aguda-nyt

No Pulitzer Prize to The New York Times for Its Egregious Yeshiva Coverage

mygluck@agudah.org (Mygluck Agudah) — Tue, 09 May 2023 20:13:11 GMT

May 8th, 2023

(New York, NY) – This afternoon, the Pulitzer Prize Board announced the winners of its coveted annual awards – and did not include the deeply objectionable New York Times series on the Orthodox Jewish community and their yeshivas.

While there is no way of knowing with certainty why the much ballyhooed series did not receive a Pulitzer Prize, the news that The Times was not awarded for its one-sided and erroneous portrayals of Orthodox and Hasidic Jews was greeted with much appreciation and relief in Orthodox Jewish circles.

KnowUs, a project of Agudath Israel of America, had alerted the Pulitzer Prize Board – in the form of a 30-page open letter mailed to every Pulitzer Prize Board member – that The Times based its coverage upon demonstrably misleading data, buried sources, and numerous other violations of the Pulitzer’s own journalistic standards. Had the series been feted with the prestigious Pulitzer Prize, its deeply objectionable portrayal of the Orthodox and Hasidic communities would have only been exacerbated.

Beyond its likely role in preventing The Times series from receiving this coveted award, KnowUs has shown, throughout the past few months, that there are those who still value truth, diversity, and religious and parental rights.

Countless outlets have covered KnowUs’ work and pushed back against the jaundiced narrative foisted upon readers of The New York Times.

“Respected intellectuals, secular Jewish organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League, and numerous national and state elected officials deserve specific appreciation for going on record, standing up for the Orthodox Jewish community, and fending off hateful invectives artfully posing as ‘constructive’ criticism,” said Avrohom Weinstock, director of KnowUs. “Such actions, and such people, give KnowUs and the Orthodox Jewish community hope for a more transparent, tolerant, and respectful tomorrow.”

KnowUs will continue to inject these much-needed elements, along with as yet unreported data points and balance, as they relate to Orthodox Jews, into the public discourse.

Orthodox Jewish Group Urges Pulitzer Board to Withhold Coveted Journalism Honor from NY Times Anti-Hasidic Articles

Thu, 27 Apr 2023 20:27:49 GMT

April 10th, 2023

KnowUs , a new, coordinated movement to counter misleading, negative portrayals of Orthodox and Hasidic Jews, penned an open letter to the Board of the Pulitzer Prize urging it to refrain from granting the award to The New York Times for its deeply offensive and flawed series of articles attacking these thriving communities. Prize winners are scheduled to be announced in May.

Since September 2022, KnowUs has chronicled a Times crusade of one-sided, inaccurate articles mischaracterizing Orthodox Jews. The activist reporting is widely rumored to have set its sights on the journalistic award.

KnowUs mailed the letter to each of the 18 Pulitzer Board members on Monday morning. The 30-page letter includes 70 endnotes, and not only catalogs the offensive tropes irresponsibly amplified by the Times in an environment of rising, dangerous antisemitism, but also demonstrates that the Times knowingly employed sources with extensive conflicts of interest, something it failed to disclose; falsely claimed credit for real-world impacts; presented misleading data; misrepresented basic educational funding elements; and repeatedly engaged in unwarranted negative associations.

Click on the image above to read the entire letter.

The Pulitzer Prize guidelines contain sparse official requirements for attaining its coveted award. It merely states that “entries must adhere to the highest journalistic principles… that exemplifies the longstanding ethics of the journalistic profession. These include a commitment to honesty with both readers and the subjects of our work. The best journalism is transparent about its sources and methods. The rigor and completeness of sourcing is an important factor in judging the quality of submissions.”

KnowUs, which was formed under the auspices of Agudath Israel of America following broad outrage at the articles, undertook this project because it felt the critical need for the Pulitzer Prize Board to review, in an informed manner, the articles’ adherence to “the highest journalistic principles” the Pulitzer Board so values.

KnowUs writes: “We believe that awarding these articles, in any way, will be seen not only as a tacit approval and furtherance of offensive, antisemitic tropes, but would diminish the standing of the Pulitzer Prize by celebrating articles of demonstrably poor journalistic integrity.”

