My oh my, what have we here. Orwell would love you. Community responsibility in Judaism is about helping people. It is replete throughout the Ethics of Our Fathers. It is not about squealing on others. How ironic is it that those who tell us there is no communal responibiity to offer scholarships or to provide for resource room (which is so clearly antithetical to Jewish values) want us to interpret communal responsibility as ratting out someone. Something is awry here.
anon613, education is not about "moving up a ladder" or "future success," at least not in Judaism. It is about enriching and ennobling people's lives with purpose and meaning. For some in our community, RYNJ may provide those goals and objectives. But for many, it will not because it sees secular studies only as needed for the practical, achievement considerations you talk about and because its ideal image is, let's be truthful, more toward a yeshivish approach. The question is will He'Atid adopt that RYNJ approach? Probably. Its founder is an RYNJ director and its principal shares RYNJ ideals.
Mark, even if that is correct -- and just because you or someone else wish it so, does not make it so -- He'Atid benefitted from Chump's relentless campaign against the "legacy" hacks their "inferior" schools. He didn't just say it once or twice or three days. He said it over and over again while trumpeting He'Atid's cause. He'Aid gained traction from Chump's screed against the schools and even received a grant from the OU that could have gone to our struggling schools. Now, the He'Atid supporters say the school are quality schools. But that's not what they were saying when He'Atid defamed the schools. So, it shouldn't be a problem for He'Atid to make clear publicly that it has nothing to do with Chump. We still await that statement.
Thanks SAR Mom. It's glad to see how you are making this critical educational decision based on the right criteria. That is, the appropriate educational and philosophical/hashkafic standards for you and your family. We have some good schools in BC of different orientations. Unfortunately, there was an effort here over the last couple of years to try to destroy them by claiming they were too expensive and not worth it. They are not priced as high as the school you send to but they are relatively comparable. Yet. the perpetrators of the effort to harm them claimed they provided too much education and extra curricular services and were only for the wealthy few. A rather preposterous claim. The truth was they wanted to start their own school and went about doing it by smearing the others. It's a very sad story, especially since the OU and others are funding this new start-up at the expense of to the other schools.
You see Yeshiva Dad, the BC schools that Chump tried to destroy are not so bad after all. They may not be as good as SAR or Ramaz but they come close and you don't have to pay $21.5k a year. Chump wanted to destroy that. Why? What motivated his extreme hatred? Is it becasue some inpatient 20 or 30 year olds were sold a bill of goods but those with a messiah complex? Before you react, think truthfully to yourself, why was there so much hatred toward the other schools spewed by a blog whose repeated mantra was the championing of He'Atid? It can't be because they are unaffordable when other Jewish day schools in the region are far more expensive. We await He'Atid's statement that it does not approve of what Chump "accomplished."
Al: It's not about the wealthy families. It's about the need among some in our community to reinforce the believe that we don't do what the goyim do. The wealthy families who send their kids to SAR and Ramaz are quite content having school vacation in December. It's only the crowd that wants to live in a cave that pushed the vacation to January.
I agree with Yeshiva Dad that those of you who are trying to out Chump should cut it out. It sounds like you have some sort of vendetta against someone (who is probably not Chump) and are using Chump as a way to hurt that person. The real issue is not Chump; it's He'Atid's continued silence about distancing itself from Chump. We are still waiting!
"The BJE sets the dates for winter vacation."
Some schools still have winter vacation in December, when all used to have it then. That's when all schools should have it. Why did we go to a January schedule which inconveniences everyone?
You are right Anony. Chump's blog was a sickening display of hatred, reflecting the values of someone quite selfish, something totally contradictory to what we should be teaching our children. The problem, as is so often the case with bad conduct, though, is not that there is an individual who acts badly, it is that those who benefit from it rationalize it and justify it away. He'Atid is where it is today because of Chump and it has done nothing to distance itself from him. He'Atid model and its objective are questionable at best. It used negative campaigning to get ahead. It owes the community a lot of answers.
Based on YD's logic, the schools should have vacation in December instead of January like they used to. Most parents have time off in December not January so why inconenience parents with school vacation at another time. Will He'Atid have winter vacation in January or December?
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Medley