Grand Rabbi Rejects New Rules For NY Private Schools

KIRYAS JOEL, NY — Orthodox yeshiva leaders are up in arms over potential new guidelines for teaching secular subjects in New York's private schools.

All private academies are required to provide education "substantially equivalent" to that in public schools — and the rules unveiled last week by State Department of Education officials aim to fulfill that goal.

The new rules come after years of activism by critics, including those within Orthodox Jewish communities, who argue yeshivas are doing their students a disservice by not teaching the basics of many subjects.

On the other side, many yeshiva leaders bristle over what they view as secular infringements on religious education.

One Ultra-Orthodox leader — Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum, grand rebbe in Kiryas Joel, the hasidic town in Orange County — predicted his Satmar community would rebel if its leaders made the changes.

"Should we attempt to adapt the proposed guidelines, our parent body will revolt and create their own education system providing them what they're looking for," he wrote in a letter to NYSED, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported.

The lack of control argument drew a swift reaction from Naftuli Moster, founder and executive director of YAFFED, a group that advocates for ultra-Orthodox children's education rights.

"We’re talking about a leader who dictates every single move and behavior of his people," Moster told the JTA.

The rabbi also invoked the Holocaust. “During the Holocaust, the Jewish world suffered colossal losses. Entire Jewish communities, men, women and children were completely wiped out. We are the children of the few survivors. It is our duty to rebuild what was destroyed,” wrote Teitelbaum.

Moster was unmoved. “Yeshiva leaders routinely invoke the Holocaust and antisemitism essentially to try to shut down any legitimate scrutiny and criticism,” he told the media outlet.

Agudath Israel of America, a group that advocates for yeshivas, criticized the guidelines and argued they failed to value religious studies, some of which are quite rigorous, as part of an equivalent education.

"By ignoring this essential component of yeshiva education, the proposed new regulations may result in yeshivas having to make major changes to their school day schedules to be deemed substantially equivalent. This is entirely unacceptable," the group said. "For a yeshiva to be judged on the quality of its educational program without taking into account these religious studies would make a cruel mockery of the review process."

The guidelines offer several options, including: curriculum review by local public school authorities; or testing using NYSED-approved assessments for core subjects like English, math and science as the Catholic parochial system does; or becoming accredited.

They're not strong enough for Moster, who told the New York Daily News that the proposed rules had "loopholes" that need to be closed.

As the former yeshiva student explained it on Twitter, "Hasidic teenagers of high school age typically have never read a novel, do not understand the rudiments of science, have no sense of history or proficiency in English."

By Patch Editor Matt Troutman. Patch Editor Lanning Taliaferro contributed to this report.

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