KnowUs is not alone in its critical scrutiny of The New York Times reporting. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) , among many others, have decried the coverage.

Any legitimate issues the paper sought to raise or explore were buried by these, and other, serious breaches of journalistic ethics, and by the articles’ creation of bigoted caricatures of Orthodox and Hasidic Jews, further othering an already marginalized community.

To read the open letter, please click here .

Lawsuit Decision: While Short of Victory, Court Recognizes State Education Overreach in Substantial Equivalency Regulations

Thu, 27 Apr 2023 19:29:47 GMT

March 23rd, 2023

Following months of arduous litigation, the decision in the lawsuit challenging New York State Education Department Regulations regarding “substantial equivalency” of yeshiva education to that offered in public schools was handed down today. While the decision does not entirely invalidate the Regulations, as hoped, Judge Christina Ryba, of the Supreme Court of New York, did strike down key portions of the Regulations, in a way that provides important protections for Orthodox Jewish education in New York.

Key sentences of Judge Ryba’s decision were:

“The Court finds that certain portions of the New Regulations impose consequences and penalties upon yeshivas above and beyond that authorized by the Compulsory Education Law… The statutory scheme places the burden for ensuring a child’s education squarely on the parent, not the school…”

“The Court finds that respondents lack authority to direct parents to completely unenroll their children from nonpublic schools that have been determined to fall short of meeting each and every substantial equivalency criteria, nor do respondents have authority to direct the closure of such schools. Rather, the parents should be given a reasonable opportunity to prove that the substantial equivalency requirements for their children’s education are satisfied by instruction provided through a combination of sources.”

While not the complete victory many were davening for, Agudath Israel is grateful that the court recognized the egregious overreach the Regulations sought. The prospect of forcibly shutting down schools, and of the state mandating which schools children should be reenrolled to, is not something one would typically associate with 21st century America. This was a battle we needed to wage. Thankfully, the court recognized that the State Education Department lacked authority to require this, and struck the most dangerous and offensive portions of the Regulations.

This is the third time that perilous Regulations regarding Orthodox Jewish education has been moderated or defeated since 2018.

Agudath Israel thanks Avi Schick and the Troutman Pepper firm, once again, for their tireless legal work.

The lawsuit was brought by Agudath Israel of America, Parents for Educational and Religious Liberty in Schools (PEARLS), Torah Umesorah, and Yeshivas Rabbi Chaim Berlin, Torah Vodaath, Tifereth Jerusalem, Rabbi Jacob Joseph and Ch’san Sofer.

Facts Are Irrelevant: Rebutting the New York Times’ Unrelenting Crusade Against New York Yeshivas

Thu, 27 Apr 2023 19:29:46 GMT

March 2nd, 2023

The New York Times continues its unabashedly relentless crusade of othering yeshivas as backward and abusive. Today, the New York Times described how legislation is being advanced in Albany to counter the phenomenon whereby “many Hasidic schools made regular use of corporal punishment to keep students in line during hours of grueling religious lessons.”

“The New York Times has misfired yet again in its latest attack on the Orthodox community,” said Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, executive vice president of Agudath Israel of America. “Our yeshivas are positive, warm, learning environments which impart our traditions; that is why our parents choose them. The notion, painted by the Times, that children in yeshivas subsist in a cruel, abusive environment where they are ‘regularly hit, slapped or kicked by their instructors’ is simply untrue, and the data described below supports that they are actually far safer there than public school. Agudath Israel supports the new legislation to crack down on unwarranted corporal punishment in all schools, both public and private.”

The New York Times credits its reporting for effecting this legislation.

In fact, the referenced New York Times report stated that “Over the past five years, the New York City Police Department has investigated more than a dozen claims of child abuse at the schools.”

As KnowUs noted when this report first emerged:

The Times found more than a dozen unsubstantiated claims, in unaffiliated schools, serving tens of thousands of students each year, over five years.

While even one incident of abuse is one too many, in the spirit of “substantial equivalence,” how does this figure compare to reports of abuse in New York City public schools over the same period? According to a recent Times Union investigation:

“From January 2016 through June 2021, the New York City Department of Education’s Office of Special Investigations received 16,671 complaints alleging corporal punishment, state records show.” (Emphasis added.)

