The Achdus among Klal Yisroel has been incredible.
More than FIFTY THOUSAND parents have already signed a petition. Community activists from the Chassidish and Modern Orthodox are all working together behind the scenes obtaining support from elected officials.
It seems that most people understand the severity of this new NYS Education policy. Catholic school leaders have come out strongly against the new policy.
But some in our community still aren’t sure.
So YWN will break it down for you.
We choose to send our children to Yeshivos. We pay a hefty sum of money out of our own pockets for that, and we have the right to decide how and what our children should be taught and learning. We trust our Roshei Yeshiva, Menahlim, Rabbeyim, principals and teachers to educate our children. They are doing a phenomenal job overall in the education of more than a hundred thousand Yeshiva students in New York every year.
Do we want them to continue to educate our children, or are we going to allow NYS Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia to decide how many hours of Chumash and Gemara our children should be learning?
Let’s ask that again. Are you, a parent of a child enrolled in a Yeshiva in NYS prepared to allow Mrs. MaryEllen Elia to dictate to you – Mrs. Schwartz from Flatbush, Rabbi Weiss from Kiryas Joel, Mr Sommerstein from Queens – how much Chumash and Rashi your child should be taught, who should teach it to them and what time of the day they learn it.
[SED HEARD YOUR PROTEST: Important Open Letter To Yeshiva Parents About New York State Education Dept]
We know the answer.
We will never allow this woman to dictate to us how to teach our children.
But for all those still unsure of how serious this is, get this.
This coming Thursday, the State will begin training the school districts across the state how to do inspections in Yeshivas (and all private schools). They will give detailed instructions of what to look for, including which classes need to be offered at each grade level, how many hours these classes must last, and how to evaluate yeshiva teachers.
Catholic schools have uniformly told the State that they will not cooperate with these inspections. But expect the first Yeshiva that refuses to work with inspectors to face severe sanctions.
YWN has learned that at these trainings the State may walk back some of the most ridiculous aspects of the new guidelines.
YWN will keep you informed of any developments.
Harav Yaakov Bender, HaRav Elya Brudny and Harav Yisroel Reisman have asked YWN to release this joint statement:
We are grateful for the outcry of Klal Yisroel, protesting the new State guidelines. It is your chorus of concern that has brought the issue prominence. We must keep the pressure up. Your interest is what will bring hatzlachah in this battle for the heart and soul of our yeshivos,
You have protested specific aspects of the guidelines that would set the curriculum at our yeshivas, and mandate long hours of secular study. They want to evaluate which of our teachers are worthy of the job.
We want to impress upon you that this is all part of a bigger picture.
What is at stake is the autonomy of our yeshivas.
Are decisions about yeshiva curriculum, schedule, educational emphasis and hiring to remain in the hands of the Menahalim, Roshei Yeshiva and Vaad Hachinuch, or will they be dictated by the State Education Department and local school districts.
This is the issue.
Never in our long history in this medinah shel chessed have we experienced such an attempted intrusion into the independence of our yeshivas.
With your continued help, Klal Yisroel will be zocheh to the protection and preservation of the autonomy of our mosdos hatorah.
Our Yeshivas do a wonderful job. Is there room for improvement? Of course. There always is, and always will be. But just look at the thousands upon thousands of successful frum professionals and business people that our yeshivos have produced over the past 75 years.
Nearly zero crime, drugs or violence.
Has Commissioner Elia checked with the police departments near every Yeshiva to see how many 911 calls there have been for a violent incident in the past 75 years?
As one prominent Rov in Flatbush remarked last Shabbos, “One just needs to look at the fact that public schools have metal detectors to protect the students and staff from the other students in the school, while our Yeshivas need security to protect students from those outside the yeshiva. We are obviously doing something right”.
PREVIOUS YWN ARTICLES ABOUT THIS TOPIC:
TROUBLE FOR NY YESHIVAS: Schools Could Face Pressure Under New Rules
Satmar Rebbe of Kiryas Joel DECLARES WAR Against NYS Education Department [FULL AUDIO CLIP]
YWN Speaks Up, The New York Times Backs Down – But Look What They Did Instead
WATCH: Member Of Moetzes, HaRav Elya Brudny Describes Threat To Chinuch With NYS Education Policy
WATCH: HaRav Yisroel Reisman Describes Threat To NYS Chinuch As DRACONIAN, OUTRAGEOUS, & IMMEDIATE
NOW THIS: Yeshiva of Flatbush BLASTS NY Times Over Photo; Demands Retraction & Apology
SED HEARD YOUR PROTEST: Important Open Letter To Yeshiva Parents About New York State Education Dept
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
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27 Responses
“Harav Yaakov Bender, HaRav Elya Brudny and Harav Yisroel Reisman have asked YWN to release this joint statement:” – there’s for sure a tacit understanding of the power of the web, social media, & technology or there’s no way the petition could have circulated
So if the Catholics can ban the inspectors, the Yeshiva need to get together and do the same!
