Feds Target Williamsburg Jewish School Operator

Pictured: The UTA Central office. Image via Google Maps

WILLIAMSBURG, BROOKLYN — Federal investigators searched the Rutledge Street headquarters of UTA Central Inc., a local Jewish school (or yeshiva) operator, on Wednesday afternoon, a spokeswoman for the Federal Bureau of Investigation confirmed Thursday.

The yeshiva office, located at 76 Rutledge St. in Orthodox Williamsburg near Bed-Stuy, serves as administrative headquarters for various Jewish elementary and high schools in Brooklyn.

Video of the raid was uploaded to YouTube Wednesday by Yeshiva World News. Community members can be seen crowding around UTA's offices as plainclothes investigators hop from an unmarked white van and file into the building.

UTA Central reportedly serves around 4,500 students and employs around 300 teachers.

Before searching UTA's offices Wednesday, FBI investigators secured a warrant from the Department of Justice's Eastern District of New York office, the FBI spokeswoman said.

There were no arrests, according to the spokeswoman.

Neither the FBI nor the DOJ would provide further details on the search, citing an ongoing investigation involving the yeshiva.

A phone message left Thursday morning at the UTA offices was not returned.

On a visit to the offices Thursday afternoon, this reporter was politely asked to leave by an man inside the building who declined to identify himself. The man also declined to comment on the investigation, and said he would provide the phone number for an attorney at a later date.

New York's Department of Education did not immediately return a request for comment Thursday.

Wednesday's search was apparently one of many that have recently targeted New York-area yeshivas.

On Wednesday, The Forward reported that yeshivas in Rockland County and Brooklyn had been searched in connection to alleged abuse of the federal government's E-Rate program.

According to news website Lohud, those searches included 22 locations in Ramapo, New York.

E-Rate provides about $4 billion annually to help schools and libraries pay for phone and internet service, according to the Federal Communications Commission, which administers it.

The FBI spokeswoman said Thursday that the investigation of Central UTA was separate from the Rockland County investigation, but would not elaborate further.

New York's yeshivas received additional scrutiny last summer, when the DOE launched an investigation into whether the curriculum at 38 ultra-Orthodox schools in Brooklyn, and one in Queens, met city guidelines.

The investigation followed a letter the department received from the progressive Jewish group Yaffed accusing the schools of failing to provide students with the level of secular education required by law.

A statement issued Thursday by Yaffed didn't mention Central UTA, but did criticize the government for its oversight of E-Rate funding.

"If those in charge of the E-rate program had had any understanding of the very minimal secular education that is given in these Yeshivas, they would have appreciated at the very outset that there was little, if any chance, that such schools would have any need for funds for computer equipment," the statement read.

The statement also called on "New York's educational authorities" to force educational reforms at yeshivas.

"Maybe then these schools would have found uses for the technology in question and there would have been no alleged fraud to investigate," it concluded.