The Jewish Observer I October 1976 5 21 Percent and 40 Percent Conservative Af Filiates." to This Dr
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CHESHVAN 5737 I OCTOBER, 1976 VOLUME XI, NUMBER 10 r SEVENTY-FIVE CENTS BS ERV ER THE JEWISH QBSERVER in this issue The American Hebrew Day School Movement Comes of Age, Nisson Wolpin ............................................... .3 "How Are You Today, Rebbi?", Avrum P. Shapiro ..................... 11 THE JEVVJSH OssERVER is published monthly, except July and August, Too Much Too Soon, William V. Shannon by the Agudath Israel of America, (from the NY Times) ..................................................................... 12 5 Beekman St., New York, N.Y 10038. Second class postage paid Horav HaGaon Reb Yechezkiel Abramsky zt"L ...................... 14 at New York, N.Y. Subscription· $7.50 per year; Two years, $13.00; Filling the Void: Reflections on the Passing of a Gadol, Three years, $18.00; outside of the based on remarks by Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky ..................... 15 United States $8.50 per year Single copy seventy-five cents. Patterns of Jewish Survival, Printed in the U.S.A. adapted from an address by Rabbi Mordechai Miller ............ 22 One Sefer, four Generations, Julius Pfeiffer ................................ 27 RABBI NrssoNWoLrlN Editor The Old Cemetery, a poem by Chaim Feinberg ........................... 29 Book In Review Editorial Board Kohe/es, a Translation and Commentary ........................ 30 DR ERNST l. BODENHEIMER Chairman " •••"(with and without comment) RABB! NATHAN BULMAN In The Hurricane's Wake, Shlomo Kahn ............................... 33 RABBI JOSEPH EuAS JOSEPH f RIEDENSON Of Suffering and Martyrdom, RABBI MosHE SriERER from the writings of Rabbi Josef Carfebach zt"l ....................... 34 A Stadium for Jerusalem ..................................................... 35 THE JEWISH OssERVER does not Letters to the Editor ............................................................................ 36 a!'sume responsibility for the Kashrus of any product or service advertised in lts pages. Photographs; Cover - Bridgeport, Conn.; p.3 - New York City; p.6 - New York Ciry; p.7 -Pheonix, Ariz.; p.10- San Fernando Va/fey, Calif., and Brooklyn, N. Y. OCT., 1976 VOL. XI, No. 10 Typography by Compu-Scribe ar ArtScroll Studio.s THE AMERICAN . DA y SCHOOL MOVEMENf1f( .. COMES/OF ... AGE - a report and analysis by Nisson Wolpin Amierit<iln c~gt!Jl~eity of 5,000 souls or more ~:@, il Hebrew •2•·15••••··••2•·,.•.c•·•••••..:;x.,..,... ·svt• School • ......,... .......... ·•".·· Beyond the figuref!i~¥~ • How healthy is T9riiliJi~uc~tiol1 In the United States? • Is every new school a gain? • What is ne~t on the agenda? SCHOOL BELLS ARE RINGING across the land, and more I find the situation here such that I seriously than the sounds are electrifying. Statistics (provided by doubt the ultimate value of my labors. The school Torah Umesorah - the National Society for Hebrew is totally dominated by leftists - Reconstruc Day Schools) are also highly charged. tionists and Reform. They have no desire for more Twenty-two new Hebrew Day Schools including than a good private school that will teach Hebrew nine at the high school level have been established in language, culture, and history~ There is a real fear various parts of the United States, bringing the total that the children will become more religious than number of schools in the U.S. to 446 plus an additional their parents. There is serious opposition to head 52 in Canada, with a total enrollment of about 92,000 covering, netilas yodayim, or any other students .... While this represents no marked change manifestation that would offend the leftists. I find in figures, this does mean that every community with a myself severely limited in my ability to alter this Jewish population of 5,000 or more has a day school. It course. Lay involvement in the day-to-day affairs would seem as though the dreams of Reh Shrage Feivel of the school is beyond my wildest apprehensions; Mendelowitz, ~"Yl, when he founded Torah Umesorah In my short time here the school has made great thirty five years ago, are close to fruition. Indeed, the strides and is earning a well-deserved reputation complexion of Jewish America has in many ways in the local community. Enrollment is higher than changed radically for the better during these past thirty ever. But I find myself being forced to com five years, and a prime contributing factor is the promise on my beliefs and the rulings of our proliferation of day schools throughout the United Sages, or at least to tolerate such behavior. This I States. feel is not proper nor is it conducive to my own However, it is worthwhile going beyond the figures spiritual development. to examine the facts, which pulsate with noteworthy In a private conversation, he told of parents' de acts of sacrifice and dedication, surprising turns of mands that students not be requireds to wear yar events, as well as a generous