Blessed be the peacemaker and former Governor David Patterson offered to do just that between members of the Orthodox Jewish community and the black and Hispanic Community regarding the simmering East Ramapo School District dispute.
Many of Brooklyn’s Black and Latino state lawmakers favor the state appointing a monitor as per the recommendation of a study that found the Orthodox Jewish-controlled East Ramapo School Board mismanaged and short-funded the largely black and Hispanic public schools.
“I’d like to see the disenfranchised Jewish members (on the issue) who feel that they were not understood properly by the Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus make an appointment and sit down with them, That would be my suggestion and when I see them (Caucus) I will suggest the same,” said Patterson, following his being the featured guest at a Boro Park Forum attended by socially conservative Orthodox Jews.
The event, sponsored by JP Updates, a religious Jewish news website, focused on the long partnership and alliance between American blacks and Jews over Civil Rights laws dating back to before the 1960s and the historic march on Selma.
Patterson said he was too unfamiliar with the recently failed legislation to appoint the monitor over the school district to comment on it, but he felt the dispute is grounded in the distribution of resources and that each side is trying to get the best for their children, and that created a conflict between the two groups.
“I’ve seen this in other parts of state where it’s not ethnic such as charter versus private schools. The answer is we are going to all be less myopic and look beyond our backyard and make sure we’re educating everybody because we learned that those that don’t get a good education become a problem to our society,” said Patterson.
According to East Flatbush Assemblyman and Caucus Chair Nick Perry, Brooklyn members were near unanimous on the state appointing the monitor with a few exceptions such as Fort Greene Assemblyman Walter Mosley.
Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Civil Rights Division Chair Deborah Laufer was the other featured guest at the forum. The ADL’s mission is two-fold – to fight anti-Semitism and to fight for the civil rights of everyone.
“My understanding (of the East Ramapo issue) is it has been under investigation and there were findings. For us transparency is critically important,” said Laufer, adding ADL local attorneys are working on the issue and she’s not sure if the ADL has taken a stand on it.
