A yeshiva education - Whom are we educating?

A question for the board of directors.

After spending time with some of my grandchildren last week, I thought I'd put some feelings down on paper (or, in this case) electrons.

At a yeshiva [a day school for Orthodox Jews] dinner a few years ago, the head of school got up to speak. In addition to the usual welcoming remarks we hear at these types of events, he told us that each year at the first meeting of the board of directors he asks the new members one question that he hoped would get them off on a good start of their volunteer service to the yeshiva.

 The question is: “Whom are we educating in our yeshiva’s classrooms?”

Grandparents Day at Yeshivat Noam
with Hannah

 “Of course,” he told us, “all the new board members answered, ‘the students.’ ‘Wrong,’ he says, ‘the yeshiva is educating THEIR children.’ ”

 And there I was, a late middle age parent who had spent a small fortune giving his kids a Jewish education, who felt as though he had just been hit on the back of the head for not earlier seeing the correctness of the rabbi’s statement.

Sure, my kids are what you would call “frum” [religiously observant] but they knew what life was for my wife and I before they went to yeshiva, and the lack of understanding we displayed at various times while they were in school.  Not the beneficiaries of a yeshiva education, my wife and I thought some of the practices we had followed as young parents were still valid for our college and high school age kids.

Call us idiots if you will, but we encountered many Conservative and some Orthodox Jews who believe that dairy is dairy, whether it’s at home or a diner.  You’ve heard the line, “we keep strictly kosher at home, but we eat fish out.”  A pretty modern approach, don’t you think?  But it was the wrong one.

My kids know far better than I ever did what is acceptable and what is not acceptable.  They actually understand the rules of kashrut [kosher food] and put them and a myriad of customs to use every day.  And here’s my point, the rabbi was right.  By giving my children the tools found in a traditional Jewish education, my grandchildren are the beneficiaries of that education.

As parents dig deeper than ever into their pockets to pay for their child's Jewish education, let me say, it's money well spent.  And you, too, will see it in your grandchildren.

Well, that's my two cents.  Feel free to agree or disagree.  

Stephen M. Flatow

alisafund AT gmail.com

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