YWN previously reported on the baseless lawsuit brought by Columbia University Professor Michael Rebell making unfounded claims about yeshiva education and asking a court to strike down the substantial equivalency legislation enacted last May in the State budget. Now YWN can exclusively report that PEARLS and Torah Umesorah have filed a brief with the court seeking to have the complaint dismissed.

They reminded the court that this past June, New York’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, ruled that “nothing in these provisions requires that parents ‘unenroll’ their children from a nonpublic school deemed not to provide substantially equivalent instruction. Nor do the regulations authorize school closures. The provisions merely state that the nonpublic school does not provide substantially equivalent instruction …. The parent or custodian must determine how then to ensure their compliance with the Education Law.”

Relying on the Court of Appeal decision, Albany Supreme Court subsequently “annulled” SED’s determination that the yeshivas previously deemed non-equivalent could not benefit from the 2025 Amendments and ordered that “upon electing to utilize the new assessment pathways,” the yeshivas “immediately satisfy the applicable substantial equivalence criteria.” It was those successes, and the enactment of the budget bill that protects yeshivas from the State Education Department’s improper intrusion into yeshiva education, that prompted the Columbia Professor’s lawsuit.

A copy of the brief submitted by PEARLS and Torah Umesorah is HERE. May they continue to have siyata dishmaya in protecting our mosdos hatorah from its enemies.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)