A state audit of East Ramapo’s school transportation system has revealed systemic problems that raise continued concerns about safety and finances — especially for the yeshiva buses the district funds.

For decades, the East Ramapo Central School District in Rockland County has been plagued with complaints of mismanagement and preferential treatment to the private schools. Accusations that the Haredi majority on the school board neglects the public schools has extra bite because Haredi children attend private yeshivas. In July, Education Commissioner Betty Rosa ordered the board to raise more money for schools by raising property taxes so it could make up for what she called the “capricious” policy that “inequitably favors nonpublic school students at the expense of public school students.”

Transportation is one of the many problems that beset the district. Busing students to and from schools is complex, expensive and, more recently, dangerous. In March the district terminated the director of transportation after a fatal bus accident in January and another in February. These accidents, and another serious accident in March, prompted the June audit which was first posted and reported on by Lohud, who FOIA-ed the document. The audit notes flaws in the oversight of routes, driver-training, pupils in transit, and costs.

The school district of East Ramapo student transportation system relies on around 40 contracted bus drivers to operate. These contractors are divided into two groups: Fleet Contractors, and Yeshiva Private Contractors. While the Fleet Contractors drive public school students, Yeshiva Contractors drive private school yeshiva students. Though the audit pointed out issues with Fleet Contractors, its primary concerns have to do with Yeshiva contracted bus drivers.

The first problem the audit notes is one of information and communication. The audit states that “there is a disconnect between the District and the Yeshiva Private Contractors.” One of these disconnects has to do with the Yeshiva drivers not knowing which students are on the buses. “While they may know in a ‘general’ sense who is on the bus, they do not know on any type of regular basis,” explained the audit. The audit suggested that this problem worsens on Friday afternoons, when yeshiva students are given early dismissals for Shabbat and school schedules change. 

It is particularly important for the Yeshiva drivers to track which students they transport, as they design their daily bus routes based on the students they drive, unlike the Fleet Contractors who follow set routes. While routes fluctuate daily, the district is not informed of these changes and does not have access to the bus’ active locations, via its GPS systems – making it nearly impossible for the district to communicate children’s whereabouts to parents while being transported home.

Not being able to track students is both a safety issue and a financial problem, since Yeshiva contractors are paid by the number of students they drive. Even after the 2019 suggestion that the state was being overcharged for buses in 2019, no apparent mechanism was put in place for the district to receive a count of students on the bus every day to know whether drivers are billing accurately.

Among other examples of “potential malfeasance,” the audit looked at a sample of driver documentation and found, along with widespread non-compliance, potential fraud by supervisors claiming to have certified and trained drivers. As an example, one driver Israel David Fried stated that he had been given the Physical Performance Test – which all drivers must be able to perform before driving the school bus. Though Fried stated that he had been given the test, he could not describe any part of it. Even after being given prompts describing the test, Fried still could not recall or describe any component of it. However, his driver’s file contained a completed Performance Test, signed off by a superior in December of 2022.

While the audit raised the alarm about the Yeshiva drivers, it also pointed out that the Fleet driver system also has room for improvement. “The greatest amount of consistency is seen with the Fleet contractors who are provided with the routes from the district. However, even though they are being given the routes, consistency goes away with the regular early dismissals time changes on Fridays."

The audit concluded with a list of recommendations to improve the safety of East Ramapo’s student transportation system. These suggestions included requiring the district access to GPS  bus locations, as well as ensuring contractors who make their own routes inform the district of their trajectory and students onboard before the bus ride begins.

Malky Berkowitz, the Hasidic woman whose ordeal inspired an Orthodox “sex strike” earlier this year, has finally received her Jewish divorce, Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported on Wednesday.

Under Orthodox interpretations of Jewish law, only men can initiate divorce in a marriage, meaning that a woman who wants a divorce can be powerless. If they are still officially married, women are prevented from remarrying. That’s what happened to Malky: Prior to Wednesday, she was an “agunah,” a woman chained to a Jewish marriage to her husband, Volvy Berkowitz.

