Satmar has now taken out an ad that deceptively claims its Yeshivah Gedolah (i.e., its high school-level yeshiva) linked to the Satmar hasidic Village of Kiryas Joel, New York does not discriminate by "race, color national and ethnic origin."
Satmar has now taken out an ad (posted below) that deceptively claims its Yeshivah Gedolah (i.e., its high school-level yeshiva) linked to the Satmar hasidic Village of Kiryas Joel, New York does not discriminate by "race, color national and ethnic origin." But the yeshiva requires all students to strictly follow Satmar customs and religious stringencies.
That means that Orthodox Jewish students who are not Satmar would have to change their style of dress, even during off hours and vacation periods, to match Satmar requirements, and would have to follow Satmar religious customs. (Just ask the Yemenite Jews who were "rescued" by Satmar and brought to Kiryas Joel.) In Satmar's girls high school linked to Kiryas Joel, Yemenite students and their visiting mothers were forbidden from wearing traditional Yemenite Jewish clothes – in this case, loose-fitting pant. So Satmar does discriminate against Yemenites.
But it also discriminates against Orthodox Jews from other nationalities whose customs are different than Satmar's Hungary-Romania-based behavior. So true Litvaks (Lithuanian Jews) and true Ashkenazim (German Jews) who for some reason want to attend a Satmar school will have to comply with Satmar's requirements, which for boys would include long peyot (sidecurls) and shaved or very closely-cropped hair.
These style choices, so to speak, all have religious significance to the various ethnic communities and reflect each one's understanding of halakha (Orthodox Jewish law) and each community's . But you can't dress like a Litvak in UTA.
Past all that, the ad reproduced below, which was published in yesterday's Photo News newspaper in Orange County, New York, does not say that Satmar's Yeshivah Gedolah does not discriminate by sexual preference, gender or religion – because, of course, it does. You can't be an openly gay student or a female student in Satmar's Yeshivah Gedolah. You also can't be an open atheist or an open Conservative of Reform Jew – or even seriously suspected of being any of those things.
Lastly, note the lack of a phone number or any other contact information in the ad, which was clearly placed as a part of Satmar's really awful and deceptive public relations campaign launched recently to try to overcome strong objections from almost everyone outside of the haredi community to Kiryas Joel's attempt to annex hundreds of acres of land from its neighbor, the Town of Monroe.
[Hat Tip: RMR.]