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Students pour out of a Jewish school, known as a yeshiva, in Brooklyn, June 8, 2022. (Jonah Markowitz/The New York Times)

New York Lawmakers Call for More Oversight of Hasidic Schools

Eliza Shapiro, Brian M. Rosenthal and Nicholas Fandos

Tue, September 13, 2022 at 7:51 AM·5 min read

NEW YORK — Top New York officials voiced grave concerns about the quality of education in Hasidic Jewish private schools on Monday, a day after The New York Times revealed that many of the schools taught only rudimentary English and math and virtually no science or history.

Two Democratic congressmen — Jerrold Nadler, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, and Hakeem Jeffries, chair of the House Democratic Caucus — said they had serious concerns, with Nadler saying it was clear that some of the Hasidic schools were “utterly failing.”

“It is a paramount duty of government to make sure that all children — whether it’s those educated in parochial, private or public schools — are provided a quality education,” said Nadler, the senior Jewish member of the House, whose current district encompasses a major Hasidic neighborhood and who was himself yeshiva-educated. “It is our duty to all New York students to ensure that the law is enforced.”

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Jeffries, who represents parts of central Brooklyn, called for “a rigorous inquiry in order to make sure that the health and well-being of all children is protected.”

Daniel Goldman, who recently won a contested Democratic primary for a new congressional seat that includes Hasidic areas in Brooklyn, said he hoped the schools would work to comply with the law, adding that the Times report “paints a damning picture of an inadequate secular education that does not comply with state law.”

At the state level — where politicians routinely court the cohesive Hasidic voting bloc — the state Senate majority leader, Andrea Stewart-Cousins, said she was concerned about the lack of secular education in the Hasidic schools.

“The allegations in the story are deeply disturbing and must be addressed,” she said.

State Sen. Julia Salazar and Assemblywoman Emily Gallagher, both Democrats who represent heavily Hasidic Williamsburg, Brooklyn, said they were particularly alarmed by accounts of corporal punishment in the schools and would introduce legislation to ban such punishments going forward.

Other leaders, including Gov. Kathy Hochul and members of a powerful state education board, showed less willingness to criticize the Hasidic schools.

Hochul, a Democrat who has sought to appeal to Jewish voters before this fall’s gubernatorial election, declined to take a position on the Hasidic schools. She is ahead in polls, but, only a year after taking office, is still forging relationships with key groups across the state.

“People understand that this is outside the purview of the governor,” Hochul said Monday at an event in Harlem.

Although the state Board of Regents, not the governor, controls the state education department, Hochul is the most powerful politician in New York and can have significant influence over education issues.

For their part, members of the Board of Regents made no mention of the Times report in discussions Monday before an expected vote on new rules that would hold private schools, including the Hasidic schools, known as yeshivas, to minimum academic standards.

An attorney who has represented many Hasidic yeshivas, Avi Schick, recently said that Hochul’s chance of being reelected this November could be threatened by the Regents vote, even though the governor has not taken a public position on the rules.

Other New York Democratic officials either did not respond to inquiries or declined to comment Monday about the Hasidic schools, including Sen. Chuck Schumer, the majority leader; Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand; and Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, chief of the House Democratic campaign committee.

New York Republicans, including Rep. Lee Zeldin, defended the schools and criticized the Times report. At a campaign event outside City Hall on Monday, Zeldin, who is running for governor against Hochul and is Jewish, suggested that public schools ought to be emulating “the values” of Hasidic schools, not the other way around.

Other state Republicans said they believed the government should not interfere with private religious education or parents’ ability to choose where their children are educated.

Benine Hamdan, the long-shot Republican candidate challenging Goldman in Brooklyn, said she opposed the state regulations, taking a shot at critical race theory. “While public schools are teaching CRT and sexuality, Hasidic schools should continue to have the right to teach Judaism,” she said.

“At my core, I believe all parents have the right to choose the educational setting they think is best for their children,” said Mark Martucci, a state senator who represents a district just north of New York City and added that he had toured yeshivas and had been impressed by the students.

In a state where Republicans are largely locked out of power, the party has been increasing its outreach to Hasidic voters who have consistently voted for Democrats in local elections but have begun favoring Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, in national races.

Published on Sunday, the Times investigation showed that Hasidic schools appear to be operating in violation of state law by denying thousands of students a basic education. The community operates more than 100 all-boys schools across Brooklyn and the lower Hudson Valley, which have received more than $1 billion in government money over the past four years alone.

