New York – In a video interview released today on BRIC TV, a round the clock Brooklyn based channel discussing issues of interest to Kings County residents, three outspoken voices shared their thought on whether Chasidic yeshivas are providing students with an appropriate secular education.
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The controversial topic is the subject of an active investigation by the city’s Department of Education and was debated by Amy Sara Clark, Naftuli Moster and Ezra Friedlander.
Clark, a deputy managing editor for The Jewish Week, is an investigative reporter who co-authored an in depth four part series detailing how Chasidic yeshivos are failing their students. The report, a joint collaboration between The Jewish Week and WNYC, faults the DOE for consistently looking the other way when it comes to questions regarding the quality of secular education offered in Chasidic yeshivos.
Naftuli Moster, founder of Young Advocates For Fair Education, is himself the product of a Chasidic yeshiva who feels that the yeshiva system failed him miserably.
In an attempt to force yeshivos to offer a more in depth secular education, Moster has taken out billboards advocating for his cause and most recently, contacted the DOE, urging them to investigate 39 yeshivos and force them to provide a secular education that is substantially equivalent to that offered by the public school system.
Ezra Friedlander, CEO of the Friedlander Group, has come out publicly against Moster and YAFFED, accusing them of sensationalizing the issue in order to discredit the Chasidic community and to undermine its educational system.
According to Friedlander, changes to the yeshiva system may well be needed but those modifications should be the result of requests by the parent body and not that of outsiders who may be driven by their own personal agendas.
Watch below video as Moster and Friedlander dish it out.
Courtesy of BRICK TV Brooklyn
Tuly, I went thru the same education system as you, and somehow I am a successful business owner and a proud huspand and father and living a happy life, I started my business on my own, I do my own accounting and I run my own marketing and I have real estate investment on the side, all my math Grammer and english I learned in the same chaider as you, the only difference is that I wasn’t the BULLY in the class like you, no I wasn’t the one that threw “bubkes” on the teacher as you I had good marks on my tests, I didn’t crawl over the gate on 41st street to run home in middle class.
Maybe if you would have saichel as me you would be more succesfull in life.
Your classmate
MR
If you don’t remember ,or know, the great yeshivas in litta closed their doors rather that take up secular subject matter that the govt. insisted they study. We have the opportunity to go to other schools if we don’t want to study the subjects that are or aren’t being taught there We have the prerogative to open schools that will use the curriculum that we wish.
These misfits want to run the orthodox schools as they wish?,let them go and form a school system that they wish.
So what is the purpose of the Yeshiva, rasha moster?
My children go to Chassidish Chedarim in Brooklyn.
While many problems exist, Moster is definitely here with an agenda to paint our schools in a dark light.
Leave it up to the parents to change the system.
Today’s parents are not the parents of 30 years ago.
We are here to live with times and give a better education to our children.
Though Moster apparently, still lives with the times of 3 decades ago.
It’s simple. If the schools take ANY government or grant money in any way, they then have a “partner” they need to answer to. You can’t have it both ways.
Ezra torn this guy to shreds.
Ezra, you where great!
The other person has an agenda… It’s self understood. If he is so ipset on the current yeshiva system, let him put his own kids in public school…
Friedlander is correct. Moster is looking to blame people for his issues when in fact he should be looking straight into the mirror.
officially, half of all Haredi families live below the poverty line, with a full 60% of large families carrying that label. Monster is correct.
Mr Moster…agreed that some kids need to brush up on their English skills; however the basic premise of your campaign is vindictive and vengeful. ..we all know your history…and if you were so angry at the lack thereof, pray tell what doe ,G…d have to do with it…cause you seem to have unleashed your anger on him too!
I don’t like when the government tries to mandate doctrine to private institutions. Though it could be argued that there is a public good issue here if a large percentage of the graduates are on public assistance.
