Mar 29, 2023 7:00 AM
Updated:
In a recording obtained by Shtetl, Aaron Teitelbaum, the grand rabbi of the Satmar Hasidic community in Kiryas Joel, is heard bragging about the passage of a yeshiva-related bill he said state assembly members voted to pass without understanding as part of a strategy he credits to assembly member Simcha Eichenstein.
“They had not the slightest idea what they were even voting on,” Teitelbaum is heard saying during a Chanukah speech in Williamsburg which was translated into English for Shtetl. “It was snuck inside another bill, and it was the last day, when they were all eager to head home, and there was no time to read through it all.”
Teitelbaum, talking on Dec. 22, was referring to a bill introduced in the 2021-22 legislative session that, if passed, would have allowed private accreditation agencies to determine whether a private school is providing an education substantially equivalent to what public schools provide. The bill was introduced on June 5, 2021. It passed almost unanimously in the state assembly on June 10, the last day of the legislative session. In January 2022, a majority of assembly members voted for the bill again, but it was never brought to a vote in the senate.
In the recording, which was taken by an attendee and authenticated by Shtetl, Teitelbaum says the plan was for Haredi leaders to ask non-Jewish lawmakers to introduce the legislation on their behalf to mask who was really pushing for it. Teitelbaum attributes the idea to Eichenstein, a Democrat who represents most of Boro Park and part of Midwood.
Teitelbaum is heard referring to sponsors of the bill as schvartze, the Yiddish word for the color black; shucher, a Yiddishized version of the Hebrew word for the color black; and shchoyrim, the plural form of shucher. These words often have a racist connotation.
“Simcha Eichenstein — a savvy Hasidic young man — came up with an idea no one knew about,” Teitelbaum said. “He organized a group of assemblymen shchoyrim and senators shchoyrim, who introduced legislation without it having his fingerprints on it, to keep anyone from knowing that a Jewish legislator was behind it, to keep it from being hindered.”
“On the last day of the legislative session, a shucher assemblyman introduced a bill to allow an accreditation committee to confirm that a school is a good school, and in such a case, the government needn’t interfere,” the rabbi is heard saying.
“To ensure that it passes, a schvartze senator introduced it,” he added.
The bill was introduced by Michael Benedetto in the state assembly and by Julia Salazar in the senate. Salazar represents South Williamsburg, where there is a large Hasidic, especially Satmar, population. Benedetto represents parts of the Bronx. Both are Democrats.
Benedetto is Italian American. Salazar is Latina. Neither legislator identifies as Black.