The Fight for Adams’ Ear Over Yeshiva Education Begins

By Yehudit Garmaise

With only nine days left until Eric Adams becomes mayor, the fight for his ear over the issue of yeshiva education has begun.

Last week, Comptroller Brad Lander, who represented Brooklyn’s 39th District in City Council for 12 years and is thought to be one of the “most left-leaning politicians in New York City government," announced last week that he will use audits and “do everything he can do” in his role as the city’s chief financial officer to persuade yeshivas to teach secular subjects so that they are “substantially equivalent” to the subjects taught in public schools.

Adams has told BoroPark24 that he understands that different children need different things from their educations, and was open to the idea that yeshivas' curricula should be respected in a city that often claims to be culturally diverse and tolerant, however, yeshiva reform advocates have already begun their campaign to influence the mayor-elect to change curricula of Orthodox Jewish schools, which are overseen in some ways by the state's Department of Education.

On Monday, for instance, one anti-yeshiva “activist,” wrote Mayor-elect Adams a public letter “reminding” him to address his long-standing complaint that the 253,000 children who attend New York’s 275 yeshivas, which happen to range greatly in their educational offerings, do not receive an education that is “substantially equivalent” to the more than one million students who attend the state’s public schools.

As a pre-emptive strike, Yossi Gestetner, the executive director of the Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council (OJPAC) wrote Adams a letter, as well, pointing out to Adams that he and his “administration will sadly be trolled by noisemakers regarding Hasidic yeshivas.”

In his letter, Gestetner described the many admirable and positive outcomes enjoyed by graduates of yeshiva education.

“Hasidic-populated neighborhoods shine with peace and tranquility: strong family and community foundations; employment and business; charitable institutions, volunteerism, and overall civic engagement: low crime rates; low infant mortality; practically no homelessness and almost no youth in criminal detention,” Gestetner proudly said. “All this is proof of an amazing education system.”

An unasked question is whether public schools can claim the similarly positive and healthy outcomes of their graduates and the communities they later create.

To address academic complaints about the curricula of yeshivas, Gestetner points out that “Hasidic boys as young as 9-years -old attend school for 10 hours a day [not to mention Sundays], which is longer than public school students do.

“’Judaic studies’ encompass history, geography, mathematics, biology, ethics, and [other] subjects that require critical thinking.”

Addressing the legal component of the argument of those who wish to change the curricula of yeshivas, Gestetner rebutted, “According to New York State law, private school students must receive an education that is at least ‘substantially equivalent to an education given in public school.'

“However, its definition is abstract and therefore has little enforceable meaning. If the law is left unchanged, yeshivas will continue to be in good standing as they were for years.”