Hasidic Parents Want Better Schools. New York Should Help Them Rather than Punish Them

The ongoing debate over whether and how to reform yeshiva education in New York is often presented in stark terms: it seems everyone is either a hostile critic or a loyal defender of the ḥasidic system. In the recent New York City mayoral election, for example, the Democratic primary candidate Andrew Yang received unusually early and enthusiastic endorsements from ḥasidic leaders after committing to a hands-off approach toward regulating yeshiva education. Then, a new PAC, Voters for Substantial Equivalency, paid for one million robocalls, many of which accused Yang and now Mayor-elect Eric Adams of having “made deals with ultra-Orthodox rabbis in exchange for the ḥasidic bloc vote.” The callers further claimed that Yang and Adams would “allow tens of thousands of children to be denied an education in even basic math, science, and American history.”

The fact that all this is taking place in an environment in which anti-Semitic attacks are on the rise has not helped matters; many Ḥasidim understand criticism of their schools simply to be another form of anti-Semitic harassment. But, as Eli Spitzer noted in a recent column for this magazine, both defenders and critics would do well to stop portraying education as a zero-sum game. The current state of argument, Spitzer explains, obscures real concerns on both sides.

For those who would like to see meaningful change in the simply ḥasidic education system, entering into a pitched and highly public battle is a losing strategy. Critics of ḥasidic schools, most notably members of the Young Advocates for Fair Education (YAFFED), have spent years working with state and local officials to force ḥasidic Jews to improve secular instruction. If they succeed in the legislature, they are very likely to be challenged in court—and, as I argue in greater detail below, they are almost certain to lose.