Kiryas Joel, NY – A Key Figure In The State Education Debate, Satmar Rebbe Heaps Praise On Felder For Standing Tall (audio)

Kiryas Joel, NY – Just days after New York State narrowly made its annual fiscal deadline, approving a $168 billion budget that included modifications acknowledging the academic standards of the yeshiva system, the Satmar Rebbe Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum lauded Senator Simcha Felder for his diligent efforts on behalf of yeshiva children statewide.

Speaking to his followers Chol Hamoed last week, the Satmar Rebbe said that he has been growing increasingly concerned about the efforts of a group of people who are products of the yeshiva system and have chosen to blame their personal failures on their education. Without identifying any person or organization by name, the Satmar Rebbe described the group’s members as embittered and angry individuals, categorizing them as “low lives,” “mosrim” and “sore losers.”

Entire audio speech of the Satmar Rebbe below:

The Satmar Rebbe praised the education provided by yeshivas, noting that while this unnamed group has spent years convincing elected officials from NYC to Albany, that yeshivas offer students sub-par schooling, leaving them ignorant and ill-equipped to deal with life, nothing could be farther from the truth. Local law enforcement can verify the low crime rate in Charedi communities, said the Satmar Rebbe, which have few of the problems that plague the secular world with its supposedly superior education.

Hoping to avoid the aforementioned group’s agenda of mandating greater government oversight on yeshiva curricula that could require schools to teach topics that run contrary to Orthodox Judaism, something he described as catastrophic, the Satmar Rebbe reached out to numerous individuals several months ago including Felder, who represents Borough Park and large parts of Flatbush in what was dubbed the “Super Jewish District” when it was created several years ago.

A Democrat who caucuses with the Republicans, giving them the majority in the Senate, Felder has been staunchly unapologetic about advocating for his constituents, an extremely large number of whom send their children to Charedi yeshivas, including thousands who are followers of the Satmar Rebbe.

In a phone interview with VIN News, Felder described the Satmar Rebbe as “the driving force” behind the effort to ensure that “all kids, including yeshiva kids, receive a proper education without government interference.”

“The conversation started around Chanukah time,” Felder told VIN News. “The Satmar Rebbe told me it was a life or death situation, that nothing could be more important than preventing government from interfering with religious freedoms, particularly a religious education. He made it very clear to me that nothing was more important than this crisis that was facing yeshiva parents.”

The Satmar Rebbe was one of several high ranking religious leaders who were involved in ensuring that New York’s education law would take into account the academic demands of a yeshiva education which includes high level analytical skills taught during a school day whose length is often more than double that of public school.

Also stepping into the picture was Governor Andrew Cuomo who called the Satmar Rebbe last Thursday night, urging him to intervene with Felder who refused to back down from requested modifications to the proposed education law in an attempt to pass the stalled budget. Saying that the spiritual well being and religious freedoms of thousands of Jewish schoolchildren were at stake, the Satmar Rebbe declined the governor’s request.

The budget bill that passed the Senate, S. 7509, requires non-profit elementary and middle private schools with dual curricula, whose extended hours meet certain guidelines, to teach literature, writing skills, math, history, social studies, civics and critical thinking skills.

Those that do could be considered by the state education commissioner to be meeting the state standard of providing a “substantially equivalent” education. High school students who have graduated from a school providing the aforementioned education, who are in a bilingual program that runs until at least 6 PM on most days and are engaged in an academically rigorous curriculum that develops critical thinking could also be considered to have received an education that is substantially equivalent to that being taught in public schools.

Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, executive vice president of Agudath Israel of America which advocates strongly for the needs of the Orthodox Jewish community, has also been in contact with numerous individuals, including Felder and the Satmar Rebbe, to protect the educational standards of yeshivas. Rabbi Zwiebel noted that the Satmar Rebbe is the leader of the largest single yeshiva community whose followers would be most impacted by any state laws that attempt to regulate private school education.

“I personally feel that we are better off today than we were a week and a half ago,” said Rabbi Zwiebel. “The final version acknowledges the academic rigor and critical thinking skills of the yeshiva learning experience, several points that were not apparent under the old law.”

The movement to defend yeshivas against regulatory oversight was never intended to be a complete exemption from state law that requires private schools to meet mandated educational criteria, explained Rabbi Zwiebel.

“We acknowledge that government has the right to ensure that children in all schools, including ours, receive a sound basic education that prepares them to function as productive citizens,” noted Rabbi Zwiebel. “What we take issue with is excessive government regulation or oversight that would require yeshivas to conform to the same curricular requirements as those used in public schools.

Our position is that yeshivas, in order to carry out the fundamental religious mission for which they were created, need to be given great latitude in designing a rigorous academic program that may differ from that offered in the public schools but nonetheless gives students the skills they need to be productive members of society. We believe that the Felder bill strikes an appropriate balance along those lines.”

Felder has been hammered mercilessly by the media over the past week, accused of holding the state budget hostage to his demands and introducing legislation that would keep yeshiva children uneducated. For his part, the state senator seems unfazed by his critics and said he hopes to continue advocating for his constituents and their preference to limit government oversight of religious schools.

“Anyone who really cares about yeshiva kids getting a good foundation should be very happy,” said Felder, who spent the days prior to Pesach in Albany advocating for yeshivas, arriving home with just moments to spare before the onset of the holiday. “I will say publicly that we got about 50 percent of what we wanted here and I am going to keep the pressure on to get more.”

Continuing his remarks to his followers, the Satmar Rebbe said that he was grateful to have been able to play a part in averting an educational catastrophe and that his followers should have extra conviction when they say Hallel on Pesach to thank G-d for the positive results achieved.

The Satmar Rebbe spent several minutes praising Felder, showering him and his family with blessings, calling him a savior for more than 100,000 Jewish children who live in New York State.

“There are those who acquire their place in the world to come in just a single moment,” said the Satmar Rebbe. “In the name of all of the holy kehillos in all of the State of New York … everyone should say ‘yasher koyach Reb Simcha.’”