Tel-Chai Nation

The director of Yaffed wrote an op-ed in the New York Daily News about mayor Bill deBlasio's failure to deal with ultra-Orthodox yeshivas that won't give education on secular subjects to the pupils in their "care":

In the wake of his reelection, it is finally time for Mayor de Blasio to stop dragging his feet on the deplorable state of secular education in the city’s yeshivas — and to stop stonewalling when questioned about it.

In July 2015, in response to a complaint by my organization, Yaffed, the city announced it was launching an investigation into what has been an outrageously open secret for decades: that many of New York City’s Hasidic and ultra-Orthodox yeshivas provide no more than 90 minutes of secular studies for boys in elementary school and no secular education at all in high school.

That’s a flagrant violation of state law, which requires all schools, public or private, to educate all kids on the basics.

Yet here we are, more than two years later, and City Hall has nothing meaningful to show.

Because of the way the de Blasio administration has kept its probe shrouded in secrecy, we don’t know much about its workings. But what we do know is troubling.

The city’s investigation was initially conceived as just a questionnaire to be sent to the 39 schools named in Yaffed’s complaint — hardly a serious vehicle to get at the truth from institutions that have been flouting the law for years.

Then, under pressure from Yaffed, the city agreed to also conduct site visits — but with plenty of advance notice. Graduates of these schools have made clear that their leaders, knowing that inspectors were coming, have become quite adept over the years at putting up a show of compliance.

As of September, officials admitted to having visited only six schools. Even worse, the investigators apparently accepted the Orthodox leaders’ suggestions as to which schools to visit.

Why has this all taken so long, with no end in sight? De Blasio has been pressed on that question in various venues over the past several months. Not one of his answers has been satisfactory.

And we can only figure he's in their pockets, not willing to give up one of his best sources for voting him into office. I think the case should be taken to court, and they should file for a Freedom of Information act. DeBlasio can't be allowed to keep dodging serious issues about how phony Orthodox Judaists are breaking the laws.

Labels: haredi corruption, Moonbattery, New York, political corruption, United States