Still more embarrassing for the Times, this morning, Senator Julia Salazar, the sponsor of the bill referenced by the Times, took to Twitter, addressing the Times:

“To be clear: We introduced this bill because the law should *explicitly* ban corporal punishment in all schools. The use of physical or violent methods to ostensibly discipline students has happened in many schools. I haven’t seen any evidence of it being a pattern in yeshivas.”

One of Senator Salazar’s co-sponsors on the bill, Senator Andrew Gounardes publicly echoed these remarks.

Assemblyman Simcha Eichenstein added:

“Correct, Senator. No corporal punishment at ANY school. As a yeshiva parent/former student, I’m not familiar with the use of corporal punishment at yeshivas, nor would I tolerate it. Sadly, @nytimes needs to continue its onslaught against Orthodox Jews & prop up their mudslinging.”

KnowUs, a division of Agudath Israel of America, calls on city, state, and federal legislators and people of good faith to call out the Times’ patently disingenuous reporting. The interminable, hateful demonizing of the Orthodox Jewish community in New York must stop.

18th Article, and Counting: Will the New York Times’ Obsessive Demonization of Orthodox Jews Ever End?

Thu, 27 Apr 2023 19:29:45 GMT

February 20th, 2023

This morning, the New York Times published yet another lengthy, prejudicial article against Orthodox Jews, this time targeting Kiryas Joel, a village which “is almost entirely populated by Hasidic Jews.”

The Times focuses its harsh spotlight on certain legitimate, school-related payments made by the Kiryas Joel school district to the United Talmudical Academy (U.T.A.) of Kiryas Joel. The report seems determined to find a scandal. But other than reiterating concerns about conflict-of-interest policies, the Times fails to find its smoking gun.

Is it nefarious or even surprising that when seeking to rent specialized school space, the district would do so from the nonprofit that supplies the majority of it in the district, and “provides schooling for most of the children in Kiryas Joel?” Moreover, ominous innuendo notwithstanding, is it scandalous that the district repaired the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system in the facility in which children with special education needs were learning?

To be sure, the Times includes a few sentences of balance in the article, including statements by District superintendent, Joel Petlin, and a brief acknowledgment that:

“Federal regulators have given the Kiryas Joel school system high marks over the years for the services it offers its students. And village leaders have said the school district is essential to accommodate Hasidic children with disabilities who cannot receive aid in the community’s private schools and might become targets of ridicule in other nearby public schools.”

But these plaudits are quickly discarded. The Times seems offended by the very notion of doing business with Hasidic Jews. It continues:

“But the money it sends to the U.T.A. and its affiliates has done more than just secure classroom space for the public-school programs. It has supported private schools that provide thousands of boys with only cursory instruction in English and math, and barely any science or social studies, setting some back for life.”

In other words, because the Times objects to the religious education that Hasidic Jews choose to offer their children, it is suggesting implementing a BDS, of sorts, for Hasidic Jewish institutions. Don’t do business with Hasidic institutions. Who knows, that money might support their religious education!

The New York Times portrays Hasidic Jews as ultra-religious, self-dealing caricatures, as black and white as the traditional garb they wear.

KnowUs, a project of Agudath Israel of America, urges all people of good faith – left, right, and center – to join the chorus of voices calling out the Times’ disturbing and unrelenting obsession with demonizing Orthodox Jews; its lack of balance; its irresponsibility in stoking the blazing flames of antisemitism; and its lack of critical context when presenting stories – at least when involving Orthodox Jews – the inclusion of which would paint a far more accurate, and full-colored picture.

Evidence Only of a Double Standard: Statement by Agudath Israel on the Times’ Latest

Thu, 27 Apr 2023 18:49:11 GMT

January 13th, 2023

The New York Times licked its chops on Wednesday, gleefully relating how five individuals who run companies that “primarily serve the Orthodox Jewish community” were indicted for daycare fraud. But instead of just reporting the allegations, the self-congratulatory tone of the article reflected the Times’ apparent conviction that the indictments vindicate the paper’s recent onslaught of vilifications of the Orthodox Jewish community.

What the article’s references to those earlier pieces in fact indicate is something else entirely: the Times’ desire to, at every turn, portray the Orthodox community as unsavory or worse.

