Gotham Gazette

The Place for New York Policy and politics

Opinion

Leading Mayoral Candidates Show Yeshiva Ignorance


daily life shot

A Brooklyn scene (photo: Benjamin Kanter/Mayoral Photo Office)


In his new book Think Again, psychologist Adam Grant discusses the art of rethinking our ideas and beliefs and how vital this is towards progress. He explains how politicians are particularly prone to falling into a Politician Mode. It’s where one seeks approval and support from an audience with the goal of winning them over. 

Grant’s theory was top of mind as I have watched several of the New York City mayoral candidates go into full-blown Politici an Mode in their effort to win over the highly sought-after Hasidic bloc vote. One issue, in particular, stands out: secular education. 

As a graduate of Hasidic yeshiva that did not provide me with a proper secular education, it’s astonishing to see how ill-informed two of the mayoral candidates are on the issue of yeshiva education. 

This week, Eric Adams posted a video of himself on Twitter filmed during a brief visit to a Hasidic elementary school. Adams makes a series of inaccurate statements. He labels critics of Hasidic yeshiva education as “outsiders” when, in fact, the complaints against yeshivas were made by a group of parents and former yeshiva students, such as myself. While attending a Hasidic high school we never received any secular education (i.e. basic writing and reading of English, science, history, etc.), and in elementary school, we received just under 90 minutes of secular studies per day. 

Adams also makes strange comparisons between the effort to improve secular curriculum in Hasidic yeshivas and the problems African-American and Hispanic students face due to a lack of culturally-competent education in their schools. We never devalued or attacked cultural or religious education—we merely proposed having a robust dual curriculum as they have in the majority of non-Hasidic Jewish schools.

At a mayoral forum on February 18, Andrew Yang also stated that he wouldn’t “interfere” with “faith-based learning”—essentially offering assurance to the Hasidic community that their schools will be allowed to continue breaking state law and not properly educating students. In a bizarre anecdote, he mentioned how he valued his one month of bible education back in high school, where he said he studied it as “literature,” proving that he was misinformed on this issue.

In reality, over 50,000 children within the New York Hasidic (a.k.a ultra-Orthodox) school system were found being not educated as required by state law. In December of 2019, the New York City Department of Education released a long-awaited and much-delayed report on some of the problematic Hasidic yeshivas. Of 28 yeshivas reviewed by investigators, only two were found to be providing students with an adequate education in accordance with state law—confirming years of allegations against these problematic yeshivas.

Although this impacts the curriculum at a very specific group of Jewish schools, this issue is of true concern to all New Yorkers. According to the 2020 Census, the towns of Kiryas Joel and New Square in upstate New York are listed as having the highest population growth rates within the state. They are also the poorest towns in the country. Both towns are almost exclusively Hasidic. Growth rates within the Hasidic community of New York City have also been astounding. Data suggests that by 2030, up to one-eighth of New York City’s schoolchildren will be Hasidic, including up to 30% of Brooklyn’s schoolchildren. Unfortunately, the lack of secular education dooms most young Hasidic graduates to lives of poverty and dependence on government aid. It's not hard to imagine the economic stress the State and City may face if this isn’t acted upon soon.

We aren’t expecting a new mayor to come in at the beginning of next year and overhaul the Hasidic yeshiva curriculum overnight. But we do need a mayor who understands and acknowledges an issue of this magnitude and prioritizes the education of these children. We need a mayor who will create change for the betterment of all children, not only try to appeal to adult voters. 

Grant discusses another mode of thinking, the Scientific Mode, in which one is aware of the limits of their own understanding, remains curious, and updates their views based on new information.  

We need a mayor who will adopt a scientific frame of mind to solve this issue—a mayor who is only focused on being a politician won’t do.

***
Shlomo Noskow attended Hasidic yeshivas in Brooklyn. He is a member of the board at Yaffed, an organization advocating for improved education in Hasidic yeshivas. On Twitter @yaffedorg.

