Yeshivas, Patient Rights and Trouble in Rockland County:

A Memo from the Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council (OJPAC)

The New York State Department of Education will in the coming weeks release new guidelines on the law that requires private school curriculum to be “at least substantially equivalent” to public schools. Once released, there will be a public comment period for people to submit their opinions on this regulation, which is driven by an anti-Hasidic hate group. The law is in place for decades without issue, but detractors want to change the law and its regulations in a way that can deem Yeshivas as non-compliant. 

In hospitals, patient rights are crushed due to stringent visitation rules to varying degrees. A day has 24 hours, yet visitation is limited to only a few hours; parents cannot be visited by their very young children, and COVID-19 patients are completely shut out even though hospital staffers are likely in the same room as COVID-positive people outside of the hospital and without wearing PPE. The lockdown rules are rooted in guidelines released by the U.S. CDC, but each state’s health department makes its own rules, and they can be adjusted because of advocacy and outcry. 

In Rockland County, there is a new effort to create a “Rockland County Office of Building and Codes.” The action is driven by forces within and outside of government who are antagonistic towards Orthodox Jews. They want to have a county-level entity to force their way into homes, Yeshivas, and Shuls in the name of safety. In a letter released January 28, seven County Legislators wrote that “we fully expect that community advocates who have spent years leading the fight for code enforcement and fire safety will be given a seat at the table and act as advisors during the decision-making process.” The letter names two supposedly countywide groups for this role but they are largely active only in instances that involve Orthodox Jews. Fire safety rules should be followed because failing to do so can CHV lead to fatalities as was the case in 2015 in Clarkstown, a Rockland town, when a person died in an illegally converted home. Still, a government effort created out of a poisoned tree is unacceptable and is potentially illegal too. 

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