Though Friedlander is correct in that the change needs to come from within by the parents. Since the parents are paying tuition they should have the power to do so. Otherwise I fear a vicious cycle of people on public assistance raising kids who will be on public assistance which is ultimately unsustainable and the government will in the end be forced to come in and change the education. Self sustainabilityis very important if you don’t want government interference. The Amish are known to shun welfare and do not take any government assistance and the community is self sustainable and I don’t know for sure but i would bet the government is not investigating the Amish education system
I agree Mr. Moster has an agenda but I think Mr Friedlander lost this debate by making money some kind of issue. Money has absolutely nothing to do with the problem Mr. Moster is talking about. The moderator kept asking Mr Friedlander how would money change the situation. The fact is everyone can use more money but money won’t change the attitudes or mind set of the chasidishe parents. The parents may complain in private but parents will continue talking to their children only in Yiddish The yeshivos will never agree to have English past bar mitzvah As long as this doesn’t change neither will the education.
One guy in 10 has a good job or becomes a giveer and everyone starts raving that here is proof that you don`t need to know how to read and write. What about the other 9 that need welfare ,food stamps, go door knocking and help from a zeidi (if he still has anything) or the shver. Must be so proud that their children will be door knockers too. So proud. All in the name of Torah.
By the way all you chasedishe commentators ……they invented spell check.
Try it some time.
I was recently thinking about the importance of the quality of an English Education and how it impacts ones ability to earn a parnossah, and the conclusion I came to was that it has almost no impact.
Algebra, Geomotry, Trigonometry, have no relevance to most careers. Biology, Chemistry, the same thing. I happened to always have an interest in History, but can’t really see where it helped me. Geography has been useful as I have customers all over the U.S. and some internationally.
As far as language arts, I deal with heads of departments in fortune 500 corporations, and while it is very important to be well spoken, written skills no longer have much value. Communication are often via email, and brevity supersedes grammatical prowess.
Not everyone can be a business owner, however there are programs available where one can become a CPA, get a degree in computer science. For those who want to seek careers in other fields, most yeshivas are accredited, and those credits cam be transferred.
I am not familiar with the Chassidish education, as I come from a Yeshivish background. The biggest detriment towards parnossah that I see is that people get in the game a few years too late.
I didn’t realize Buckwheat (little rascals) was still alive!
I’ve never seen so many uneducated posters brag about keeping our kids illiterate. As parents, you and the government will have to support these children forever, and yet, you are PROUD of ignorance!!
Dear all, we are B”H a bright community, the proof is in the pudding. There are many successful entrepreneurs within the Chasidish community who earn more than the average formally educated American. The study of Talmud teaches analytical skills and logical reasoning in a more comprehensive manner than any teacher or formal course does. Hence the many successful people in our community.
However, that is not to say that education system isn’t flawed. The average white collar job, nowadays, requires a college degree. For a Chasid to earn a degree takes tremendous effort, determination, and strong will. Don’t fool yourselves. Our system does not prepare our kids for college. As someone who has been through it, I know. Success has no limit.
A majority of Chasidim do not have the courage to go to college, and some who do, often lose their confidence upon realizing that they are not remotely prepared for it (I was on the verge of dropping out more than once). Therefore, bright young men with the brains and skills to become doctors, lawyers, engineers, architects, and executives are forced to take on low or middle class blue collar jobs in order to provide for their families.
If only they would a get a most basic general education.
The proof is in the pudding. Many Chasidim are extremely successful at what they do. Can you imagine how successful they could have been hadn’t they been robbed of a most basic education? It is time for the parents to stand up and demand a better education for their children. It is time for parents to wake up and realize what has been known for years, education is the future. We no longer need to sacrifice our beliefs or way of life in exchange for education. It is time for parents to stop robbing their children’s future and instead provide them with the opportunity that every child deserves, a chance at succeeding. Success is limitless.
I don’t really care if Mr Moster has an inner agenda or if it’s simply coming out of anger, guess what.. He has the full right to be angry at the system that stinks.
Our newly wed yingaliet have nothing to show for themselves. They walk under the chuppa with zero skill as to bringing a decent parnasa to feed their families.
With today’s high rents and living costs one would think that Mr Moster wouldn’t be just a single voice.
The men are supposed to bring the Parnasa (according to our Torah) but the girls Get the better education. Go figure.
I deal with many Chasidisha men that can barely talk English. It’s very embarrassing.
Most Yingeliet don’t earn 75% of what they need to cover basics.
I want to see more of our men become accountants, attorneys, architects, expediters, And maybe even nurses and doctors.