February 15, 2016, 7:28 am
Mazel tov! Aryeh Pinter is engaged to Malka Perlow from Lakewood!
Mazel tov! Moishy Schondorf is engaged to Fishoff from Lakewood!
Shimshy Respler is engaged to Esti Alter (Lakewood). Mazel Tov!
Mazel Tov! Yaakov Yitzchok Birnbaum is engaged to Heineman from Lakewood Mazel Tov! Shimshon Kaufman is engaged to Miriam Zentman of Lakewood!
Meyer benedict engaged to Shevy Miller from Lakewood Mazel Tov!
Mazel Tov Kaila Eisenbach to Yossi Penzer of Lakewood
Mazel Tov to Yisroel Rosenberg Lakewood on the engagement to Treitel (Brooklyn).Mazel Tov Yitzy Stern Lakewood to Kallah Zohn from Milwaukee
Mazel Tov to Shmuel Green upon his engagement to Chaya Heiman Lakewood
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February 15, 2016, 9:00 am
What I Took Away from the Speech JMRby Jonathan RosenblumMishpacha Magazine
Reb Shlomo Yehuda Rechnitz's speech in Lakewood last week was probably the most talked about speech in the Torah world since Rav Schach's famous address at Yad Eliyahu stadium in 1990.
I have no independent knowledge of the magnitude of the problem in Lakewood of those without schools, either at the elementary or high school level. I doubt that it is worse than in Jerusalem where I live, though here the problem is almost exclusively confined to Bais Yaakov high schools. One close friend in Lakewood did tell me: Even for those whose children fit the Lakewood norms in every respect, but who have no yichus, no grandfather capable of writing a check to an institution, and no one to advocate for them, the process of finding a place in school can still be a nightmare.
Similarly, I do not know the causes. Is the problem stubborn parents who set their hearts on one particular institution and refuse to think about others? As Rav Elyashiv, zt'l, once said apropos of Jerusalem: Every girl has a right to a place in a Bais Yaakov; she doesn't have the right to the Bais Yaakov of her choice.
Is it parents who move to Lakewood because housing is cheaper, but who do not wish to abide by the standards of a community of kolleleit and former kolleleit?
Is it menahalim who want to turn their institutions into "elite" institutions, and find the fastest way to do so is being very selective and announcing one's elite status? I can still remember when the first such self-proclaimed elite yeshiva ketana was set up in Jerusalem, and the impact that it had on the entire yeshiva ketana system.
Or is it rather menahalim afraid that if they are too big-hearted in their acceptances, their institution will become known as place for "problematic" children and no one else will send their children? That has happened to friends of mine.
For the last situation, at least, a partial solution was found in Jerusalem. Rav Elyashiv, set up a rabbinical vaad to apportion girls who did not find a place among the various institutions. When those decision are made by a rabbinical vaad whose authority is accepted by the various menahalim -- admittedly not a given -- whatever complaints other parents have they cannot be directed against a particular institution and lower its reputation.
The answer is probably all of the above to some extent.
HOW THE LEADERS OF AMERICAN TORAH JEWRY would have laughed two generations ago if they could have foreseen that there would one day be more Jewish children clamoring to get into chadorim and Bais Yaakovs than there are places for them. When Rabbi Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz created Torah Umesorah in the 1940s, there were few Torah schools outside the New York area and far fewer that were not coed.
In Detroit, Rabbi Avrohom Abba Freedman used to go to hospitals in search of patients with Jewish sounding names (something that would not be possible today) and try to persuade them to send their children to Bais Yehudah in Detroit. In those days, every new child enrolled in a Torah school was viewed as a precious prize – regardless of how religious his or her parents were. (Yes, I know that those were far more innocent times, and the moral standards of even non-observant Jewish children were far higher than today.)
Another difference between then and now: Yeshivos were viewed as public institutions serving the local population, not as private businesses. At some point, Reb Shraga Feivel announced that Torah Vodaath would no longer take boys from Brownsville because that was Chaim Berlin territory. He even sent away one of his biggest supporters and told him that Chaim Berlin should now be the recipient of his beneficence because he lived closer to Chaim Berlin.
What has changed? The Torah community has grown so large that our problem is no longer enrolling enough students to keep one local institution viable, but building new institutions rapidly enough to keep up with the population growth.
Another consequence of the rapid population growth is the ability to make ever finer distinctions. A talmid chacham not yet sixty remembers that in the Chicago of his youth there were shomrei Shabbos and non-shomrei Shabbos. Sure there were differences in levels of religious observance between families, but for purposes of whom one associated with Shabbos observance was the only relevant dividing line.
WHAT HAS BEEN LOST WITH THE BLESSING of our rapid population explosion is the sense of community. The most basic political function of any municipality in America is the provision of free public education to every child through high school.
But the idea of universal public education did not start in the 1840s in the United States. It began, as Reb Shlomo Yehudah noted, with Yehoshua ben Gamla over two millennia ago. "No child left behind" is a Jewish ideal.
What I heard coming from Reb Shlomo Yehudah Rechnitz's overflowing heart was a plea for a revitalized sense of community – and not just a multiplication of ever more precisely defined subgroups. If there is a Jewish child without a place to learn, if there is a Jewish child who is being given the implicit message every day that there is something wrong with him or her, or that his or her parents are not good enough, we should all be kept up crying at night.
