In response to your article regarding the failure of chasidic yeshivot to teach secular topics (“Yeshiva Reformers Brace For Fight As Cause Catches On,” Sept. 11). First, I would agree that all yeshivot must teach secular subjects at least a minimal level of sufficiency. The current policy in these institutions is not sustainable in that it is putting forth graduates who in many cases are not employable.
However, I question the motives of the authors of this article in several ways. Point one is that the article uses rhetoric which was used against Jews in that the chasidim manipulate the system to free themselves of the Board of Education requirement. The truth is that the issue is more complicated in that there must be a balance between the need for requirements to be enforced and the right of the chasidic communities to be left alone.
Point two is that that the people involved in the lawsuit are either people who left the Orthodox community on a hostile basis or people who have an agenda against Orthodox
Judaism; these are not the proper people to institute change.
Point three is that the article minimizes the attempts within the Orthodox community to provide vocational training. In short, the only way this issue will be resolved is a negotiation between the Board of Education and the various chasidic communities, not a lawsuit.
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