Man sues chassidic schools, gov’t for poor education

Yonanan Lowen says the two chassidic schools left him ill-equipped for the labour market. CBC SCREENSHOT

MONTREAL — A 36-year-old former member of the Tash chassidic community is suing two Jewish schools, the Quebec education ministry and other public bodies for $1.2 million for damages he claims to have suffered due to the poor education he received in those schools.

Yonanan Lowen claims that the two schools he attended growing up in the Tash community in Boisbriand, north of Montreal, ill-equipped him for modern society, let alone making a living.

The father of several children, he said he cannot find work outside the chassidic community. He left the Tash community in 2010 before moving to Montreal.

He said he can barely read and write, knows no French, has a poor grasp of English, and little knowledge of mathematics, history or geography.

The schools cited are Yeshiva Beth Yehuda and Oir Hachaim d’Tash rabbinical college

Also named in the lawsuit are the local Youth Protection Department and the Commission scolaire La Seigneurie des Mille-Iles, the area’s public school board.

He claims the ministry and these bodies knew for years that these schools were not following the mandatory provincial curriculum, but did nothing.

He blames them for depriving him of the basic secular education guaranteed to all Quebec children between ages six and 16 under the law. Both schools have been under investigation for the past half-dozen years by the government for not respecting the law.

Lowen’s suit refers to protection under the Public Education Act and the Quebec Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

“The school and the college operate openly without the competent authorities intervening to have them closed or ensuring that they provide the obligatory pedagogical regime foreseen by the Ministry of Education of Quebec,” his suit reads.

He claims the two Tash schools duped parents into believing their children were receiving the legally prescribed education.

Lowen was born in London, England and came with his family to Boisbriand when he was 10.

Although he now teaches a few hours each week at a synagogue, Lowen says he suffers from depression and obsessive compulsive disorder.

Lowen said he decided to launch the suit after hearing of the agreement reached earlier this month between the education department and another chassidic school, the Satmar community’s Yeshiva Toras Moshe Academy, which had been facing closure because it was operating illegally. Under this agreement, the school will cease all but its religious educational activities, and the students, who are at the elementary level, will be schooled at home, according to the provincial curriculum.

Lowen told Ici Radio-Canada this is a “farce” because these parents also never received an adequate secular education.

Efforts to reach Lowen for comment were unsuccessful.

Moishe Mayerovitch, head of Ecole Talmud Torah de Tash, today the central educational institution for boys of the community, did not return a phone call from The CJN for comment. According to earlier media reports, this establishment does not have nor has never sought a permit to operate as a school, even though about 300 children ages three to 13 attend it exclusively.

The office of Education Minister Yves Bolduc has said it will not comment on Lowen's legal action.