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.