Orthodox Group Asks Pulitzer Board Not to Award NYT Articles on Yeshivas

An Orthodox Jewish organization has written to the Pulitzer Board, asking that it not award The New York Times for its series of articles about yeshivas.

The letter was sent by KnowUs, a project of Agudath Israel of America, formed last fall in the wake of articles by the Times critical of the Orthodox community, particularly yeshivas. KnowUs describes itself as dedicated to fighting negative portrayals of Orthodox Jews

The letter alleges that the articles employ antisemitic stereotypes in an environment of rising antisemitic attacks, used sources for its stories who had conflicts of interest without disclosing them, misrepresented facts, and engaged in unwarranted negative associations.

“We believe that awarding these articles, in any way, will be seen not only as a tacit approval and furtherance of offensive, antisemitic tropes, but would diminish the standing of the Pulitzer Prize by celebrating articles of demonstrably poor journalistic integrity,” the group wrote, in an open letter that was mailed Monday to each of the 18 Pulitzer Board members.

The Pulitzer Board doesn’t announce finalists until the winners are announced next month.

The articles portray Chassidic yeshivas as providing an inadequate secular education despite receiving government funding, leaving graduates unable to participate in life and earn a livelihood in modern society; and engaging in corporal punishment.

Orthodox leaders counter that the totality of a yeshiva education including the rigor of Judaic studies is superior to that of public-school graduates, that yeshiva graduates have real-world success at higher rates than that of public-school graduates, that any instances of corporal punishment are rare and not tolerated by yeshiva administration, and that the Times articles are based on a interviews with people who have left the community while ignoring the hundreds of thousands of satisfied yeshiva parents and graduates.

According to Pulitzer Prize guidelines, “entries must adhere to the highest journalistic principles … that exemplifies the longstanding ethics of the journalistic profession. These include a commitment to honesty with both readers and the subjects of our work. The best journalism is transparent about its sources and methods. The rigor and completeness of sourcing is an important factor in judging the quality of submissions.”

KnowUs said in a statement Monday that it “undertook this project because it felt the critical need for the Pulitzer Prize Board to review, in an informed manner, the articles’ adherence to ‘the highest journalistic principles’ the Pulitzer Board so values,” and that “any legitimate issues the paper sought to raise or explore were buried by … serious breaches of journalistic ethics, and by the articles’ creation of bigoted caricatures of Orthodox and Hasidic Jews, further othering an already marginalized community.”

A Times spokesperson did not respond to Hamodia’s request for comment.

The full open letter is available by clicking here

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rborchardt@hamodia.com