Malky claimed Volvy was mentally ill and abusive: according to New York Magazine, Malky accused Volvy in court of physical assault and of inappropriate behavior toward their 3-year-old daughter: Malky says her ex told the toddler not to sit on his lap, lest he get an erection.

Agunah activist Adina Sash, known on Instagram as @FlatbushGirl, took up Malky’s cause. In February, she held a protest in the heart of Kiryas Joel, a Hasidic enclave in Orange County. At the time, Sash told Shtetl that Hasidic men there threw eggs at her and other protesters.

Shortly after the Kiryas Joel protest, Sash launched a sex strike, in which she withheld sex from her husband and urged other Orthodox women to do the same in an attempt to pressure the men to in turn pressure Volvy to grant Malky the divorce. The strike focused on Friday night, or “mitzvah night,” a time when Judaism especially encourages having sex. It’s unclear how many women actually participated in the strike.

Six months later, Sash — whose resume highlights also include helping secure a get for the ex-wife of New York City Councilmember Kalman Yeger — says she is not sure if her and her peers’ advocacy is what led the ex-husband to finally give the get.

Still, Sash is making the most of the win. On Instagram on Thursday, Sash said she had a “magnificent” flower arrangement delivered to Volvy’s parents’ house. Her celebrations don’t stop there. 

“I got a spray tan so I can have an amazing mitzvah night with my husband,” the Orthodox activist told JTA.

In an email sent to students on Monday, Touro University claimed that it never intended for a professor charged with sexual abuse to continue teaching classes, after a New York Post report found he was listed as the instructor for an ethics class this fall.

Menachem “Mendy” Kiwak, a mental health counselor who pleaded not guilty in May to charges related to sexual abuse, was listed as an instructor because of a “clerical error,” the university claimed in the email shared with Shtetl. Touro did not release the statement on their website or social media.

Faye Walkenfeld, Kiwak’s mother-in-law, chairs Touro’s behavioral sciences department, where Kiwak works, per the Post. Months before Kiwak was arrested, Walkenfeld was told about the allegations, along with complaints from students that “he used sex slang and profanity and discussed porn in classes, and once argued there is no such thing as marital rape.”

Until recently, a schedule of classes showed that Kiwak was meant to teach two classes this fall on “Professional, Legal & Ethical Issues in Counseling,” one of which was online. 

According to the Post, the alleged victim was not associated with Touro. She sought private counseling from Kiwak because she was a victim of sexual assault. She accused him of coercing her into having sex with him multiple times.

In a recording obtained by the newspaper, Kiwak is purportedly heard apologizing to the alleged victim and her husband. “I’m sorry that I took advantage and that I’m hurting, that I’ve hurt you. I know you’re angry and that you’re pissed at me,” Kiwak is heard saying. “But I promise you, it’s the worst I’ve ever fallen in my life. In my life.”

The unsigned email to Touro students said that “Mr. Kiwak was never engaged or otherwise scheduled to teach during the Fall 2024 semester,” adding, “Touro remains committed to fostering a safe and respectful learning environment for all students.”

Za’akah, an organization that advocates for Orthodox victims of sex abuse, expressed skepticism about Touro’s account of events.“What likely happened was that after the first article by the Post about Kiwak's arrest, Touro thought it could get away with allowing Kiwak to continue online since he wouldn't be teaching in person,” Za’akah wrote in a caption accompanying a social media post about Touro’s email.

Kiwak is next due to appear in court on Sept. 28.

The Islamic Center of Rockland on Sunday condemned an antisemitic sermon given by a guest imam who was filmed calling Hamas the “people of Allah” and prayed to God to “guide their shooting” and “destroy the Zionist Jews.”

"We unequivocally condemn these statements,” the mosque said in a statement posted on Facebook on Sunday. “The Islamic Center of Rockland stands firmly against anti-Semitism and any rhetoric that incites violence or hatred, as we have for the 35 years we have operated in this county alongside other faiths.” 

