New York State has been negligent in protecting the right to an adequate education in Yeshivas. The state has a large, vibrant, and politically powerful Orthodox Jewish community.
If you care about a better education for all students, and you live in New York City, try to attend the press conference on April 5.
It is sponsored by Young Advocates for Fair Education (YAFFED)
April 5 Press Conference to Discuss how NY has Betrayed Its Values to Please A Bully and Next Steps in Fight to Protect the Rights of Orthodox Children
For immediate release: New York, NY (4/2/18)
Contact: Naftuli Moster, Exec. Director, naftuli@yaffed.org
A press conference will be held in front of City Hall to protest how in the NY State budget deal, elected officials rolled back the protection of children’s right to an adequate education.
When: Thursday, April 5, 2018 at 1pm
Where: The steps of City Hall in lower Manhattan
Who: Members of Yaffed, along with former Yeshiva students and invited elected officials
Why: A new law passed as part of the 2018 NY state budget was crafted specifically to affect only Hasidic and Orthodox Jewish children. It seeks to weaken the NY State Education Department’s ability to provide sufficient oversight to ensure that these children receive an adequate education.
This law was passed as result of the efforts of Simcha Felder, a State Senator from Brooklyn who alone held up the state budget in order to insert language intended to deprive students of their right to a basic education that will prepare them for good-paying jobs and success in life.
New York State law requires non-public schools to provide an education that is “at least substantially equivalent” to that of public schools, so that no student is left in ignorance. The law requires non-public schools to provide instruction in “arithmetic, reading, spelling, writing, the English language, geography, United States history, civics, hygiene, physical training, the history of New York state and science.”
But this law has not been enforced for decades, by either the state or the city. The Mayor and the NYC Department of Education has delayed taking any action for over two and a half years, even after they had promised to do so repeatedly. The NY Commissioner of Education was in the process of drafting new guidelines to enforce the law, which apparently prompted Sen. Felder’s actions to attempt to exempt Yeshivas from meeting any educational standards. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of children are not receiving the basic education to which they are entitled.
At the press conference, advocates from Yaffed, former Yeshiva students and elected officials will speak out against extremists who are strong-arming our government to block sensible education policies, and. will discuss next steps in the fight to protect the human rights of all children to be adequately educated.
For more information on Yaffed’s five-year campaign to achieve a better education for ultra-Orthodox children, see http://www.yaffed.org
Diane Ravitch's blog 
People put their children in religious schools because they want them away from state oversight and want them taught according to religious preferences. Isn’t this over reaching into the separation of church and state? Although if the Yeshiva schools are accepting of state tax dollars earmarked for education, then they need to comply with guidelines from the state…..or stop taking those tax dollars. This is a slippery slope.
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Not at all a slippery slope . People sent their children into the fields or mines instead of an an education until the 1930s . Compulsory education is just what it says it is compulsory in a state accredited program, even if one is home schooled . It does no good if the rules are not enforced . If a religious school wants to teach creationism and receives no state money to do so fine. That does not mean that they can avoid teaching science.
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Then what about the children who are un- schooled with no religious affiliation. Parents have the right to direct the lives of their children however they see fit. It may not be what I would do or you would do, but they still have that choice. My in law family is Jewish (reform). When the religious school that their children were enrolled in decided to go conservative, put up the wall in the shull, separate boys from girls and to educate the boys differently than the girls, my SIL withdrew the children and put them into another school. It was her choice and she paid for that choice. She doesn’t fault the shull or the other jewish parents that were fine with conservatism. EVERY religion has it’s extremes.
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That is just the point , they do not have the right to direct children’s lives as they see fit. The regulations may vary by state . But that is not at all a true statement on many levels. In NY curriculum’s are required as well as annual assessments . If the state fails to pursue adequate supervision. Those state officials should be held as liable as they would be for ignoring physical abuse.
But I am the last person you want to talk about any religion to. Including the one I was born into. .
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Hasidim don’t want their children educated so it will be harder for them to leave the fold if they want to. It is horrid for those who choose to leave. It is the same as a cult that brainwashes people. In fact it is brainwashing and worse because they are tormented if they even think of asking a question. The whole community shuns them.
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So are the Amish a cult? They do the same. Children only go to school through the 9th grade and then work the farms. The children as teenagers, are given an opportunity to leave the community or to stay in the Amish faith. They are shunned if they leave the faith. I think it is a choice of how parents want their children raised and schooled. There are plenty of religious schools that are more moderate. The Hasids are orthodox and that is their choice. The only question is if they receive state/federal tax dollars for education. If ANY religion oriented school doesn’t want to be told what to do by the government, they should NOT accept tax dollars….period.
