New York Times’ Yeshivah Article Draws Backlash From Yeshivah Supporters, Republicans

By Matis Glenn

NEW YORK — The New York Times was met with fierce backlash and allegations of bias and defamation from Yeshivah advocates and Republicans, for an article published Sunday about Chassidic schools. The article, posted ahead of Tuesday’s Board of Regents vote on private school regulation, alleged that Chassidic yeshivos do not provide sufficient education, make children “fail by design,” and take inordinate amounts of money from the government.

The Times sent out messages in recent weeks, letting the yeshivos and supporting organizations know that they intended to run an investigation, and provided samples of what was to be published.

News of the upcoming article and its contents drew swift condemnation from yeshivah education advocates, elected officials, Rabbinic leaders, and individual yeshivah graduates, who said  that the article is defamatory and contains false and skewed information.

Attorney Erik Connolly of the Benesch law firm in Chicago — well-known for winning defamation lawsuits — issued a pointed response to the Times’ plans for the article.

“There appears to be a high likelihood that your story will contain defamatory statements and implications about the Hasidic schools, including … statements that single out and stereotype the Hasidic community without providing proper contextual data, and implications that the Hasidic schools are engaged in illegal activities,” Connolly wrote in a letter to the Times on September 8, on behalf of the human rights and religious liberty organization Tzedek. “In addition, we understand from emails you have sent to individual schools, that the article will also include statements of fact that are simply not true.”

In a New York Sun op-ed Wednesday, State Assemblyman Simcha Eichenstein wrote, “The Times will defame an entire community based on sometimes anonymous critics, cherry-picked data, and outright lies.”

“The Times is also going to accuse Chasidic yeshivas of encouraging families to vote, as if a basic civic duty is scandalous when undertaken by Chasidim,” Eichenstein continued.

Some mentioned the fact that the article is targeting a community that is experiencing a very high rise in violent hate crime.

“The timing of this article is terrible,” Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel of Agudath Israel wrote to the authors of the Times article. “Hate crime statistics, specifically crimes targeting Jews, are spiking dramatically — and most of these crimes are being directed against Hasidic Jews. Is now the time to publish a major article in the most prestigious newspaper in the world portraying the Hasidic schools — and, by extension, the entire Hasidic community — in the most negative light imaginable?

Rabbi Moshe Margareten, head of Tzedek, echoed the same sentiment. “It is outrageous and irresponsible for the Times to place the Orthodox Jewish community in real danger at a time of increasing blatant violent acts of hatred against our community on a weekly basis,” he wrote on social media.

Texas Senator Ted Cruz (R), in response to Rabbi Margareten, wrote on social media that “Zealots in the corporate media are preparing another hit piece defending failing public schools, this time by attacking religious Jews.”

The Times went ahead with the piece despite the pushback. The article interviewed former students, parents, and teachers, saying that dozens of the over 250 people interviewed were still in the Chassidic community, yet not one of the interviewees is gainfully employed or works in business.

“This is the typical garbage take generated by the Times,” Councilman Kalman Yeger (D) wrote on social media. “Chassidic homeowners pay property taxes like everyone else. And schools are funded through property taxes. The ‘Jews are leeches’ is a thousands-year-old canard regurgitated by the Times ...”

Assemblyman Eichenstein accused the Times’ piece of using cherry picked data and bias. “The result of a two-year New York Times investigation is a pitiful rehash of cherry picked data and inaccuracies,” Eichenstein said on social media, “peddled by the same group obsessed with Orthodox Jews. What’s clear is that the NYT is not interested in the positive value of our schools, just spreading lies for clicks.”

He later wrote that “The New York Times is determined to besmirch my community with an innuendo-ridden hit piece.”

YAFFED, pleased with the article, wrote on social media: “Thank you to the New York Times for bringing the institutional educational neglect of children in Haredi and Hasidic schools to the front page. We’ve been fighting for these students for years — it’s time for the world to take action.”

Assemblyman Karl Brabenec, who represents Rockland County — one of the areas that the Times says it investigated — said that he personally has visited Chassidic yeshivos, and that “the allegations levied against our yeshivos and our Hasidic community, as a whole, are little more than New York City elitists attempting to further their overbearing socialist and anti-Semitic policies on our communities.”

Rep. Jerry Nadler responded that he accepted the Times’ portrayal of some schools as “utterly failing,” in a statement, and said that “It is a paramount duty of government to make sure that all children — whether it’s those educated in parochial, private or public schools — are provided a quality education,” and that “It is our duty to all New York students to ensure that the law is enforced.”

Democratic Congressional nominee for District 10 Daniel Goldman said that the Times’ article paints an incriminating picture of “an inadequate secular education that does not comply with state law.”

At an event in Harlem on Monday, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul did not directly say what her view was on the Times’ piece, or on the issue of government regulations in general. “People understand that this is outside the purview of the governor,” she said.

Her November opponent, Rep. Lee Zeldin, wrote on Tuesday that “I strongly oppose the ‘substantial equivalency’ push in New York targeting Yeshivas and other non-public education. This is a dangerous road the state is going down here and Kathy Hochul is MIA as usual on this topic, refusing to show even an ounce of courage or leadership.”

Later on Monday, New York City Mayor Eric Adams said that he is “not concerned” with the article. “I’m not going to look at a story. I want a thorough investigation. I want to do an independent review, and that’s what the city has to do … the Chancellor has made it clear that we’re going to make sure every child receives education in the city,” the Mayor said in response to a reporter’s question.

Fabien Levy, a spokesperson for the Mayor, clarified on social media that the city is already conducting its own investigation.

“The mayor meant the findings of the New York Times investigation doesn’t change things — because the DOE already has an active investigation in its final stages that will be comprehensive and thorough,” Levy wrote.