How a Hasidic Jew Principal with Military Intelligence Training Turned Around a Failing Public School

• Natasha
  February 9th, 2008 at 4:20 am

  sounds like a movie waiting to happen

• Search? Engines WEB
  February 9th, 2008 at 8:43 am

  Sometimes teachers balked, as when Mr. Waronker asked them to take to rooftops with walkie-talkies before Halloween in 2006. He wanted to avoid a repetition of the previous year’s troubles, when students had been pelted with potatoes and frozen eggs.
  

  What is so sad is that they could not get the Police to monitor that roof - why should those teachers have to be Security Guards?!

• kitsana_d
  February 9th, 2008 at 9:43 am

  It’s good to see someone trying, at the very least, and inspiring his teachers as well.

• eli
  February 9th, 2008 at 12:12 pm

  A militant Israeli? What a surprise.

• Jen
  February 9th, 2008 at 12:44 pm

  Um, he’s not Israeli, he’s either Chilean or American, you’d have to ask him which he identifies with. Way to confuse the facts with misinformation completely irrelevant to the story!

  If he helps these kids become good people and productive citizens he’s succeeded in my book. We’ll have to see what the long term effects of his programs are.

• Jennifer
  February 9th, 2008 at 2:25 pm

  Good for him! Hope he doesn’t end up like the guy Morgan Freeman played just for trying to good.

• syed
  February 9th, 2008 at 2:29 pm

  Dude, that’s a real teacher for you.

• Vako
  February 9th, 2008 at 3:16 pm

  Go Mossad !

• NiteWhite
  February 9th, 2008 at 3:28 pm

  Haseeds scare the bejebus out of me. I used to live in soho near the diamond district, which you know is owned by the hasidics, and they would walk aournd in 100degree weather with their suits and black overcoats on sweating like pigs. Plus, they have hairy faces and some of them perm their hair!

  I have a feeling this school’s recent progress is more attributable to the previous principal leaving, who must’ve been atrocious, and allowing this Haseed to shine. We’ll see if I’m right when the movie comes out soon.

• NiteWhite
  February 9th, 2008 at 3:31 pm

  ^^

  I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to offend any hasidic jews out there… I meant the hasidic men ‘hot-curl’ their hair, not ‘perm’.

• c-dub
  February 9th, 2008 at 3:51 pm

  Wow, NiteWhite. You describe hassids as hairy-faced pigs, but you didn’t “mean to offend”? What kind of language do you use when you try?

  You know, just because you have hateful tendencies doesn’t mean you have to share them.

• Tim
  February 9th, 2008 at 4:19 pm

  eli, Israelis serve in the military as part of being a citizen. Considing them ‘all’ militant is ignorant.

  Search? Engines WEB, what is sad is that the citizens of that town let that kind of thing go on. Citizens are responsible for their own neighborhoods, not police.

  What does being Jewish have to do with the story is my question.

  Ignorance is so well worn by racist pigs…

• Vannoy
  February 9th, 2008 at 5:28 pm

  “has overwhelmingly black and Hispanic students”
  What, exactly, does that mean?

• NiteWhite
  February 9th, 2008 at 7:02 pm

  Tim, you described racists as pigs? Just because you have hateful tendencies doesn’t mean you have to share them.

• The Slapster
  February 9th, 2008 at 7:04 pm

  Main Entry: over·whelm·ing·ly
  Function: adverb
  Date: 1667
  2: mostly by far

  The student body is mostly black or Hispanic, seemed pretty self explanatory.

  Who cares what the principal’s religious orientation is, if he’s getting results from such an abysmal environment?

• NiteWhite
  February 9th, 2008 at 7:10 pm

  Bad school + minority students = White America’s dream.

  Personally, I would care if my principal governed from a religion that believes in the Abrahamic God.

  “The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.” -Richard Dawkins, Biologist at Oxford University.

• Alex
  February 9th, 2008 at 7:28 pm

  I overwhelmingly agree with The Slapster :). It matters more that Shimon Waronker is a principal that cares about his school and students. More importantly, he is willing to take hard and unpopular steps to improve the school.

  His faith as a Hasidic Jew, adds to the neat factor of the story, but I could see the same result from white/black/latino teachers who care just as much.

• pill
  February 9th, 2008 at 8:43 pm

  Sort of a strange post from “Nitewhite”.
  First- SoHo is nowhere near the diamond district. You lived in Manhattan? As far as “perming”. I assume he’s talking about the custom of Chasidim wearing curly sidelocks. They don’t get perms. Hairy faces? You mean a beard? How odd! Any New Yorker will tell you, after living here for a while, you wouldn’t pay any more attention to a Chasid walking around in his black coat than you would any other person from every tiny corner of the globe sitting next to you on the 6 train. You sound like an ignorant tourist who took a walk around the city one day.
  Crawl back under your rock…

• NiteWhite
  February 9th, 2008 at 9:14 pm

  Hey Pill. Your pain makes me smile!

  First off, as someone who DID live in SOHO for 18 YEARS, I know very well that the diamond district is 5 MINUTES away walking distance.

