![Satmar Hasidic boys in the lunchroom at the United Talmudical Academy in Kiryas Joel, N.Y. [photo credit: Randy Harris for The New York Times]](http://www.vinnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/kidse-300x200.jpg "kidse")
New York – In this economic crisis, the leaders of Satmar, who defiantly never went to college, are running rings around their more modern brothers and sisters who have advanced degrees and invested with Bernie Madoff. Mainstream Jews are debating hot to steer Jewish education through the crisis, perhaps with tax credits, or the creation of Hebrew-emphasis public charer schools, like the Arabic public school in Brooklyn. Meanwhile, Satmar, who figured this out 15 years ago, scored $6.3 million from the stimulus bill for Kiryas Joel’s all-Jewish public school.
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The school, with a $13 million budget, has 280 students, all of them with special needs, some with dramatic physical disabilities. More than 900 students in the private Kiryas Joel yeshivas receive remedial support in the public school that has more staff than full-time students.
Other Jewish schools will benefit from the stimulus, in various ways, but no school in the area, public or otherwise, will be cashing in like Kiryas Joel. The upstate Times Herald-Record (Feb. 12) reports that although Kiryas Joel is the smallest school district in Orange, Sullivan and Ulster counties, it is getting more stimulus school funding than Newburgh ($5.5 million) for 12,230 public school students, or Monroe-Woodbury ($2 million) for 7,500 students.
What helped Kiryas Joel is that it is at the top of the list for Title 1 low-income students (it was recently ranked by the Census Bureau as the single poorest community in the United States) and the Individuals With Disabilities Act.
What makes this a curious media story, however, is the fact that, not that long ago, when every major news organization in the region was covering the feud between the two rival Satmar rebbes, just about every single story made a point of how wealthy Satmar was. The Daily News headlined, “Grand rebbe’s sons feud over $500 million empire.”
The Jerusalem Post, in 2006, reported on “Satmars’ extensive assets.”
JTA, the Jewish news service, reported in 2007 that what was at stake in the feud was “control over the group’s vast real estate holdings, estimated to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars.”
Despite all the papers, Jewish and otherwise, that described the vast assets, only the The Times Herald-Record is still paying attention. According to the Census, Kiryas Joel has the highest percentage of food stamp recipients. Only one other place in the United States has a lower median income than Kiryas Joel’s $15,848. What happened to the half-billion in communal assets? Is it so lacking in liquidity, or were those media reports misleading, bordering on the stereotype that nothing could motivate a chasidic feud but money? No one is putting two and two (or $500 million and $15,848) together. Certainly makes you want to meet Satmar’s accountant.
Stimulus — spiritual stimulus — can come with hard times. The historic Jewish revival of the Upper West Side in the 1970s would not have been possible if rents weren’t in free-fall, allowing for an infusion of writers, artists and students who, with some of the older residents, reinvented a neighborhood in decline.
In line with what Jews learned in several New York neighborhoods, Richard Florida explains in The Atlantic Monthly (March) how a crash could reshape a city for the better. “The great urbanist Jane Jacobs,” he writes, “argued that the jostling of many different professions and different types of people, all in a dense environment, is an essential spur to innovation.” Innovation “is what keeps cities vital and relevant. … The extraordinary income gains of investment bankers, traders, and hedge-fund managers over the past two decades skewed the city’s economy in some unhealthy ways. … Stratospheric real-estate prices have made New York less diverse over time, and arguably less stimulating. When I asked Jacobs some years ago, about the effects of escalating real-estate prices on creativity, she told me, ‘When a place gets boring, even the rich people leave.’”
A creative population is a stimulus all its own.
Many years ago, when the situation wasn’t as bad as it is today, a community activist has suggested that after summer camp all jewish children in heimishe communities register in public schools. Once the city will find themselfs with so many new resigtrants they will come running and give us everything we want (money, buildings, etc) only to keep the children where they were until now.
I have no idea what happened at the end. All I know it never happened.
At least this story kills the hate-based “Rich Satmar” stories. We now all see that they are no richer than any other group. They ARE hard-working people who are surviving in a Torah way.
They are not quite as poor as the numbers seem, though.
Their family size brings down the income per capita to make them look really poor. When you take most people’s income and divided by 15, (13 kids plus a pair of parents) the numbers make them out to “LEGALLY POOR”
But if you visit there, you will find many sitting and learning after hours of working their tails off at all types of jobs and businesses.
Rich? No way.
Charitable? The most Charitable people in the world.
Poor? Not at all. What could be richer than raising a family with Torah values, while protecting them from the filth of the modern secular society. One visit to KJ shows you the happiest people you ever have seen. Well, at least the happiest and best adjusted I have ever seen, and I have lived in many towns and cities in the USA.