The condemnation came shortly after the Jewish Federation & Foundation of Rockland County, combined with other Jewish organizations, denounced the hateful sermon live streamed on August 9th.

The language the imam used “not only fuels hatred and divides neighbors, but can lead to harmful real world consequences,” Scott Richman, a regional director at the Anti-Defamation League, said in the statement.

The Islamic Center of Rockland is near to a number of large Haredi communities including Monsey and Chestnut Ridge. Joel Petlin, Superintendent of the Kiryas Joel School District and a Rockland resident, tweeted the Islamic Center’s apology the day after having tweeted, “I'm unfortunately used to seeing hateful videos of Imams delivering Friday sermons in the Middle East, England and Dearborn, Michigan. I'm just not used to seeing one coming from someone who lives and works just a few miles from my Rockland County, New York home.”

Congressmember Mike Lawler and former Congressmember Mondaire Jones, Lawler’s Democratic opponent in the upcoming election, both condemned the imam’s words. State senator Bill Weber and his Democratic opponent, former state senator Elijah Reichlin-Melnick, also condemned the language used.

Crown Heights mother Avigail Levy accused Metropolitan Transportation Authority officers of “reverse racism and antisemitism” after their interaction last week with her 15 and 8-year-old daughters, according to the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic news site COLlive. 

Levy told COLlive that her daughters didn’t know they needed to pay to ride the bus. As a result, Levy said, the officers took the 15-year-old and “her little 8-year-old sister off the bus, and spent 30 minutes harassing, frightening, and intimidating her for not having ‘proof of payment.’” 

“They demanded ID, which she repeatedly explained she did not have on her,” Levy said. “They kept threatening her that they would bring the police, and that she would be arrested.” Levy told the news site that the incident, which took place in the Flatlands section of Brooklyn, left her older daughter sobbing and unable to remember her own date of birth.

Levy gave COLlive photographs of several MTA officers making purchases in Walgreens. She said that she went in there to “confront” them and take video and that they had left her girls outside the store once they had finished “harassing” them.

“They could have spent 2 minutes simply explaining that in the future, she needs to pay, instead of traumatizing both her and her sister,” Levy said. “Honestly, I see this as reverse racism and antisemitism. They did not pick on anyone else on the bus.”

In a statement to Shtetl, MTA spokesperson Eugene Resnick said it was looking into the case. "The MTA takes allegations of harassment and discrimination very seriously and we are looking into this incident,” he said. As a reminder, all customers must pay their fair share to ride public transit unless you're a child under 44 inches tall with a fare-paying adult on local, limited, or Select Bus Service buses." 

Levy told COLlive she filed a complaint, but an MTA representative told Shtetl the agency has not received the complaint.

New York State Education Department Commissioner Betty Rosa took an unusual step on Wednesday when she directed the East Ramapo school board to raise property taxes by an additional 4.38% for the coming school year, the Journal News reported. 

Rosa’s decision marks the most recent development in an issue that has long divided public school advocates and Haredi leaders, whose communities attend private schools. And as 2024 general elections loom, candidates for public office are arguing over which one of them will help fix the problem.

Rosa’s drastic step comes after residents of the school district, which includes the heavily Haredi communities of Monsey and New Square, voted twice to reject the public school budget proposal. After rejecting budgets that would’ve increased taxes by 5.38% and 1.99%, respectively, voters finally accepted a 1% tax bump in June. Now, Rosa is asking for a total tax increase of 5.38%.

Public school advocates say that larger tax increase is needed to address the school’s serious challenges: water fountains have been turned off for 8 years because of high lead levels, parents report a shortage of teachers and space, and the district has some of the lowest standardized test scores in the state, according to the Journal News.

However, Rivkie Feiner, a Haredi activist in Monsey, criticized Rosa’s decision in a tweet. “This is stripping us of our democratic rights,” Feiner said, arguing that the tax hike would add to existing economic burdens. “And yes, lawsuits will follow.”