Agudath Israel knows nothing about the indicted individuals. It goes without saying that if the allegations are true, fraud is always and unequivocally wrong.

The larger problem here is that the Times chooses to weaponize the indictments of these individuals to justify its many allegations made about the larger Orthodox Jewish community.

Extrapolating the act of an individual to smear his entire ethnic or religious group would be greeted – and properly so – with howls of protest in any other context. It is equally howl-worthy when applied to Orthodox Jews. Indeed, the Times correctly decries racial profiling in other contexts, but glibly purveys it when it comes to Orthodox Jews.

In another article that same day, a New York Times headline read, Was Yeshiva University Entitled to $230 Million in Public Funds? The obviously negative implication of the headline, and the inclusion of the tallying of funds therein, were clearly meant to inflame rather than report.

The message from the Times is consistent. Orthodox Jewish students – Hasidic or Modern Orthodox – don’t deserve public funds or assistance like everyone else, either because they are all corrupt, or because they have the audacity to practice their religion. They should be treated as pariahs.

Agudath Israel views the publication of such sentiments by one of the most powerful newspapers in the world as deeply dangerous. With each passing day, each passing article, and each passing assault on an Orthodox Jew, our KnowUs initiative is, unfortunately, needed more than ever.

Orthodox Jewish Advocates Launch New Initiative to Correct Dangerous Mischaracterizations of Community: KnowUs

mygluck@agudah.org (Mygluck Agudah) — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 20:05:04 GMT

January 4th, 2023

Orthodox Jews have been the target of more than a dozen misleading and one-sided portrayals of their community in the pages of The New York Times for the last four months.

It has become abundantly clear that Orthodox Jews must respond to protect their physical security and to depict Orthodox Jews without a jaundiced eye.

That’s why advocates have launched KnowUs: an initiative to combat negative stereotypes advanced by the The New York Times and others and provide an inside look into the lives of Orthodox Jews. KnowUs just erected three prominent Midtown Manhattan billboards, kicking off the campaign. Already garnering attention, the billboards direct viewers to KnowUs.org, a growing informational website, buttressed by a digital campaign, which rolled out today.

It’s no secret that antisemitism is on the rise in New York City. There were 45 antisemitic hate crimes against Jews in November 2022 alone, according to NYPD statistics, more than double the figure in November 2021. But here’s what’s not talked about much: the overwhelming majority of antisemitic hate crimes and assaults are perpetrated against Orthodox Jews. Agudath Israel of America, a leading national Orthodox Jewish nonprofit headquartered in Manhattan, is deeply concerned. The Times’ apparent obsession with painting Orthodox Jews negatively can only increase animus, and potentially violence, against the Orthodox Jewish community.

“The public has been misled about how Orthodox Jews support their families, educate their children, deal with marriage, divorce, and custody disputes, and participate in the political process,” said Mr. Sol Werdiger, founder and CEO of Outerstuff and chairman of Agudath Israel’s board of trustees. “KnowUs counters misinformation and presents Orthodox Jews, as told by Orthodox Jews.”

“Orthodox Jews have been under increasing assault in the streets of New York. Now we are under assault by the ‘paper of record.’ The time has come to speak up, lest our silence be construed as acquiescence to the normalization of anti-Orthodoxy. Hence the urgent need for KnowUs,” said Rabbi David Zwiebel, executive vice president of Agudath Israel of America.

“The world needs to better know us as individuals and as a community,” said Mitchell Silk, former assistant secretary for international markets at the U.S. Department of the Treasury and chairman emeritus of the Agudath Israel Pro Bono Legal Services Network. “That is one goal of the KnowUs campaign.”

“We don’t understand The New York Times’ obsession with us,” said Avrohom Weinstock, chief of staff at Agudath Israel. “We shouldn’t have to put up a billboard in 2023 to ask people to stop attacking us. Orthodox Jews, like every minority, should not be ‘othered.’”

In addition to the billboards and website, KnowUs will be directly calling on policymakers, journalists, and all people of good faith to respect the entire cultural patchwork of populations that is New York, including Orthodox Jews.

For more information, visit KnowUs.org.