Woman who sued New York City over yeshiva education quality takes over YAFFED
A NEW CITY – In the same month that YAFFED achieved a key part of its mission to ensure quality education for Jewish children in Hasidic yeshivas, the organization announced new leadership. Also, both the outgoing and incoming executive officers are associated with Rockland County.
New City resident Nahutli Moster announced in June that he would be leaving YAFFED (Young Advocates for Fair Education). He will be replaced on his October 3rd by Beatrice Weber, who will leave the Hasidic community living in Rockland.
“It’s been a long time coming,” Moster said of his decision to step down. He founded his YAFFED in 2012 and enlisted the help of former Yeshiva students like him in his adulthood to realize that their education lacked a basic knowledge of the world. found in
Nonprofits have worked with the New York State and New York City education departments for years over the need to enforce state laws requiring academic instruction in private schools to be substantially equivalent to what is taught in public schools. were fighting.
Moster was often the target of sharp criticism from within the Orthodox Jewish community.
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The New York State Board of Regents voted unanimously on Sept. 13 to update the controversial “substantial equivalence” rule for nonpublic schools. This turned into a battle over the years, even though the rules were to enforce the law on his books since 1865.
The main motivation in finally proceeding with the Guidance was a court challenge to New York City filed by Weber, who claimed that his son’s yeshiva of Brooklyn had failed to provide him with an education.
In June, a state Supreme Court judge ordered the city and state education departments to close the yeshiva investigation. This is an important step in ultimately determining whether and how the state will update the Substantial Equivalence Education Rule for nonpublic schools.
Webber recently told USA Today Network: “By September”
Weber is the former spouse of Rabbi Monsee. She lived in Rockland from 2003 until she was 2016. She is a mother of 10 children. She is an alumnus of her Leadership Rockland.
Her older children, now adults, joined the Yeshiva in Rockland. Over the years, she said, these schools have become more conservative. At one point her sons had the option of studying for the Regent exams. Most students didn’t choose to do that, she recalled.
“There are differences between different types of yeshiva,” said Weber. Her concern is yeshiva, who provide less and less basic education such as math, English, and science, and sometimes no education in those subjects at all.
“The point is that you need to overlook it,” Weber said.
According to Weber, life in Monsey was different from his childhood in Toronto and his time spent in Israel.
“I drove,” said Weber, recalling her life as a Hasidic Lebetzin. She said soon after that her sons yeshiva stopped registering students her mother would drive.
Most of her children were over the age of 18 when she separated from her spouse.
“It wasn’t an amicable divorce,” said Weber. “I got custody of the younger kids and he got custody of the older kids.”
Weber holds an MBA from Wayne State University. She didn’t even have a high school diploma when she started her classes at SUNY Rockland Community College, she said.
She said she had seen great success among some young men who had had limited education in Hasidic yeshivas. “not because of it, but in spite of it”.
Weber has over 15 years of leadership experience in multiple organizations, most recently at Ronald McDonald House in New York focused on improving health equity for New York City’s children and their families.
Nancy Cutler writes about People & Policy. Follow her on her Twitter. @nancyrockland.
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