Thursday, August 14, 2014

Hebrew Yated Ne’eman, denounces Yeshivah that provides a comprehensive secular education

The Frum world has gone crazy! We must stop this! 
We must get together and stop funding any Rosh Yeshiva that criticizes this normal Yeshivah! We should make it clear to every single Meshulach, that if the Institution that he represents does in any way denounce Yeshiva Darkei Torah, we will not give him a penny!

Just today, a Meshulach with a black leather briefcase, came to me, and before he had a chance to pull out his "Photo Album." I asked, does his kollel "approve or disapprove of Yeshiva Darkei Torah?"
He said, "well, I don't know," so I said, "here is a phone, call the Rosh Ha'Kollel right now and ask him."

So he called, and the Rosh Ha'kollel, told him, he doesn't approve.... 
I then wrote a substantial check to Yeshiva Darkei Torah right in front of him and  told him to kiss me where the sun doesn't shine and to get the H-- out of my sight!

These "gedolim" want to perpetuate parasites and poverty, we must put an end to this craziness!
 
Rabbi Yisrael Cohen-Rozovski Shlitah

 A new Charedi yeshiva that provides a comprehensive secular education alongside religious studies has aroused consternation and bitter criticism from the Charedi establishment. 

Yeshiva Darkei Torah was founded by Rabbi Yisrael Cohen-Rozovski one year ago and is poised to begin its second academic year in several weeks time when the Israeli academic year begins.

Despite having been up and running for a year and having had 25 enrolled students, Darkei Torah has only this week caught the attention of the Charedi establishment, and was bitterly denounced on Tuesday and Wednesday for combining religious and secular studies in the same institution by Yated Ne’eman, the largest selling Charedi daily newspaper and mouth piece for the Degel Hatorah non-hassidic Charedi political movement.

Cohen-Rozovski has been an activist for education and employment within the Charedi sector for close to twenty years but said that in recent years it was becoming clearer to him that change needed to be made at an earlier stage in the educational career of Charedi youth.

He said in particular that the intense, detailed study of Talmudic minutiae was not appropriate for everyone and that this method of study was frustrating for many students and does not provide a sense of satisfaction or achievement.

“In recent years the Charedi sector has begun to integrate more into Israeli society and to understand that it needs to be part of everyday reality,” Cohen-Rozovski told The Jerusalem Post.

“The Charedi community is in some ways like a group of new immigrants which must integrate but is finding it hard to do so,” he observed.

The process is underway however, Cohen-Rozovski asserted, and pointed to the growing exposure of Charedim to the internet and the new sources of information and horizons that it provides.

“The children of the revolution are requesting to make something of themselves. The Charedi world is being exposed to the idea that they can be Charedi Jews who are faithful to the Torah and the commandments and at the same time support themselves financially as well.

“This is the model for Charedi Jewry, which in the Diaspora, where Charedim are lawyers, accountants, businessmen and outside of their work hours study Torah,” Cohen-Rozovski continued.

“Right now, a young Charedi man will start his yeshiva studies but sees no horizon where he can gain an education and an income but nevertheless wants to make something of himself and realizes he needs and education to do this.”

To this end, Cohen-Rozovski established Yeshiva Darkei Haim in Jerusalem for young Charedi men. The institution is styled as a yeshiva gevoha or “advanced yeshiva,” for ages 17 and over which the overwhelming majority of young Charedi men attend after their secondary education which is generally comprised only of religious studies.

The yeshiva provides a daily schedule of three hours of religious studies in the morning, followed by five and a half hours of studies either for a high-school diploma or for professional, vocational courses in hi-tech.

The yeshiva offers 21 different academic units for the Israeli high-school diploma which is taught in an intensive one-year program. In addition, a vocational course in website building and design is on offer as well as an Open University in Computer Science in which Open University lecturers come to the yeshiva to teach.

In the last academic year 25 students joined Darkei Hayim, and Cohen-Rozovski says that the yeshiva will grow in size this year to between 50 and 60 students.

He said that parents from a variety of different backgrounds in the Charedi community had decided to send their children to the yeshiva, and that those from the mainstream were well represented.

It is the success in gaining significant numbers of students that Cohen-Rozovski says has led to this week’s bitter attacks against this yeshiva.

In an article on the yeshiva in Yated Ne’eman on Tuesday, the newspaper branded the initiative “dangerous,” “illegitimate,” and cited the words of two former leaders of the Charedi world on the issue who called the combination of religious and academic studies “the wielding of an ax towards the Charedi world.”
And in the paper’s editorial on Wednesday, it wrote that “even if those behind such initiatives have good intentions they are still sinning and causing the masses to sin.”

It wrote that if people wanted to leave yeshiva altogether and find a job then that is their own personal choice but that the attempt to teach both religious and secular studies at a yeshiva was “the first time that an initiative has been started to adorn a pig with a golden ring, to dress the head of a non-Jew with a Jerusalemite yarmulke, to erect a cross in the sanctuary of the king and to turn a sin into a religious commandment.”

Cohen-Rozovski rejected the criticism on ideological grounds and also intimated that it was politically motivated.

He noted that in the past two days since the exposure in the Charedi press he had received eight new applications to the yeshiva and had not received any cancellations from students already enrolled.

Currently, the yeshiva is supported by private donations and the backing of charitable foundations although it is also seeking support from the Ministry of Education for its study program. 

4 comments:

Touro Vodaas said...

When Touro first opened, Rabbi Svei got bent out of shape & went public against it. I think he may have been the only one to oppose it.

Then whenever a more liberal rosh yeshiva would allow something in different areas, the hothead kanoyim would all run to Rabbi Svei to ask him to override the other rosh yeshiva.

Anonymous said...

Who cares what these fanatics say anymore? Why does Svei matter anyway?

Anonymous said...

slowly people are oming to their senses and walking away from the extremist what they believe are gedolim., it's about time.

Anonymous said...

It used to be that gedolim would say things and "be bent out of shape" on an official level to ensure that the standard remained the same, however they would have no issues telling individuals that they can get an education and go to college etc. unfortunately now that everyone who wants makes these protests they don't know the balance that is needed and they end up alienating people on both sides of the spectrum.