Feiner and other Haredi leaders have urged the state to fill in the funding gap through something called “foundation aid,” which is the main way that the state funds public school districts.

The Haredi organization Agudath Israel of America says the state’s formula should give more funding to districts with more private school students.

“The current formula which bases the aid on the number of public school students, can never suffice when more than three quarters of the district’s students attend yeshivas and other private schools which the district is required to serve,” Agudah said in a press release in May.

The Rockefeller Institute of Government, a public policy think tank, is due to submit a report on the state’s financial aid formula by Dec. 1, giving Gov. Kathy Hochul time to incorporate it into her budget proposal for next year.

Rosa’s decision quickly became an issue in the upcoming race for state senate in District 38, which includes the town of Ramapo. On Nov. 5, the incumbent, Republican Bill Weber, will face Democrat Elijah Reichlin-Melnick, who held the seat before Weber.

Weber and Reichlin-Melnick submitted competing statements to Rockland’s Haredi media in which they both criticized Rosa’s decision as undemocratic and expressed support for changing the foundation aid formula. They both used strong language to criticize each other’s parties.

“Albany democrats are the arsonists who started the fire,” Weber wrote to the Rockland Daily. He pointed to legislation sponsored by Reichlin-Melnick in 2021 that strengthened the powers of monitors appointed to oversee the district’s finances, calling that law undemocratic. Weber’s statement did not mention the challenges facing public school students.

For his part, Reichlin-Melnick told the Rockland Daily that “Republicans on the seat should be ashamed that this blow against taxpayers occurred under their watch.” Reichlin-Melnick’s campaign did not immediately respond to a question from Shtetl asking what he believes Republicans, who constitute a minority in the state legislature, should have done.

A man has sued a driver in the Skverer rebbe’s motorcade for civil damages after his father was killed when a car from the motorcade veered into the opposite lane and caused the 62-year-old’s death.

The driver, Chaim Gordon, 24, was driving his Ford Explorer in a motorcade carrying the prominent Hasidic rabbi down Route 6 in New York in August 2022 when he crossed into oncoming traffic at 76 miles per hour in a 50 miles per hour zone. Gordon lost control of the vehicle and crashed into a Nissan Xterra driven by Iksong Jin, who died following the accident.

Though he initially faced a harsher criminal charge of reckless driving, Gordon ultimately avoided any criminal charges, receiving an $886 fine and nine points on his license.

In the lawsuit, from April, Jin’s son, Brian Jin, claims that the father died because of Gordon’s “negligent, wanton, reckless and careless” driving.

Reached by Shtetl, Brian said he had no plans to sue the Skver rebbe, David Twersky, himself.

In June, Gordon’s attorney, of the Law Office of Correia, Conway & Stiefeld, filed an answer to the complaint saying that Jin “assumed the risk for the conduct in which he was engaged.”

New Jersey private schools got an increase in funding this year from the state budget, according to two Orthodox Jewish groups that advocate for such funding, Agudath Israel of America and the Orthodox Union’s Teach Coalition.

These advocacy groups failed this year in their effort to pass legislation that would’ve helped fund private school tuition, after their proposed bill faced opposition from groups that feared it would divert resources from public schools.

Still, more so than in past years, private schools were awarded funding for transportation, technology, school security, school nurses, and remedial education in the budget bill signed by Governor Phil Murphy on Friday, the two groups said. Per the Agudah’s calculations, this funding all combined amounted to over $140 million.

Both the Agudah and the Teach Coalition thanked Assemblymembers Avi Schnall and Gary Schaer — Democrats who represent Lakewood and Passaic respectively — for their roles in advocating for the funding.

“This is due to the hard work of our legislative champions, Assemblyman Gary Schaer and Assemblyman Rabbi Avi Schnall,” Katie Katz, the executive director of the New Jersey branch of the Teach Coalition, wrote in an email to supporters on Monday.

