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An eighteen-wheeler sat motionless at the intersection of 26th Street and Fourth Avenue in Brooklyn, completely blocking traffic in all directions. The New York City Marathon, a challenging 26.2-mile foot race that snakes across the city on the first Sunday in November each year, is the stage for some of the most remarkable athletes in the world. It is generally considered the largest marathon in the world, with almost 48,000 contestants last year. But they had no lost trucks to contend with, no red lights, yellow taxis or blue buses. On race day, like this Sunday, the course is cleared of traffic.

Persons: — Organizations: New York City Marathon Locations: Brooklyn, Staten Island, Central

☆ Where a Photographer’s Curiosity Became a Two-Year Commitment
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-18 | by ( John Otis | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Though he grew up just a few miles away, Jonah Markowitz, a photographer and documentarian based in Brooklyn, knew little about the neighborhood of Kensington before 2021. That’s when he noticed, in New York City data from the year before, that an outsize portion of applications for new business licenses came from the area that included Kensington. So he began to check out the neighborhood, which had been a hub of Bangladeshi life in the city since the 1970s. Mr. Markowitz expected to start a project about economic trends in an immigrant community. Instead, he spent almost two and a half years visiting the same corner in Kensington, working on a portrait of the quiet transformation of a New York City neighborhood.

Persons: Jonah Markowitz, Markowitz Organizations: Metro Locations: Brooklyn, Kensington, New York City

Ms. Hanif’s family history illustrates how Bangladeshi Kensington came to be. While the corner is often a male-dominated space, she and other Bangladeshi American women have carved out their own places there. Ms. Saeed wants to buy a house, but real estate in Kensington has become far too expensive. Ms. Saeed also faced opposition as she was growing up, from relatives on her mother’s side who frowned upon dance. With other public spaces so dominated by men, Ms. Ferdous sees it as vital that women gather to keep their traditions alive.

Persons: Shahana Hanif, Hanif’s, Hanif, Radhuni, Ms, Mir Hossain, Hossain, “, ”, Sala Miah, Rubel, Tarek Aziz, Uddin, Farojan Saeed, Syed Rehan, Saeed, Annie Ferdous, Ferdous, Eid, Mr, Mahmud Organizations: Young, City Council, Bangladesh Institute of Performing Arts, Bangladeshi Institute of Performing Arts, McDonald Locations: Kensington, Bangladesh, Pakistan, “, United States, America, Bengal, Noakhali, Chittagong, Sandwip, Brooklyn, East, South America, Colombia, Panama, Dhaka, Bangladeshi, Manhattan, East New York, Jackson Heights, Ozone, New York, Motiul, Philadelphia, Jessore District, Jamaica, Queens

☆ How Public Money Goes to Support a Hasidic Village’s Private Schools
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-20 | by ( Jay Root | Jonah Markowitz | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For years, Kiryas Joel, a bustling village north of New York City, has run one of the most unusual public school districts in America. The village is almost entirely populated by Hasidic Jews, and the district was created to serve just one group: Hasidic children with disabilities. Most other children attend the community’s private religious schools, which stress the rigorous study of Jewish law and prayer but offer little instruction in secular subjects. Created a little over 30 years ago, the unique public school system immediately drew concerns that a school district created for members of a single faith could never separate itself from their religious institutions. Then, in 2009, New York auditors identified a glaring conflict of interest: Two of the school district’s board members had voted to use tens of millions of tax dollars to lease a building from a private religious school organization that they also helped run.

Persons: Kiryas Joel Locations: New York City, America, New York

☆ Why Some Hasidic Children Can’t Leave Failing Schools
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( Eliza Shapiro | Jonah Markowitz | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Beatrice Weber wakes up most mornings afraid that her son’s Hasidic Jewish school is setting him up to fail. Her 10-year-old, Aaron, brims with curiosity, and has told his mother that he wants to work for NASA. But his school, like other Hasidic boys’ schools in New York, teaches only cursory English and math and little science or social studies. It focuses instead on imparting the values of the fervently religious Hasidic community, which speaks Yiddish rather than English and places the study of Jewish law and prayer above all else. Recently, Ms. Weber said, Aaron’s teacher told him that the planets revolve around the Earth.

Persons: Beatrice Weber, Aaron, Weber Organizations: NASA Locations: New York

Eliza Shapiro is a reporter covering New York City education. She joined The Times in 2018 and grew up in New York, attending public and private schools in Manhattan and Brooklyn. @elizashapiro

Persons: Eliza Shapiro Organizations: Times Locations: New York City, New York, Manhattan, Brooklyn

To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android. The Hasidic Jewish community has long operated one of New York’s largest private schools on its own terms, resisting any outside scrutiny of how its students are faring. But in 2019, the school, the Central United Talmudical Academy, agreed to give state standardized tests in reading and math to more than 1,000 students. Students at nearly a dozen other schools run by the Hasidic community recorded similarly dismal outcomes that year, a pattern that under ordinary circumstances would signal an education system in crisis. But where other schools might be struggling because of underfunding or mismanagement, these schools are different.

Organizations: New York Times, Central United Talmudical Academy

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