The boys are back from camp. The shofar was sounded this morning, and so will the kol Torah, as Elul Zman 5785 officially begins today in Bais Medrash Govoha. A short chavrusah tumul took place this morning, with the yeshiva beginning Maseches Gittin.
Other yeshivos and mesivtos across Lakewood are also starting today and tonight. Several new mosdos for both mesivta and bais medrash-age bochurim have opened their doors for the new year. At BMG, renovations were completed in the Forest Beis Medrash, including a facelift and expanded rooms.
In Long Beach, a number of new maggidei shiur have been appointed. Rav Mordechai Stern shlita will be delivering the highest-level shiur in Bais Medrash. Rav Sommers and Rav Shimon Waxman will be giving shiurim for mesivta and first-year bais medrash bochurim.
In Eretz Yisroel, Ponovezh Yeshiva now counts over 2,200 talmidim. The yeshiva has expanded the Ohel Kodshim building and opened a new dormitory above the Vizhnitzer Beis Medrash on Rechov Maharshal. A specially constructed bridge now connects the dormitory directly to the main Ponovezh campus.
Mir Yeshiva added a new building with 100 seats on Rechov Chaim Ozer near Zhville. What was once an open-door policy for American bochurim has now shifted, as the hanhalah has tightened admissions with rigorous farhers, making acceptance more competitive.
Brisk Yeshiva on Rechov Press has also undergone renovations to accommodate growth. The exterior and staircases have been refurbished, and the upgraded entrance now better accommodates the Rosh Yeshiva, Rav Avrohom Yehoshua Soloveitchik shlita, along with the thousands of talmidim who arrive daily to learn in the yeshiva’s eight bustling batei medrash.
In Baltimore, the Kollel continues to flourish with over 230 youngeleit, while in Indianapolis, a new kollel will be opening this zman, led by talmidim of Yeshivas Ner Yisroel.
Night seder for baalei batim has resumed as well, with a new program opening in Jackson at Mordy’s shtiebel. The hustle and bustle of the zman is back, as the quiet days of summer vacation draw to a close. Boys’ elementary schools will begin this Wednesday, while girls’ schools will start after Labor Day, on September 3rd.
Rav Mordechai Stern is a bomb!!
ReplyDeleteR’ Pinchas Jachnowitz left?
DeleteYes
DeleteIn Lakewood, in boys elementary schools, girls elementary schools, girls high schools and mesivtas all around town, administrators spent the past few days sitting with parents and threatening to hold their kids hostage if they are unable to clear balances. People who are without jobs, people on the verge of losing their homes, people in all kinds of situations were told, im so sorry but not my problem. So while most families are happily preparing to start the school year, in some homes the anxiety is reaching unbearable levels with no end in sight.
ReplyDeleteAs a community we support all kinds of needs - after the fact. If the parent that can't pay up his tuition will c"v pass on from a heart attack, we will run to help his family with huge sums of money. What we don't realize is - he cancelled his life insurance because he couldn't afford to pay his tuition. And the same administrator will tearfully tell the almana, don't worry about tuition right now, you have enough on your plate. And he will feel like he's going into RH with such a zechus...
I don't have answers, just telling a story...
I'm not the biggest fan of schools administrator but If someone lost his job and is about to lose his house he would not have a hard time getting a letter from a Rav asking for tzedoka for him. It is not specifically the responsibility of school administrators to be the ones who waive their fees when no one else is. Would you prefer desperate "keep this yeshiva open" campaigns instead?
DeleteAnd yet those that pay full tuition amounts are told that it is to subsidize those that can't afford to.
DeleteThey are subsidizing the partents who pay reduced tuition. They are not subsidizing parents who don't pay at all due to medical or financial crisis or hardship.
Deletehe would not have a hard time getting a letter from a Rav asking for tzedoka for him
DeleteWhat would many grocery store owners do? If they can, they would extend credit. If they cannot, then they would mention it to a couple of capable customers who desire to help in this type of opportunity. Do the administrators do the same?
They absolutely do. And the answer they get is that there are too many people who need help with tuition and and we can't undertake to do that now. Every askan believes that it falls on the school to help a parent who has a medical issue or lost his or her job .
DeleteSo maybe someone should start a tzedaka organization that helps parents pay tuition? It would be the Tomchei Shabbos for Yeshivos and Bais Yaakov's.
ReplyDeleteNo it's not Tomchei Shabbis for Yezhuvas and Bais Yaakovs. It's to help the parents in need who have a medical or financial crisis. The schools will manage if every parent paid what they agreed to. So the fund is helping the parent fulfill his obligation. It is not helping the school
Delete"In Long Beach...Rav Sommers" = Rav Yissochor Sussman
ReplyDeletethe Torah world is booming, the Young Israel crowd is going the way of reform and collapsing, needing to do mergers and are barely getting a minyan, their day has passed
ReplyDeleteSuch a wonderful comment start Elul with!
DeleteYI are alot better than most of the others.Depends on the community.That includes Howel,Tom's River.Maybe they should have a YI
DeleteWhy is that even on your radar screen
DeleteIf someone needs YI let them have YI
Why can’t you live with that ?
Everyone has to be just like you ?
Are you only a yeshivamahn because everyone else is ?
It sounds to me like deep down you are jealous
When a family has a crisis, the askonim get tyeur food bills paid from Tomches Shabbos ,Chasunas are paid from various funds and from gevurim . But the tuition is not paid and the school which is already struggling is told that they can't charge tuition to a family in crisis. It makes no sense that everybody understands that the burden of food can't fall on the grocery, and the burden of chasunah can't fall on the caterer, but somehow the burden of tuition falls on the schools. There are numerous schools who have no new buildings that are struggling big time ,and yet they are required to forgo tuition for every family that has a medical or financial crisis.
