Mayor de Blasio: Lawsuit Shows ‘Warped View of the World’

Mayor Bill de Blasio issued a robust defense of his administration’s yeshivah policies, saying that dialogue and respect is the way to work with communities.

“It never surprises me when advocates present a warped view of the world,” de Blasio told NY1 on Monday after he was asked about the lawsuit filed by an anti-yeshivah group, “and I think this is one here.”

Neither the mayor nor his administration are defendants in the lawsuit.

“I have found often,” de Blasio said, according to a transcript of the interview distributed by his office, “working with the Orthodox community that a strong dialogue and a respectful dialogue gets things done.”

The mayor said that a report on 39 yeshivos that have been previously sued by the same person will come out shortly.

“And … in the meantime it was an opportunity to have a different kind of dialogue about what had to happen in some of these schools to improve them,” he said. “And sometimes that dialogue is best handled in a quiet fashion rather than a loud or accusatory fashion.”