The New York Times wrote a front-page elaborate article about the Ultra-Orthodox school system in New York. It described an extensive investigation performed over a long period to tell the world about the education received by a particular enclave that numbers about 200,000 people.
By all accounts, the reporting is very important for those who want to see schools succeed. To watch a media outlet like the Times perform such analysis though, an outfit long associated as anti-religion – especially Judaism – could make a person cringe.
And for good reason.
If the Times wrote about under-performing Hispanic schools, the tone would have been one of concern. How do we help these underprivileged students from a poor minority community? How should society devote more resources to help the school succeed? The article would have been peppered with adjectives-as-commentary masked as reporting that more work needs to be done in a collective effort to help these young people.
But not for the Jews.
The Times article wanted its readers to know that Jews are politically powerful. They take lots of money – your money; money from your children – and fail on purpose.
The Jews Are Taking Your Child’s Money, Illegally
Throughout the article – including in the titles and beneath the pictures – the liberal paper informed its secular readers that the Jews are taking public money (boxed in red in the pictures above).
- “Failing Schools, Public Funds“, read the front page headline
- “Failing Hasidic Schools Receive Public Funds“, reads each subsequent headline on following pages
- “Government money is flowing to private Hasidic academies, known as yeshivas, at a time when New York City’s public school system is cutting budgets” is the text beneath the next picture, urging the reader to feel outrage that the Jews are not just taking money, but money from the general public schools, as if one was dipping into the other
- “the Hasidic boys’ schools have found ways of tapping into enormous sums of government money, collecting more than $1 billion in the past four years alone,” as if the funds for education are not supposed to be used by Jews
- “they have received increasing amounts of government money, records show“, making the issue appear as a growing concern
- “$1 Billion: Approximate amount of government money collected in the past four years by Hasidic boys’ schools, even though they appear to be operating in violation of state laws guaranteeing students an adequate education.” was called out in the text, making the Jewish enterprise appear very illegal.
- “Despite the failings of Hasidic boys’ schools, the government has continued sending them a steady stream of funding.” seemingly leading a reader to demand that the funding stop, rather than urge improved education, something the Times would do for non-Jewish minorities.
- “Hasidic boys’ yeshivas, like other private schools, access dozens of such programs, collecting money that subsidizes their theological curriculum“, making the funding appear as breaking a line between church and state.
- “the money is flowing as New York City is cutting public school budgets,” paints the Jews as thieves robbing from the poor public schools, rather than part-and-parcel of a society that subsidizes education for everyone.
- “The city voucher program that helps low income families pay for child care now send nearly a third of its total assistance to Hasidic neighborhoods, even while tens of thousands of people have languished on waiting lists,” leans in to the theme of Jews stealing from poor around the city.
- “Hasidic boys’ schools also received about $30 million from government financial aid programs,”
- “The school got roughly $100 million through antipoverty programs to provide free breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks every school day“
- “Hasidic boy’s schools benefit from about $100 million annually from federal Title 1 programs and other sources of funding for secular education.”
- “Hasidic boys’ school received roughly $30 million in the last year before the pandemic to transport students“
- “they collected about $200,000 in federal money for internet-related services, even though they forbid the students from going online.” ended the list of financial aid programs, many of which were not for education, but for concerns around school, like food, child care and transportation.
- “The money is subsidizing instruction that has regularly involved corporal punishment,” not that there is a problem of teachers hitting students, but your tax dollars are paying for it.
- People from the state education department investigating the schools “started making notes in the margins of requests, questioning the wisdom of sending money.”
- Some Hasidic men who went through the system were “awash in debt and supporting their families with government welfare,” taking government monies not only when young and in school, but throughout their lives.
That’s an awful amount of of ink about money, and not about education. The Times would never criticize government monies going to fund children’s education – unless it’s for private schools, especially parochial schools, and especially especially, Jewish private schools.
The Thieving Jews Are Very Powerful, None Can Stand In Their Way
The progressive paper laid out lots of information about the ultra Orthodox Jews taking $1 billion while public schools were struggling, and wanted its readers to understand how their elected progressive political leadership has been helpless to fend off the Jewish power (text boxed in black).
- “city and state officials have avoided taking action, bowing to the influence of Hasidic leaders who push their followers to vote as a block,” note that the progressive champions are forced to “bow” down to the all powerful Jewish leaders, propaganda perfected under Nazi Germany. This screed from a paper that bemoans that only 80% of Black men are voting for the Black woman Stacey Abrams, instead of 95 percent, which is the voting block they expect.
