The Othering of New York’s Chassidim

Make that really, really doesn’t like chassidim — to the tune of multiple lengthy articles attacking their education and way of life over the past few months.

The latest such piece, titled “How Hasidic Schools Reaped a Windfall of Special Education Funding,” highlighted the steep jump in provision of special educational services since former mayor Bill De Blasio moved to provide public funding inside the private education system in 2014.

Filed by the Metro desk, the piece could have appeared under the music tab, because it was a new cover of an old hit.

“Today, at Hasidic and Orthodox schools,” the article claimed, “higher percentages of students are classified as needing special education than at other public and private schools in New York City. At 25 of the city’s approximately 160 Hasidic yeshivas, more than half of the students are classified as needing special education. Records show the classifications are routinely justified by citing the students’ struggles with English.”