Receiver Takes Control of N.Y. Hasidic School

By Mark Walsh

A federal judge has appointed a receiver to take financial control of a private religious school in a small Hasidic Jewish village in New York state.

U.S. District Judge Leonard B. Sand of New York City appointed the receiver to take over the school, called the Yeshiva of New Square, last month. The judge had become frustrated with the community's lack of cooperation with federal prosecutors, who are believed to be investigating possible fraud involving federal aid programs.

New Square is a small, insular village of about 5,000 Hasidic Jews in Rockland County, about 35 miles northwest of Manhattan. Like other Hasidic communities on the outskirts of the New York City metropolitan area, its members seek to preserve Eastern European religious and cultural traditions, such as wearing special garments and speaking Yiddish, with as little influence from the...