Beats Me - guest post Joe Orlow

The New York Times recently had an article about some Jewish schools in New York.

This blog posted an article from HAMODIA in reference to the New York Times article. The HAMODIA article included this:

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“Antisemitism is on the rise in New York and the number of hate crimes targeted at the Hasidic community have increased in recent years,” Connolly writes. “[Tzedek] believes that your article will contribute to the negative perception of the Hasidic community and in turn fan the flames of antisemitism.”

Similarly, Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel of Agudath Israel recently wrote to Shapiro and Rosenthal, “The timing of this article is terrible. Hate crime statistics, specifically crimes targeting Jews, are spiking dramatically — and most of these crimes are being directed against Hasidic Jews...."

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The New York Times article included this:

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Still, virtually all of the dozens of parents of current students interviewed by The Times said their sons had been hit at least once. Several said they had sought to protect their children by “tipping” their teachers, usually about $100 a year.

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 don't know if this is true. But let's assume it is, and explore the implications.

Parents generally are charged tuition to send their children to private schools. In one or more of these schools under discussion, one or more teachers hit some of the kids some of the time.

The purpose for hitting the kids is presumably to advance the education of the kids. So here we have a case where parents are paying tuition to have their kids educated and on top of that they are paying extra money to not have their kids educated? That is, a teacher might argue that the hitting has educational value. But the parents are paying the teacher not to to hit their kids -- not to advance their kids' education?

This situation reminds me of how gangsters operate.

"Be a shame if anything happened to your kids while they're in my classroom, wouldn't it? You tip, we make sure your kids are safe while they are with us."

Now let's examine the statements that mention "antisemitism" and "hate crimes."

Well, I think a teacher hitting kids to the point where parents feel compelled to bribe the teacher to not hit their kids is not in line with the Torah and is violence against Jews.

And that violence may be on a larger scale than anything some bad stuff non-Jews may be doing to Jews in America at the moment. Jewish kids aren't being beaten on the streets in America on a daily basis -- but they do seem to be getting whopped regularly in one or more classrooms.

All I've written, of course, is on the assumption that the New York Times article got it right in the quote from the article above.

What can be done to help these children getting hit who don't have parents paying protection money?

We can tell the children to swarm an attacking teacher. That is, a four year old alone defending himself from a beating may not discourage an adult teacher to cease beating his students. But thirty kids defending one of their own might give a beating teacher pause.

We can also create a "Beat the Beatings" fund. The purpose of the fund would be to end the classroom beatings. Children being beaten could apply for grants from the fund that would be paid directly to the beating teachers.

Again, I have no idea what goes on within the schools under discussion. But it beats me how some Jews that are up in arms when a non-Jew hits a Jew can suddenly clam up when the violent attacker is a Jewish teacher hitting a student to the point where parents are led to pay off the attacker.