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Are the Amish still denying basic education to make it impossible for them to succeed outside their community? That is the case in Hasidism and abuse is rampant along with systemic welfare exploitation.
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@ Allison…. The Amish don’t take welfare from the government or from anyone outside of their faith. The Amish (I believe) go to Amish run school. The Amish teens who are given their freedom to choose often don’t have the educational skills to make it in the world, but many still choose to leave their Amish life. This is a choice. If there is welfare abuse by the Hasids, then that is a punishable offense. There needs to be a very strong line between church and state.
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Cult is a big term. I throw it around in circumstances like this when we are talking about what we are talking about, which is self-segregating religious-extremist groups with a strong bend towards a perceived fundamentalism. Its not fair to say “cult” per se because that implies a group with a cohesion that may or may not be religious. But whatever, in working terms, lets call em all cult.
I have no tolerance for fundamentalisms of any stripe or denomination. I’m not particularly sure that the framers of the constitution did either, insofar as fundamentalism was not running rampant in the late 18th century, as it seems to be now. The framers were, at the end of the day, men of the Enlightenment and were therefore mostly resistant to dogma, fundamentalism, or even a firm read of any scripture. The free exercise of religion shored up in the constitution is not the same thing as tolerance for fundamentalisms and religio-extremism. Part of the entire spirit of the idea of compulsory public education was to inoculate against the ravages of religious extremes and to make a citizenry that, at the end of the day, was civic-minded and able to function in the public sphere. It also happens that our public sphere here in the United States was envisioned by the framers to be one of the enlightenment and free from religious dogma or even inflection.
We let this religious fundamentalists (aside from Islamic fundamentalists of course) off the hook in our society way too often and give latitude in ways that can be problematic. This is a case in point. At the end of the day, any self-segregating religious-extremist group is not really about faith or scripture…..its about POWER. Usually male power, and the power of an identified elite within that circle. The power-play that fronts as religious adherence has defined victims, as all medieval power organs would, and they tend to be women, children, etc.
I don’t think the conversation should be about the free exercise of religion and the first amendment and all that. It should be about what these groups actually are, GANGS. Gangs shouldn’t be allowed to educate “their” children any way they think fit, should they?
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Not only do the Hasidim deny a comprehensive education to their own, but when they gain control of school districts, they deny it to others, as well.
They insist on having their cake and eating it, too: enjoying the exemptions and privileges of the First Amendment, while simultaneously engaging in the sleaziest of political maneuvering and over-the-top exploitation of the political spoils they seek, for the benefit of none but themselves.
Take a look at Spring Valley, NY and other Rockland County communities where the Hasids have taken over the school boards and shifted funds from the public schools to their own yeshivas.
The political cowardice of both political parties is complicit in this shondah (shameful act), since the Hasids vote as a block, and the Republicans and Democrats both kowtow to them, despite their being one of the most politically and culturally reactionary groups in the nation (which would be fine, if they didn’t insist on and grab preferential treatment for themselves, at the expense of others, through the political system).
This is the exact opposite, by the way, of how the Amish behave in relation to the State. Whatever their intra-group dynamics, they grant Caesar his due, and otherwise remain try to aloof from politics.
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There needs to be a very strong line between church and state.
There is. No religion shall compete with the belief in the state.
“Pass the Lord and praise the ammunition…” See new mil-fudget $$$..
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Question:
Why would this event be held on the steps of City Hall to protest a ruling in Albany?
Given that Albany has been directing exactly what the Mayor of NYC is allowed and not allowed to do with regards to education, this seems ridiculous.
“The Mayor and the NYC Department of Education has delayed taking any action for over two and a half years, even after they had promised to do so repeatedly.”
The Mayor also promised not to let Eva Moskowitz have the run of the DOE and tried to halt a very few of her locations — including one that would have displaced severely disabled public school children. That led to the direct order from Albany that the NYC Mayor must give Moskowitz as much space as she wanted, and the cost of that space would be borne by NYC public school students and taken directly from their budgets which now subsidize all space that Moskowitz demanded for her schools (and many other costs.)
Why would anyone believe that the Mayor could tell Yeshivas what to do when Andrew Cuomo and Albany call the shots? Are they not paying attention?