In a press release, Shlomo Schorr, Agudah’s director of legislative affairs for New Jersey, boasted about securing funding for private schools despite what he described as “a tough fiscal environment in the state, which resulted in a multi-billion deficit.”

Nearly 40% of private school students in New Jersey attended Jewish schools as of 2022, according to data from the Teach Coalition. Most of these students went to school in Lakewood, a Haredi enclave in Ocean County.

New Jersey legislators scrapped a bill last week that would’ve helped fund private school tuition, according to NJ Spotlight News.

Championed by the Orthodox Union’s Teach Coalition, the bill would have given tax credits to people who donate money to a scholarship fund that provided tuition assistance to low- and middle-income families whose children attend private schools.

According to Teach Coalition data, nearly 40% of private school students in the state attended Jewish schools as of 2022, mostly in the Haredi enclave of Lakewood.

But the bill faced opposition from groups that feared it would divert resources from already-struggling public schools toward schools that are not obligated to comply with the same laws public schools must follow.

In an open letter to governor Phil Murphy and other state leaders, signed by over 50 organizations, opponents explained their reasoning, citing problems that they say resulted when other states in the U.S. adopted similar legislation.

“New Jersey should not send hundreds of millions of dollars to schools that can openly discriminate based on religion, disability, LGBTQ+ status, and any other student or family characteristic,” the letter said. Among the signatories were the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey and the American Federation of Teachers.

"The private schools that would be funded with taxpayer dollars under this voucher program are not subject to the quality and accountability standards that are legally required in public schools," the letter continued.

New Jersey law requires nonpublic school children to “receive instruction equivalent to that provided in the public schools,” but the state doesn’t currently actively enforce specific standards as New York recently set out to do after complaints from Yeshiva graduates.

In response to the opposition, the bill’s sponsors initially made changes to the bill, including reducing the total amount of tax credits allowed per year from $250 million to $37.5 million.

Still, the bill’s prime sponsors, senator Vin Gopal and assemblymember Lisa Swain — both Democrats — withdrew the bill entirely last week.

“Everyone was opposed to it. It was meant to drive a discussion and a conversation and that wasn’t happening,” Gopal told NJ Spotlight. “Folks felt it was a really slippery slope and I think it’s harmful to have this discussion while there’s any type of legislation out there.”

“This bill sparked an important dialogue on how best to support all students in our state and should only continue when a diverse group of voices are heard and represented at the table,” Swain told the outlet.

Along with the Teach Coalition, another Orthodox organization, Agudath Israel of America, also supported the bill, as did a Lakewood-based organization called United Education of New Jersey that advocates for the government to fund private schools. Neither Teach Coalition, nor Agudah, nor United Education of New Jersey immediately responded to emails requesting comment.

Assembly member Avi Schnall, a Democrat who represents Lakewood and cosponsored the legislation, did not immediately respond to Shtetl’s request for comment.

Read more in Shtetl:
‍New Jersey bill to help with private school tuition via tax credits and a scholarship fund
‍What’s in the investigations of 18 Haredi schools found to be providing inadequate secular education
‍What it takes to attend a Haredi school: 11 rules families must follow in the new school year

One long-serving security guard employed as a Shabbos goy in the Hasidic village of New Square recently lost that position when he was found to lack the one crucial qualification: non-Jewishness, according to the Haredi news outlet Monsey Scoop. Despite identifying as Catholic, he was considered Jewish under Jewish law because of his maternal Ukrainian grandmother, the news outlet said. 

Since Jews are forbidden to do anything that is defined as work on Shabbos and many holidays, they often ask non-Jewish neighbors to help out with tasks like turning on lights or air conditioners. In Haredi neighborhoods like New Square, this informal practice can be a lot more formal, as local organizations, including emergency response organizations such as Hatzalah or Chaverim, hire non-Jews to be available to perform such tasks to members of the community.

