Despite Taking Back 7-Hour Secular Studies Requirement, NYS Dept. of Education Still Insists On Controlling Yeshivos

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By Rav Elya Brudny, Rav Yaakov Bender and Rav Yisroel Reisman

We are grateful for the outcry of Klal Yisroel, protesting the new State guidelines. It is your  chorus  of  concern  that  has  brought  the  issue  prominence. We  must  keep  the pressure up. Your interest is what will bring hatzlachah in this battle for the heart and soul of our yeshivos.

You have protested specific aspects of the guidelines that would set the curriculum at our yeshivos and mandate long hours of secular study. They want to evaluate which of our teachers are worthy of the job.

We  are  delighted  that  the  NYS  Education  Department  heard  your  protests  and  has taken back its demand for 7 hours per day of secular studies. We are certain that the community  pressure  and  extraordinary  siyata  diShmaya  are  the  sole  reason  for  this retraction.

Much  more  work  remains  to  be  done.  SED  is  still  demanding  17.5  hours  a  week  of secular   studies   for   the   upper   elementary   school   grades.  SED   is   still   making unreasonable  demands,  including  17.5  hours  a  week  of  secular  studies  for  the  upper elementary school grades and is trying to undermine the independence of our yeshivos.

We want to impress upon you that this is all part of a bigger picture. What is at stake is the autonomy of our yeshivos.

Are decisions about yeshiva curriculum, schedule, educational emphasis and hiring to remain  in  the  hands  of  the  menahalim,  roshei  yeshiva  and  Vaad  Hachinuch,  or  will they be dictated by the State Education Department and local school districts?

This is the issue.

Never in our long history in this medinah shel chessed have we experienced such an attempted intrusion into the independence of our yeshivos.

With your continued help, Klal Yisroel will be zocheh to the protection and preservation of the autonomy of our mosdos haTorah.

{Matzav.com}


26 COMMENTS

  1. If 3.5 hours is bad, too, where do we draw the line? If the State was out of the picture, where then would we draw the line on our own?

  2. The headline is false. They did not take back anything. They clarified what many of us knew all along – there was no such requirement in the first place.

  3. Yeshivos and bais yaakovs have produced students who are above average in secular subjects for at least three generations now. While I can understand wanting to evaluate the actual quality of the secular education they provide, imposing an arbitrary number of hours on successful programs makes no sense.

  4. Don’t relax just yet THere is still a problem, 17.5 hours per WEEK.
    DON’T STOP TO DAVEN, AND PETITION.
    Don’t get to lax.

  5. The original headline here is inconsistent with the message written: Read the words of the Roshai Yeshiva Shlita:

    “We want to impress upon you that this is all part of a bigger picture. What is at stake is the autonomy of our yeshivos.

    Are decisions about yeshiva curriculum, schedule, educational emphasis and hiring to remain in the hands of the menahalim, roshei yeshiva and Vaad Hachinuch, or will they be dictated by the State Education Department and local school districts?
    This is the issue.
    Never in our long history in this medinah shel chessed have we experienced such an attempted intrusion into the independence of our yeshivos.”

    This clarification of hours does not in any way call for us to become complacent, relaxed or relieved. Anyone who says otherwise is being misleading. We must strengthen our efforts to keep the government out of our chinuch system. Our Gedolim and Rabbonim understand this issue better than most and recognize the serious threats we face. Let us follow them.

  6. Don’ t relax just yet. Keep up the Tefillos, cry to Hashem. The state found a different way to persecute the schools. 17.5 hours of secular studies week. Keep protesting Yidden. One school to be harrassed and shut down is one too many.

        • “Keep protesting Yidden. One school to be harrassed and shut down is one too many.”
          one kid thrown out of yeshiva for gaiyva is one to many!
          if somebody gets upset over a Yeshiva being forced to close. shouldn’t they also be upset about Kids not being accepted in to Yeshivas or having no Yeshiva to go to.
          do you disagree?
          (if you are a yeshiva bochur. does your Rosh Yeshiva Approve of your internet access?)

      • One doesn’t preclude the other. That is not the topic here. Stick to the conversation and keep personal bitterness out of this. Wait for the subject to be discussed…and inject your opinion.

        • December 20, 2018 at 3:03 am
          last time I checked it’s up to the moderator to decide what posts make it through. and low and behold you are not him. so anybody can post what they want! if you dont like it you can ignore it!
          so a yeshiva teaching more hours of secular education is fine to discuss. but children with no jewish studies not 1hour not 1 minute roaming the streets is off topic! and when they get tattoos marry goyim and cremate! then people will bellow and bemoan!

  7. One thing is for sure 3.5 hours is better than 7 hours at least now there are a lot of good yeshivas out there that are not at an immediate threat of closing down . But we have to still fight this through with the guidance of the gedolem

  8. Important to realize that some people who comment on this site do not have the best interest of the Torah and our community in mind. They have the right to do that but suffice it to say that our community is and will remain strongly united and will follow what we know is in our best interest. That is to allow our Yeshivas autonomy. We will not allow the SED to intervene and bring the issues that the public schools have to our schools.

    • “We will not allow the SED to intervene and bring the issues that the public schools have to our schools.”

      and what issues is that?
      smoking? drugs? alchohol? (tv? internet?)
      you think yeshiva bochrim don’t smoke or use drugs or drink alchohol?

      this happened for a simple reason there were schools not providing english education (to what degree is different depending on the institution). which then caused Yeshivas that do provide adequate secular education to also be caught in broadside!

  9. So tell me,are the Muslim and Catholic schools being dictated to have 7 hours of secular studies a day?
    It sounds like they are targeting us.

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