“No one is putting two and two (or $500 million and $15,848) together. “
Everyone put it together and understands what is happening.
So far KJ is able to pull it off because of the huge singleminded bloc vote in Orange County.
First of all< 500,000,000. is way exaggerated. second, the so called "assets" are all the school buildings of Satmar (both Satmars) all over the world.
So what’s the solution? to sell off some buildings? and then, the kids will go learn on the streets and in the parks?
Rich in school buildings (acquired over the last 60 years by philanthropists’ donations) doesn’t mean that they can support thousands of low income families with the real estate value.
Honestly, the whole thing disgusts me. Taking blatant advantage of the extreme generosity of our government will only lead to anti-semitism. While they pretend to sacrifice for Torah and the Rebbeh, the reality is that their entire way of life is built on sheker.
Kiryat Joel has an exclusively chassidish population, so it can do the public school route. Other places cannot.
pure jealousy
GO KJ GO
I guess I am going to become part of satmar:)
Visit the school district before you comment, these children are ill & are getting proper care.
It is possible that the school can run more efficiently or that the community benefits by using the gym…
But overall this is the result of a consistent effort to get the most for special education.
Chillul hashem as most people think/know there is CASH there
Its amazing what food stamps can do. This shouldn’t make anyone proud, it’s simply disgusting.
Are those precious kids in the above photo not worth every effort anyone can make to give them the very best we could? Which one do you think is getting more than he deserves?
No. 13 says they are still paying taxes and “it is their tax money paying for this.” How much tax is a community with such high rates of food stamps and other government benefits paying? These schools are not funded just by local tax. They are getting state and federal monies. Also remember that public money cannot be used for religious instruction and the schools must not engage in any discrimination against non-jewish teachers, students, vendors, etc. Therefore this will not work outside of this enclave.
The article is puzzling. It states that the “jostling of many different professions and different types of people, all in a dense environment, is an essential spur to innovation,” yet one of the primary purposes of KJ is to prevent “jostling” with different types of people.
Why is it, that one always tries to find fault with the “chasidim” and our way of life? Is it because of jealousy? Is it that we make the secular and not chasidish world feel “guilty”? Or is it because of pure sinas chinum! Look at some of the posts on this site! Kol Hakovod to those who stick up for Satmar! Just look at facts:
1. The money Satmar was fighting about is all about, Yeshivas, cemeteries, buildings, Shuls. These are assets that are NOT LIQUID!
2. Kiryas Yoel is a self sufficient community where the children are NOT PART of the Public School system, saving taxpayers 1,000’s of dollars!
3. The $15,000.00 income is based on huge families that have 12 children and more!
4.Nebach, pay a visit to THE SPECIAL SCHOOL in KY and see how they are working with special needs children and you will see that the money they are receiving for this special school will be put to use for such an important undertaking!
I dont at all get what the wealth of Satmar has to do with the income of individual families. Just because Bloomberg is rich, or the State of New York for that matter, doesn’t make NY families rich. This whole article makes no sense.
Satmar and all other Jewish communities save the government billions by not using their EMS services, public school services, prison services etc.
Wherever they live, housing prices rise which means more taxes for the government.
Since they don’t use public school services they should at least be entitled to special ed services. By the way when you compare the way a frum Jewish run special ed school treats their students as opposed to a non frum school, you’ll see that the former get much more for their dollar. I’ve seen both sides of the coin and I cannot be thankful enough that I am a part of the observant Jewish community.
“They are a large community with enough “Special” kids to form a school district” A study needs to be done about why there are so many special needs children in their district. Is it because of poverty? Is it because of inbreeding or genetics? Is it because of environmental factors?
No 36: This is not australia. This country has a strong tradition of separation of church and state. Public schools are meant, in part, to teach american values, including non-discrimination, getting along with people of all national origins and religions, respect for and obedience to secular authority, equality, preparing kids for higher education, teaching science, etc. Some religious schools (and I’m not saying which religions or which schools) not only don’t teach these values, they denigrate them. Therefore, they should not be supported with public money or tax breaks. Remember, to be careful what you wish for — do you want public money funding radical wahabi madrassas in the u.s.?
The reason why kj has so many special kids per family is #1 they have larger families #2 people move to kj or even commute from other areas to be able to send there since it’s the best special school out there.
KJ sounds great! How can I sign up? — Octomom
Lots of people here talking about KJ families with 14-15 kids. Really, I know quite a few people in KJ but I don’t know anyone who has more than 8-10 kids Ka”h. I think 14 kids is not the average there. Not that 10 kids ka”h is not a big family, because it is. But I’m wondering if there actually are sooo many families with more than 10 kids as people are discussing here.
