Agudath Israel on Monday sent an open letter to the Pulitzer Prize Board requesting that they not give an award to the New York Times for a series that unfairly attacked Hasidic education in New York City.
The 100-year old umbrella organization representing American Orthodox Jews, along with its newly formed advocacy division KnowUs, penned the letter to advise the Pulitzer board of the “offensive nature” of the articles, which are in the running for the prestigious investigative journalism award.
According to the letter, which noted that the Pulitzer Prize has recognized high quality journalism for over a century, the New York Times reporting on the topic “breached numerous standards of journalistic ethics” which Agudath documented in detail.
“Between September 11, 2022 and March 2, 2023 the New York Times has engaged in a relentless campaign of overwhelmingly negative depictions of Orthodox and Hasidic Jews, their educational institutions, and their lives,” the letter said. “We believe that awarding these articles, in any way, will be seen not only as a tacit approval and furtherance of offensive, antisemitic tropes, but would diminish the standing of the Pulitzer Prize by celebrating articles of demonstrably poor journalistic integrity.”
The umbrella organization noted that any legitimate issues regarding education in the Orthodox community the newspaper’s investigation uncovered were hidden by “misleading statistics; unethical lack of transparency of the Times’ sources; lack of balance; omission of critical context; questionable credit-taking for subsequent events; and repeated engagement in negative association fallacy [guilt by association].”
“Perhaps no body better than this august one understands that words have meaning. A free press can be an incredibly powerful force – for good or otherwise,” the letter said. “Particularly so when these words appear, sometimes on the front page, of a prominent newspaper.”
Agudath charged that the Times “has misused this incredible power. And the victims of this reporting – Orthodox and Hasidic Jews in New York – are a marginalized minority already subject to a rising, frightening number of hate crimes.”
Noting that New York City’s Jews were the victims of 43 percent of hate crimes in the city last year while compromising only 14 percent of the population, and that the figure jumped to 64 percent when looking at assault incidents in New York State, the letter denounced the Times for not considering the rise in antisemitism before it published “poorly sourced stories and amplifying stereotypes about Jews in a series of this nature.”
It added that ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt described the Times’ coverage as “biased and framed in a manner that could increase antisemitism” and that he met with the Times to discuss the issue. It also detailed that the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) of New York released a statement in March denouncing the newspaper's coverage of the Hasidic community.
“The cumulative effect of the New York Times' negative coverage of the Haredi community comes against the background of escalating antisemitic trends in this city and country and is likely to reinforce stereotypes of both Jews generally and the Haredi population in particular,” JCRC said. “We do believe that the New York Times has the responsibility to ensure its coverage of the Haredi community is fair-minded, accurately nuanced and contextualized, just as it should be for all communities in New York.“
Agudath slammed the newspaper’s series on the Hasidic community for being “replete with antisemitic tropes.”
“The articles raise and reinforce the notion that Orthodox Jews and their ‘bloc vote’ control and manipulate politicians; that rabbis hold some kind of menacing, iron grip on their sheep-like congregants; that religious teachers are intrinsically oppressive and abusive to children; and that Hasidic Jews, generally, are inherently corrupt and intent on bilking the system. These concepts are not incidental references but recur repeatedly throughout the articles,” the letter said.
It continued, summarizing the long history and positive impact the community has had on New York: “Nowhere in the Times’ lengthy articles is there any effort to balance all the negativity the articles direct against Hasidic schools with references to any of the positive aspects and results of Orthodox and Hasidic education.”
Agudath explained that it has never before involved itself in the deliberations of the Pulitzer Prize Board. However, if felt that “in light of the palpable pain in the community, present danger on the streets, and unbalanced and inaccurate reporting, we [were] compelled to pen this letter.”
They urged the board to familiarize itself with the evidence presented in the letter, which provided it with “numerous, serious infractions of journalistic ethics perpetrated throughout these stories.”
“Understand the environment and the facts on the ground, the daily attacks on the street that Orthodox Jews endure and experience,” the letter concluded. “And whatever you do, distance yourselves and do not affirmatively award this series.”