Assemblyman Simcha Eichenstein: Your Real Victory

Interviewed by Yochonon Donn

The Orthodox community is seemingly the only minority that can be scorned by the media and pundits without fear of pushback. What do you see as the most dangerous aspect of the way we are portrayed and perceived in the public?

The most dangerous aspect is when the mainstream media tries to portray us as a community that either wants to live by a different set of rules or as a people that, as it relates to a particular law, feel they are above the law. That is the furthest thing from the truth. They do this perhaps because we are misunderstood or because they do not care to understand what’s actually happening on the ground.

I see that you responded to New York Times education reporter Eliza Shapiro’s tweet that yeshivos do not provide a good education. It’s amazing how some of these reporters can so flippantly claim falsehood as the truth.

That’s another perfect example of reporters not even caring to understand the issue, yet stating as factual that we don’t do X or that we do do Y, or how dare a mayoral candidate take a stand on an issue that she doesn’t even understand. There is no doubt that our children get a stronger education than their counterparts in the public school system — whether you base it on instruction time or on curriculum.

Reporters must understand the issue before they throw out these blanket statements. And education is one of many examples of how the media gets distracted by side issues. By now, it’s not even claiming bad education, it’s about whether we are allowing the Department of Education into the buildings or we’re not allowing — it’s about everything but understanding what my son does at school every day. My son goes to school earlier than public school students in the same grade, comes home later, and there’s no doubt in my mind that he gains a higher quality education and better critical thinking skills, even as it relates to secular studies.

They are trying to make the yeshivah issue into an “us versus them,” and how the community wants to live by its own set of rules. This is just not the case. We believe we are providing a sound basic education while at the same time ensuring that parents have their constitutional right to choose the path to their child’s education. This means that the government should have no say in the religious component of the day.