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April 3, 1998, Friday, Late Edition - Final
SECTION: Section B; Page 1; Column 5; Metropolitan Desk 

LENGTH: 900 words

HEADLINE: Judge Rejects 3d Push to Keep School District Of Kiryas Joel

BYLINE:  By JOSEPH BERGER 

BODY:
A State Supreme Court justice in Albany yesterday struck down a third attempt by the Governor and the State Legislature to preserve a special public school district for the Hasidic enclave of Kiryas Joel, calling the latest effort to tailor a valid law an act of "legislative favoritism" that endorsed a single religious group.

The ruling by Judge Joseph C. Teresi was uncommonly sharp, chiding the Legislature for its third attempt "to ignore the rulings from courts at every level." And it hinted strongly that because the law creating the school district is so inextricably entwined with the Hasidic village, no future effort to tinker with its provisions was likely to escape the constitutional prohibition against establishment of religion.

"Viewed in the context of its history and effect, the inappropriate endorsement of a specific religion is the prominent message evoked" by the law, Judge Teresi said.

The decision appears to be a major embarrassment for the state's leadership. Twice before in the decade-long history of the controversy, lawmakers, with the cooperation first of Gov. Mario M. Cuomo and then of Gov. George E. Pataki, have carved out a special school district for Kiryas Joel, enabling it to educate its disabled children apart from the secular world. Each time the courts -- including the United States Supreme Court and the State Court of Appeals -- have ruled the efforts unconstitutional.

The politically influential Satmar group, based mostly in Brooklyn's Williamsburg section, with a satellite in Kiryas Joel, near Monroe, N.Y., was able to persuade the legislative leadership last summer to return to the well once more. But yesterday, Judge Teresi said the latest effort was also inherently flawed.

Opponents of the Kiryas Joel district said they could not recall another law for which the state's leaders have tried so often to come up with strategies for passing legal muster in the face of near unanimous judicial hostility.

"The State of Alabama does it all the time with school prayer," said Marc D. Stern, the legal director of the American Jewish Congress, which has filed briefs opposing the Kiryas Joel district. "You have to go to that or the Southern states at the height of the civil rights era, when they constantly passed laws to invalidate federal decisions."

But Nathan Lewin, a Washington-based lawyer for Kiryas Joel, said the Jewish Congress itself has tried to redraft a law knocked down by the Supreme Court last year that forces states to show a "compelling need" when imposing burdens on religious observance. He also rejected Judge Teresi's argument that the law was customized for Kiryas Joel, pointing out that lobbyists customize laws for specific interests all the time but cloak these in broad language.

Abraham Wieder, the Mayor of Kiryas Joel, said the village would appeal. "Why are Hasidic children -- U.S. citizens, taxpayers -- different from other children?" he asked. "Why aren't they entitled for help just as any other school district?"

Michael F. McKeon, a spokesman for Governor Pataki, said the Governor's staff had not yet looked at the decision. Pat Lynch, a spokeswoman for Sheldon Silver, the Assembly Speaker, declined comment. An Assembly aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity, denied that the Assembly leadership is embarrassed. "There is no shame in doing the right thing," the aide said.

Kiryas Joel, 45 miles north of New York City, is made up entirely of 12,000 Hasidic Jews with historic roots in the Eastern European village of Satu-Mare. All the children attend yeshivas. For years, the village has been trying to tap tax dollars to help with the costs of educating severely handicapped children. They argue that sending children to the surrounding Monroe-Woodbury district had proved unworkable because children were taunted for their distinctive appearance.

In 1989, the Legislature passed, and Governor Cuomo signed, a law specifically designating Kiryas Joel as a special district. That law was ruled unconstitutional in 1994 by the United States Supreme Court. But 11 days after the ruling the Legislature passed a second, more generalized law allowing any village inside a larger school district to become autonomous as long as it met criteria for population size, per-pupil wealth and other factors. In fact, Kiryas Joel was the state's only village that qualified.

Last May, the Court of Appeals found that law unconstitutional as well, so on August 4, state legislators pushed through another law changing some of the criteria to make more districts eligible. Although Governor Pataki claimed 10 districts would be, he later modified that to 6, but, ultimately, only one other district besides Kiryas Joel qualified: Stony Point in Rockland County.

By last January, Mr. Silver was indicating that if the latest law perished in the courts he would try to tailor a fourth law applicable to far more villages. That possibility worried opponents, not just because it might legitimize Kiryas Joel but because they feared it would set off a wave of secessions by white residential enclaves in largely black and Hispanic school districts. Stony Point, for example, is a largely white enclave in the heavily poor and Hispanic school district that embraces the town of Haverstraw. Stony Point residents have already circulated petitions to press for secession.



      

LOAD-DATE: April 3, 1998