Yochanan Lowen says that as a child, the hasidic schools deprived him of even basic secular education – secular education Quebec law entitles him to. Now 37-years-old, Lowen says he can’t find work outside the haredi community he left in 2010 because of the failure of these hasidic schools to teach him secular subjects. He says the government was well aware of these deficiencies in many haredi schools, including the ones he attended, but did nothing to protect the children attending them. This, Lowen insists, is tantamount to child abuse.
Above: Yochanan Lowen
Updated at 3:06 pm CST
Ex-Hasid Sues Government, Yeshivas, School Board Over Lack Of Secular Education In Hasidic Schools
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
An ex-Satmar hasid is asking $1.2 million in damages from the Province of Quebec’s Department of Youth Protection, the Boisbriand school board and two illegal hasidic schools, Yeshiva Beth Yuheda and the Oir Hachaim d'Tash yeshiva, Radio Canada reported.
Even though both schools are illegal, CJAD Radio reported, both are still operating with the knowledge of the Quebec government.
Yochanan Lowen says that as a child, the hasidic schools deprived him of even basic secular education – secular education Quebec law entitles him to.
Now 37-years-old, Lowen says he can’t find work outside the haredi community he left in 2010 because of the failure of these hasidic schools to teach him secular subjects. He says the government was well aware of these deficiencies in many haredi schools, including the ones he attended, but did nothing to protect the children attending them. This, Lowen insists, is tantamount to child abuse.
"The [hasidic schools] operate in broad daylight without the competent authorities taking action to shut them down or make sure they provide the compulsory education mandated [under law] by the Ministry of Education of Quebec. In doing so, the state infringes unlawfully and intentionally in the right to education under the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms and as regulated by the Act on Public Education,” the lawsuit says.
Lowen says that a recent settlement of a dispute between the Province of Quebec and a Satmar hasidic school in Outremont prompted him to bring the lawsuit. He denounced that agreement, which allows the Satmar children to continue to attend the yeshiva while parents who have themselves received no secular education are put in charge of secular education there.
"Everyone knows it's a farce," Lowen reportedly said.
His attorney said the students of these haredi schools should be considered abandoned, abused children.
"We will consider that they are abandoned children who are abused, and we will have to intervene. In this case, obviously the DPJ [Department of Youth Protection] was aware of the situation, knew that these young people did not receive [secular] education and chose to do nothing," Marc-Antoine Cloutier, director a legal clinic, Clinic Juripop, said.
Julien-David Pelletier of Clinic Juripop said Lowen is illiterate in French and English.
"He doesn't know how to speak French or English," "He didn't know how to count, or to read — and he didn't even know what the Fleuve St-Laurent [the Saint Lawrence River] is," Pelletier said.
The schools Lowen attended reportedly suggested to parents that their curriculum meets the legal criteria of the Act on Public Education when in fact that was blatantly false.
Former members of these haredi communities demand that the province’s standards for secular education be met by all haredi schools so that students who later chose to leave the community have a chance to do so productively.
A similar lawsuit is reportedly being prepared in the New York State, as well.
[Hat Tip: Eric Mendelsohn.]