A new documentary on the adequacy of secular education at New York’s yeshivas is debuting just four months after what its director called the “disastrous defeat” of state efforts to exercise oversight on the religious schools, which serve tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox children. Unorthodox Education begins a two-week run at Cinema Village in Manhattan on Sep. 19, and the 40-minute film leaves little doubt where it stands on the contentious issue.
“It was outrageous to me that this was going on in America and nobody seemed to know about it,” director Joe Kolman told me.
Kolman initially produced an eight-minute version of the film that he planned to post on YouTube for free, but decided to expand it after showing it to people who were confused after viewing it…