The ongoing struggle between state and city education officials and proponents of Orthodox Jewish education continued earlier this month when four Brooklyn yeshivas filed a federal discrimination complaint against the New York State Education Department and the city Department of Education.
The federal complaint filed on Jan. 13 to the U.S. Department of Education claims that four yeshivas have endured "targeted and discriminatory treatment" at the hands of the two education governing agencies. The four yeshivas are the United Talmudic Academy and Yeshiva and Mesivta Arugath Habosem, both in Williamsburg; Bobover Yeshiva Bnei Zion in Borough Park; and the Educational Institute Oholei Torah in Crown Heights.
The long-running dispute between education officials and Orthodox Jewish schools that recieve public school funds revolves around the state's “substantial equivalency” law, which requires the instruction that minors receive outside a public school “shall be at least substantially equivalent to the instruction given to minors of like age and attainments at the public schools of the city or district where the minor resides.”
NYSED has fielded numerous allegations that certain Orthodox Jewish—primarily Hasidic—schools are failing to meet this standard.
According to the complaint filed by Avi Schick, a partner at Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath, the four yeshivas "operate well-established and highly-regarded" schools, yet they experience "discriminatory conduct" that prevents them from teaching students in accordance with "their essential Jewish character."
The schools allege the education agencies don't credit a Jewish Studies curriculum, allow for classes to be taught in a foreign language, and mandate a government-approved reading list with secular book titles, according to the filing. The complaint also said the alleged discrimination creates difficulty for the schools to hire new faculty, and there is no accommodation for the gender profiles of each classroom as per Hasidic values.
Schick, who did not respond to requests for comment in time for publication, argued in the filing that by going along with the guidelines of the NYSED and DOE, the yeshivas will "no longer [be] Jewish schools."
This is the latest in a decade-long conflict regarding the lack of secular education in yeshivas. In 2015, a group of advocates filed a complaint with the DOE saying many Jewish schools were not teaching necessary subjects, such as math and English.
Since then, some yeshivas have developed a secular curriculum to an extent, though not all are up to par. In 2023, reports found 18 yeshivas were not providing a secular education.
Adina Mermelstein Konikoff, the executive director of the nonprofit Young Advocates for Fair Education, which was part of the 2015 complaint, said the lack of secular instruction does not prepare Hasidic Jews for life in a wider world.
"What we're talking about is a generation of children who are continuing to lack basic skills in English, math, science, and social studies, which we all know are important to being able to participate fully in modern society," she said. "The impact on that is preventing those individual children from going on to securing a wider range of career opportunities, for helping to bring more opportunities into their communities."
This also includes seeking medical help. Konikoff explained that some adults are unable to tell medical specialists their health problems because they do not know the English terms or how their bodies function because of the lack of science and health lessons.
The grievances outlined in the complaint have already been dismissed repeatedly in state court, according to Konikoff.
"We see that the claim is about protecting civil rights, but it is really about shielding institutions from accountability; we again saw this as another attempt to try and get in another door in order to try and prevent accountability," she said.
Konikoff had doubts that the complaint would advance legally, though some backroom deals may possibly happen.
"We think that there will be enough people who realize this isn't in the best interest of the children," she said. "I hope that happens sooner rather than later, and we'll continue to speak up until we don't have to anymore."
