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Hasidic schools are exploiting special education funding, says latest New York Times probe of yeshivas
(JTA) — Hasidic schools in New York are taking advantage of a policy designed to make special education more widely available by siphoning public funding for other purposes, according to an investigation published Thursday by the New York Times.
Private companies serving Hasidic and Orthodox schools are now collecting more than $350 million a year in government money in exchange for special education services that are not always needed or even provided, the Times reported, citing government data.
The schools, known as yeshivas, have reportedly urged parents to obtain medical prescriptions for disabilities and apply for aid on behalf of their children. In 25 yeshivas, more than half the students are qualified to receive special education services, the Times reported, citing government data. The newspaper also reported that of the 18,000 applications for special ed services filed by families last year, more than half came from districts with large Hasidic and Orthodox communities, such as Williamsburg, Borough Park and Crown Heights.
The Times said there is “little research into whether disabilities occur more frequently in the Hasidic community than in others.”
Elana Sigall, a former special education official for the city, told the Times that yeshivas are “accessing tremendous amounts of city resources, but they’re not actually providing special education.”
The Times’ article is the latest in a series of stories about yeshivas that have triggered intense anger among haredi leaders and relief among longtime advocates for improving secular education at the private religious schools. The series started in September when the Times reported that yeshivas were failing to provide secular education as mandated by state law while continuing to collect public funding.
Many Hasidic Jews took to social media to attack the Times’ reporting as defamatory and accused the newspaper of placing undue scrutiny on the Hasidic community out of bigotry or political considerations.
Advocates for reforming yeshiva education, meanwhile, have defended the Times’ investigations as a necessary step toward forcing the schools to change.
The latest article explains that a policy shift unlocking a wave of funding for special education was enacted in 2014 by then-Mayor Bill de Blasio, who ordered that the city fast-track approvals. De Blasio was responding to criticism that the city was failing to adhere to state law requiring that students with disabilities be provided with special education even if the government has to pay private companies to deliver the services.
One such company, started two months after de Blasio’s order by a young married Orthodox couple with almost no experience in education, has collected more than $38 million from the program this year, per the Times. The Times also found evidence that companies providing special education services for private schools in turn make donations to the yeshivas that steer students their way.
The deluge in special education requests has not been accompanied increased oversight: Officials interviewed by Times said that most requests are simply waved through an over-burdened and underfunded system.
School officials and representatives of the special education companies said in statements to the Times that they have operated according to the rules, and that independent evaluators and government supervision ensure that only students who in fact have special needs are being enrolled in the program. The school officials also denied that they have pressured families to seek out diagnoses that aren’t needed.
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Progressive Jewish groups say ADL’s ‘Mamdani Monitor’ is ‘Islamophobic and racist’
(JTA) —
A coalition of progressive Jewish organizations is condemning the Anti-Defamation League for what it calls “Islamophobic and racist” attacks on New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani.
In a statement released Tuesday, the groups criticized the ADL’s creation of a “Mamdani Monitor” to track policies and personnel appointments that the ADL views as threatening Jewish security.
The signatories — including New York Jewish Agenda, Bend the Arc: Jewish Action, IfNotNow, J Street NYC, Jews for Racial & Economic Justice and T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights — said the project “undermines the shared fight against antisemitism and Islamophobia in New York City.”
“Regardless of how we voted or what our views are on Israel and Palestine,” the letter reads, “we stand firmly against the Islamophobic and racist attacks from the institutions claiming to represent our communities.”
The groups said they intend to work with Mamdani, a Muslim and outspoken critic of Israel, in his pledge to combat antisemitism and all forms of hate. “Together, we can help build a city grounded in justice, dignity, and care for every New Yorker,” the statement said.
The ADL statement announcing the Mamdani Monitor made no reference to Islam. Responding to critics of the Mamdani Monitor in a video last week, the group’s CEO, Jonathan Greenblatt, said of Mamdani that “fierce animosity toward the Jewish state has characterized his entire time in public life” and that “he surrounded himself with people who are notorious for their antisemitism.”
Greenblatt said the ADL has launched an antisemitism tip line for Jewish New Yorkers, and will expand research of policies by and appointees to Mamdani’s administration. “If the new administration does great things to keep Jewish New Yorkers safe and to make them feel welcome, then people should know about it,” Greenblatt said in the video. “And if the new administration takes steps that endanger Jewish New Yorkers and make them feel unwelcome, then people should know about it too. That’s it. It’s pretty simple.”
At least one of the signers of the statement said the ADL is applying a double standard to Mamdani, and that the group hasn’t created a similar monitor to track antisemitic activity within the Trump administration. “We reject false accusations of antisemitism against Black, brown, and Muslim progressive champions who are fighting for a country where all of us can thrive,” Bend the Arc said in a statement on its website.
The letter provides further evidence of a split along ideological and strategic lines among Jewish organizations over how to interact with Mamdani. For groups like the ADL and the UJA-Federation of New York, for whom staunch support of Israel is a core tenet, Mamdani’s support for the boycott movement against Israel, along with his harsh criticism of the country at a time of rising antisemitism, represents a threat to Jewish New Yorkers.
