The NY Times vs. Hasidic Schools
Yiddish translation to follow
You may have heard about the NY Times expose on Hasidic education in New York. Not since the publishing of the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” or the recent recasting of “Funny Girl” on Broadway has the Jewish community been so flustered and divided.
Last night, we convened at Paloma studios for an emergency episode, with the heaviest hitter we could find. Yehoshua (Jason) Bedrick is a fellow at the he Heritage Foundation’s Center for Education Policy, and he literally WROTE THE BOOK about Yeshivas vs. New York. You can listen to the episode using the link below or anywhere you get your podcasts. Also, here is an oped Jason wrote about this very topic.
We hope you enjoy the conversation. We didn’t agree on everything or even most things, but had a wonderfully pleasant discussion that hopefully will put some of this drama into context. We’d love to hear your thoughts, comments and arguments below in the comment section.
Also if you are Hasidic and clearly don’t speak English THIS IS TALK ABOUT YESHIVAS! LISTEN PLEASE. SHAVUA TOV.
I loved the podcast. I also wanted to point out that chareidim pay school taxes just like the rest of the population but do not send their kids to public schools. Only a tiny portion trickles back into their school system.
Hi! Thank you for the very engaging podcast. Your guest made many good points about the enriching nature of the Haredi/Hasidic communities. Certainly emphasizing the problematic history of the NYT in reference to covering many aspects of the Jewish world is worth highlighting.
However... I fundamentally believe all schools - private, public, secular, religious - need to have certain expectations in reference to teaching a wide range of fundamental subjects: English, Math, Science, History, etc... Will many students not meet these standards? Of course. Will some schools and teachers be less then adequate? Yes. Will some of the standards be set by imperfect bureaucrats? Indeed. Nonetheless, students are in school to learn a baseline of information to enable them to function in society.
Using an example of other inner city communities where children are not reaching standards set for them does not in my opinion remove this very problematic situation in the Haredi/Hasidic schools. Perhaps if Yehoshua would have compared the performance of the private religious schools to the achievement of schools in middle and upper income school districts it would have been far more disconcerting for you and the listeners.
There was a very recent study in Israel that showcased that many of the lowest performing schools were in Haredi (and Bedouin) communities. The poorest cities in Israel are often also Haredi communities. As these communities continue to grow, an existential question has to be addressed: Can Israel survive - as it is surrounded by several hostile nations - if it becomes a heavily poor and (secular) uneducated country? It is compounded by the fact of low military service stemming from the same community. It is one thing when the Haredim were a small percentage of Israel. But, as it continues to grow in real and proportional numbers, these are real questions that need to be addressed head on.
Thank you for the always interesting, funny and enjoyable podcast.