share of unrealized poten mulkas during secular studies! tials and tangible heartache - elements which bare D ITEM' An 8th grade teacher in a Mid-American day statistics alone do not reveal. Some may inspire deeper school reports the frustration of grooming eighth appreciation for unsung successes across the land. graders for graduation, but not matriculation ... Others may lead to painful reassessment of some of our the community does not have a high school, and priorities in Torah education. very few parents are willing to send their children out-of-town to dorm. They want a local yeshiva D ITEM, The little second-grader skipped the full high school, but the dean of a neighboring mile and a half to shul in the Texas city where he regional Yeshiva Gedola let the Day School prin attended day-school. His parents were shadowing cipal know that he disapproved: If the local him in their station wagon the entire way. It was graduates would not leave home for high school, Shabbos, so he wouldn't ride with them. The they would be trapped in a low level of religious previous day, he solemnly had told his principal, observance and scholastic achievement. The only "When I grow up, I'm going to be a physician and way they could reasonably aspire for higher goals a talmid chochom." is if they break out of their immediate environ D ITEM, The young suburban community consisted ment and find new role models - Bais Medrash mostly of professionals, connected with a nearby boys who are totally immersed in Torah studay ... government research project. Those who admitted Beth Jacob girls fully committed to Torah princi to being Jewish either belonged to the local Temple ples as guidelines in their personal lives ... So, or to the neighboring Conservative synagogue. almost all of the kids go on to attend local public When the families began to contemplate opening a high schools. day school for their children, the Conservative Not only are his efforts aborted, the teacher synagogue offered to sponsor a Solomon Shechter complained, but erstwhile day school supporters Day School. Some of the more assertive members are becoming disenchanted with the school, as of the community, however, remembered their their children who had enjoyed eight or nine years yeshiva ketana days in Brooklyn, and called Torah of religious education have drifted away from Umesorah instead. traditional values, into the drug culture. D ITEM, The principal of a day school in an old D ITEM, What strange breed of people are they? the Jewish community in the South recently dropped Altshu's wondered. Morning, afternoon, evening, us a line. The stationery of his school lists nineteen night - always poring over their books. Not the directors, of whom nine are Conservative, six are usual thing in Milwaukee, to say the least. They Reform, and only three are Orthodox. The decided to venture into the shul to get a closer look representation makes itself felt, as he wrote: at the young people who had come to Milwaukee 4 The Jewish Observer/ October 1976 from the intensively Orthodox yeshiva in high schools put as much emphasis on Shemiras Shab Baltimore (Ner Israel). Much to their surprise, bos as they do on Ivrit or "loyalty" to Israel .... Nor they looked very 20th Century (although admit do all high school graduates continue religious studies tedly not very hip) and - more suprising - some on the post-high school level; and not all these have of their own neighbors were with them at the secure home environments on which to fall back. There study tables, looking into the volumes of Talmud, are no statistics on the scope of this problem, but it is arguing, discussing. definitely there .... By no means does a day school in Before they knew it, they were inside the doors every Jewish community numbering more than 5 ,000 of the shul, and before the week was over, they, provide an assurance of future generations dedicated to too, tasted Torah as they never dreamed it existed. Torah - neither in South Bend, Indiana, nor in Today, the Altshu's are enrolled in an adult Brooklyn, New York. Wherein lies the fault that allows for such large-scale defection at this crucial juncture? education class, one of their children is enrolled in Can something be done to reduce the toll of lost the local day school. They can hardly wait for a neshamos? repeat of last summer's experience: a five week visit by a yeshiva representation under Torah Umesorah's Operation SEED* (an acronym for What Right to Questionl Summer Educational Environmental Develop BEFORE EXAMINING THE DIMENSIONS of the problem ment) - or for when a kolel will become a perma and searching for some solutions, it might seem very nent feature of Milwaukee life. much in order to question the very right to question. Of course, Chinuch - Torah study and training for obser vance of mitzvos - whether in San Diego or New Shadows Among the Statistics Haven, is every Jew's concern. But on the other hand, A MOTTLED PICTURE EMERGES FROM THE ABOVE not everybody has made it his business; nor is everyone anecdotes.