If the math is correct than they are spending about $48,000 per student for education. Where is that money coming from?
no one chooses for their children to have special needs.is it so hard to fargin these parents for trying to do there best for their children.btw the public schools are federally mandated to provide apprpriate education for all special needs children.
“According to the Census, Kiryas Joel has the highest percentage of food stamp recipients”.
Great! Be proud of the statistic having the highest percentage receiving food stamps… what a Chilul HaShem!
All you who find fault, go for a visit. Meet the people. I think you will find, as I found, people you can be proud of.
Stop being so judgemental about good people.
Don’t we have enough that we need to be ashamed of, that we need to pick on the good people… just because they are different from us.
Some people see the silver lining in clouds. Other look for clouds when they see silver.
See the good in these people. They are not some strange people. They are a very loving and caring group of fellow Jews would would give YOU their last piece of Challah.
They don’t care who YOU are. If you are Jewish, and need help, the people in KJ would help you.
Don’t look for faults.
Are we so perfect that another group can’t find faults in us?
My MO shul has mostly upper middle, and middle class people, with nice homes and nice cars.
I spent a Shabbos in KJ for a cousin’s bar mitzvah.
There I saw something I felt jealous of. They had an inner peace and happiness. They may not have had as much money, but they had so much trust and bitachon in Hashem, and such ruchnius, and love for their fellow Jew, that I left with a tear in my eye.
I do not wear a black hat, only a medium sized kippa. But these people with their shtreimels, and white sox, treated me as if I were one of them in every way.
They never spoke about other Jews disrespectfully. They showed nothing but Ahavas Yisroel. I left there with the thought that I will speak out every time I hear a member of my shul bash Satmar.
They don’t deserve bashing. They do deserve praise. They do deserve our respect.
My fellow Jews,
I am certain that all of you that are writing cynical comments in direct response to an article released by a known anti-Semitic media source are all with decent intentions. All Jews and Orthodox in particular live with some sort of guiltiness. You are always told by your non Jewish associates, why your fellow Jewish brothers are disliked, but they assure you that you, as an individual is different. Initially you put up a defense, and you attempt to explain to whom you believe to be a much more intelligent or mannered person than even yourself, that he misunderstands us. In due course, you start believing him two things, first, that your fellow Jews are in fact behaving in a manner that deserves detestation. Secondly and most importantly, you believe him (or her) that you are exempt, and that all it takes for a “regular person” to recognize that is a quick encounter with you. If this condition continues for a longer period the consequences could be severe emotional distress. You start hating the fact that you are part of such a vicious community, and you almost start questioning your own self, am I really different or am I just a “shmuk” as the rest of them.
At this point, the natural defense mechanisms that God has created, in order to keep a human from losing his sanity, kicks in. You realize that nothing is wrong with you, it is the other Jews. But then you question yourself, how is it possible that just one person in an entire community is different than all others. The natural defense mechanisms keep working; you finally become conscious of the fact that your entire community is basically fine. The other community, the one that looks weird, fanatic, and old fashioned, those are the bad ones. They are the thieves, swindlers, and crooks, you understand why the “normal” people despise them. You always notice when one of them does not hold the door open for a “goyi”, it infuriates you when you see one “of them” process a purchase return at a retailer.
This condition, when it reaches an advanced stage it comes close to full blown anti-Semitism. You start believing every negative story on your fellow Jews without giving them any hesitation. When you happen to spot a Jew having a dispute with a “goy” you shamelessly express support to the “goy” without any regard to fact and knowledge. It does not matter if you are supporting a school dropout, unhygienic, germ-infested, filthy, slimy, and sub-human, against a person that may be a well educated well mannered person who does not speak perfect English and is dressed traditionally. You do not see the essence of the two; instead you see the Jew and the goy.
I
n conclusion let me run a few minor facts of the issue at stake. Kiryas Joel (KJ) have their own school district. They have won legitimacy at all court levels including the United States Supreme Court. Their Public School consists of disabled school children only. Their budget per child, in my assumption is about double compared to a healthy child. The stimulus grants are divided based on budget needs, not on the amount of children. The stimulus monies are not some sort of grant that KJ maneuvered to receive. It just so happened that based upon the criteria of how the disbursements were designed, it had put KJ in a higher bracket, due to the fact that they have an unusual amount (280) of disabled children per person living in that village. It is extremely hypocritical to think of Madoff as some sort of shrewd Jew, but quell Kiryas Joel as those who make the “chilul Hashem”
I appreciate that you spent the time reading my paper, and I apologize for all grammatical errors, after all I am a Hasidic person that did not receive a collage degree.