As one prominent Rov in Flatbush remarked last Shabbos, “One just needs to look at the fact that public schools have metal detectors to protect the students and staff from the other students in the school, while our Yeshivas need security to protect students from those outside the yeshiva. We are obviously doing something right”.
There you go. Well said. This sums it all up. With Hashem’s help, we will not let anyone corrupt out kids under the guise of “education”.
I am hoping that this can be a bracha in disguise. If yeshivot wish to get government funds, then they have to stop playing games. If they wish to be totally independent and educate as they wish, then they should not be asking for or using funds.
Personally, I’d like all of our children to be literate not just in Torah, Hebrew, Nach, etc., but also in English language literacy, math literacy, civics literacy, history and geography literacy, and science literacy. Not only is none of this against Torah, but it can all be incorporated into a kosher curriculum so that no time is taken from Torah. Everything is in Torah; turn it and turn it for all is in it.
I develop curricula for Day schools and yeshivot. I know that this can be done.
@philosopher: yeshivas also hand pick who is accepted but public schools have to accept all within their district so it isn’t apples to apples. Obviously it’s also a very narrow minded (factually wrong?) comment that only takes very few public schools into account, most do not. It’s also the type of attitude that turns so many off because it is so snide and is used to make his kehilla feel superior by demeaning others. By the way it would be a service to this prominent Rav to remind him that many in the public school system are “unzera mentschen”
groissechuchum, that is simply not true. While individual schools make decisions who to accept, all of our schools have this just about perfect crime record.
The DOE have one agenda as proven in the NY times article. They want us to learn the 3 rs. R-evolution Religions and cultures and Rights as in nevala and animal rights.
This is what you get for voting Democrat. A shame.
All those in power who were kissing Cuomo’s feet to get some money, should now demand that he remove this person.
It would be much easier to defend the yeshivas here if 1) they weren’t taking money from NY; and 2) they weren’t graduating people who are functionally illiterate in English and unfamiliar with subjects outside Judaism.
groissechuchem,
1. Our educational institutions, the schools and chedarim accept children from 3+ years of age, so these kids grow up “in the system”, they are not newcomers. Many high school and yeshiva institutions, and all Chassidishe mosdos, are a continuation of elementary schools and chedurim, the same students continue from elementary to yeshiva and high schools. The yeshivas and high schools which choose their students do so according to who they think will fit into their institutions, those whose families follow the rules and the students want to as well. Because of the way secular kids are bought up and because secular family values are obviously different than frum parents, kids who are accepted to these selective yeshivas and high schools fit in with what the school stands for- that reflects on the values of the school- not on the selection process because if the school would stand for different values, the student body would be different.
2. Just because a small minority of religious Jews work in the public school system, it does not change the overall education and “values” imbibed in these growing minds. For the most part, the public school parent body accepts the education and immoral non-values propaganda, otherwise they would not send, there only to a private institution, as many do send to Catholic schools. Please don’t cite financial difficulties in sending one’s child to public school- there are frum parents who are just as destitute as these public school parents are, and they generally have more kids too, but frum parents will sacrifice everything to give their children quality education in Yiddishkeit which matters the most in life!
I’ll make these yeshivos a deal:
You can be free from inspections if you (a) do not take money for the schools, and (b) have everyone who attends these schools voluntarily give up the right to any public benefits that they might need as a result of their inability to support themselves or their 15 children because they are unable to function in the world and obtain a job.
Until those things happen, this just gives the anti-semites ammunition.
MorahNechamahG
I didn’t know that you are such a Godol.
Our children have enough pressure from Teachers who feel it necessary to outdo the next school and expand their curriculum to include topics that are UN-USEFUL for the day to day life.
How many children are in therapy because of teachers and parents like you who value them by their ability to know the “all-encompassing” curriculum.
Do we need to follow the Goyim on this? Look at their curriculum and then Look at their failed schools!!!
Perhaps we should focus on fewer topics, and our curriculum should include actual hands on.
MONEY from the Government, HUH????
We Jews pay taxes like everyone else why should we not get FULL tuition from the government?
