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| Image for illustration purposes (Tablet) |
One may recall that Mrs. Vizel is a strong supporter of her former community and actually gives a very positive tour of Williamsburg – the core neighborhood of the Satmar community. She has also explained how Satmar Chasidim make money. Which is mostly by way of ‘in house’ jobs. Like the typical ‘mom and pop’ type store they may own on Satmar’s main shopping district on Lee Avenue in Williamsburg.
Mrs. Vizel gives a glowing review of the community’s may fine qualities. Which she correctly says are ignored by critics like the New York Times - and both New York state and city education departments. (Whether or not they were correct to ignore these fine qualities in the context of their criticism is beyond the scope pf this post.)
She lists the many aspects of the Satmar community. Which constitutes a highly successful lifestyle. Which can mostly be attributed to parental input and their educational system. Measured that way it is understandable why the vast majority of Satmar parents support their religious schools - despite the fact that there is no secular studies curriculum. She also correctly points out that the primary purpose of a Yeshiva education is to teach Torah.
There is no question that the teachers and administrators of these schools are deeply committed to their students’ welfare – as they understand it – and even live it themselves. To put it the way she does:
Every day I watch hundreds of happy boys spill into the streets during recess and pile into buses at the end of the afternoon. I see children who are deeply cared for. I see a neighborhood with one of the lowest median ages in the country, where life revolves around raising the young. Furthermore, I see parents who pay private school tuition to send their children to these schools.
Funny thing is that I do not disagree with any of that. I’m sure her positive perception and description is quite accurate. And that for the most part parents there are happy with how their children are educated.
And yet, despite their overall high satisfaction with their lives and their children’s schooling, I cannot stress enough the fact that schools like theirs which refuse to offer any Limudei Chol to their students do a great disservice to them. Which reflects on all of observant Jewry.
Like I have said many times, it isn’t only about the ability to make a decent living, Or even being satisfied despite being ignorant of basic secular knowledge. There are other considerations that should should make a decent secular curriculum mandatory. Some of which many of these ‘satisfied’ parents have expressed themselves. Which Mrs. Vizel also reports:
The majority of Hasidic parents send their children to these schools because they succeed by some significant metrics. That doesn’t offset the ways in which they fall short…
(These Chasidic schools) do not prepare the boys to be efficient workers and reliable consumers inside of mainstream, secular economic arrangements. And this is true…
A short while after Hasidic boys marry, they often go out to work. (without) any formal training, and their English might be broken… It remains true that poverty rates are very high…
I believe the debate over Hasidic education stems, in part, from internal frustrations. As someone who is on the periphery, (Parents) talk to me candidly about the things that bother them. Plenty have complaints about education, as parents will have anywhere, and I hear especially about the state of “English” for boys. Parents tell me they don’t want to raise New York-born boys who struggle to speak the language of the land and who do not know the basics in math, spelling, history, and so on.
As far I can tell from her description, their satisfaction quotient is not as high as her article might at first indicate. Sure, they are happy with their lives, But they are not happy with their children being ignorant. A problem that a core curriculum of Limudei Chol would would solve.
A lot of the defenders of Satmar type schools say that those complaining about the lack of a secular curriculum are all just a bunch of expatriate Satmar Chasidim who are no longer religious and have an ulterior motive to destroy the Yeshiva system - and even Judaism itself. And that the vast majority of mainstream Satmar parents are entirely happy with the education their children get.
But as one who is close to the community and is one of their staunchest defenders said, there are plenty of parents that have the same issues I have. When someone so clearly and sincerely defends them says that you can believe her.
That they have not come forward publicly doesn’t mean they don’t have these issues. Why don’t they come forward publicly?
Who knows. Maybe they are afraid of the repercussions of showing any public dissatisfaction. But that doesn’t negate their true feelings - private though they may be. Which would be solved if they would just do what the vast majority of other Orthodox religious schools do and offer a dual Limudei Kodesh - Limudei Chol curriculum.
One more thing. For the record I reject out of hand those that say to leave them alone and let them live in their happy little ignorant world. That we should just go our own separate ways. Well, no matter how isolated they may choose to lead their lives, these people are my bothers. I refuse to consider them separate from the rest of the the Jewish people.
Nuff said.