  Secondly, like I said earlier, if you saw men wearing a suit with Black Coats on in the dead heat of summer smelling like B.O., you’d notice it too… or maybe you’re the Retarded Version of Hellen Keller who lacks eyesight, smell and common sense.

  The one thing I like about Neatorama is the paucity of idiots that’s so prevalent elsewhere. This is not one of those times.

• hellen_keller
  February 9th, 2008 at 11:10 pm

  hey nitewhite, leave me alone!

• Larfin Jackarse
  February 10th, 2008 at 2:45 am

  I live near Balaclava (one of the Jewish areas) in Melbourne and I too often wonder how they wear they getup in the heat. Can’t say I ever smelt their BO. I think they would be too proud for that, espec` on the Sabbath.

  My only opinion would be that the old Testament God is a mean lad and I don’t know if I could cope with a teacher who is into that.

  Wonder what his thoughts are on the whole Israel/Palestine thing….

  On a separate note, we once tried to hunt down a raock band in Jerusalem who did ‘Hacid Rock’. Never did find them but damn we were keen.

• c-dub
  February 10th, 2008 at 3:36 am

  @NiteWhite:
  I’ve lived in Manhattan myself: the diamond district is in midtown, around 47th St. That’s at least 2 1/2 miles from SoHo, so the only way you could walk there in five minutes is if you could walk 30 MPH. And I don’t think Pill was objecting to your “noticing” men wearing black coats in summer heat; I think she was more concerned with your juvenile and offensive descriptions. (Also, there’s no such word as “Hasidics.”)

  @eli and Tim:
  He’s not Israeli. And I would contend that his religion is germane to the story, only because it’s interesting that he’s made such progress while having so little commonality with the students.

• Nonimus
  February 10th, 2008 at 7:27 am

  “We’re all connected,” he said.

  Amazing what caring can accomplish.

  http://youtube.com/watch?v=8PVt4Yix02A

• MoonCake
  February 10th, 2008 at 10:38 am

  i like how everyone here is shitting on this guy, regardless of his efforts and imporovements made at a lacking school. arguing about whether he is Isreali or not… irrelevant. arguing about where the hell Soho is… irrelevant.

  kudos to the guy for making a difference in so many peoples’ lives and turning an entire school around just by being a good person. great find, alex!

• Jayshun
  February 10th, 2008 at 11:38 am

  What does him being a Hasidic Jew have to do w/ anything in this story?

• NiteWhite
  February 10th, 2008 at 11:57 am

  at c-dub
  I suggest you read this article before you run out of toes to stick in your mouth:
  http://www.lowermanhattan.info/news/downtown_gems__a_96119.aspx

  If you are a Manhannite then you would know there are multiple diamond districts, the 2nd one being in lower Manhattan FIVE MINUTES away from SOHO. In fact, the original European Jews set up shop on Bowery and Canal, currently mixed in with the ‘restaurant and lighting’ districts. They HASIDICS moved up to 47th street to what is now known as the “D”iamond “D”istrict… notice the capital letters? To insist that all the Haseeds do business near 47th street shows how ignorant you really are.
  Mazeltof, biatch.

• rdubs
  February 10th, 2008 at 1:09 pm

  YAY! Another meaningless arguement which will convince nobobdy of nothing and nothing will come out of this. Thanks NiteWite, you continue to spread the good news.

• Geekazoid
  February 10th, 2008 at 1:49 pm

  Can’t we all just get along

• ted
  February 10th, 2008 at 2:16 pm

  I would agree that his religion has very little to do with the story. Perhaps, it shows he has a stricter teaching philosophy because of his orthodox beliefs.

  But that doesn’t sell papers, does it?

• Matthew
  February 10th, 2008 at 6:39 pm

  I’m so tired of these stories of one savior teacher or administrator that turns around a school when no one else could! Especially when Hollywood perpetuates it. They always serve, whether overtly or not, to blame the rest of the teachers rather than addressing a failed system. People look at these stories (or watch the movies) and think, “gee if only more people like that were around our education problems would be solved!” instead of addressing the real issues at hand, such as horrendous lack of funding and forcing teachers to teach to toward a standardized test rather than actually educating children.

• c-dub
  February 10th, 2008 at 6:41 pm

  @NiteWhite:

  I’ve read that article twice, trying to figure out why you would cite it, since it makes my point more strongly than it does yours: the diamond district is now on 47th, between 5th and 6th. I worked there, for diamond dealers. It used to be downtown, at both Canal/Bowery and Fulton/Nassau, but that was a long time ago: it moved up to 47th in the early 1940’s. Those other areas may still have a few more jewelry stores than other neighborhoods, but they’re hardly considered “diamond districts.” And I didn’t “insist that all Hasids work near 47th,” so I’m not sure what straw you’re grabbing at there. Obviously, Hasids work in industries other than the diamond trade, and not just in the diamond district.

  And seriously, there’s no such word as “hasidics.” But I’m correcting a juvenile bigot (who also calls people who live in Manhattan “Manhannites”) so the finer points of my arguments are probably lost.

