Yeshiva parents today began a “Protect Our Yeshivas” campaign in response to unrelenting attacks against their schools by anti-yeshiva activists.
Hundreds of families and businesses are hanging window signs at their homes and offices reading “I’m a proud yeshiva parent – protect my right to choose.” The window signs and bumper stickers feature a yeshiva student, with a headline reading “I’m a proud yeshiva parent – protect my right to choose! #ProtectYeshivas.”
The campaign is organized by Parents for Educational and Religious Liberty in Schools (PEARLS), a community-based coalition of parents, educators, and religious leaders working to raise awareness of the importance of the yeshiva system.
“We’ve organized the “Protect Our Yeshiva” campaign to say, loudly and clearly, that we’re proud of our yeshivas,” said Rabbi David Niederman, Director of the United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg and a member of the executive committee of PEARLS. “We’re fed up with the attacks on our schools by a few disgruntled graduates while there is overwhelming support for our yeshivas system from hundreds of thousands of successful graduates.”
“Generations of families have made the choice to send their children to yeshivas because of the high-quality Jewish education they receive,” said Rabbi David Zwiebel, Executive Vice President of Agudath Israel of America and a member of the executive committee of PEARLS. “Parents know the educational needs of their children best – not the government.”
There are more than 425 Jewish schools in New York State, with more than 165,000 students. Of those schools, 275, with more than 110,000 students, are in New York City. Individual yeshivas are largely independent in managing their curricula.
Each year, thousands of yeshiva students graduate with the skills necessary to function as successful members of the workforce. Some become entrepreneurs, teachers and shopkeepers, while others become electricians and plumbers. Many tend to the religious life and needs of the growing Jewish Orthodox community.
For more information or to request a window sign or bumper sticker, please email [email protected].
rabbi Niederman So no more yeshivas no more jews? ** ADVISORY ** Over 5000 RABBIS FROM ACROSS THE GLOBE who all are yeshiva graduates Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbis to Offer Spiritual Approach WHO/WHAT: More than 5,000 Chabad-Lubavitch rabbinic emissaries and communal leaderswho all are yeshiva graduate’s from 100 countries, hailing from as far as Bangkok and the Uganda (and as close as the Hamptons and the Bronx) are. Chabad-Lubavitch was established in 1788 by Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, Chabad- Lubavitch is the largest continuously operating group of its kind, in the whole wide world bringing inspiration, heightened spirituality and enhanced confidence… Read more »
there they know how to learn Gemara, they go to Touro where everyone is frum and goes to yeshiva, major in a real degree such as accounting or computer science and are able to support themselves (and the kollel learning of others!) and they are still very frum, not ‘modern’ at all!
these issues can be resolved but i don’t think it is ultimately about ensuring parnasa. It’s about teaching kids secular studies in order to create secular Jews
I felt bothered and hurt by your last words. It is really nice that there are many people that are happy with the education that their children receive, and at the same time there are many people who are not happy and who want to see improvement. We can make the necessary changes to benefit our children if we gather ourselves and look at what is best for a child growing up nowadays. It has worked before, it can be done today. Also, whether you see it or not, many of those disgruntled people you say its about time they… Read more »
Here’s the rub. The 39 yeshivas on YAFFED’s watch list, like to hide behind the other yeshivas in New York State who are compliant with the law. I taught for a time at one of those compliant yeshivas, Yeshiva Tiferes Yisroel, on East 35th St. bet K and L. The kids in that yeshiva learned English, Math, Science, History, Social Studies, AP Math, English Literature, and took the NY State Regents. A yeshiva that doesn’t teach these subjects should not be hiding behind Yeshiva Tiferes Yisroel. It’s wrong to pretend you are something you are not.
This is going to turn into a bumper sticker war.
hopefully we’ll bump it up to flags.
either way, this is a very important discussion that is healthy and way overdue.
As #3 points out, Lubavitch once had excellent limudei kodesh chinuch complimented by a steller limudei chol program. Kids were able to grow up in a varm, chasidesher, environment coupled with a limudei chol program that was taught al taharas hakodesh.
The new generation is nebech going downhill and no one is fixing the issue R”L. The leadership is stuck fighting eruv or Shlichus turf wars while our children suffer.
Either the parents choose the education, or the government does. It doesn’t make any sense to say that parents choose educators and government chooses the education they provide, because then the government will make them teach about protection, and alternative lifestyles, neither of which are the parents interested in their young, innocent children hearing about. As the article stated, you have hundreds of thousands of happy parents and students on one side, and a few disgruntled dropouts on the other. They don’t care about the community. They bash the community at every turn. It’s about time they left the community… Read more »
It’s not about the parents. They are not the ones who will have to earn a living without any marketable skills.
not.
the issue at hand is NOT anti-yeshiva. It’s anti policy to keep secular studies out of a yeshiva which takes government funding as a government-called educational institution. and government-called educational institution means that you teach english and math.
and for lubavitchers, the tomchie and achei tmimim schools founded by lubavicther rebbes in america included such studies in their institutions.
obfuscating the issue by bundling everything done in yeshivas as “yeshiva” is misleading.
nu nu.
Why focus on secular education?
Let’s improve the Torah education and teach our chilren to love Hashem and the the way we live.
1. Parents should be able to choose the educators of their children.
2. Schools must drastically improve the quality of the secular education they provide.