Friday, March 27, 2009

R' Hershel Shachter on Jewish Committment

There's some interesting discussion going on on Orthonomics about Rav Herschel Shachter's recent address in Teaneck on Halachic Issues of the Tuition Crisis. See http://orthonomics.blogspot.com/. In that address Rav Shachter repeated many times that today's generation of yeshiva and day school students is less committed to Yiddishkeit than the previous generation. Many commenters are puzzled as to why he would say this, given the huge numbers of students in attendance in yeshiva. How can a generation so steeped in Jewish learning not be committed?

My mom has a saying: "You can't compare tzitzis and matzahs." That saying applies when you are trying to compare two or more generations. There may, indeed, be many points of comparison, but it is just as likely that there are going to be more points of contrast, places where the generations differ. Simply saying that generation X is different from generation Y is not a useful statement. If you say that the circumstances for generation X are identical to the circumstances for generation Y, then you can wonder why the two generations turned out differently. But in the case that R' Shachter is talking about, his generation and today's generations, you are NOT talking about generations for whom the circumstances were or are identical.

In point of fact there are four generations that need to be looked at, and in some cases five: R' Shachter's parents' generation, R' Shachter's generation, his children's generation, his grandchildren's generation and his great grandchildren's generation. Circumstances are wholly different for those generations.

R' Shachter's parents' generation: you are speaking here about the generation that went through WWII. The Holocaust Generation found its numbers severely decimated and its lives totally interrupted and changed. Those who found themselves a new home in the US had the very real concern of trying to adjust to a new country, a new language and new rules. They had the real struggle to support themselves, to find jobs and support their family's basic needs for food and shelter. In the early years of this generation here in the US there were some yeshivas that were established. But the numbers of these yeshivas were small; there wasn't a yeshiva in every community. R' Shachter mentions that he went to public school because he wasn't allowed to go on the trolley--clearly he didn't have a yeshiva around the corner from where he was living.

As this Holocaust generation became better established it turned its attention to building up the numbers of Klal. It wanted to replicate a thriving Jewish community. It couldn't bring back to life those who were butchered in Europe, but it could produce new people to guarantee that Yiddishkeit would not c"v perish. One of the hallmarks of this generation was its push to send children to yeshiva, not just boys after high school, but all children beginning from first grade. This was actually a "radical" new idea on the part of the Holocaust generation. Such schools were not the case in Europe. Children had to attend the secular schools in the morning hours by dictate of the various governments. Jewish education was handled, and for the boys only, through attendance at a cheder in the afternoon or with private and semi-private lessons with a melamed at home. Many boys did not get even this much Jewish education. Girls got no formal Jewish education. Sorah Shneirer as a program for girls first arose close to the onset of WWII. The frum Jews of this generation looked at the American idea of universal education and tweaked it to include a Jewish education as well. But again, not all the children of this generation received a yeshiva education beginning with first grade.

Now to Rav Shachter's generation. His generation received the benefit of its parents' hard work. They were, many of them, recipients of a yeshiva education. Even those who may not have had this education saw the benefit of it. If they weren't in a yeshiva setting for elementary school many did receive a Jewish cheder education and a Jewish high school education. What was inculcated into Rav Shachter's generation was the idea that every Jewish child should have a Jewish education, one way or another. Also inculcated was the idea that a full yeshiva education was the best way. When Rav Shachter's generation started having children they were not looking, in the main, for a split education, part public school and part cheder. They sent their children to yeshivas for a full day in droves. And it is to Rav Shachter's generation that we can look for the proliferation of yeshivas in communities where they did not previously exist. It seems the mantra was: "If they can't physically come to us, we'll go to them." If Rav Shachter's parents' generation was committed to building up Jewish numbers, his generation was committed to building mosdos.

