This shows you the physiology of these hatful losers. Here is a fact that the principal helped the school, but he “feels this school’s recent progress is more attributable to the previous principal leaving, who must’ve been atrocious”.

“Feels”? What the hack is that?

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

But that doesn't sell papers, does it?

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.

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!

Amazing what caring can accomplish.

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

@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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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...