The schools typically provide only 90 minutes a day of secular instruction, just four days per week, and only for boys ages 8 to 12. As a result, the students are failing to learn secular subjects at extraordinarily high rates, the Times found. More than 99% of students who took standardized tests in 2019 failed, according to state data.

At a news conference Monday, Mayor Eric Adams of New York City said he was “not concerned” about the Times’ findings but stressed that his administration was continuing a long-delayed city investigation into some Hasidic schools.

“I’m not going to look at a story. I want a thorough investigation. I want an independent review, and that’s what the city has to do. And we’re going to look at that,” Adams said. The mayor added that any instances of child abuse in the schools should be reported and investigated.

Over the past few years, Hasidic leaders have made keeping government out of schools their top political priority and have relied on officials elected from their community to help block the regulations.

One Hasidic politician, David Schwartz, a Hasidic district leader in Brooklyn, disputed reports of problems in the schools, including regular use of corporal punishment, saying, “I and my community — tens of thousands of caring parents and educators — are unfairly being paint-brushed due to the accounts of a few.”

© 2022 The New York Times Company

ARTICLE

https://www.yahoo.com/news/york-lawmakers-call-more-oversight-115132238.html

MY THOUGHTS

I want to first restate the key points in the article. 

• The white jewish schools are operating with some level of illegality for an extended time
• government officials at the federal level <senator chuck schumer> new york state <governor hochul> or new york city level <mayor adams>are so frightened of the white jewish voting block aside the white jewish financial power that none have accepted the findings as true publicly while all want an extended time of deliberations which they would not give the black community or any part of the black community
• The defenders of the white jewish schools say parents have the right to place children where they want and to preserve the heritage in their community, in this case jewish. I think of the Black descended of enslaved MOVE movement in philadelphia and how a black mayor treated them for wanting to preserve their own culture.
• The white jewish schools , over one hundred all boys schools at least, received over one billion dollars in four years while providing per week only four days with ninety minute secular instruction. 
• More than ninety nine percent of students in the white jewish private schools who took standardized tests failed in 2019, this is 2022. 

Now what is my position. I don't care about: the white jewish schools whether committing illegality or not, the financial power of the white jewish community in New York City, the influence by the white jewish community on government officials<federal, state, city>, the white jewish community's heritage or culture being preserved or maintained, or the failure of white jewish students. 

What I care about is the Black community all throughout humanity and in particular, the black community in New York City.

The Black community in New York City doesn't have a large private school system internally and yet Black teachers in public schools have been removed for the crime of disagreeing with administrators, on a first time offense, not for years of neglect doing their job. 

I know the black community in NYC is fiscally poor, it started that way for enslaving black people was legal when new york was new amsterdam before the creation of the United States America. Sequentially, the Black community in NYC doesn't demand the trepidation from elected officials even though it historically votes as a block too. 

From the Black Panthers to The Nation of Islam to the Rastafarians the Black community in NYC tends to have the loudest opposition internally to heritages or cultures from within a community. I can see a Black newscaster in New york city asking, what does it mean to have a Black school. 

The black children of New York City have a financially impotent Black adult community, which includes me, who in majority, I am part of the black adult minority, continually preaches to them about merit or equality or voting while providing black children in new york city nothing. The black adult community in new york city, includes me, have failed the black children of new york city hiding behind a cheap veil of individual decency or merit when in truth we black adults are just flat broke and are too proud to admit it. Any Black adult who reads this, stop telling black children about the need to be more educated and start making money and giving it to black kids regardless of their scholastic quality. Any Black adult who reads this, stop telling black children about competitive spirit and start making sure governments give money for black kids to enjoy life more regardless of their demeanor. Any Black adult who reads this, stop telling black kids what they have to do and start telling black kids what you can't do, admit your impotency your weakness your poverty and tell the truth of you to black children.

I feel sorry for Black Children in new york city. I was once one, and while I was fortunate in the time span of  my childhood from a homelife perspective or communal perspective, I despised local media in new york city which was and is ninety nine percent white owned. White owned new york city media never stopped reminding black children how they needed to do better in my childhood days, comparing black children to various children anywhere with one thing in common. At the time of comparison they are better than black children in New York City. While the same white owned news media of New York City, couldn't find time to discover how the French don't count the schools in the Balieues as part of their main surveys to the world , the japanese don't count the children who don't come to school at higher rates, the schools in the white towns or villages in the midwest where the curriculum is lower isn't admitted in the assessment to comparing the black children in new york city. Black children in NYC have been falsely attributed as consistent failures when in truth it is a mere trick of statistics. Any thing can be proven statistically, anything, the key is in the details. Black children in education have been attacked by statistical warfare and black adults, like me,let it happen.

