By: Jared Evan
New York City’s incoming comptroller, Brad Lander, announced during a virtual Q-and-A with the New York Jewish Agenda, a secular “progressive” policy group he co-founded, that he would use all of his power and resources to force yeshivas into teaching secular curriculum, Times of Israel reported.
“The state law is very clear that all schools, including private and parochial schools, have an obligation to deliver substantially comparable and competent secular education, especially where the city is contracting with those schools for transportation and books,” Lander said. “It is a responsibility of the city as a whole and the comptroller in particular to be paying attention, and audit and make sure those obligations are being met.”
“This is critical,” Lander said, speaking to the New York Jewish Agenda, a liberal group he co-founded. “Making sure that all our schools, including our yeshivas, provide the education that our kids need and deserve is part of our job together and one that I’m going to be spending time on.”
Supporters of “substantial equivalence” say Orthodox children have a right to a secular education. Opponents say the law infringes on the religious freedom of the yeshivas to teach their students as they wish, Times of Israel explained.
Lander is a co-founder of the Progressive Caucus in the New York City Council, a group that was described by the New York Times as “the City Council’s most liberal members.
Lander was first elected to New York City Council office on the Democratic Party and Working Families Party lines on November 4, 2009, with 70% of the vote. Lander had won a hotly contested Democratic primary on September 15, 2009, with 41% of the vote in a field of five. Lander was reelected on the Democratic and Working Families Parties’ lines in 2013 to serve for a second term, Wikipedia documented.
Lander is known for his far-left ideology, and as a member of the WFP, he is to the left of the NY Democratic party. He is a known defender of radial, anti-Semite, Linda Sarsour, and is aligned with the “squad” , the most radical faction in congress.
While running against Corey Johnson in the NY Democratic Primary for Comptroller Lander flexed his “woke” credentials with a commercial featuring: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and Rep. Jerrold Nadler. He is also an enthusiastic defender of the “defund the police movement” and recites progressive nomenclature robustly.
YWN reported:
Lander also noted that the district he served for a decade as a city councilmember prior to being elected comptroller, has a large number of non-frum, liberal Jews as well as some frum ones.
“My district has the Jews on probably the furthest left of the spectrum and the furthest right of the spectrum in New York City,” he said. “I love my [Jewish] practice. That said, I have been enriched as an elected official and as a Jew by my engagement with our frum cousins.”