This particular man worked in New Square for 15 years, the Monsey Scoop said, before revealing in a casual conversation with a resident that his grandmother was Jewish, prompting a local Jewish rabbinical court to order local activists to conduct an investigation.

The investigation found that even though the sexagenarian insisted he was Catholic, Jewish ancestry ran through his mother’s side of the family, making him legally Jewish according to Orthodox tradition, the Monsey Scoop said. Haredi Jews are forbidden from causing fellow Jews to work on Shabbos.

The roll call of famous Shabbos goyim is surprisingly long – both Louis Armstrong and Elvis Presley were proud of helping their Jewish neighbors out on shabbos. And, from the realm of politics, the list of Shabbos helpers includes former U.S. president Barack Obama, Vice President Al Gore, and former New York governor Mario Cuomo.

Two girls were flown to hospitals with severe injuries and three others were taken to hospital after a serious bus crash in Passaic, New Jersey, closed East Shore Road for several hours on Tuesday afternoon. The Haredi news outlet Rockland Daily urged readers to pray for the two girls, whom it identified as 14-year-olds “Sara bas Rita” and “Simcha bas Neima.”

According to a press release from the West Milford Police Department, the Monsey Trails bus coming from Brooklyn crashed into a tree, “causing one of the branches to break off and enter the passenger compartment of the bus,” injuring five girls, two of whom were severely hurt.

Rockland Daily reported that the bus was one of three buses traveling from Shaare Torah School in Flatbush, a Sephardic school on Coney Island Avenue, to a boating trip in Orange County, when it struck a tree. A branch came off the tree and broke the bus’s windows. According to CBS News, the two severely hurt girls had to be taken out of the bus using the “jaws of life” hydraulic tool and then flown to receive urgent medical care: one to St. Joseph's University Medical Center in Paterson, the other to Hackensack University Hospital.

One local resident who was present at the scene told CBS how the two girls appeared after the crash. "There was two girls that looked like they had some kind of head trauma,” Anton David said.

The police, local sheriff’s department, and local prosecutor’s office are investigating the crash.

Monsey Trails did not immediately respond to Shtetl’s request for comment.

The mayor of Linden, New Jersey apologized on Wednesday after being caught on tape saying he wanted to prevent the city from “being taken over by guys with big hats and curls,” NJ.com reported.

“Private remarks can be foolish and offensive,” Linden mayor Derek Armstead told the news site, still claiming his comment “was a far cry from being antisemitic.”

Armstead’s comments came to light because of a whistleblower lawsuit from Paul Oliveira, who was serving as Linden’s assistant school superintendent when he secretly recorded the mayor’s remarks. Oliveira accused Armstead and other school leaders of purposely avoiding hiring Jewish candidates in the schools.

In response, Armstead argued that Hasidic Jews didn’t apply for those positions anyway, and that he was “staunchly committed” to diversity.

At the same time he apologized, Armstead accused Oliveira of attempting to extort $950,000 from Linden taxpayers and students. In a statement, he also questioned “the timing and motivations behind the leak of the recorded conversation, particularly given Armstead’s prominent position in the Democratic congressional primary.”

In response, Oliveira’s attorney, Armen McOmber, said Armstead’s accusations constitute “attempts to deflect attention from his own misconduct by attacking Paul” and that the mayor has “absolutely no business leading any city anywhere.”

Shlomo Schorr, the legislative director for Agudah’s New Jersey office, told Shtetl he was “appalled” by Armstead’s comments. “Describing the Chasidic community by their choice of headdress and hairstyles is offensive, but most concerning was his apparent desire to discriminate against the Orthodox community in hiring decisions,” Schorr said.

“The growth of the Jewish community in Linden and surrounding areas should be celebrated and encouraged, not disparaged behind closed doors,” he said.

About an hour’s drive from Lakewood, Brooklyn, and Monsey, Linden has in recent years become home to a growing Haredi community, including a large Bobov Hasidic community.