Halle Bailey as Ariel in the Little Mermaid 2023

beautiful sister, I wonder if a natural black woman's hair will behave that way in the water. I saw black women with a beautiful unmanicured afro in the water... it wasn't like this but anyway. Glad she has a job. I wonder what is the best mermaid story written by a black writer you know in your knowledge? 

Photo Courtesy of Megan Piphus Peace/Vanderbilt/Sesame Street

MEET THE FIRST BLACK WOMAN PUPPETEER ON SESAME STREET
29th August 2022 by BOTWC Staff

The “Vanderbilt Ventriloquist’ has now made history as the first Black woman puppeteer on Sesame Street, Vanderbilt University reports. 

Megan Piphus Peace was first introduced to puppetry at the age of 10, attending a puppetry conference in Illinois with her Vacation Bible School teacher. She fell in love with the artform and ventriloquism, relating it to her favorite childhood TV programs like Sesame Street and Lamb Chop’s Play-Along. Her mother saw Peace’s passion, supporting her with VHS tapes of ventriloquists to study and a doll from famous entertainer Edgar Bergen so Peace could practice. It all paid off and Peace began performing when she was just in elementary school. By the time she was 15, she was featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show. 

“What I consider the magic of ventriloquism is getting to share that experience with someone else and have them believe that our conversations are real. I realized what an impact the writing could have on the audience, and that every age could learn something from the show. From then on, my goal was to have a theme…woven into every performance,” Peace explained.

She continued her work through highschool and when she started college at Vanderbilt University, she became known as the “Vanderbilt Ventriloquist,” performing on major platforms like the Tonight Show with Jay Leno and America’s Got Talent. Peace graduated in 2014, subsequently earning her master’s in finance from Vanderbilt as well and beginning a professional career in real estate finance. 

Peace continued doubling as a puppeteer, continuing performing across the country and abroad, working on various television shows and collaborating with the University of Cincinnati in 2019 on a musical series that taught children basic financial literacy. For her work, she received two Emmy awards for best composition and best children’s short. Now Peace has landed her biggest deal yet, joining the cast of Sesame Street in 2020 and making history last September as the first Black woman puppeteer, playing the role of 6-year-old Gabrielle. 

The puppeteer said she had no idea the role was historic and she is so grateful for the opportunity. 

“I would have cried like a baby on the 123 steps if they had told me beforehand…The sets of Sesame Street are like walking into a fantasy. To be there is really something,” said Peace. 

The process to be on the show was arduous, Peace submitting her first audition tape in 2017. She wouldn’t get a call back from Matt Vogel, the show’s puppet captain, until March 2020. He suggested she enroll in a virtual workshop to learn Muppet-style puppetry. She did and it paid off. 

“It takes time to go through video submissions, but once we do, we earmark people that we’d like to invite to a workshop where we see their skills as a puppeteer and actor in person. Zoom is not an ideal way to conduct a workshop, but we made the best of it and Megan was game to learn,” Vogel explained. 

During that time Sesame Workshop was working on their racial justice initiative and Vogel, who voices Big Bird and Kermit the Frog, said Peace was on a shortlist to play Gabrielle. 

“Megan was our choice from the beginning. She already had lip sync skills from her abilities as a ventriloquist,” said Vogel. 

Once Peace perfected her monitor work, it was a perfect match, Leslie Carrara-Rudolph, another puppeteer on the show calling her “incredible.”

“We needed authentic representation, and Megan is incredible. She’s got a light inside her,” said Carrara-Rudolph. 

Congratulations Megan! Because of you, we can!

ARticle URL

https://www.becauseofthemwecan.com/blogs/botwc-firsts/vanderbilt-ventriloquist-makes-history-as-first-black-woman-puppeteer-on-sesame-street

When you can imagine dragons but not imagine Black people in fantasy stories, your racism is showing
OPINION: White people are once again up in arms about Black characters appearing in their favorite fantasy series. You know why. 

Monique Judge
  |  
Sep 8, 2022

Wil Johnson, left, and Steve Toussaint in HBO's "House of the Dragon." (Photo by Ollie Upton/HBO)
Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own.

Before I even get into this, let me (re)state for the record that when I say “white people,” I do not mean, all white people. It is more of the general you versus the specific you type of reference. I know y’all like to get your panties in a bunch about this; I have the inbox messages to prove it, but I want you to know that if it doesn’t apply? You are more than welcome to let it fly. Please and thank you. I am currently on a white tears diet, and I don’t need yours. 