- “Mayor Eric Adams has not intervened in the schools – and has touted close ties to Hasidic leaders. In Albany, Gov. Kathy Hochul has taken a similar hands-off approach, as did her predecessor, Andrew M. Cuomo,” showing that no leader – Democrats no less – would mess with the Jewish lobby. Black and Hispanic communities would never be written about in such fashion by the liberal rag.
- “Before elections, teachers often give students sample ballots with the names of the grand rabbi’s chosen candidate filled in” is the text below one picture
- “Mayor Eric Adams won his primary campaign with the help of the Satmar Hasidic group. He embraced Moishe Indig, a Satmar leader, during his election night party last November,” was the text beneath another picture.
- “Politicians who might have taken action have instead accommodated a Hasidic voting block that can sway local races.”
- “‘There’s a significant population that you ignore at your peril‘”, making Jews appear less as constituents and more as powerful adversaries.
- “Yeshivas play a central role in getting out the vote. Before elections, teachers often give students sample ballots with the names of the grand rabbi’s chosen candidate filled in.” The Times normally loves groups that get out the vote. Here, it seems to bemoan the fact that these ultra Orthodox Jews are part of Democratic process.
- “Shortly before winning an endorsement from one faction of the Satmar group, Mr. Adams…”
- “Campaigning this year, [Kathy Hochul] met with Hasidic leaders in Williamsburg.“
- “the city Department of Investigation found that the mayor engaged in ‘political horse-trading’ by delaying publication of an interim report on the schools“
The Times did its utmost to make the failing schools appear unworthy of concern, and even more, a target of disgust, led by a powerful force that “controlled more than $500 million in assets” which bullied locally elected leaders who were helpless to protect the under-funded public school system.
The Charge of ‘Failing By Design’
If these Jews are so powerful and crafty at getting money, why do their students fail basic skills in English and math? Are they stupid? Do they have terrible teachers?
The Times has the answer: “they are failing by design.“
The secular paper asserts that the schools “wall [the Jewish children] off from the secular world. Offering little English and math, and virtually no science or history, they drill the students relentlessly, sometimes brutally, during hours of religious lessons conducted in Yiddish.” It added that “some teachers at religious schools said that they had become convinced that their yeshivas discouraged learning English because it was seen as a dangerous bridge to the outside world.” Further, “some Hasidic boys’ yeshivas do not offer any nonreligious classes at all. Others make attending the classes optional.“
Do the opinions of a few teachers and students provide proof that the entire system of education of 50,000 ultra Orthodox boys are “failing by design”? Hardly. Did the investigation produce any documents showing that administrators forbade teaching English and science? That the vast majority of schools had no math instructors? No. Just some anecdotes.
There’s a noxious bias in the reporting: Jews are clever, so if they are failing, they must be doing so on purpose.
Insular By Design
Just two weeks ago, the Times wrote a story about the death of an indigenous man in Brazil, and bemoaned the loss of an “entire uncontacted tribe.” The people in the forests of the Amazon wanted to live a secluded life but some natural forces like disease, as well as man-made encroachment on their habitats, killed their community. A sad extinction for the tribe and for mankind.
With a less generous pen, the paper touched upon the desire of the New York Hasidic community to resuscitate the communities that they once had in eastern Europe which were wiped out by the genocide of the Jews at the hands of the Nazis and their supporters, and wrote about the community’s desire to not be interviewed for the article. But the journalists opted to draw a direct line between the wish to remain insulated in terms of religious practice, with the effort to starve their children of any secular education.
The reality is that many Hasidim are very successful. Many attend top law schools and are leading lawyers and judges. Many are successful real estate investors. Many have retail stores and commercial businesses.
They went unmentioned in the article.
A Uniquely Scorned Minority
If the Times wanted to accurately relay the situation of the education of Hasidic children, it would have compared the performance of poor Yiddish-speaking students, to other poor non-English speaking communities, not to poor students broadly.
If the Times cared about the welfare of the Hasidic children, it would not have portrayed the funding of their schools as taking money away from public school children.
If the Times sought to uplift the most persecuted minority in the world, it would not have charged the Jews as powerful puppet masters of progressive politicians, and would have used softer language it reserves for its preferred Black and Hispanic minorities.
The New York Times did important research about the poor education in the Hasidic community, but it crafted a story meant to incite hatred against the Jews and to punish its leaders, rather than find solutions to improve the situation for the poor persecuted minority.
Related articles:
Why Does the New York Times Delete Stories of Attacks on Jews?
Decrying Anti-Semitism While Blocking Jews
Orthodoxy in ‘Shtisel’ and ‘Nurses’
The Re-Introduction of the ‘Powerful’ Jew Smear
The Nerve of ‘Judaizing’ Neighborhoods
New York Times Confusion on Free Speech
{Reposted from the author’s blog}