Progressive groups are eager to work with Mamdani on domestic issues like affordability, a pillar of his campaign. Some of the groups who signed Tuesday’s statement, including New York Jewish Agenda and T’ruah, support Israel while advocating for peace and democracy in ways frequently critical of the Israeli government. The day after Mamdani’s victory, NYJA released a statement saying that it looked forward “to engaging the new administration on shared priorities in the months to come, including combating antisemitism and other forms of hate, tackling the affordability crisis, and ensuring that all New Yorkers feel safe in our great city.”
About a third of Jews who voted in the election supported Mamdani.
The post Progressive Jewish groups say ADL’s ‘Mamdani Monitor’ is ‘Islamophobic and racist’ appeared first on The Forward.
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Israeli Ambassador Sounds Alarm on Rising Antisemitism in Germany as Left Party Youth Wing Targets Jews as ‘Traitors’
Pro-Hamas demonstrators marching in Munich, Germany. Photo: Reuters/Alexander Pohl
Israel’s ambassador to Germany, Ron Prosor, has warned of a rising wave of antisemitism in the European country, particularly from left-wing groups, as the youth wing of Germany’s Left Party continues to spread anti-Israel rhetoric and harasses Zionists, labeling them “traitors.”
In a new interview with the German news outlet Berliner Morgenpost, Prosor said that the local Jewish community is living in fear amid an increasingly hostile climate, noting that it is “better not to walk down Sonnenallee in Neukölln wearing a Star of David.”
“In 2025, Jewish men and women fear attending university or riding the subway because they are visibly Jewish. That schools, community centers, and synagogues require round-the-clock police protection is not normal,” the Israeli diplomat said.
Prosor also highlighted the growing threat of left-leaning antisemitism, saying it is even more dangerous than antisemitism from the political right or from Islamist extremists.
“Left-wing antisemitism, in my view, is even more dangerous because it masks its intentions. It has long operated on the thin line between free speech and incitement,” he said.
“Across Europe, this is visible on university campuses and theaters. Many present themselves as educated, moral, and progressive — yet the line separating free speech from incitement was crossed long ago,” he continued. “Israel is demonized and delegitimized day after day, and it is Jews everywhere who ultimately suffer the consequences.”
His comments came after Germany’s Left Party youth wing last week passed an anti-Israel resolution labeling the world’s lone Jewish state a “colonial and racist state project,” sparking controversy within both the local Jewish community and the party’s senior leadership.
During the Left Youth’s 18th Federal Congress last weekend, Jewish delegates reported being harassed by fellow party members — branded “traitors” and even warned of an internal “purge.”
According to local media reports, several participants left early after colleagues allegedly threatened to show up at their hotel rooms at night.
Now, the youth group is set to vote next week on a motion falsely accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, as well as another measure calling for support of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks to isolate the Jewish state internationally as a step toward its eventual elimination.
Earlier this year, the Berlin Office for the Protection of the Constitution — the agency responsible for monitoring extremist groups and reporting to the German Interior Ministry — designated BDS as a “proven extremist endeavor hostile to the constitution.” The agency also described the campaign’s “anti-constitutional ideology, which denies Israel’s right to exist.” That followed Germany’s federal domestic intelligence agency, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), last year classifying BDS as a “suspected extremist case” with links to “secular Palestinian extremism.”
Prosor in his interview condemned the Left Youth’s latest resolution and the harassment of Jewish members, saying “the red line has been crossed.”
“The youth wing of the Left Party is showing the true face of left-wing antisemitism, which would otherwise remain well hidden,” the Israeli diplomat wrote in a post on X.
“By justifying terror, turning a blind eye to antisemitism, and denying Israel’s right to exist, the Left Party has abandoned its moral compass and integrity. All that remains is extremism, radical ideology, and violence,” Prosor continued.
Die rote Linie ist überschritten. Die Jugend der Linkspartei offenbart das wahre Gesicht des linken Antisemitismus, der sonst gut verborgen bleibt.
Mit der Rechtfertigung von Terror, dem Ignorieren von Antisemitismus und der Leugnung des Existenzrechts Israels hat die… pic.twitter.com/mNEmdNR0dp
— Ambassador Ron Prosor (@Ron_Prosor) November 7, 2025
Amid increasing political pressure to clearly distance itself from the youth wing, senior leaders of Germany’s Left Party are now facing growing scrutiny.
While the youth group is technically independent, it relies financially on the main party.
After meeting Wednesday night, the party’s executive committee issued a statement saying there was “broad agreement that the approved motion is inconsistent with the positions of the Left Party.”
“Antisemitism and the downplaying of antisemitic positions contradict the core values of the Left,” the statement read.
“Intimidation, pressure, and exclusion have no place in a left-wing youth organization, and even less in the political culture we uphold as the Left,” it continued.
However, intimidation of dissenting voices and anti-Israel rhetoric are not new within the Left Party, following a pattern of previous antisemitic incidents within the organization.
For example, Berlin’s former Culture Senator, Klaus Lederer, and other prominent members left the organization last year following an antisemitic scandal at a party conference in Berlin.
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Progressive Jewish groups say ADL’s ‘Mamdani Monitor’ is ‘Islamophobic and racist’
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