Parshas "Kee Saitzai La'Milchomoh al Oy'veichah"
11 Ellul, 5779 °°° Sept. 11, '19
By Binyomin Feinberg,
Contributor to The Jewish Press*
* Perspectives and opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of the ownership or management of The Jewish Press. (This particular post is a significantly expanded version of the Dispatch column appearing in this week's issue of The Jewish Press.)
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On Monday, hundreds of Orthodox Jews, led by about a two dozen or so Rabbinical leaders, trekked to Albany from various New York communities, to beseech the NY Board Of Regents to reject the recently proposed NYS Educational Equivalency Regulations. Those Regulations would require private and religious schools, including Yeshivos and Bais Yaakov girl schools, to comply with the teaching requirements of public schools, and submit to significant government control over the education of their students.
To understand the points raised at the rally, we review some important background information, reported on previously in the Jewish Press Dispatch column.
Section 801a of the NYS Education Law now requires teaching "respect" and "tolerance" for LGBTQ, including those who celebrate the sin of sodomy. The act of sodomy is branded an "abomination" in VaYikra 18:22 and 20:13. The Dignity for All Students Act, passed in 2010 by the NYS Legislature (including legislators [mis-]representing Orthodox communities), introduced those LGBT indoctrination requirements into law. At the time, political activists kept the Orthodox community in the dark about this legislation. N.Y.state government cleverly interpreted the new law as NOT applying 801a beyond public schools, thereby avoiding alerting Orthodox communities.
Last November, when the Democratic Party took over the N.Y. state Senate, it attained a trifecta in N.Y., and freed them to reveal their true agenda. Thus, a few weeks after the November election, NYS Dept. of Education Commissioner Elia announced that now even religious schools will be legally required to meet public school requirements. As reported in The Jewish Press, in a subsequent email, the Department of Education clarified that that includes 801a requirements. Elia added that parents of children learning in non-conforming schools will be considered responsible for allowing their children to be truant, which itself starts an entirely separate "process." (Children could be removed from their parents, G-d forbid, for such things.)
At the time, Commissioner Elia issued "Guidelines." Those Guidelines required Yeshivos to comply with educational requirements of Public Schools, including teaching respect for LGBT. Subsequently, a NYS Judge struck down those Guidelines as procedurally deficient. Consequently, NYS Government issued these new "Regulations" in question now. NY did so in order to comply with required procedures, which include providing an opportunity for public comment, followed by issuance of "Guidelines." Those forthcoming Guidelines, intended to elaborate on how to "apply" the general Regulations, would add much detail, specifically including requirements not mentioned altogether in these "Regulations."
For example, *these* Regulations don't mention the LGBTQ teaching requirements of section 801a of N.Y. state Education Law. However, they aren't excluded either. Therefore those LGBTQ requirements could be included in the forthcoming Guidelines with a stroke of a pen, unless of course these Regulations are voted down. And that is precisely what the rally was asking for.
This rally was scheduled for a day when the Regents board was to meet about other matters, inasmuch as they'd all be in Albany that day, to witness community members' expression of concern. The rally, held outside the location on the Regents meetings, comes on the heels of the submission of over 100,000 comments and petitions to the Board of Regents, mostly in strong opposition to the Regulations.
The main address concisely identified the concerns front and center: NY State governmental interference in foundational religious matters. What our readers may find most noteworthy was the fact that the Board of Regents was put on notice here about Jewish concerns over the pro-LGBTQ requirements of Education Law 801a, and that acceptance of these Equivalency Regulations poses a threat of imposing those requirements on private and religious schoolchildren.
There are other concerns with the Regulations, and ensuing Guidelines. However, by far the greatest threat is LGBTQ indoctrination. The pro-sodomy LGBTQ Lobby is unquestionably amongst the most militant movements operating in the arena of Education. It is true that the proposed Requirements, if accepted, could result in the forthcoming Guidelines specifically including requirements to teach about other religions (and in a favored light), or Evolution, or radical Environmental nonsense blaming unregulated human reproduction for climate change and massive hurricanes. But it is hard to conceive of a scenario which would impede the LGBTQ movement from extending their pervasive influence throughout public schools to religious schools, even Yeshivos, if given legal license to do so, via acceptance of these Regulations.
The primary statement read at the rally implored the members of the Board of Regents to reject these Regulations, and thereby avoid a scenario in which many Orthodox Jews would be compelled to choose between leaving the state or maintaining ongoing non-cooperation with the government on this crux issue. Teaching heresy - or the LGBT agenda - is "something we are obligated to give up our lives to avoid," a reference to the Torah obligation of "Yaihoraig ve'al ya'avor," which applies to such foundational assaults on Judaism. The prospect of engagement in "the storied tradition of nonviolent civil disobedience" was explicitly mentioned. Similar issues were raised in other speeches.
Implementation of such anti-Torah policies would require Jews to shun any cooperation whatsoever with this anti-Biblical, pro-LGBT, and anti-Constitutional agenda.
Even from a strictly constitutional perspective, to force Americans to indoctrinate children of any faith, or of none, into the LGBTQ agenda is anathema. The Founding Fathers drew a line with England over issues that were less monumental than this. To redefine Education as LGBT indoctrination would be a betrayal of the Constitutional Republic, in addition to being an outright rebellion against Our Creator.
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The second item covered in the print Dispatch column of this week reports on the IDF persecution of a religious girl, Avigail H., and her severely ill mother, who was an Israeli Air Force captain before she became a baalas teshuva.
See previous posts:
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