JNS
New York State and City have “engaged in what can be described as ‘lawfare’ against yeshivas,” a leader in the Bobov Chassidic community told JNS.
The New York State Education Department’s policies discriminate against Chassidic Jews and threaten their ability to maintain a Jewish-centered education, according to a federal complaint that four yeshivas in Brooklyn filed on Monday.
Bobover Yeshiva Bnei Zion, Oholei Torah (Chabad), United Talmudical Academy (Satmar), and Yeshiva and Mesivta Arugas Habosem (Tzelemer) argue in the complaint that New York State targeted them unfairly with its “Part 130” regulations in 2022.
The regulations require nonpublic schools to prove that their curricula are “substantially equivalent” to those of public schools. Schools failing to meet that standard—which is tied to anti-Catholic rules that date back more than a century—must adjust their curricula or risk losing their status and students’ eligibility to attend.
Although there is another pending lawsuit, challenging the “substantially equivalent” standard, this complaint alleges that the state is making it impossible for the yeshivas to comply with the law.
The yeshivas “are not challenging the 2022 regulations here. None of New York’s discriminatory practices and conduct is condoned by those regulations, let alone required by them,” per the complaint, which Yeshiva World News posted. “Rather, New York is using the leverage it thinks it has as a result of conducting those reviews to impose its secular views on these Jewish schools.”
“When the nanny state and the secular state converge, it is no surprise that government finds no value in Jewish education and no regard for the educational choices that parents make for their children,” the complaint adds.
“This is not a challenge to the regulations that were passed a few years ago. The complaint makes that clear,” Avi Schick, a partner at Faegre Drinker Biddle and Reath and attorney for the yeshivas, told JNS.
“What this does attack is the state and city drive to standardize and secularize the education, philosophy and mission of these yeshivas,” he said. “What we have seen are bureaucrats focused on making sure that yeshivas don’t graduate what government thinks are a bunch of narrow-minded Jews of the past. That’s very troubling, and not only is it troubling, it’s illegal.”
Rabbi Mendel Blau, head of school at Oholei Torah, told JNS that the Chabad yeshiva had a positive relationship with the state’s education department until recently.
“Rather than focusing on the quality of education our talmidim receive and their many achievements, the Department of Education appears intent on imposing specific frameworks for how and what we teach,” he said. (The Hebrew word refers to students.)
“Families choose Oholei Torah, because they value an education rooted in Torah and guided by the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe,” he added. “The complaint was filed to ensure that the rights of our yeshiva and its families are protected, and to safeguard the diversity and richness of New York’s educational landscape.”
Oholei Torah, which will celebrate its 70th anniversary next year, has educated thousands of students, according to Blau.
“Our success speaks for itself,” he told JNS. “In a community that offers over eight schools to choose from—without any stigmas or pressures—generations of parents continue to entrust Oholei Torah with their sons’ education, often returning to the same yeshiva where they themselves were educated.”
“This enduring confidence is a testament to the values-driven education and personal development we provide,” he added.
Blau told JNS that he hopes the New York State Department of Education will “embrace a collaborative and respectful stance moving forward, recognizing the value that our unique educational model brings to the community and beyond.”
‘Essential Jewish character’
The Jewish private schools claim in their complaint that under the guise of “substantial equivalency,” state educational officials have discriminated against Jewish studies, failed to recognize the importance of certain language instruction (Yiddish, Hebrew and Aramaic) and imposed a state-approved reading list. The state has also interfered in faculty hiring and refuses “to respect cultural and religious classroom norms of the yeshivas,” they add.
The schools note that “taken together, these discriminatory practices would strip the yeshivas of their essential Jewish character,” per the complaint.
The complaint adds that Robin Singer, executive deputy counsel for budget operations and compliance at the New York City Department of Education, told Arugas Habosem on Nov. 22, 2022 that it had to submit a list of educational materials that the yeshiva uses for instructional purposes to the city.
When the school challenged that request, Singer said it was necessary so students were “exposed to a range of materials that their parents and schools wouldn’t otherwise permit them to read,” per the complaint.
New York State and City are engaging in “what can be described as ‘lawfare’ against yeshivas, unfairly targeting them with regulations that undermine the independence of religious education,” a leader in the Bobov Chassidic community told JNS.
“Our goal is simple—to preserve the right to raise and educate our children in a religious setting, as has been done for generations,” said the leader, who spoke to JNS on the condition of anonymity.
“Yeshivas have a proven track record of producing responsible, successful and productive members of society,” he added. “Our graduates contribute positively to their communities, have low crime rates and build strong, values-driven families.”
Michael Helfand, a professor and chair in law and religion at Pepperdine Caruso School of Law in Malibu, Calif., told JNS that the allegations in the complaint suggest that New York State education officials have targeted Jewish institutions unfairly.
“The government has the right, authority and obligation to enforce educational standards that promote core objectives, like making sure every child gets an education that makes them financially self-sufficient and capable of being engaged citizens,” according to Helfand, who is also a Yale Law School visiting professor and a senior legal advisor to the Teach Coalition, a project of the Orthodox Union.
“The problem arises if the government starts applying things differently to the Jewish community,” Helfand said. “That’s the underlying allegation here.”
The allegation that the state is being driven by Jewish bias owes to a “gap between what the standards require and how they’re being implemented” across a wide range of Jewish schools, according to Helfand.
“If it were true that government officials, when trying to implement important educational standards, decided that they would be systematically more skeptical of Jewish institutions, that would be undermining Jewish equality in the United States,” he said. “This is something that goes to the very heart of the American project—to what extent are Jews full-fledged citizens here in the United States?”
“We don't know the answer to that question, as it is a complaint with allegations,” he added. “But that is what is at stake here.”