• NiteWhite
  February 10th, 2008 at 9:57 pm

  c-dub, class is over. You know absolutely nothing about New York, and the fact that you ‘worked’ in the Diamond District just furthers my point that you’re ignorant and stupid for not knowing the 2nd largest diamond district is lower Manhattan. Everyday tons of Hasidics walk up and down Bowery and Canal, not because they run nail salons or a jewish gym, but because they deal in diamonds. You should really leave your house more often, or maybe make a few friends.

  And yes, I still believe Hasidics are smelly in the summertime, because they are. You’re probably one of them.

• c-dub
  February 10th, 2008 at 10:24 pm

  You must be very sad.

• zoomzoom
  February 11th, 2008 at 5:47 am

  c-dub’s clearly got nitewhite on this one. i’ve lived in soho my whole life, and manhattan’s diamond district—the only “diamond district” in manhattan—is on 47th. there’s quite a bit of jewelry business going on in the area nightwhite’s describing, but just because people are trading diamonds there doesn’t mean it’s a/the “diamond district.”
  nitewhite must think every he’s in the garment district every time he walks past a Gap.

• DanO
  February 11th, 2008 at 7:44 am

  the issue is nitewhite completely missing the point of this article, not where diamond districts are or bearded jewish men.

• sezhoo
  February 11th, 2008 at 10:04 am

  Here’s a conversation you will NEVER hear in New York:
  “Where do you work?”
  “Near the diamond district.”
  “Oh really? Which one?”

  It’s not surprising NiteWhite’s got it so wrong, since low intelligence is a prerequisite for prejudice.

• NiteWhite
  February 11th, 2008 at 10:27 am

  it’s really amusing all the smelly haseeds, and there reformed brethren, came out in defense of c-dub, who obviously hasn’t made one correct statement yet. it makes me smile to see c-dub make false accusation after false accusation. it’s like watching a retarded chimp (with payos and yarmulke lol) bang his head on a wall time and time again.

  My family, who has jewelry stores in tysons corner and naples florida, deal with the hasidics on a regular basis, in lower manhattan, much to their displeasure. Now zoomzoom, since you claim to live in Soho when I know by your statements that you don’t… you would know lower manhattan is comprised of districts. There is the lighting district, the restaurant district, and the diamond district,etc. i suggest you research this fact on your own time then get back to me, k?

  and sezhoo, i suggest you learn more about the city as you obviously know squat. if you were in Soho, which is closer to the 2nd largest diamond district in lower manhattan, people would assume you were talking about the one i said. but if you wanna think all your jewish bros work near 47th street then i shall leave your ignorance untouched. thanks for playing.

  class dismissed.

• zoomzoom
  February 11th, 2008 at 11:15 am

  you know as much about where i live as you do about every other bit of nonsense you’ve spouted here. just because your relatives buy diamonds in lower manhattan doesn’t mean there’s a “diamond district” here; and just because lower manhattan is comprised of districts doesn’t mean one of them is the diamond district. your evidence isn’t evidence, and your logic is as feeble-mined as your opinions.

  now i’m sure you’ll come back with another addled response, filled with plenty of insults. knock yourself out, but i’m done.

• sezhoo
  February 11th, 2008 at 11:51 am

  I don’t think all my “jewish bros” work near 47th Street, but I’m also not dumb enough to think that every Jewish person (or even every Hassid) works in the diamond district. Do you think you’re in the diamond district just because you see a Hassid or some jewelry stores?

  But whatever, if you want to call it a diamond district, call it a diamond district. Who cares. What I don’t understand is how someone as bigoted as you even survives in New York, a place where you’re exposed to every race and religion you could imagine, and where you hear dozens of languages just walking down the street. If you feel compelled to ridicule people just because they wear black, or have beards, or even have different standards of hygiene than you, you must feel threatened by the world every time you step out your front door. Instead of recognizing the extraordinary work of the man in this article, you say, “Ooo he has hair on his face!” Yours must be a very sad life.

  The alternative explanation, of course, is that you don’t believe any of this stuff, but your life is so unbearably barren that you go online and say it anyway so that people like me will engage you. In either case, it’s sad, and in either case, like zoomzoom, I’m out. Good luck with yourself.

• Suzie
  February 13th, 2008 at 2:04 pm

  People still have problems with Jews? Really? REALLY? I mean seriously, folks, there was more than one person posting on here who either straight out was ripping on Jews, or at least dismissing this guy for his religion. If you live in mid-east/Palestine- I might give you SOME (very little) slack on the archaic resentfulness of the Jewish population. But still- Really? Don’t you feel like you hopped off some pre- 1940’s bandwagon of ignorance? That you may be trendy in circles of shaved head, angry kids, from Alabama- but that is not something to be proud of…

  The real story here is that a school on the brink of collapse was able to be saved by someone willing to truly approach things differently. What is the saying, “you can’t do the same thing over and over and expect change”. I agree with what Matthew says, there are larger issues plaguing the school system. Not just bad administrators. However I think you can pour as much money and resources as you want into schools, it is going to take someone with vision to use those resources for actual change.

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