Speaking of white tears, have you seen all the white tears all over the internet because both the new Game of Thrones series and the new Lord of the Rings series have dared to cast Black actors in primary roles?

If you have not, please allow me to get you caught up a little bit.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, an am*zon Prime series that is a prequel to The Lord of the Rings franchise, and House of the Dragon, an HBO series that is a prequel to Game of Thrones, both debuted recently to rave reviews. Even as fans rave daily about both series, there is a rumbling in the background of disgruntled “fans” who are upset that Black actors are in roles that they believe should be played by white people because there were actually no Black people during the time of dragons and wizards and magic and stuff. 

Seriously, that is indeed the logic of some arguing against the Black cast members. Some have been straightforward with it and made outright racist remarks. I have also seen others say on Twitter that they think the shows are being too “woke” (remind me to talk about the bastardization of that word at another time) and interjecting “politics” into their fantasy stories. 

Because putting make-believe Black characters in make-believe stories about make-believe people in make-believe lands that do not even exist is totally political and woke and beyond the pale. 

This comes from the same group of people who read the Bible, know Jesus was a Middle Eastern Jewish man and still made him white with blonde hair and blue eyes in all of their iconography. I guess it’s totally OK to play loose and fast with the “word of God,” but absolutely offensive to do so with fantasy characters written out of someone’s imagination. 

We’ve seen this before, of course. 

It really bothers (some) white people that Black people get cast in their favorite make-believe stories. Maybe we are infringing on their ability to make believe that we don’t exist. Whatever the case may be, it’s seriously time to get over it, like Whoopi said. 

If you can believe that fire-breathing, flying dinosaurs not only exist but will allow certain individuals—from a certain family with thousands of generations of inbreeding and some genetic mutation that makes a portion of them come out with dragon-like qualities themselves—to hop on their backs and order them to breathe hellfire on command, it really should not be that difficult to imagine that some of those inbred individuals might have dark skin, violet eyes and that weirdo lacefront hair color. Please. 

In summation, I want y’all to stop being so stingy with the ball. We want to play too, and let’s face it, we are good at a lot of these things just like (some) of y’all are, so calm down and enjoy the show. 

Hey. At least it will be easier for you to know these characters by name. There aren’t that many of us in it. 

Monique Judge is a storyteller, content creator and writer living in Los Angeles. She is a word nerd who is a fan of the Oxford comma, spends way too much time on Twitter, and has more graphic t-shirts than you. Follow her on Twitter @thejournalista or check her out at moniquejudge.com.

Article URL
https://thegrio.com/2022/09/08/when-you-can-imagine-dragons-but-not-imagine-black-people-in-fantasy-stories-your-racism-is-showing/

MY THOUGHTS

I completely oppose that title. There are already fantasy stories with black people. this isn't about Black people in fantasy stories, this is about characters being manipulated for no reason. I am a writer. Admittedly, no where near known or popular like Tolkien or George RR Martin but in most of my fantasy stories there are no whites. Does this mean black characters in my stories must be turned white? Its silly. Authors like Nnedi Okarafor or Octavia Butler or Nalo Hopkinson created fantasy stories with a plethora of black people. Even if Tananarive Due or  Steven Barnes or Jordan Peele don't have a fantasy work that may fit some theme, they damn sure can write one. Finance their work into shows and give the Black actors the Black roles. This isn't about negative bias. This is about forcing monoracial fantasy environments to reflect the USA.  I read the books. MArtin has black people, they are called summer islanders and far more Black people live in sothoryos. Tolkien has dark skinned Black people, they are in Far HArad. Both of those places aren't involved in the stories in the books in question in a major way. Cause if Corlys Valearyon can be played by a black thespian then why can't anansi be played by a white one? why can't John Henry? will I like it if John Henry is played by a white man? hell no. But, if a white fantasy character can be portrayed by someone not white then  black people can't protest when a black fantasy character is played by someone not black. The door swings both ways. I wrote in email to George RR Martin's publicist and the Tolkien estate. With no hope to reply, let me write a story about Sothoryos or Far Harad. I offer other black writers do the same. Then the black thespians can have even more roles in the Black places in the Map of MArtin's or Tolkiens world.  I oppose this line of thinking. IT isn't about negative bias, it is about getting fantasy worlds to reflect the multiracial reality of the USA. But, neither of Tolkien's or MArtin's fantasy worlds are based on the USA. Both are based on north western  Europe between circa 900 and 1300 after the death of jesus. Where Black people were not present in any noticeable form. I despise this line of thinking.