New York State Education

New York’s Ultra-Orthodox Yeshivas Challenge New State Education Mandates

New state education rules will cut funding to private schools that can’t provide the same level of education as public schools. The ultra-Orthodox community is fighting back.

Mel Hyman · February 24, 2025

A school bus for a Yeshiva in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. | Photo: Bonnie Natko / flickr

Staying Focused

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When Chaim Fishman left his Brooklyn-based secondary school at 16, he’d never heard of Mozart or Shakespeare.

“We were never taught about science or history or geography or civics,” let alone English or math, which were considered “ethically wrong,” said Fishman, who attended an ultra-Orthodox secondary school for boys — called a yeshiva — in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and is now a 26-year-old software engineer.

More than 50,000 male students are enrolled in New York’s yeshivas, and a New York Times investigation found that many provided little instruction in core subjects, received some of the lowest standardized test scores in the state, and left their students unable to converse easily in English or find jobs after graduating. Even still, they received more than $1 billion in government funding over a recent four-year period.

A new state law set to take effect at the end of June seeks to hold these schools accountable by withholding millions in taxpayer funds if they don’t provide an education ״substantially equivalent” to what’s taught in the public schools. Ultra-Orthodox community leaders who have long advocated for autonomy are vowing to fight the new mandate.

And in a surprise move last week — well in advance of its June deadline for compliance — the state Education Department announced that after a six-year investigation it had pulled funding for two Brooklyn-based Hasidic yeshivas for failure to meet new secular education standards.

Along with termination of public subsidies starting June 30, their students were ordered to enroll in different schools starting this fall.

“The yeshiva system has been wildly successful and is largely responsible for the exponential growth of the Orthodox Jewish community in this country over the last 80 years,” said Rabbi Yeruchim Silber, New York director of government relations for Agudath Israel of America, a national Orthodox advocacy organization.

“We have and will continue to advocate for educational autonomy for our yeshivas, whether through direct advocacy, legislatively and through the courts,” Silber said.

In the past, Hasidic protesters have descended on the Capitol vowing to “sit in jail” before changing their educational system. How the upcoming debate shapes up will hinge on how New York politicians navigate their relationships with Hasidic leaders — and their thousands of voters, who often vote as a bloc.

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Losing Funding

There are about 15 to 20 “mainstream” Hasidic sects in New York State, nearly all of which are in Brooklyn and Rockland and Orange counties, according to Young Advocates for a Fair Education (YAFFED), a nonprofit dedicated to ensuring that Hasidic and Haredi yeshivas in New York provide a basic education.

The schools for boys are known for their singular focus on ancient Jewish texts like the Talmud and Torah and the discussion of the minutiae of Jewish law handed down over the centuries. The days can be long — up to 12 hours, for some children.

Scott Kessler attended yeshivas in south Brooklyn and left for public school when he was 16. Now 24, he recalled that his school “typically provided two hours of very poor secular education four days a week,” and “the classes were often taught by teachers with no qualifications to speak of, who did not know their subjects.”

After transferring to a public school, Kessler said he was “blown away” by the quality of education.

“It is a tragedy,” he said, “that Jewish children are denied the right to an education that all other New Yorkers get.” (Not every yeshiva operates in the same fashion. Some do include some secular instruction, but often near the end of a long school day.)

The amount of taxpayer money that goes to the state’s 125 or so Haredi and Hasidic yeshivas varies from school district to school district, but adds up to several hundred million dollars annually. The funds pay mostly for mandated services, like transportation, textbooks, special needs, and administrative overhead, and are funneled through local school districts, which for many decades took a laissez-faire attitude toward the quality of education provided in private schools.

Prompted in part by the Times investigation, the state Board of Regents in September 2022 established requirements that mandate local school authorities make “substantial equivalency” determinations for all private schools in their districts by June 30 of this year.

The state education commissioner can withhold a substantial portion of state funding for any city or local school district that “willfully omits and refuses to enforce the provisions” of the new requirements.

And not only are millions in state aid at risk, but the mission of providing boys with a total immersion in Jewish law, prayer, and tradition could also be in jeopardy.

In January, four Hasidic academies in Brooklyn filed a complaint with the US Department of Education Office of Civil Rights.

