The Day School and the Emerging Jewish

IN THIS ISSUE: The Day School Changes People by Rabbi Nachman Bulman The Day School Changes Communities by Rabbi Shubert Spero The Day School and the Emerging Jewish Community by Rabbi Ralph Pelcovitz The Day School Changes People tiling of the teachings which their child brings home from the Day School; and when we find, that despite these obstacles, and in a very short time, there begin • RABBI NACHMAN BULMAN to appear one family and then another and then a third —just a few admittedly — who begin to observe Kashrus and Shabbos and Taharas Hamishpachah . .when one begins to see these things happen, one sees that By Way of Introduction there is a great hope in the Day School — even in the My treatment of the subject assigned to me will be small community. limited to my personal observations in a very few com- One is forceably reminded of that famous utterance munities. My hope is that whatever few experiences I of the sainted Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, zatzal, can relate to you may be considered indicative of what who himself faced this same terrible problem: “Even can be achieved in the area under discussion—the if one Jew were left in the world with Shema Yisioel Day School and its impact upon the family — and of in his heart — with that one Jew alone we could rebuild the pitfalls and the dangers which are inherent in this Knesses Yisroel.” field in which we labor. A word of brief definition of the context in which I Sobriety Comes speak is in order. 1 know of the impact of Yeshivos in But there is another side to the picture, and ice must the Metropolitan areas. I have also seen the impact of be sober. After a year, or two, or three, the zeal of those Yeshivos in three small isolated communities — com- who are pioneers in this cause is dissipated. One finds munities in which there was almost no observance of that each family, whom one has caught hold of some- Torah, where the Yeshivos had to overcome an extreme how through the Day School, requires a whole Yeshiva alienation from Jewish life, from Jewish observance, of its own, and an entire staff of Roshei Yeshiva for from sentiment and Jewish aspirations. itself alone. And time is so short. We are fragmented. We are driven into trivialities. We make fund-raisers A Strange Paradox and meshulachim of our Rabbis and Menahalim. Our There is a strange paradox that we experience in the energy is driven from us; and, after a while, we find field of the small Yeshiva —or rather of the Yeshiva in that we lack the force and energy to continue. After a the provincial community — a paradox between hope while, those few families whom we have won with so and sobriety. much sweat and toil — we find suddenly that these On the one hand, we are immeasurably strengthened families begin to realize that they are isolated; that and encouraged when we compare, even after a very they must fight the battle alone against overwhelming few years, the state of present Jewish life to the stand- odds; and that there is not much hope coming. After aids that existed before our few Yeshivos were estab- the initial impetus, after the initial storm, somehow lished. These few achievements — the few personal ones there is a plateau. Things stop moving. And these few that we can point to — are themselves of an extraordi- families begin to find that there is a terrible corruption nary nature, taking place as they do in a small com- and decadence in the institutional Orthodoxy and the munity where there was not, prior to the establishment world in which they live. And they begin to lose their of a Day School, a single observant Jewish home; where zeal and inspiration. They begin to feel somehow that every Jewish mother and every Jewish father had to they are left alone, embattled and surrounded, and that brave a storm not only of criticism but also of ridicule they must fight for their very life. They are not willing and condemnation when they thought of enrolling their to give up what they have found. There is, in all these child in the Day School. When those of us who are families, tremendous rnesiras nefesh. There is a willing- forced to live and work in small provincial commu- ness to bring horbonos (sacrifices) which you Long nities think of the obstacles which must be overcome by Island or New York or Detroit or Chicago Jews cannot parents who seek to incorporate into their lives some- dream of. But all the same, the power of the flesh is weak and they begin to realize that the battle is so Rabbi Nachman Bulman of Newport News, Virginia, immense — even in trying to maintain what they have. described—in great and dramatic detail—the impact of the Day School upon the family. IVe tampered little withWill it be possible to establish in Newport News a his recital. His story may be long, but it is worth reading. Yeshiva high school? What will happen then? 4—The Jewish Pahent The principle of the Rabbis that a “thousand enter and one goes out,” somehow avenges itself upon us. If one comes out of a thousand, do you know what this means to a community whose entire Jewish population is a little over 1,000? We are left, at the beginning of a tremendous hope, almost without hope. When we remember how large a percentage even of those who attended Yeshiva high schools in larger cities fall away and do not enter the ranks of Torah-true Judaism, we become even more frightened. One thinks of Reb Yisroel Salanter’s famous remark — that when one puts a hot iron into cold water, it sizzles; but at the moment that is sizzles it loses its fire and becomes cold! today is die Hillel Director of Wayne University in And Courage Detroit, Rabbi Meir Kapustin — to teach its own grand- This is the paradox. This is the tragedy. The heart children. Rabbi Kapustin, in the ten years during expands and contracts when it sees the credit side and which he remained in Danville while acclimatizing the debit side — the hope of the Day Schools in the himself and learning English, pulled thirty families small communities, and the sobriety. out of the Reform Temple. He changed a community Yet, somehow we persist, as we must persist. If it was that was practically non-observant to a community in possible to perform the first miracle of establishing Day which the authority of the rabbinate was firmly estab- Schools in these small communities — this then shows lished and where the public character of the Shul could us that Hashetn Yisborach created the possibilities of not be altered. “creativity from naught” in this field. If that first When I came to Danville, shortly after his departure, miracle was made possible, perhaps it is not for us to I began to talk Yeshiva to one family. The mother had see the end of our battle and the victory of our cause. been raised on a farm among non-Jews in North We are driven to the realization that we must strive Carolina and had not seen the insides of any Jewish and strive, and strive — again without ever feeling that House of Worship till she was past twenty years of we can see victory in sight. This then is the necessary age. I began to talk Yeshiva in reference to the oldest context in which 1 speak. And with this context in son, who at that time was just about Bar Mitzvah. This mind, I should like to convey to you as an observer the started the whole chain which I now describe to you. little that I have seen in three communities concerning I bis is an example of the impact of the Day School the type of impact that a Day School can have on indi- movement. For when I talked to these parents — to vidual families in small communities — where there those few who were beginning to become observant was no prior area of Jewish observance. * * * and I kept telling them and whetting their appetites, starting to create a sense of yearning and impatience The Idea Alone Builds with themselves, a sense of desire for something better The very first such case was in a community in for their children — I kept saying to them: “Children which, strangely enough, the Day School had a tre- like yours in other communities go to Yeshivos. They mendous and extraordinary effect on a few families, learn Chumash; and they learn Rashi. They learn despite the fact that there could not be a Day School Mishnah and they learn Gemarah ” in this town. It was the Day School idea — we need to Many of these people looked at me uncomprehend- learn the power of the Day School idea — it was the ingly. They did not understand. They had acquired a idea alone in Danville, Virginia, which had, I think, feeling for Kashrus and Shah bos — but “who needs to an extraordinary impact; and I shall recite to you in learn Mishnah and Gemarah?” rigid details the character of this impact. Yet, after a while, somehow, the idea bore fruit. One The Orthodox Shul of Danville today has about never knows what is deep in the hearts of a Jewish twenty families. It has a Minyan every morning and mother or father. Eventually, the oldest of these boys evening.

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