***
Have an op-ed idea or submission for Gotham Gazette? Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Mayoral Candidates are Talking Smart About Housing. That’s Only the First Step


housing nyc building

Housing (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)


While there have been no shortage of Zoom forums and candidate discussions, it is fitting that the first televised gathering of mayoral hopefuls focused on housing and homelessness. The city is in the throes of a housing emergency that the pandemic has only exacerbated. One million households were rent burdened before the pandemic and now hundreds of thousands of households are at risk of eviction, with tens of thousands more at risk of foreclosure. This is just one way to quantify the scope of the problem facing the next mayor, who will likely be tasked with providing immediate housing relief to pandemic-impacted households while also addressing the crisis’ underlying conditions.

My organization, the New York Housing Conference, organized a broad coalition called United for Housing – comprising 90 policy experts, practitioners, and advocates from a diverse range of backgrounds – to lay out a policy vision to help combat this challenge. And last week, our coalition was proud to partner with the NYU Furman Center and NY1 to host a mayoral candidate forum that fostered a meaningful policy conversation among frontrunners in the Democratic primary. The fact is that New Yorkers should be encouraged by what they heard – but this is only the first step.

The most encouraging sign is that each of the eight candidates have promised to meet United for Housing’s goal of doubling city capital spending on housing to $4 billion annually. This is a significant promise that reflects the seriousness with which every candidate is treating housing – a spirit we have seen as we’ve briefed candidates on the vision laid out in our report, United for Housing: From the Ground Up, throughout the campaign.

This carried over into the forum, where candidates were pressed on issues ranging from COVID-19’s impact on the housing emergency to the affordable housing and homelessness crisis to home ownership to NYCHA to racial equity. And while there is some disagreement on the best path forward, there is broad consensus on the scope of the problem and even some of the most important solutions.

For example, every candidate agreed to make rental assistance vouchers available to youth aging out of the foster care system – a smart, targeted way to prevent young New Yorkers from experiencing homelessness at a key moment in their lives. Candidates also agreed on the big questions, highlighting that we need to build more deeply affordable housing, that housing, eviction prevention, and rental assistance are essential tools in the homelessness crisis, that NYCHA residents need to be better involved in the future of their homes, and that we need to take an active approach to end systemic discrimination and segregation in housing.

The broad agreement coupled with the fact that so many candidates have boldly committed to such a robust ramp-up of city expenditure on housing is the most significant development of the campaign thus far from a housing perspective. But it alone will not be enough: key differences on the details remain among the candidates, including how they will use that money, where it will be targeted, and even what each means by the term “affordable housing.”

Over the next several months, it will be incumbent on every New Yorker to continue pushing candidates on the details. New York City cannot afford anything less than a real plan that will meaningfully address the problems we are all facing. And it will be incumbent on the next mayor to take the lead: while there are promising signs of new support from Washington, it is essential for every level of government to make a historic commitment on housing to actually move the dial.

This is only the first step. When the next mayor takes office, we will need to ensure that the proper resources are made available and fight for a more affordable New York. After all, the next mayor’s choices will shape not just our COVID-19 recovery, but also the next decade of housing policy – and it is crucial that they get it right.

***
Brendan Cheney is the Director of Policy and Communications at the New York Housing Conference, which convened the United for Housing coalition and authored the From the Ground Up report. On Twitter @brendancheney of @thenyhc.

***
Have an op-ed idea or submission for Gotham Gazette? Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

New York Must Give Criminalized Trafficking Survivors Like Me a Fresh Start


exp dev rem

Police lines (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


In the back of a police car after my arrest, I remember thinking: at least I am going somewhere my trafficker can’t hurt me. 

It was 2010, and I had met a man who trafficked me into prostitution. At 23, I was a vulnerable target. I had fled an abusive home in Mexico for Brooklyn. I was undocumented and live d in fear of deportation. My family in New York had kicked me out because they did not accept my identity as a transgender woman. I stayed with friends who introduced me to a man who, at first, offered me the attention and affection I craved -- then turned on me.

