Home-school official tells trial Jewish education rigorous but only for boys

MONTREAL — The head of a Jewish home-schooling association is telling a Montreal courtroom that the rigorous Talmudic education offered by the Hasidic community prepares a child for any possible career.

Abraham Ekstein testified today in a case brought by Yochonon Lowen and Clara Wasserstein, two former members of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish community who claim the province and several Hasidic schools failed to provide them with a proper education.

Ekstein says the ultra-Orthodox community in Quebec teaches children to be analytical and to think logically, which he says are critical skills for virtually any job.

But during cross-examination, he admitted that the Talmudic education is reserved for boys.

Lowen and Wasserstein, a married couple in their 40s, allege the private Jewish schools run by the Tash community in Boisbriand, north of Montreal, left them unprepared for life in the outside world, and they are seeking a judgment declaring the province and the schools violated provincial education laws.

Ekstein says that under tightened rules, members of the province’s ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities must now register their children as home-schoolers and their education is monitored by the Education Department.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Feb. 17, 2020

The Canadian Press