those children” as “our children” we’d find ways to ameliorate the terrible effects of poverty. Providing the best possible education for our own child while looking for ways to cheat other children out of the same, is not a teaching in any known religion.
Indeed, read The Hiding Place, Diary of Ann Frank, etc. There ARE people who stand up for the “Do unto others” idea promoted by all major religions.
And thanks to you Krazy TA for enlarging the context for understanding the importance of this post.
The same thing is going on, on a much greater scale in the town of Lakewood NJ
What to do when an entire population decides to opt out of public education and uses taxpayer money to do it
What happens to those left in the gutted, poorly funded and segregated school system?
Not a pretty picture
Residents have no choice but to leave those towns because there is no future for their children, period.
Private schools should be funded with private dollars, not taxpayer money but Dems and Repubs appear to agree on vouchers and charters. Expect rapid privatization as nursing homes are also handed over to private corporations. Schools, nursing homes, any place where there are vulnerable populations who have no voice, no power, so say in what happens. As they say on Wall Street, “It’s a takeover.”
Very sad
IRONIC CONTEXT: It’s important the author criticizes the East Ramapo school board for not following the tenets of Judaism because the supporters of the board claim anti-Semitism at the drop of a hat, as is noted in the NPR documentary, even in reference to other Jews.
So which is the real Judaism, that which sticks to it’s own to seek advantages, or that which equally supports all school children regardless of race or religion? The East Ramapo board has also invoked Nazi and terrorist comparisons to the sponsors of the monitor bill, but the craziest speech was given by Aron Wieder to an Albany committee considering the policy. He said our founding fathers are turning over in their graves because the bill gives one person power over an elected board and that goes against the core of American democracy.
Thank you Diane for following this. As those of you who follow me here, know, I live here, taught here, and saw these religious men run our schools into the ground, so that a school system that once served 70,000 students and was third in the state, sending its students to top universities, now has 17,000 students, and fails on all fronts.
I have watched as this community whose population grows exponentially as their kids marry early, and Brooklyn members move here, bring busloads o f their community to the polls, and man the phone lines overtime a budget comes up, until nothing remains for the secular residents who are our servants, who work inner businesses and LIVE HERE.
I can not begin to tell you how corrupt the school board is, and how these liars use accusations of anti-semitism to confuse the issues, how they use t he aura of’religous freedom’ to avoid taxes but use the services to protect their homes and use our roads and sewers.
They are currently trying to turn rural areas into tracts with ‘schools’…where their adult male ‘forever’ students of talmud, can live with their families. If you saw where this district lies, at the edge of the Ramapo Mountains, a place where we secular people moved when one acre per house was the rule, and woodland beauty prevailed in all developments, but is now filled with multiple dwellings and ‘religious buildings and yeshivas’ every few yards, then you would understand the word CORRUPT POLITICS.
Oversight? Prosecution and investigation by the attorney general is what is needed!