The New York State Department of Education has issued an unprecedented order to close three haredi educational institutions in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, claiming that they do not meet the legal requirements for an “equivalent curriculum.”

According to the letter sent to these institutions and published this morning in Hamevaser, they must notify parents of their students within seven days that they must transfer their children to alternative institutions, that meet the legal requirements for the next school year. Failure to comply with the requirements could lead to legal proceedings.

The institutions in question were part of a group of thirty-nine institutions that were sued by the YAFFED organization about a decade ago, based on testimonies from students who are no longer haredi and former employees.

According to the report, unlike other institutions, these three institutions waged a battle without professional legal representation.

"This is not an ordinary education decree, but a real threat to the future of Jewish education," a senior official in the haredi community was quoted, "We are fighting for our basic right to educate our children according to the tradition of our ancestors."

An organization representing the interests of the haredi community, filed an appeal with the New York Court of Appeals and, at the same time, filed a complaint with the federal Department of Education. "We hope that we will be able to delay the implementation of the ruling until a decision in the appeal has been reached," said a representative of the organization.

The local haredi community is also pinning its hopes on President Donald Trump taking office, "in anticipation of a presidential order that will settle this sensitive issue."