WHY does one who chooses to go to Public School RECEIVE privileges over other tax paying citizens who chose to go to a (nonfailing ) private school? They should get the same amount of money that a public school child receives for his education.
The Curriculum should not be dictated by the government especially if the curriculum is ani religion anti-G-d!!!
The Separation of church and state does NOT give the government the right to remove privileges from religious families
Here’s the answer: Move to Lakewood!
These are most terrible gezeiros in the US, UK and even in Israel.
You can blame the democrats etc. etc. – Gezerois come from Hashem to remind us of the Golus. Just as the Meshech Chochmoh wrote 100 years ago “when people think Berlin is Yerusholyim….”
Unfortunately we are settling in our countries as if we meant to stay here for another thousand years when we should prepare for the coming of Moshiach.
Excessive luxurious homes many yidden build are a classical example of forgetting we are in golus.
Lets remind ourselves and there will be no need for those anti-semitic atheists to remind us.
DavidKenoi, Thank you. You are so right…
For all those that say that taking any funds is the reason why we should let the DOE dictate what we do in the yeshivas, the funds are minuscule compared to what it would cost them to educate all of our kids in Public School. They maybe give 100 Million, which sounds like a lot, but compare that number to the 3.5 BILLION it would cost them should we put all of out 165,000 kids in their system.
@workingmom because the school situation in lakewood is amazing
TO ALL THOSE COMPLAINING ABOUT YESHIVAS ”TAKING MONEY ”
THEY DON’T TAKE MONEY
THEY GET MONEY FOR MANDATED SERVICES THAT THEY POSSIBLY WOULD NOT DO AND FOR BUSSES
so the state forces them to do things and pays for it. Turn your complaint around geniuses. Tell the state to stop making us do those things and we will stop taking that money
As to money for bussing, if that’s a reason for the state to have a say in the education then I give up. They provide bussing for all students
If they were paying teachers that would maybe be an issue
DavidTheKanoi it might be a gezeirah from Hashem because we don’t stand up against immorality, enough.
Y2r-Are u really that small minded and ignorant or are you joking?
We Jews pay taxes like everyone else why should we not get FULL tuition from the government?
Because the govt doesn’t hand out money to pay for private schools. No state does it and in most including NY its illegal.
WHY does one who chooses to go to Public School RECEIVE privileges over other tax paying citizens who chose to go to a (nonfailing ) private school? They should get the same amount of money that a public school child receives for his education.
They’re not Receiving Privleges. The way the country’s setup we want people who can be productive. So we setup and fund schools which are free for all children. If you dont want to pay tuition send your kids to the free schools.
G-d I hope your not so dumb to say I cant send my kid there. The govt doesn’tcare about your religious beliefs.
The Curriculum should not be dictated by the government especially if the curriculum is ani religion anti-G-d!!!
Within reason yes it should be dictated. The govt has a right to demand students leave the school able to read and write english. They can also demand math. For science and history it gets a little tricky.
Im not gonna answer your last paragraph because it makes no sense.
Not all of our kids are destined to be the next rosh yeshiva or the next real estate mogul
For all of those kids reading writing and speaking English is important
Stop pretending it’s not
If you look on wikipedia she also supported a movement to, and I quote ” ask students to put themselves in Adolf Hitler’s shoes to argue for or against the Final Solution.” How is she still allowed to stay as education commisioner?
It is Apukursus, and rewriting of history, to say that the Heiligeh Shvatim, used to work during the day by being shepherds of livestock.
Yakov Aveinu, who learned Torah in Shem V’eiver for 14 years straight, would never allow his Bochrum to go to work. They all learned in Beis Shem V’eiver full time. Especially Yosef Hatzadik never ever worked, his father was teaching him all day the Torah that he learned in Beis Shem V’eiver including Parshas Egloh Arufa with all its details. Yehuda was a Godol BaTorah he opened up a new Yeshiva in Mitzrayim.
KlugerYid, Absolutely right! What money? For transportation ? For lunches for low income students? For mandatory attendance taking?
@throwit985 “b) have everyone who attends these schools voluntarily give up the right to any public benefits that they might need as a result of their inability to support themselves or their 15 children because they are unable to function in the world and obtain a job.”
Since when are public benefits dependent on having a job? Last I checked Democrats were very much against welfare reform, a major component of which is going out and getting a job. Why should the frum community be any different then every other segment of society that chooses to live off the government? If the state would make pass such a law, I may not agree with it, but would hope they applied it evenly and equally. Right now, you are proposing such a rule for a specific segment of society, that is not only wrong and bigoted, it is illegal.