Oholei Torah Joins Major Discrimination Complaint Against New York State and NYC Over Education Requirements

by CrownHeights.info

Oholei Torah, the Crown Heights based Lubavitch school, has joined a slew of other major Jewish educational institutions in filing a complaint with the US Department of Education against New York State and NYC, which they claim has been discriminating against them.

“The discriminatory conduct pervades every aspect of their schools,” Avi Schick, the lawyer spearheading the complaint wrote in a letter to the US Department of Education.

According to the complaint, both New York State and New York City have refused to provide credit for Jewish studies, incorrectly refused to allow instruction in languages and texts other than English, and interfered with their hiring process, as well as other complaints.

“Taken together, these discriminatory practices would strip the Yeshivas of their essential Jewish character,” Schick wrote. “If they can’t devote sufficient time to Jewish Studies with instruction in their original language that utilizes primary texts taught by a faculty hand-picked by them to model behavior in conformity with their values and heritage while maintaining the autonomy and authority to select which material students read in a classroom whose composition reflects their principles—then they are no longer Jewish schools.”

The letter requests that the federal government and its Office of Civil Rights “exercise its oversight over these New York agencies that receive billions of dollars in federal funds annually by thoroughly investigating their discriminatory practices and remediating their discriminatory conduct”.

Read the entire complaint below: