A new report by the New York Times has scrutinized the dearth of education received at school in New York City’s Hasidic Jewish neighborhoods, accusing city officials of ignoring the problem to ensure they win the community’s votes.
The Times’ report, published on the front page of the paper on Sunday in English, was unusually also translated into Yiddish, the primary language in Hasidic communities, in its online edition. According to the Times of Israel, this was likely the first time the US’ Paper of Record was published in the Yiddish language, which comes from Eastern Europe and until the mid-20th century was the primary language of European Jewry.
According to the Times, the autonomous private Hasidic schools have failed to give their students the basics of a secular education, despite receiving large amounts of money from city and state education budgets.
The schools are separated by gender and routinely ignore requirements to teach secular subjects such as math and science, as well as English - a language all but absent from the schools. They also refuse to administer standardized tests, aside from a handful of instances necessary to continue receiving public funding, all of which illustrate the deep shortcomings of the schools.
In 2019, only nine schools in New York state had less than 1% of students testing at grade level - all were Hasidic schools in New York City, the paper notes.
Instead, they receive a rigorous education in the Talmud and other texts of Jewish law and religion, and also the Hebrew and Aramaic languages in which they were written. Few learn even the most basic English, which is not considered necessary to lead a successful life in Hasidic communities, and which many fear would encourage integration with the outside world or even leaving their communities.
“I don’t know how to put into words how frustrating it is,” Moishy Klein, who recently left the community, told the Times for the report. “I thought, ‘It’s crazy that I’m literally not learning anything. It’s crazy that I’m 20 years old, I don’t know any higher order math, never learned any science.’”
The Times’ report came out two days after New York state officials proposed new rules that would require all private schools in the Empire State to teach secular subjects.
“Those who want State control can choose the public schools,” Pearls, a coalition of Hasidic yeshivas, said in a statement on Friday. “Parents in New York have been choosing a yeshiva education for more than 120 years, and will continue to do so, with or without the blessing or support of State leaders in Albany.”
Despite this deficit in performance, the Times found that the Hasidic boys’ schools have collectively received more than $1 billion in the past four years alone. It was the first time someone had compiled a list of all the funding they receive, which came from Title 1 programs for low-income students, programs used to get private schools to comply with government mandates, and voucher programs to help low-income families pay for child care.
Scandalously, at least one school network used antipoverty program money to buy food from retailers it owns, and many more together collected $200,000 in federal money for internet-related services, when accessing the internet is banned in the schools.
The paper also found that these problems weren’t unknown to city or state officials, but rather, that there was a direct connection between their dependence on Hasidic communities for political support and their interest in addressing complaints about poor education, budget-milking, or other violations, such as corporal punishment.
For example, after meeting with community leaders, New York governors Andrew Cuomo and Kathy Hochul both reportedly pledged not to interfere with Hasidic schools, as did New York City mayors Bill de Blasio and Eric Adams. The Hasidic rabbis then tell their followers how to vote, sending students home with sample ballots marked with their preferred candidates, according to community members who spoke with the Times. Students who later bring in their parents’ “I Voted” stickers are rewarded, they said.
During de Blasio’s term as mayor, an inspection of the Hasidic schools in response to complaints was watered down after “Mr. de Blasio and others argued the inquiry could backfire if it was too aggressive,” the Times wrote. The inspection visits that followed were scheduled in advance and took place at those schools known to be better.