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“This is a documentary of rescue. To call out one’s own on this is a form of love, not betrayal. The conflation of ignorance with authenticity is, ever and always, anti-human.”

John McWhorter

Columnist, New York Times

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Unorthodox Education is a 60-minute documentary that exposes a shocking truth -- tens of thousands of Jewish schoolchildren graduate from ultra-Orthodox Brooklyn yeshiva high schools without the legally-mandated education they need to become independent adults. Some are never even taught how to read, write, or speak English.

Watch the Trailer

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DIRECTOR + PRODUCER

JOE KOLMAN

PRODUCER

ELANA SIGALL

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY

ANNA ANDERSEN

EDITOR

GEORGE ITZHAK

STILL PHOTOGRAPHY

JONAH MARKOWITZ

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Unorthodox Education is a powerful indictment of the failures of the educational system within the ultra-Orthodox (Hareidi) communities of New York State. More than that, it documents in painful detail the human costs of these failures. This film is a must-see for anyone interested in education rights, religious freedom, and the intersection of those values in a system seemingly unwilling to enforce minimum standards that would insure that all children growing up within these communities are equipped to face life’s basic demands.

JEFFREY S. SHOULSON, Ph.D.

Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences and Professor of English

Brandeis University

This important film depicts how thousands of New York students are being denied their constitutional rights to a sound basic education
because the ultra-orthodox religious schools they attend refuse to teach basic math, English language skills, science, history and civics.
Through conversations with parents, graduates of the schools and academic researchers, the film demonstrates that teaching children the basic subjects needed to prepare them for citizenship and a decent job is not incompatible with adherence to deeply-felt religious values.

MICHAEL  A. REBELL
Professor of Law and Education
Teachers College, Columbia University

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