I hope these protestors don’t try to muddy the waters by making this about Bill de Blasio when it is clearly about the sworn enemies of Mayor de Blasio — Simcha Felder and Andrew Cuomo and the Republicans and 8 IDC fake Democrats led by Jeffrey Klein in the Albany Senate. You think Cuomo and these fake Democrats have worked to undermine de Blasio at every turn because he is one of them?? The policy that Albany has most tried to undermine de Blasio on is education! That’s why Cuomo wanted the IDC to caucus with Republicans. It’s ironic to see that now that Cynthia Nixon is challenging him, the IDC Dems want to caucus with the Democrats again. THOSE are the people who should be the focus of these protests.
If Young Advocates for Fair Education (YAFFED) is a legitimate organization, they can call for two things: the defeat of Andrew Cuomo and Simcha Felder and every fake IDC Democratic Senator in Albany. They should be in front of Simcha Felder’s office in his district and protesting there every single day to convince voters there to reject him. They should be blaming Cuomo and making this another reason why the corrupt Cuomo needs to go. Not HELPING Cuomo’s re-election chances by implying that there are other more evil people — like Bill de Blasio — who are REALLY to blame while poor Cuomo is just trying to do the best he can while working with such a terrible and corrupt NYC Mayor. That false narrative is being pushed by the right wingers working for Cuomo’s re-election in the hopes that progressives will help them turn de Blasio into the bad guy while keeping Cuomo — who we are supposed to believe is “trying so hard to do progressive things” — look blameless.
No doubt Cuomo is delighted to have voters blame de Blasio which gives Cuomo a pass and makes it more likely that ignorant voters will be convinced to re-elect Cuomo instead of Nixon. Cuomo wants to keep the focus on all the failings of the corrupt and awful Bill de Blasio — who has always sold out public education as we hear non-stop from self-described progressives — instead of recognizing how de Blasio’s hands have been tired by the real people who need to be gone — Cuomo and the IDC Democrats and Simcha Felder. If progressives direct their rabid hatred on the wrong enemy, Cuomo and the real right wing Democrats who should be blamed will skate easily to re-election. Laughing all the way at how they fooled progressive voters once again to focus their hatred on the progressive who just wasn’t good enough instead of on the fake Democrats like Cuomo and the IDC and Simcha Felder who are the ones who should be blamed.
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These are very sad stories. There’s an opinion piece in the NY Times today about this.
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This was held at City Hall is because there are high concentrations of these yeshivas in NYC. If we review the state education law, the first line of enforcement for schools not providing adequate education is supposed to be the local school board. In NYC, there is mayoral control, which means De Blasio has unilateral power to fix the problem, including the option of charging schools with educational neglect.
I’ve met with YAFFED’s executive director and they want people to know about the shady ties between De Blasio and certain hasidic donors, some who are real estate developers. They believe a quid-pro-quo arrangement exists to “bloc vote” for De Blasio as he drags out probes on yeshivas and also allows the controversial practice of letting mohels place their mouths on bleeding infants in an ancient circumcision ritual.
In Albany, it’s actually state ed (SED) who has been visiting and inspecting yeshivas and for the last year, producing stricter guidelines for compliance. THIS is what prompted Felder in the first place. The guidelines are just about ready for release and will force some yeshivas to make sweeping overhauls.
The “compromise” Felder won after holding up the budget process will allow yeshivas to make their case to SED that religious study should count towards a basic sound education, but the law ultimately leaves it to Commissioner MaryEllen Elia.
To counter YAFFED, a Rockland lawmaker is now pushing a hashtag on twitter #MosterDoesNOTspeakForMe even though local rabbis discourage Hasidic individuals from using smartphones.
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Thank you for this update.
Is de Blasio really getting “bloc votes” from the hasidic community?
But I understand your concern with de Blasio “dragging out” his report on Yeshivas. That’s exactly what I felt when NYC Controller Scott Stringer “dragged out” his report on Success Academy — especially because while the NY State auditor had tried to audit and been sued to prevent this, so only Stringer’s office had any oversight. Scott Stringer knew that he had the only oversight and it sure appears as if his office neglected to look into any of the practices that caused parents to sue. Thanks for nothing, Scott. Do you know what kind of bloc votes or donor support Scott Stringer is getting as thanks for not investigating this properly when he is the only one who can?
I don’t know why politicians like Scott Stringer and Bill de Blasio act corruptly sometimes and choose to overlook evil when it is so easy for them to do something like shutting down Yeshivas or charters.
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Thanks for this. Do you have any ideas what’s going on with the DOE “investigation” and report? Is the DOE dragging its feet because it doesn’t want to get out in front of whatever guidelines are coming from Albany? Or is the Mayor just reticent to touch this political third rail?
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