The yeshivas claimed that New York state discriminated against Jews by forcing them to adhere to new secular instructional standards that made it impossible to meet their core mission of educating students in Jewish law and traditions.

A Political Battle

Talks to short circuit the new regulations fell short in the closing days of the 2024 legislative session. Actively participating in those discussions, according to the Albany Times-Union, were Governor Kathy Hochul and US Representatives Pat Ryan and Mike Lawler, or their representatives.

Lawler, whose congressional district includes Hasidic enclaves in Rockland County’s hamlet of Monsey, was not shy about sharing his position on the yeshivas — perhaps because he’s mulling a race for governor next year.

“Time and again, Kathy Hochul’s State Education Department has run roughshod over private schools and private school parents,” Lawler told New York Focus. “Their latest efforts unfairly target those who choose to educate their children in yeshivas and fail to consider each student’s substantially equivalent outcome.

“These unfair regulations,” Lawler asserted, “are a slap in the face to the tens of thousands of private school parents who send their children to one.”

Hochul’s office was quick to respond. “As anyone with a basic knowledge of state government should know, the State Education Department is governed by the independently-selected Board of Regents,” said Hochul’s press secretary, Avi Small, in an email. “Not the Governor or her Administration.”

Asked about the governor’s participation in talks about the new state regulations, Small punted.

“These regulations are being handled by the State Education Department,” he said, “which is wholly independent from the governor’s office.”

Ryan, whose congressional district includes Kiryas Joel in Orange County, did not respond to several requests for comment.

The strategy expected to be deployed by the Hasidic forces, YAFFED told New York Focus, is to have implementation of the “substantial equivalency” standards delayed for one year and up to four years.

State Assemblyman Simcha Eichenstein, D-Brooklyn, accused YAFFED and “a small group of disgruntled former yeshiva students” of a “smear campaign.”

“The vast majority of parents are more than satisfied,” he told New York Focus. “They continue to support and enroll their children in the very same yeshivas they attended.”

Eichenstein cautioned against painting the yeshiva system with a broad brush, and said the emphasis on particular subjects may vary between schools.

“Every yeshiva provides a sound basic English education, particularly when it comes to the core subjects,” he said. “The claim that yeshiva students cannot read or write is simply unfounded.”

YAFFED responded that the experiences of former students were “backed up by investigations from government agencies, independent news outlets and parents of current yeshiva students.”

According to a Hasidic community member from Brooklyn who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation, it’s “not surprising” that New York politicians are eager to please their Hasidic constituents.

Ultra-Orthodox Jews vote in “very high numbers,” he said. “It’s very much like a bloc,” and “no one wants to start up with a bloc like that.”

The Hasidic communities, he pointed out, have shown an increasing willingness to vote for Republicans. In fact, 98.4 percent of voters in Kiryas Joel — a town of more than 42,000 at last count — voted for Donald Trump in 2024.

As the parent of a young boy currently attending a Brooklyn yeshiva, he said that the only secular education provided for his son came for 90 minutes at the end of a long school day.

“They speak Yiddish all day — even the teachers speak Yiddish — so whatever English or math they get is very limited,” he said.

On the other hand, there are positive aspects to the Hasidic lifestyle, he added. “They take education seriously. The Talmud can be complex.”

And as far as everyday life goes, it’s a “very tight knit community” where “people always look after each other.”

Court of Appeals

The last word could rest with the New York State Court of Appeals.

Parents for Educational and Religious Liberty in Schools (PEARLS), an advocacy group for ultra-Orthodox yeshivas, has challenged the new state requirements in a lawsuit.

A 4-1 decision last June by the Appellate Division’s Third Judicial Department upheld the right of the State Board of Regents and the state education commissioner, Betty Rosa, “to enforce compliance” with minimal academic standards in the state.

But PEARLS argues that the new state regulations can’t be enforced.

PEARLS spokesperson Rich Bamberger told the Times-Union that the Appellate Division’s ruling should be taken to mean that the state education regulations constitute an “advisory to parents” and do “not provide for any direct penalty” to nonpublic schools for failing to provide a substantially equivalent education, the organization has argued.

PEARLS insists that the regulations undermine the core religious mission of the yeshivas.

YAFFED maintains that the yeshivas can do both — provide secular instruction and preparation for society at large, and instill the teachings of the Talmud and Torah.

The court is expected to issue its decision this spring.