Wednesday, March 05, 2025
New York’s Ultra-Orthodox Yeshivas Challenge New State Education Mandates
When Chaim Fishman left his Brooklyn-based secondary school at 16, he'd never heard of Mozart or Shakespeare.
"We were never taught about science or history or geography or civics," let alone English or math, which were considered "ethically wrong," said Fishman, who attended an ultra-Orthodox secondary school for boys — called a yeshiva — in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and is now a 26-year-old software engineer.
More than 50,000 male students are enrolled in New York's yeshivas, and a New York Times investigation found that many provided little instruction in core subjects, received some of the lowest standardized test scores in the state, and left their students unable to converse easily in English or find jobs after graduating. Even still, they received more than $1 billion in government funding over a recent four-year period.
A new state law set to take effect at the end of June seeks to hold these schools accountable by withholding millions in taxpayer funds if they don't provide an education ״substantially equivalent" to what's taught in the public schools. Ultra-Orthodox community leaders who have long advocated for autonomy are vowing to fight the new mandate.
And in a surprise move last week — well in advance of its June deadline for compliance — the state Education Department announced that after a six-year investigation it had pulled funding for two Brooklyn-based Hasidic yeshivas for failure to meet new secular education standards.
Along with termination of public subsidies starting June 30, their students were ordered to enroll in different schools starting this fall.
"The yeshiva system has been wildly successful and is largely responsible for the exponential growth of the Orthodox Jewish community in this country over the last 80 years," said Rabbi Yeruchim Silber, New York director of government relations for Agudath Israel of America, a national Orthodox advocacy organization.
"We have and will continue to advocate for educational autonomy for our yeshivas, whether through direct advocacy, legislatively and through the courts," Silber said.
In the past, Hasidic protesters have descended on the Capitol vowing to "sit in jail" before changing their educational system. How the upcoming debate shapes up will hinge on how New York politicians navigate their relationships with Hasidic leaders — and their thousands of voters, who often vote as a bloc.
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