At the end of June, New York City educational authorities announced that an investigation had found that eighteen ḥasidic schools had failed to meet educational requirements. But if these schools are really so bad—asks Frieda Vizel, herself a former member of the Satmar ḥasidic community in Williamsburg, Brooklyn—why do parents keep enrolling their children? There are many reasons, she contends, beginning with the fact that, in a community where families are large, the schools “take on the task of easing the burden for parents” as well as “seek to address students’ emotional needs.” And that is sometimes hard for outsiders to appreciate:

It is an irony of the current debate that liberals who believe in strong social safety nets, who would balk at the assertion that a person should be judged by his wealth or career attainment, and who once celebrated the maxim made famous by Hillary Clinton, “It takes a village to raise a child,” seem incapable of appreciating those same values when they come from religious communities.

But the critical reports from the New York Times and from the Department of Education don’t focus on the ways these schools serve as vital organs to ḥasidic communities. Instead, they focus on what the ḥasidic schools don’t do: they do not prepare the boys to be efficient workers and reliable consumers inside of mainstream, secular economic arrangements. And this is true. Ḥasidic schools don’t do the kind of career prep that can help students become future brand managers, corporate tax consultants, or equity administrators. It seems that in the wider world, people are so used to conflating education with economic preparation—because this is what modern education has become—that they assume that ḥasidic schools seek to do the same.

Yet, Vizel goes on to explain, most graduates of these schools immediately enter the workforce, and New York’s Ḥasidim usually provide opportunities for young people to learn on the job in family businesses. As for the discontents:

All of this doesn’t mean that ḥasidic parents don’t have criticisms of their sons’ schools. In fact, I believe the debate over ḥasidic education stems, in part, from internal frustrations. As someone who is on the periphery, parents talk to me candidly about the things that bother them. Plenty have complaints about education, as parents will have anywhere, and I hear especially about the state of “English” for boys. . . . But at the same time, these parents value the many things they do get from the schools, and would by no means want the good to go away.

Considering the current state of Israel-Arab relations, Ghaith al-Omari writes

First and foremost, no ceasefire will be possible without the release of Israeli hostages and commitments to disarm Hamas and remove it from power. The final say on these matters rests with Hamas commanders on the ground in Gaza, who have been largely impervious to foreign pressure so far. At minimum, however, the United States should insist that Qatari and Egyptian mediators push Hamas’s external leadership to accept these conditions publicly, which could increase pressure on the group’s Gaza leadership.

Washington should also demand a clear, public position from key Arab states regarding disarmament. The Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas endorsed this position in a June letter to Saudi Arabia and France, giving Arab states Palestinian cover for endorsing it themselves.

Some Arab states have already indicated a willingness to play a significant role, but they will have little incentive to commit resources and personnel to Gaza unless Israel (1) provides guarantees that it will not occupy the Strip indefinitely, and (2) removes its veto on a PA role in Gaza’s future, even if only symbolic at first. Arab officials are also seeking assurances that any role they play in Gaza will be in the context of a wider effort to reach a two-state solution.

On the other hand, Washington must remain mindful that current conditions between Israel and the Palestinians are not remotely conducive to . . . implementing a two-state solution.