Man whose firm provides special education services to yeshivas charged with embezzlement
The company implicated serves New York City’s Hasidic community
A yeshiva school bus drives through Borough Park, Brooklyn. Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images
By Adam Kovac January 12, 2023
The man behind companies that provide special education services to several New York City yeshivas is facing charges that he embezzled almost $3 million from the state government.
Martin Handler was charged Wednesday with theft of government funds and wire fraud conspiracy, among other things, according to The New York Times.
Four partners are also being charged, including Handler’s brother.
Handler runs several companies that, in addition to providing special education services to yeshivas, also provide child care in the Hasidic community.
Handler and his codefendants all pleaded not guilty.
Among the schemes alleged by prosecutors were an after-school program that got reimbursed for children who weren’t enrolled in it. Handler is also accused of providing no-show jobs to family members of business associates.
The Times recently reported that vast sums of government money were being allocated to special education facilities in the New York Orthodox community for services that were sometimes not needed, with Handler’s firms being among the beneficiaries.
That article followed a bombshell investigation that discovered many yeshiva students were not receiving adequate secular education, with some being unable to speak or write in English or remember basic science facts. The Times also reported that some male yeshiva students were subject to corporal punishment. The recent reporting has led some within the Hasidic community to accuse The Times of targeting Jews, while others have said the articles shed much-needed light on the shortcomings of the yeshiva system.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