Once I had come to trust him, he beat me, raped me, and forced me into sex work, setting up "dates" for me on Craigslist and taking the money. He threatened me with a knife and said he would call immigration on me. He gave me drugs and alcohol and then threatened to withhold them if I didn’t work for him. I had no idea how to get out. 

Perhaps worst of all, my trafficker used me as bait so he could commit knife-point robberies of the men he forced me to have sex with. I was arrested by an undercover cop and charged with one of those robberies. 

Nobody in the system asked what happened to put me into that situation. Even though I was being abused, I was afraid to tell the police what was going on. If they had known my trafficker made me do the robberies, would things have been different? I feared his continued abuse; I feared the police; I feared I would be sent back to Mexico. Because of my fear, I just stayed quiet, and it was the worst feeling in the world. I was already traumatized by the abuse I was suffering. When the police went through my personal belongings, swabbed my mouth, fingerprinted me, and laughed at me, I felt worthless.

Victims are supposed to be protected by the law, but I wasn’t. It felt so easy for everyone in the system to treat me like garbage they could toss out. I am a good person but being in the courtroom made me feel like the worst person in the world. I ended up pleading guilty because I felt powerless, saddling myself with a criminal record. The conviction posed a new obstacle to my immigration process and served as a constant reminder of my trafficking experience – another way my trafficker had marked me.  

In 2009, New York became the first state in the country to allow human trafficking survivors to clear prostitution convictions from their criminal records. This law has provided some measure of justice to people forced into prostitution and arrested for it. However, it does not address all of the other offenses that traffickers compel victims to commit by using force, fraud, or coercion. As a result, it still leaves trafficking survivors like me with criminal records. 

Now the New York State Legislature is considering a bill to expand a trafficking survivor’s right to relief. The START Act, sponsored by Assembly Member Richard Gottfried and Senator Jessica Ramos, has been introduced in both houses this session, but hasn’t yet come to a vote in either house. It would empower courts to clear any criminal convictions resulting from human trafficking, and it could provide justice to the many people who found themselves in circumstances like mine. The Legislature should vote on it as soon as possible. 

Today, I have been granted asylum in the U.S., and I am working to restart my life as an activist. Fortunately, I was able to clear the robbery conviction from my record, with the efforts of my legal team and an agreement worked out with an understanding prosecutor. But under current law, most trafficking survivors are not able to do this, even though their offenses were entirely the result of being trafficked. Justice shouldn’t depend on where you live or where you were arrested. All trafficking victims in New York State deserve access to a clean slate.

I am sorry for what happened; every night I still pray for forgiveness. But I was under the control of my trafficker, and the law didn't understand that. 

Passing the START Act would mean that trafficking survivors can fully move on with our lives, get a fresh start and feel less alone. We need to be able to clear the criminal records that hold us back. New York must protect victims like me and pass the START Act now. 

***
N.R. is an activist for immigrant rights and a member of the New York Anti-Trafficking Network’s START Coalition, a group advocating for passage of the START Act. Kate Mogulescu is the director of Brooklyn Law School’s Criminal Defense & Advocacy Clinic, which worked with N.R. to clear her record and on this column, and represents other criminalized trafficking survivors.

***
Have an op-ed idea or submission for Gotham Gazette? Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.



Print Friendly and PDF

Editor's Choice


Gotham Gazette: New York Voters Approve $4.2 Billion Environmental Bond Act
New York Voters Approve $4.2 Billion Environmental Bond Act
Gotham Gazette: 
New York City Voters Approve Racial Justice Ballot Measures
New York City Voters Approve Racial Justice Ballot Measures
Gotham Gazette: 
Housing Development in New York City Slows to a Crawl as Officials Debate Tax Incentives
Housing Development in New York City Slows to a Crawl as Officials Debate Tax Incentives
Gotham Gazette: 
City Council Examines Low Voter Turnout, Moving Local Elections to Even Years City Council Examines Low Voter Turnout, Moving Local Elections to Even Years