Education & Indoctrination

The structure:

• Cheder (ages 3-13): Boys begin learning Torah and Talmud almost immediately. Secular subjects receive minimal hours, often taught by unqualified teachers in the afternoon when kids are exhausted
• Yeshiva Ketana/Gedolah (teens-20s): Full-time Talmud study. Secular education is either minimal or nonexistent
• Bais Yaakov (girls): Founded in 1917 by Sarah Schenirer as a concession—before that, girls received no formal Jewish education. Teaches Tanach, halacha, and "hashkafa" (worldview), plus some secular subjects—but always through a religious lens
• Kollel (married men): Full-time Torah study, often for years, supported by the community or in-laws

What's missing:

• Science is taught selectively—evolution is either skipped or "refuted"
• History is filtered through a Jewish lens; world history is largely ignored
• Literature, philosophy, and the humanities are considered dangerous
• Critical thinking skills are never taught—in fact, they're actively discouraged
• Sex education is zero
• Financial literacy is zero
• Career preparation is minimal to nonexistent in many communities

How questioning is suppressed:

• Children who ask uncomfortable questions are told they have a "yetzer hara for apikorsus" (an evil inclination toward heresy)
• "Emunah peshutah" (simple faith) is elevated as the ideal—more virtuous than faith arrived at through investigation
• The Rambam's philosophical approach is studied selectively; his rationalism is downplayed
• Books are banned and burned—literally. In 2005, Rabbi Natan Slifkin's books on Torah and science were banned by major rabbinic authorities
• Students who express doubt are sent to "kiruv" (outreach) rabbis for re-indoctrination, not to counselors for honest exploration

The Talmud's own tradition of debate is selectively applied:

• Machloikes (disagreement) is encouraged—but only within the bounds of accepted halachic discourse
• You can argue about whether a pot is kosher, but you cannot question whether kashrut itself makes sense
• The questions of "why" and "whether" are replaced exclusively with "how"—how to observe, never whether to observe

The reality in numbers:

• A 2017 study found that Hasidic yeshivas in New York provided as little as 90 minutes of English and math per day—and some provided none at all
• Graduates of these yeshivas often read English at elementary school levels
• The State of New York has spent years attempting to enforce "substantial equivalence" in secular education—met with fierce resistance from Hasidic leadership
• In 2022, new guidelines were finally issued, but enforcement remains an uphill battle

The justification:

• "Torah is the best education" — learning Gemara teaches logic (but not how to file taxes)
• Secular education leads to "bittul Torah" (wasting time that could be spent on Torah)
• Exposure to secular ideas leads to loss of faith
• "Our grandparents didn't need college" — ignoring that previous generations lived in different economic realities
• "Hashem will provide" — used to justify not acquiring marketable skills

The human cost:

• Adults who leave the community find themselves functionally undereducated
• Getting a GED, let alone a college degree, requires years of catch-up
• Many ex-Orthodox Jews describe the experience of entering the secular world as "like being an immigrant in your own country"
• Career options are severely limited without basic credentials
• The community's internal economy (real estate, diamond trade, electronics) absorbs some, but those who leave have nothing to fall back on