Then there is Rav Shachter's children's generation. They are the third generation from the Holocaust. For most of them the Holocaust is an historical event. They are far less concerned and yes, less knowledgeable about how and why the yeshiva system they grew up in came to be. They didn't and don't look at the yeshiva system as anything but business as usual. Certainly in large urban centers of Judaism the exception became children attending public schools rather than the rule. And during their growing up years more and more yeshivas came into being. This is understandable. No longer newbie immigrants, the Jews of the US felt freer to reestablish some of the competitiveness that had been rampant in Europe pre-war, to establish boundaries with "us" on one side and "them" on the other. No longer were Jews of all stripes huddled together for mere survival. And as established Americans, the Jews bought into the consumerist ideal: if one is good, ten is better. Having just plain vanilla and chocolate was not enough: only 34 flavors would do.

Next there is Rav Shachter's grandchildren's generation. There seems to be no doubt that this generation will for sure go to yeshiva. Except where there is doubt. Because money has raised its ugly head. Rav Shachter has pointed out that melamdim today are better paid than they were in his day, that classes contain fewer students per class. This comes at a price, a very high price, a price that many people today find they are unable to pay. And that is one very real difference between Rav Shachter's generation and the generations that follow him. What he sees as a lack of committment on the part of students in yeshivas today is not a question of committment per se: it is a lack of money to carry out a vision of committment. These children and their parents may want what previous generations have had--a yeshiva education--but they find they cannot sustain the system they inherited. Some have posited the idea that the educational system grew too large, too fragmented, to continue as it is. Today many grandparents find themselves paying yeshiva tuitions for a second generation. But that, too, is not the answer, because how will their children, the grandparents of the next generation that has already started to pop up, be able to do so?

I have mentioned before that when my oldest started yeshiva I was paying $300 a year in tuition. That was in a time period where a $16K salary a year would allow you to buy a house and pay tuition and live like a human being. Today yeshiva tuitions are 20,30 and 40 times as much as when I started out. But salaries have not gone up by that same 20,30 and 40 times. It is not that today's generations are not as committed as previous generations; it is that financial reality has raised its head, and this generation is faced with rethinking the education model and trying to find options that will allow them to afford to give their children a Jewish education.

If Rav Shachter believes that his generation's way is the only way to provide a Jewish education to our children then, yes, he will see today's generations as being less committed than his. But he is comparing tzitzis and matzahs: what is facing today's generations is not necessarily what his generation faced. In addition, today's generations are reaping some of the problems that were planted by previous generations that believed in rampant growth of the Jewish educational system. Today's generations are committed to Yiddishkeit and to Jewish education, but their view is being tempered by the financial realities that they also face.

There's a saying that one should "cut their suit to suit their cloth." One needs to live on what one has. The yeshiva system is in need of tailoring to "fit the cloth" available today. Rav Shachter is still thinking of when multi-yarded ballgowns were the style: today's economic realities require "mini skirt" thinking.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

If I'm reading you correctly the generation of young parents today and their children are going to have to fix the mess that older generations got us into. They built and built schools without thinking of what upkeep and repairs and remodeling would cost us for that many schools. They put a system in place that only works if there are lots of people with lots of money who will either donate it or who can pay rising tuitions. Then they shoved a whole lot of us into yeshiva for years and years after high school sort of gauranteeing that a lot of my generation isn't competitive when it comes to earning money, and the money isn't there. It sure isn't that we aren't committed. Most of us are over committed and the pressure is killing us. And then we get blamed for a mess that we didn't make.

Anonymous said...

I don't think that most roshei yeshivas think of their schools as businesses and that's maybe where some of this committed talk is coming from. They see themselves one way and the people who they are offering their services to see them another way. If I can't afford a certain item then I either find a cheaper alternative if I believe I have to have that type of item or I don't buy at all or I find some kind of substitute. That's not an issue of being committed--that's just common sense and living on the money I have. And this. If 6 cleaners all open up on the same block then maybe one will be able to make a living and maybe none of them will. One larger cleaners on that block has a good chance of staying in business. One cleaners that is really busy can afford to lower its prices and still make a living.

What is really needed now is to change the business model for yeshivas if they want to stay in business.

