A clandestine undertaking on behalf of Israel, the Jets and the Jews.

 
Aren't There Rabbis In Lakewood?

In the front and back page of last week's Jewish Press, my father had a long piece criticizing the admission and retention policies of Jewish yeshivas and day schools.

The latest post of Semgirl - the blog of a 19 year old young woman living in Lakewood - underscores the sorry state of the deteriorating situation. She writes:

As the new school year begins, it seems that 80 girls were not accepted into the local elementary and High Schools. While having lunch with my father at a local eatery last week, I witnessed a heated debate . . Many of the ‘tzadikim’ (SIC) in our fair town , don’t want their daughters in class together with girls who come from homes with a TV, secular magazines, OU-D products, mothers who wear short sleeves, or perish the thought, Hashem Yraheim, fathers who don’t wear white shirts. It would be hilarious, if it wasn’t so tragic. What is really ironic, is that I have witnessed firsthand, some high school-aged daughters of these very outraged fathers, in local libraries viewing websites and chatrooms, that most decent , Non-Jewish parents would not want their children in, as well as, hanging out in some rather inappropriate places. If these parents, would instead sincerely, be concerned about all the “yiddishe kinderlach” in our ‘wonderful’ community , they would have the Siyata D’Shomaya (heavenly assistance), that their children would not be doing the aforementioned things. These are not only my thoughts, my father heard this firsthand from his Rebbeim.

B”H, Reb Elyashiv and Reb Steinman, may they continue to be well and strong and guide us with their wisdom, came out with a ruling that no schools are to open until all the girls have a place to go to.

What I find most revealing about this sorry situation is that it required the ruling of R. Elyashiv and R. Steinman, both of whom are in Israel.

Is there a shortage of rabbis in Lakewood? One would not think so.

Nor are the rabbis in Lakewood reluctant to express (and impose) their views. At least two leading Lakewood rabbis have no trouble telling us that it is "forbidden to read, own or distribute" certain controversial books, and several years ago, dozens of Lakewood rabbis issued a ruling forbidding the members of Lakewood's Orthodox community from attending Lakewood BlueClaws minor league baseball games - though not before the yeshiva gave political support to construction of a stadium for the BlueClaws in exchange for some goodies sent the yeshiva's way.

It's rather sad and pathetic that these rabbis could even temporarily countenance a situation in which 80 girls were not accepted into Lakewood schools, relenting only when Israel's leading charedi rabbis intervened.

The reality is that while there are many in Lakewood with the title "rabbi", there are few rabbinical leaders there.
posted on 9/13/2005