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Athree-year investigation into 39 New York City Orthodox schools released last week found that a number of institutions have committed themselves to expanding their secular studies curriculums, a development praised by New York City schools chancellor Richard Carranza. “At each yeshivah, school leaders expressed a commitment to expanding students’ exposure to secular instruction and to improving the instruction itself,” Carranza said, referring to 15 of the 39 institutions. “Some of the schools gave examples of successful adults who had attended their schools. Some of the schools spoke specifically about the importance of a secular education.”

In addition to the 15 schools praised, another nine were found to be “outside the scope of inquiry,” Carranza wrote in a 14-page letter to New York State Commissioner of Education MaryEllen Elia. Those schools had either closed or taught students older than the 12th grade. (One school named in the initial list of 39 was a butcher shop.) However, Carranza said state investigators could not gain access to another 15 schools despite repeated attempts, a situation he called a “serious concern.”

The investigation was prompted by a 2014 letter sent by YAFFED (Young Advocates for Fair Education), an organization that describes itself as “an advocacy group committed to improving educational curricula within ultra-Orthodox schools,” headed by Naftuli Moster, a former yeshivah student. Eric Yoffie, the former head of the Reform movement, sits on the group’s advisory council.

The letter was addressed to the New York State Board of Regents and expressed a concern that some New York City yeshivos are not providing their students with a proper secular education. According to New York State law, the Department of Education requires that non-public schools teach a curriculum that is at least “substantially equivalent” to that provided in the public school system. There are about 115,000 yeshivah students in the New York City area at 275 independent schools.

In July 2015, YAFFED provided the city with a list of 39 yeshivos that it claimed provided a substandard secular education to its students. The letter prompted New York City mayor Bill de Blasio to launch an investigation into the matter.

The details of what precisely is meant by a “substantially equivalent” secular education are still being hashed out in Albany, and Commissioner Elia is expected to release new guidelines in the near future. A provision attached to the state budget by Brooklyn state senator Simcha Felder in March will ease state oversight of religious schools. In late July, YAFFED filed a federal lawsuit against Gov. Andrew Cuomo and other top New York State officials, claiming the so-called Felder amendment violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the US Constitution, which prohibits the government from favoring one religion over another.

The Carranza letter notes that administrators at the schools visited were open to dialogue, sharing their institutions’ histories and describing the unique Orthodox Jewish way of life to education officials. On balance, the letter praised the schools, but did raise concern over the 15 schools where state officials “made repeated attempts to gain access,” without success.

Avi Schick, an attorney who represents the yeshivos, said that claim was without merit. “As a lawyer for all the schools, I can state clearly and unequivocally that access was not denied and will never be denied by the schools,” Schick said. A partner at the law firm of Troutman Sanders and a former New York State deputy attorney general, Schick told the Wall Street Journal: “The city for this entire year has dithered.”

In all, Schick told Mishpacha that he was pleased with the report. He pointed out that investigators spoke to dozens of teachers and administrators and visited over a hundred classrooms before reaching their conclusions. “These schools have been accused of ignoring the educational needs of the students who enroll there,” he said. “In fact, we are grateful that the chancellor’s letter acknowledges that the 15 yeshivos visited by the DOE to date do offer a rich and comprehensive education in a quality work environment. So we are glad that the DOE has finally put that lie to rest.”

Still, most of the news coverage of the Carranza letter focused on the lack of access. In response, Schick, along with executive vice president of Agudath Israel of America, Rabbi Chaim David Zwiebel, appeared at a press conference in Brooklyn last week. “So much misinformation has been fed out there,” Zwiebel told reporters. “Frankly, it’s not only inaccurate, but it’s deeply hurtful to those of us in our community who recognize how precious our Jewish schools are.” He added that schools are “committed to improving and are improving, but at the same time are maintaining the essence of what they really are — Jewish schools.”

For his part, Rabbi Zwiebel told Mishpacha that he considers the investigation into the schools and the challenges to Jewish education “the single most serious challenge we have ever had to confront” in his 35 years of working at Agudath Israel.

Avi Greenstein, executive director of the Boro Park Community Council and a member of the executive committee of PEARLS (Parents for Educational and Religious Liberty in Schools) offered Mishpacha a behind the scenes look at how the yeshivos have been responding to the investigation. PEARLS, he said, was formed in response to the state probe in an effort to organize the schools and present a united front. “Our organization has three goals: To protect the yeshivos legally. To portray our schools positively to the media. And to pool our resources to create a new and improved curriculum that can be used in every yeshivah.”

Curriculum development was not one of PEARLS’ original goals, says Greenstein, but the organization later decided to develop a curriculum for ELA for grades 4–6 and for mathematics for grade 1–3 to give students the skills they need to “communicate properly and become strong leaders of business and productive members of the community.”

As chair of the curriculum committee at PEARLS, Greenstein says he is making real progress in unifying schools to accept a standardized curriculum that is acceptable to all the different institutions. All curriculum material, he adds, is culturally sensitive. The organization is working with educational publishers Sadlier Oxford and Houghton Mifflin on the curriculum. Greenstein emphasized that, generally speaking, government officials are satisfied with the Orthodox community’s educational system and are happy to work with school leaders in a productive manner.

“Our community organizations, like Agudath Israel, have developed strong relationships with city and state government officials, ones that have been nurtured over decades,” Greenstein said. “Because of that, there’s a strong willingness and desire by the city and state to deal with us in a caring and personalized way. So when this issue arose, the city decided to work with us as partners and have our educational experts work together to create a solution that will be acceptable to all.”

On a personal note, Greenstein told Mishpacha that he sees his career as an example of what a graduate from one of these schools can achieve. “I became a college graduate, a teacher, and a principal,” he said. “My yeshivah education didn’t hinder me at all. It’s all about the choices we make.”

And while he’s delighted to be using his skills and expertise toward curriculum development, Greenstein is quick to point out that we should not lose sight of what is most important. “We must never forget the important underlying message in all this. Parents choose to send their children to yeshivos precisely because of the education that they provide. They choose to pay thousands of dollars for this, because the yeshivos are the backbone of our community. It’s not about the math and the science. It’s the essence of who we are as a people. The ability to choose our schools is our fundamental right. Let’s not forget what we are all about.”

Is there room for improvement in certain areas? Certainly, says Greenstein. “Any school, even Harvard, can improve in some way. But it can only be meaningful if it comes from within. Not if it comes from an outside source.”

Greenstein is confident that the yeshivah system will prevail, stronger and better than ever. “We hope that a resolution will be reached and true respect for our yeshivos will be acknowledged,” he says. “But we are prepared to deal with whatever comes our way.  As parents we will fight for our rights.”

Avi Schick added that “government intrusion” into the yeshivah curriculum should concern any parent who cares about the community’s educational system. “As society’s values and priorities continue to diverge from our own, we need to protect our prerogative to lead Torah lives,” Schick said. “And that effort begins with our yeshivos.”

Rabbi Zwiebel said that the community must be prepared to continue to fight. “The enemies of our yeshivos have shown that their true goal is not to ensure that all yeshivah students receive a decent secular education, as they claim, but rather to tear down the entire structure of the chareidi yeshivah system,” he said. “We dare not sit by complacently at this defining moment in the history of Jewish life in America.”

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 724)