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At Yeshivat Avir Yakov, an all-boys school in the chasidic enclave of New Square in New York’s Rockland County, students spend the vast majority of their long school days studying religious texts in spartan classrooms furnished only with battered wooden benches and desks. Unlike their counterparts in public or private schools outside the chasidic community, the boys at Avir Yakov do not have access to the Internet or computers in their school because chasidic leaders view the Internet as a corrupting force capable of undermining their way of life.

The House passed legislation Wednesday that would permit the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide taxpayer-funded disaster aid to synagogues, churches and other houses of worship. The bill now goes to the Senate, which observers said would feel pressured to at least consider it in light of the federal aid pouring into the tri-state area following Superstorm Sandy.