New York Times highlights yeshiva failures, Haredim fight back

New report shows Orthodox are victims of 94% of antisemitic attacks in New York.

A leading US Orthodox group this week launched a campaign pushing back against New York Times coverage that has criticised the local Jewish religious school system.

The campaign from Agudath Israel of America, an umbrella group, aims to provide an alternative narrative on the Orthodox community to the general public.

The New York Times in recent months has published a series of high-profile articles that are harshly critical of local yeshivas, claiming they deprive children of secular education, exploit public funding, contribute to poverty and mistreat students.

The most recent article said yeshivas were taking advantage of a policy designed to make special education more easily available by siphoning off funding for other purposes.

Another article reported that every single child in the Hasidic yeshiva system failed standardised testing in reading and maths.

The campaign comes in the context of increasing antisemitism. A new report by Americans Against Antisemitism found that Orthodox Jews were the victims in 94 per cent of the 194 antisemitic assaults reported in New York between 2018 and 2022.

Agudath’s campaign, called Know Us, links the Times articles to antisemitism. One poster reads “2x New York City Antisemitic Attacks Doubled/ 12 New York Times articles against Orthodox Jews in 3 months”.

The campaign calls the Times coverage a “smear campaign” and says the articles “present a grossly distorted picture of our yeshivas and our way of life.”