Anonymous said...

I don't think that committment is the right word to use. Our rav gave a speech and said that my generation doesn't know and doesn't have the kind of mesiras nefesh that previous generations had in building up the yeshiva system we have today. Honestly? I think he is wrong.

We maybe have a different kind of mesiras nefesh then my parents had and my grandparents had but it's still mesiras nefesh. Every decision we make about even the smallest things is all related to having to pay yeshiva tuition. 4 of mine are in school already and another will go next year. That's $48,000 this year and will be $60,000 next year. We do without a lot of things and struggle to pay for what we have to have because of that tuition. The schools for the kids have cut back on assistance because they need money. Well so do I! Buy a house? Not possible with our tuition bill. Take a vacation? Our last vacation was called being single. And my kids don't have $200 ipods like someone mentioned over at orthonomics.

Just how much more committed does rav Schachter need or want me to be? Does he want me to go deep in debt to pay tuition? Does he want me bankrupt? It's not comittment that is the problem at all. It's that my generation cannot afford to live the way the school situation is today. And Rav Schachter and others in his generation won't face up to the fact that we can't afford what they told us we have to have. They don't like that what they did is causing problems for us.

Ezzie said...

Good post (and comments).

Anonymous said...

Yes my generation bears some of the blame for the mess things are in today for our kids and grandkids. We gave them maybe too much. We let them grow up thinking that they can have everything and have it now. Yes we spoiled them, and they are really frustrated when tuition costs show them that they can't have everything.

But our kids are also part of the problem. No one is forcing a gun to their heads to live the way they do. No one is forcing them to make elaborate simchas and buy designer wigs and other items. If they want change they are going to have to be part of making that change happen. Hsaving grandparents help out with tuition is only a bandaid solution--the next generation won't be able to do it and then what?

So maybe it's time to stop trying to place the blame and time to make the changes in attitude and lifestyle that are necessary. And yes it's also time to make changes to the schooling system.

Anonymous said...

There's another aspect involved here. The holocaust generation rarely saw more than three generations at a time living. Even having grandparents around with grown grandchildren was rare. People just didn't live as long. Whatever an older generation may have established as far as community structures they for the most part weren't around to see what and how their kids and grandkids changed those norms. you can't get insulted or upset at what your kids are doing to thinigs you thought were just great if you're not there to see them.

Today there are already five generations living at one time. This is going to cause some friction when one generation wants to change or does change something that another generation did. Some of this talk about not being committed could be an older generation being insulted that a newer generation is making changes.

Lion of Zion said...

AHUVA:

"I think he is wrong."

you need to express this to him personally, not just in an anonymous blog comment that he'll never read

PROFK:

great post. people talk about things without any historical perspective whatsoever.

i just wanted to point out that it was not only the immigrant survivors who sought to rebuild their lives and communities after the war. (le-havdil of course) american jews too were still coping with the effects of the depression years and the absence of more than half a million american jewsih GIs (and back then a tour of duty was not a 12 month rotation.)

Lion of Zion said...

AHUVA:

just to clarify, i think you made a very good point. many rabbis are out of touch with the realities--financial and otherwise--that their congregants are facing

Jameel @ The Muqata said...

Thanks for this post -- and I think you're right on the money.

No generation is the same as the previous one -- from many perspectives (which is why kids always behave differently than their parents)

Anonymous said...

LOZ - just to clarify, i think you made a very good point. many rabbis are out of touch with the realities--financial and otherwise--that their congregants are facing

From a few conversations recently, I've gleaned that they, some of them at least, will rapidly get in touch with the financial realities. Many shuls have already cut back on their "secondary" personnel (the office manager, the financial secretary, the facilities manager, etc), and have nowhere left to cutback (they still need someone to answer the phones and prepare the mailings, etc). Meanwhile donations are still dropping, and the people that usually gave large annual donations are cutting back (due to sheer necessity). There's even talk of doing without an assistant Rabbi in some places!!!

Mark