In 1989, New York State Governor Mario Matthew Cuomo, signed into law a provision that would allow the village of Kiryas Joel, and only the village of Kiryas Joel, to create a public school district. Cuomo’s close friend Louis Grumet, who was then the executive director of the New York State School Boards Associatation warned that the law was unconsititutional. Because Kiryas Joel is inhabited solely by Hassidic Jews of the Satmar sect, and the school district created to bend to the religious laws of that sect, Grumet argued the new district violated seperation of church and state. Cuomo was not impressed. “Who’s going to sue?” he asked.

Louis Grumet sued, and the resulting case, Board of Education of Kiryas Joel v. Grumet, went all the way to the Supreme Court. This book is the story of that court case, but it’s also much more. It’s about political corruption. It’s about the increasing erosion of the wall between religion and government, and how many politicians seem happy to pick up a hammer and chip away when it’s politically expedient.

To say that the Satmar Jews are outside the mainstream American culture would be an understatement. Yiddish is the first language among its adherents, and many speak no English at all. Boys study at Yeshiva, taught by men, and girls attend a wife-training program, taught by women. Most every detail of daily life, from dress to diet, is regulated by the religious leaders and religious traditon. One cannot purchase a home in Kiryas Joel without permission of the Grand Rebbe. Kiryas Joel, in effect, a closed village to all but one religious group.

Because the Samtar vote in a bloc, taking direct orders from the Grand Rebbe into the voting booth, they weilded considerable power with politicians, Cuomo and George Pataki among them. For the most part, it seemed like the Samtar got what they wanted, and in 1989 they wanted their own union-free school district. The stated purpose of the district was to educate the handful of special needs students living in Kiryas Joel. But the residents of Kiryas Joel wanted this public service on their own religious terms. For example, village leaders rejected the idea of female bus drivers picking up students.

And so became the question: can the state establish a public school district to cater to the members of one religious sect? What’s to stop any race, religion, or ethnic group from following in the footsteps of Kiryas Joel?

I think this is an important book. But it’s also a pretty enjoyable read on a subject that threatens to get dry and dull. Authors Louis Grumet and John M. Caher write with a biting whit and cynasism. I’m not sure I would have had the courage to refer to Kiryas Joel as an “eastern european ghetto.” Grumet is clearly proud of his involvement in this case. However, readers might be left wondering what the point of it all was. There was no historic case law made, and the Samtar in Kiryas Joel continue, to this day, to use political clout to get around inconvenient laws.