When Demonization Became Respectable

When the Times attacked the yeshivah system, gone was any of the normal cultural sensitivity that it routinely extends to minority communities. But instead of apologizing for its egregious discrimination, the Times systematically weaponized its coverage to heap embarrassment on Orthodox institutions and individuals.

This incessant bullying by the 800-pound media gorilla was foisted upon our community in the form of 17 articles in the “paper of record.” In tandem, the reporters responsible embarked on an unprecedented speaking tour to promote their misleading and activist-driven hit pieces, with nary a word of protest even from our elected “friends.” As the saying goes, with friends like these….

Further demonstrating the lengths to which these journalists went, emails recently disclosed by the Breitbart news site point to apparent collusion between Times reporters and state education officials to produce these articles. This was apparently done with the intent to impinge on the independence of yeshivos while capturing a Pulitzer Prize for Team Sulzberger’s anti-Orthodox crusade. Thanks in great part to the herculean efforts of the Agudah’s groundbreaking “KnowUs” multi-media push-back campaign, their malpractice was exposed, and they were denied American journalism’s ultimate prize.

But severe damage to our reputation was done nonetheless, and the sound of crickets from the establishment, aside from a few heroic journalists, and even fewer elected officials, was nearly impossible to overcome. Significantly, this reign of editorial terror coincided with a historic rise in anti-Semitic incidents, according to the annual ADL Hate Crimes report. The correlation between the two — which, as they say, does not prove causation — is hard to miss.