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Little Focus On English, Math At Ultra-Orthodox Brooklyn Schools
By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Jan 22, 2013
Modified Jan 22, 2013
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By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Jan 22, 2013
Modified Jan 22, 2013
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What's a little algebra worth when you've got Talmudic principles and prayer down pat? For the ultra-Orthodox communities in Brooklyn, the answer is apparently not much at all—according to DNAinfo, yeshivas in communities like Crown Heights and Borough Park scale back on standard secular subjects like English, science and math, with some doing away with them altogether.
Many parochial schools, a number of which receive federal grant aid from the Department of Education, reportedly put little-to-no focus on studies the DOH requires. "I did not grow up learning English or any kind of secular studies at all," Shmueli Lowenstein, 25, said of his education at a prominent Crown Heights yeshiva. And since lessons at many other yeshivas are primarily conducted in Yiddish, many students find themselves at a serious disadvantage when exposed to the English-speaking world outside their sect. "I can’t read, I don’t know anything about the outside world—I have to struggle every time I have to read a menu for a restaurant," Hershy Gelbstein, 18, told DNAinfo.
The DOE says they've already been notified about a few yeshivas' lack of secular studies and have been working to fix the problem, but former students and activists say more needs to be done, especially in light of recent concerns that the Ultra-Orthodox community's segregation from the secular world contributes to problems like sex abuse. "“Pick a random Hasid off the street and just talk to them, it will be obvious that they’re lacking in education,” Libby Pollack, who attended Jewish schools in Williamsburg, said. “With sex abuse, a lot of people try to deny it, but here [with education] you can’t deny it."
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