Crown Heights Rabbis call for prayers against secular studies

 

Crown Heights Rabbis have called for a day of prayer ahead of a court decision in a case against haredi educational institutions in the region that refused to teach secular studies required by the state.

The case is part of a longer legal battle that has already taken several years. As part of the process, the New York Department of Education has published instructions for haredi institutions to begin changing their curriculum.

The appeal was filed by young haredi men who have become agnostic and claimed that they were robbed of the ability to make a living due to the insufficient education they received at these institutions.

“We call for, beg, and request that anyone interested in the good of our community, and all parents of students in our holy institutions, take the time to pray fervently to god, “ to assemble and protect themselves” (Esther 8:11),’” the Rabbis wrote.

“We are in great distress,” they added, citing the Jewish prayer for days of fasting. “We must appeal for the future of our descendants, which hangs in the balance, by saying chapters of Psalms and increasing Torah study, prayer, and charity, that our righteousness be brought to light and that decrees against us and the education of our descendants be canceled.”