ReplyDeleteSchools operate in a framework, that includes a large amount of public assistance. The idea that they are businesses like the next one, and shouldn't have to shoulder part of the public burden, is not based on fact.
DeleteWhen you opened a Cheder or a girls school you knew that you will have to shoulder the financial deficit. You knew that there will be parents with four kids in school that cannot pay 30k a year. Yet you opened anyway because you have the skill, the drive, to help the Klal. Or you wanted kavod. Or nice shidduchim for your kids. Or leshem shamayim. Whichever.
DeleteBut you knew this going in, that you will need to FUNDRAISE! And fundraise some more. And you opened anyway. Thank you for that.
But don’t come and say “oh you pay your grocery and your electric bills!” Right, they are a business. And they expected when they opened to get paid. But you didn’t expect to get from a yungerman 30k, yet you opened anyway. And if you wouldn’t have opened, someone else would have, trust me.
So stop the harassment and use your time to do the good old fundraising that schools in Brooklyn did for 50 years.
do the good old fundraising that schools in Brooklyn did for 50 years.
DeleteIt's much harder to do that type of fundraising nowadays. It's hard to find fundraisers to hire. It should be done. It's worthwhile to read up about the time Reb Aaron זצ"ל spent raising funds. Same with Rav שניאור זצ"ל. Rabbi Orange wrote some great books about fundraising.
Please try yo fund raise for a local girls schools and let me know how much you collect. Fir a kollel yes ,fir a yeshiva yes ,fir a mesivta yes
Delete,fir any mosad in Eretz Yisroel yes. But fir a local girls school you won't get a dime from anybody unless you are willing to sell seats. So the schools that don't sell seats get nothing .
If people trusted the mossad that the money is going towards the beneficiaries, I am sure they would have an easier time fundraising. But if there is a possibility that down the line the fundraiser will declare himself the owner and sell the building and pocket the money, nobody wants to give.
DeleteSome BYs have wealthy alumni, some inherited, some married, some earned it.
DeleteQuestion is, that takes at least a decade to produce, sometimes more
And the fundraiser/ owner / whatever title is established at the very beginning, so that's not problem. That's also an inherited position.
One seminary owner owned five seminaries, but he was caught ... with the girls, took years for the word to get out.
So when your neighbor has a medical issue and can't pay tuition ,you won't pay his tuition because maybe in 50 years somebody might sell the building. That's a very logical reasoned way of thinking . I certainly understand that
DeleteThis comment makes no sense. So when peopke give 80 million dollars to a kollel ,they are not worried if the family could eventually sell the buildings because at least today you are supporting Torah. So by any schools it us the same. We need chinuch today ,regardless of whether in 50 or 75 years somebody might profit from it. By the way ,there us probably more chance that the kollel buildings will be sold and pocketed, than the school buildings. In the last 60 years in Lakewood ,there eas exactly maybe 1 case out of hundred mosdos where this happened. But it's always good to have an excuse not to give .
DeleteCan someone ask Ruby Schron to start a tomchei shabbos like group for tuition? I believe this helega Yid who is kuli tzedaka is gebenched by the Borei Olam that he can undertake this type of endeavor and we need to assist him by finding extra zchusim as Elul has started.
ReplyDeleteHow about some basic and essential classes on Derech Eretz,Ahavas Yisriel and how to make a Kiddish H' as opposed to the opposite
ReplyDeleteWhich kollel in baltimore ner yisroel?
ReplyDeleteSurprised that the Mir hard to get into this was never their shitta it was open to anyone who wants to learn in yeshiva
ReplyDeleteYou are so clueless
DeleteI’m curious to know what’s changed. They started tightening up 5+ years ago honestly. Unfortunately there were guys who were in the yeshiva but never went to shiur etc - my guess is they want limit these types of situations
Delete"anyone who wants to learn in yeshiva" leaves a lot of room for interpretation.
DeleteMir in Europe certainly was not an easy Yeshiva to get into so this is part of their mesora.
Deletelol everyone knows it was with r Nosson tzvi ztzl who opened it up. Its not a mesorah question but it became engrained knowledge the beauty and identity of the mir. Unfortunately people took advantage of it.
DeleteThis nostalgia for the legendary Mir of RNTFs days is like the nostalgia for Valozin. Full of the nice stuff, and all the dark stuff pushed under the rug.
DeleteRNTFs open door mehalech was obsolete when he was niftar.
It was great in the early nineties, before coming to EY became this rite of passage that everyone does. Even if a bachur came weak in skills, if he was coming to the Mir he came with cheshek to learn and to grow.
Once it just became the thing that everyone does, it was distructive, both to the bachur and to the wider yeshiva.
I was from the absolutely last talmidim RNTF accepted, and I heard more than enough stories of what had gone down in Bais Yisroel in the previous decade to know that drastic change was needed. It was bad. RNTF was not capable of dealing with it, at least thats what I heard from one of his brothers in law. He pashut could not believe that HIS bachurim where capable of x, y, z. And problems pashut festered for years.
All his son has done is:
A. changed from welcoming "everyone who SAYS they want to learn in the Mir" to "everyone who WANTS TO LEARN in the Mir".
B. come to the conclusion that bachurim with weak skills as a rule are NOT successful in the Mir, They need a smaller place, with better capabilities to pay personal attention to building the bachurs basic learning skills. If these bachurim shteig, they are welcomed with open arms a year or two later, when they can actually be succesful in the yeshiva.
It began with a bit R'Beinush
DeleteThen after he passed away it snowballed