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New York State adopts ban on corporal punishment proposed in wake of yeshiva probe
(New York Jewish Week) – A ban on corporal punishment in private schools, proposed in the wake of an extensive New York Times investigation alleging that the practice is prevalent in Hasidic yeshivas, is now law in the State of New York.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the law on Wednesday after it was unanimously approved by the state legislature, making New York one of just four states — the others being New Jersey, Iowa and Maryland — where the practice is banned in private schools. Corporal punishment has been banned at New York’s public schools since 1985.
“Corporal punishment is unacceptable,” Hochul said in a statement. “This new law will ensure students in every New York school are protected from mistreatment.”
Allegations of corporal punishment were included in the Times series, published last September, that also delved into public funding for private Jewish schools that fell short in teaching secular studies.
“The attitude was constantly that you could get hit,” Ari Hershkowitz, an alumnus of United Talmudical Academy in Williamsburg told the New York Times at the time. “We were constantly under threat of that.”
Richard Bamberger, a spokesman for some Hasidic yeshivas, told the New York Times this week that leaders of the schools had no issue with the new law.
“What they do oppose is the inaccurate suggestion that the legislation arose because of an abuse problem in yeshivas, which the Senate sponsor publicly stated is false,” he said.
Bamberger was referring to State Senator Julia Salazar, a Democrat whose district includes Hasidic neighborhoods in Brooklyn. She introduced the bill the day after the Times published its article, although she later tweeted that she did not have any evidence of a pattern of corporal punishment in yeshivas.
Hasidic leaders and their allies have pushed back on the notion that corporal punishment is common at yeshivas.
“As a yeshiva parent/former student, I’m not familiar with the use of corporal punishment at yeshivas, nor would I tolerate it,” Simcha Eichenstein, a New York State Assembly member representing Borough Park, posted on X in March, when the legislation was proposed.
Charles Lavine, a Jewish Democrat who represents parts of Nassau County in Long Island, sponsored the bill in the Assembly. It defines corporal punishment as “the use of physical force to cause pain or harm to someone accused of breaking a law or rule” and includes “spanking or slapping, hitting with weapons such as paddles, rulers, or belts, and forcing students to perform physically painful activities such as crawling over rough terrain or excessive running.”
“Physical punishment in educational settings is abhorrent and I am pleased that New York is protecting our children by outlawing its use. Students must learn in a safe environment. The message to any abusive adults is very simple, keep your hands off our kids,” Lavine said in a statement.
Yaffed, a Jewish nonprofit that has urged government scrutiny of secular education at Hasidic yeshivas, welcomed the legislation in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
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The post New York State adopts ban on corporal punishment proposed in wake of yeshiva probe appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Rights Group Files Lawsuit to Block Trump Deportations of Anti-Israel Protesters
Marco Rubio speaks after he is sworn in as Secretary of State by US Vice President JD Vance at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, DC, Jan. 21, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) filed a lawsuit challenging as unconstitutional the Trump administration’s actions to deport international students and scholars who protest or express support for Palestinian rights.
The lawsuit, filed on Saturday in the US District Court for the Northern District of New York, seeks a nationwide temporary restraining order to block enforcement of two executive orders signed by US President Donald Trump in the first month of his term.
The lawsuit comes after the detention of a Columbia University student, Mahmoud Khalil, a 30-year-old permanent US resident of Palestinian descent, whose arrest sparked protests this month.
Justice Department lawyers have argued that the US government is seeking Khalil’s removal because Secretary of State Marco Rubio has reasonable grounds to believe his activities or presence in the country could have “serious adverse foreign policy consequences.” Rubio on Friday said the United States will likely revoke visas of more students in the coming days.
Trump vowed to deport activists who took part in protests on US college campuses against Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza following the October 2023 attack by the Palestinian terrorists.
The ADC lawsuit was filed on behalf of two graduate students and a professor at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, who say their activism and support of the Palestinian people “has put them at serious risk of political persecution.”
“This lawsuit is a necessary step to preserve our most fundamental constitutional protections. The First Amendment guarantees the freedom of speech and expression to all persons within the United States, without exception,” said Abed Ayoub, national executive director of the ADC.
Chris Godshall-Bennett, the group’s legal director, said the litigation seeks immediate and long-term relief “to protect international students from any unconstitutional overreach that stifles free expression and deters them from fully engaging in academic and public discourse.”
The lawsuit centers on three Cornell University plaintiffs: a British-Gambian national and PhD student with a student visa; a US citizen PhD student working on plant science; and a US citizen novelist, poet, and professor in the Department of Literatures in English.
The post Rights Group Files Lawsuit to Block Trump Deportations of Anti-Israel Protesters first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Netanyahu Informs Shin Bet Chief to Vote on His Dismissal Next Week
Israel’s Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar speaks at Reichman University in Herzliya on Sunday, September 11, 2022. Photo: Screenshot
i24 News – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Ronen Bar, the head of the Shin Bet security agency, that he will bring a vote before his government to dismiss him next week.
The post Netanyahu Informs Shin Bet Chief to Vote on His Dismissal Next Week first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Houthis Claim to Attack US Aircraft Carrier, Retaliating for Strikes
Newly recruited fighters who joined a Houthi military force intended to be sent to fight in support of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, march during a parade in Sanaa, Yemen, Dec. 2, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
i24 News – The Houthis claimed on Sunday that they targeted the aircraft carrier USS Harry Truman and other vessels in the northern Red Sea with 18 ballistic and cruise missiles and a drone. Military spokesperson Yahya Saree said that the US-led attacks against the Houthis on Saturday comprised of more than 47 airstrikes on seven governorates, with the death toll expected to rise.
“The Yemeni Armed Forces will not hesitate to target all American warships in the Red Sea and in the Arabian Sea in retaliation to the aggression against our country,” Saree said, vowing the Houthis “will continue to impose a naval blockade on the Israeli enemy and ban its ships in the declared zone of operations until aid and basic needs are delivered to the Gaza Strip.”
The post Houthis Claim to Attack US Aircraft Carrier, Retaliating for Strikes first appeared on Algemeiner.com.