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.

Haredi leaders are at odds with politicians and government officials over a bill that would give the state authority to raise local taxes and expand the school budget for the East Ramapo Central School District, which covers Monsey, New Square, and the nearby area.

The bill – which could be passed as soon as this week – comes after school district voters rejected a budget for the next school year that requested a 1.99% tax levy hike, a choice in keeping with the largely Haredi community’s history of repeatedly rejecting funding for public schools. 

State assemblymember Ken Zebrowski said that even that proposed hike would have been too small. "Even with the 1.99% (tax levy hike) this district was going to run into times when [it] could not meet payroll," Zebrowski, who introduced the new bill, told the Journal News.

The bill — which has the support of the New York State Education Department — would install a fiscal control board that could raise local property taxes, and allow the district to access future state aid sooner. Issues facing the district have long pitted public school students against Haredi taxpayers who send their children to private schools and want public funding to do so.

Zebrowski, a Democrat representing parts of Rockland, says that without extreme measures, "these kids will not have a school to go to."

In a recent press release, Agudath Israel of America, an organization that lobbies the government on issues affecting Haredi communities and advocates for more yeshiva funding, called Zebrowski’s bill “a misguided effort which would completely overturn the will of the voters of the district.”

“This legislative effort is counterproductive and supports those who, instead of looking to craft real solutions, have often reverted to antisemitic tropes and false accusations of racism which only serve to further divide people and do nothing to improve the education of students in the district,” Agudah said.

The Journal News reported that votes against budget proposals have been concentrated in neighborhoods where more children attend yeshivas.

The vast majority of students who go to public school in the district are people of color, and most are English language learners, according to the Journal News. Their voting power is curtailed by the fact that one must be a U.S. citizen to vote in school elections. The school board, which oversees all public funds that go to education in the district, has a majority of Orthodox Jews, even though almost all children from the Haredi communities go to local Jewish private schools.

According to the Journal News, the district has staffing shortages, among the lowest standardized test scores in the state, and inoperable water fountains whose water is tainted with lead. About 14.8% of students there are legally considered homeless. 

The district spends over 20% of its budget on transportation, as it offers universal busing to its fast-growing body of students, who mostly attend Haredi private schools. State senator Bill Weber and assemblymember Karl Brabenec, both Republicans, have proposed transferring transportation costs from the district to the state in districts where many of the students attend private schools.

Agudah’s proposed solution is for the state to change its formula for how much foundation aid each district gets from the state. “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,” the press release said.

The community will vote again on June 18 on a budget that would only increase taxes by 1%, the Journal News reported.

The New York City Police Department arrested a man they say made antisemitic remarks while he drove a car toward Hasidic yeshiva students in Brooklyn, the Associated Press and other news outlets reported.

The police charged Asghar Ali, 58, with attempted murder as a hate crime and other charges after video surveillance footage posted by the Flatbush Shomrim showed a white sedan veering off the road and driving on the sidewalk toward the students.

The driver appeared to make multiple attempts to run over students at Mesivta Nachlas Yakov Vien Yeshiva, a school on Glenwood Road in East Flatbush. The students are shown running away. Police said no one was injured.

Ali’s roommate, Abdullah Mustafa, told the New York Daily News that Ali was mentally ill.

“He’s been to hospital many, many times — every eight to ten months,” Mustafa told the Daily News. “He kept a knife under his pillow. He’s afraid someone is out to get him.”

“I’ve never heard him say anything antisemitic,” Mustafa said. He described Ali as a Pakistani immigrant and cab driver.

As of May 21, antisemitic hate crimes were up 55% over this time last year, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said.

This week police also arrested a 12-year-old suspect on hate crimes charges on Wednesday, in connection with an assault on Hasidic boys in Williamsburg earlier this month, multiple news outlets reported.

In a video of the assault, the boys are seen playing on the sidewalk when another boy who was riding a bike nearby dismounts and proceeds to punch and kick two of the boys before going back on his bike and riding away.

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Read more in Shtetl:
‍Police investigating assault on Hasidic boys in Williamsburg
‍New Williamsburg public school program seeks to combat antisemitism, other prejudice
‍What do public school students in NYC learn about Haredi culture?