A False Claim?

Rabbi David Niederman

Rabbi David Niederman seems like an affable fellow. For those that don’t recognize that name, Rabbi Niederman is the director of the United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg. Which among other things includes Satmar’s  educational system. I say affable because I am reminded of his appearance on the TV show, ‘Last Comic Standing’. (Yes, you read that correctly.)  He was shown encouraging one of Williamsburg’s residents - a non Jewish black female stand-up comic who had come to his office to seek his blessing before appearing on that show. ‘Affable’  is my impression of his personality.

This has nothing to do with an op-ed he recently wrote in the Daily News. I just wanted to present a realistic impression of him. Which is positive. The op-ed in question however is troubling, if not deceptive. It is yet another in a series of responses (some might say defenses) to attacks against the educational system of the type he is in charge.

The charge is that in most of the schools of that type there are little to no secular studies. A charge that has caused them much grief over the last couple of years. Naftali Moster, an expatriate Chasid took this charge to New York education officials who promised to look into it and to follow up with sanctions for non compliance of government mandated educational standards.

Rabbi Niederman asserts that these charges are ugly and demonstrably false: 

There are more than 425 Jewish schools in New York State, with more than 165,000 students. Of those schools, 275, with more than 110,000 students, are in New York City.

This system is not monolithic. What is true across the board is that each child educated in a yeshiva is there because his or her parent made the choice to enroll them there. That is a right parents have had for almost a century, ever since the United States Supreme Court recognized the “liberty of parents to direct the upbringing and education of children.”

We take our obligations to our students seriously. Simply stated, the allegation that our schools don’t provide any instruction in English and don’t offer secular education — one that has been repeated often since an advocacy group started promoting it — is false…

Hundreds of our principals and teachers have attended professional development classes and teacher training tied to that curriculum and those textbooks.

Students obtain critical thinking, analytical, comprehension and literacy skills that are no different from those of successful students everywhere. Our teachers employ a Socratic method of instruction, in which students are required to analyze passages and defend their interpretations. You would be hard-pressed to find sixth-grade classrooms elsewhere that so resemble law school. 

None of these claims are outright lies. He’s probably right about most of those over 400 Yeshivos. He’s also right about the skills learned by these students in their religious studies classes. Anyone that has ever studied Gemarah in depth will attest to that.

This is all well and good. But as I said, misleading.

No one disputes that most Yeshivos comply more or less with core curriculum requirements. What he fails to mention is that the schools he is in charge of do not. They are a small portion of the overall total of yeshivas. But to the best of my knowledge they are nearly 100% of Satmar type schools. (If I am wrong about that, I will be happy to be proven wrong.) 

Claims that hundreds of principals and teachers are being trained to teach courses that would be in compliance with those standards may also be true. But how many of them are from his community? And even if there are some, will they be implementing what they have been trained to do?

I find it hard to believe that a system so entrenched in a Hashkafa that devalues secular studies to the extent that they don’t offer any will suddenly change course on their own. I therefore don’t think they have. Nor do I think they will unless they are somehow forced to do so. (Again, I will be happy to be proven wrong.)

What about his claim that Yeshiva students attain advanced study skills unlike students in public education.? He’s right about that. But as any educator will tell you, the skills learned in analyzing a piece of Gemarah are not enough to get you very far beyond high school. Those who want to get a higher education will find themselves struggling to catch up. Some do and some don’t. Point being that they are all at a major disadvantage.

Rabbi Niederman says that his community values a more spiritual life and therefore forgoes the types of careers that so many Americans seek for their children. They don’t become doctors or lawyers. But they do end up with decent jobs as entrepreneurs, teachers and shopkeepers; electricians and plumbers.  I suppose his point is that a higher education isn’t needed to succeed financially in his community which in any cases downplays materialism.

But demographic studies have shown otherwise. Places like Satmar’s Kiryas Joel are among the poorest cities in America. I am also reminded of a description by an expatriate Skverer Chasid that used to be a religious studies teacher in New Square of how he was paid. It was with ‘scrip’ - vouchers that are honored by city’s religious vendors.

I would also add that obtaining a higher education does not preclude living a more spiritual life. There are a lot of Orthodox University trained professionals that are very spiritual.

This is why I still support enforcement of the requirement of Yeshivos to have an equivalent core secular studies program. This is not interfering with a parental right to teach their children how they see fit. No one, least of all me, is asking the government to tamper with their religious studies program. All we ask is that they include the same kind of basic education offered in the vast majority of other yeshivas. For the benefit of their world and the benefit of all