In case this will help, I'm posting the letter that I submitted. I cut out identifying details in the first paragraph, which included a description of my expertise and what I do for a living.
To whom it may concern,
My name is... and I am a graduate of... I am currently a... (description of expertise and job). I have received a wholesome education at my yeshiva, and have excelled on all my Regent’s examinations – garnering grades well above the statewide average. Additionally, as a product of a yeshiva education, I am privy to be able to raise a beautiful family in a moral and ethical oasis, far removed from the crime and corruption that tragically plagues many of today’s youth.
I therefore strongly urge you, don’t make any changes to the regulations that pertain to yeshivas and other private schools. While fringe groups may seek to besmirch the yeshiva system, facts will show that there exists not a greater education system in our country. Perhaps, if anything, a lens should be put on the yeshiva system and the NYSED should scrutinize it in order to learn what makes it work so well, so that its successes can perhaps be duplicated in the public school system, which lags behind yeshivas in almost every meaningful category.
I conclude with the words of Mark Twain, written in a poignant piece titled “Concerning the Jews” (Harper’s Magazine, September 1899):
“The Jew is not a disturber of the peace of any country. Even his enemies will concede that. He is not a loafer, he is not a sot, he is not noisy, he is not a brawler nor a rioter, he is not quarrelsome. In the statistics of crime his presence is conspicuously rare — in all countries. With murder and other crimes of violence he has but little to do: he is a stranger to the hangman. In the police court’s daily long roll of “assaults” and “drunk and disorderlies” his name seldom appears.
“That the Jewish home is a home in the truest sense is a fact which no one will dispute. The family is knitted together by the strongest affections; its members show each other every due respect; and reverence for the elders is an inviolate law of the house. The Jew is not a burden on the charities of the state nor of the city; these could cease from their functions without affecting him.
“When he is well enough, he works; when he is incapacitated, his own people take care of him. And not in a poor and stingy way, but with a fine and large benevolence. His race is entitled to be called the most benevolent of all the races of men. A Jewish beggar is not impossible, perhaps; such a thing may exist, but there are few men that can say they have seen that spectacle. The Jew has been staged in many uncomplimentary forms, but, so far as I know, no dramatist has done him the injustice to stage him as a beggar. Whenever a Jew has real need to beg, his people save him from the necessity of doing it. The charitable institutions of the Jews are supported by Jewish money, and amply. The Jews make no noise about it; it is done quietly; they do not nag and pester and harass us for contributions; they give us peace, and set us an example — an example which we have not found ourselves able to follow; for by nature we are not free givers, and have to be patiently and persistently hunted down in the interest of the unfortunate.
“These facts are all on the credit side of the proposition that the Jew is a good and orderly citizen. Summed up, they certify that he is quiet, peaceable, industrious, unaddicted to high crimes and brutal dispositions; that his family life is commendable; that he is not a burden upon public charities; that he is not a beggar; that in benevolence he is above the reach of competition. These are the very quintessentials of good citizenship.”
These portrayals, penned by the great American writer 120 years ago, ring true today. And today, just as it was 120 years ago, the yeshiva system is the moral backbone of the Jewish nation. The values Twain bespoke were only achieved through a thriving, unimpeded yeshiva system. Please, don’t impose the suggested regulation changes on private schools – it is morally wrong and sensibly inconceivable.
Sincerely,
*my name and address*