Rabbi Chaim Shmulevitz said numerous times in his Kol Nidre drashah: "If you have not lost a night's sleep any time during the past year in pain over the situation of our lost brothers [i.e., assimilated Jews] what do you think you are doing on Yom Kippur? You are a heartless person." Shlomo Yehudah Rechnitz would have us feel the same about children staying at home waiting for a place in a Torah school in their city.
But crying is not enough. If we really care, we will do something. A lack of space in our mosdos is not like an incurable disease for which we can do little besides offer our tefillos. Here tefillos are not sufficient. We have a humanly created problem that can be discussed, analyzed, and for which solutions can be proposed. If we confine ourselves to prayer or weeping, we show that neither are serious, but only substitutes for acting.
Mr. Rechnitz recognized that. He offered his money to build new mosdos. But he also recognized that others will have to contribute as well.
Charlie Harary once asked Rabbi Noach Weinberg how he managed to accomplish so much. Reb Noach answered: "Cheshbon (making a spiritual accounting). Every night sit on the floor and think about Hashem's tza'ar from the state of the world. And then think what you can do to rectify the situation. If you start doing that, you'll be able to accomplish much more."
That's what I took to be Reb Shlomo Yehudah Rechnitz's message as well: Take seriously the tza'ar of the children and then the tza'ar of Hashem over the pain of His children, and then figure out what you can do to help.
That is a message applicable every place in the Torah world, not just Lakewood, and to a myriad problems, not just the lack of space in educational mosdos. JMR
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February 15, 2016, 10:37 pm
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February 16, 2016, 5:06 am
Feb. 20, 2016 : Annual fire elections the olam will have 3 hours to vote on motzei shabbos.
Hours: Lakewood Only: 2pm to 10pm
Registration Deadline: February 18, 2016
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February 16, 2016, 10:32 am
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February 16, 2016, 11:10 am
The NWS has issued a severe thunderstorm warning for parts of NJ. OCEAN COUNTY included, watch in effect until 2:45 pm. Thunderstorms in February !
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February 16, 2016, 1:38 pm
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February 16, 2016, 1:47 pm
http://lakewood732weather.blogspot.com/ Twitter HERE
Hi there! Its been a while since last posting. Today we had one heck of a storm, the winds, flooding... The weather for the next week is pretty boring. Its going to warm up for this weekend and be pretty nice. Don't get fooled just because were well into February. Next week can get pretty fun if you like to track storms. Cold air will arrive early next week and then Tuesday, Wednesday is our next shot for a SNOWSTORM!! We cant know yet where this will form. Will it go out to sea? up the coast? or to the mid west. One thing is the cold air will be there and there is a storm threat so lets see how this plays out.
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February 16, 2016, 2:14 pm
The Hearing for an application to have a Chabad Jewish Center on a residential lot on Church Road in Toms River will be rescheduled at the next zoning meeting scheduled for February 25th. Originally scheduled for Thursday evening, February 18, the center seeks a variance to create a Jewish education and community center on its property in a residential section of the township’s North Dover section. The applicant’s attorneys requested a postponement, citing personal reasons. Wobm.com
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February 17, 2016, 5:06 am
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February 17, 2016, 6:37 am
The Seniors oppose the current busing deal being considered, APP.com reports SAG members are "outraged that taxpayer money would be used for courtesy busing after nearly 99 percent of voters rejected a referendum Jan. 26 asking for an additional tax levy of $6.2 million for that purpose. Meanwhile, in an email, to the APP "Rabbi Moshe Weisberg, the leader of the Igud Hamosdos, an organization that represents the Orthodox Jewish private schools, offered "tentative" support for the township aid plan, "if it will lead to multi-year framework for a partnership agreement between the Township, the District, the schools and the State.". Township willl discuss the deal this Thursday.
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February 17, 2016, 7:02 am
The Lakewood BOE Meeting for Wednesday, 2/17, at 7:30 p.m., has been relocated to the high school auditorium. Doors will open at 7:00 p.m.
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February 17, 2016, 7:46 am
Reports on social media that The Kosher Taco closed its doors for the final time last night. No word on why or what led to the closing. With the growth of Lakewood many restaurants and eateries have opened but competition is very strong its not easy to make it.
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February 17, 2016, 11:01 am
With many wondering if there is enough to support all the new Lakewood supermarkets, it now appears, rumors on social media though not confirmed that Evergreen won't open at the location down Rt 9 currently under construction. Rumors swirling that NPGS will open up there. For the Lakewood consumer it means no major competition for the low end cheaper market. A store like KRM would have Been a great money saver.
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February 17, 2016, 11:47 am
LAKEWOOD -( Hamodia.com) Talk of a potential deal that could save Lakewood’s embattled courtesy busing program is providing a glimmer of hope for the roughly 10,000 children who , at present, stand to lose transportation at the end of next week. However, as township and state authorities haggle over who should foot the $6.2 million bill, the long-discussed prospect of its cancellation still seemed like a very real possibility.
On Sunday, amid growing public turmoil over the cancellation, which many feel will throw the town into chaos and create a safety hazard for students, the Asbury Park Press reported that the state is considering supplementing the needed funds if Lakewood’s Township Committee is willing to contribute $2.5 million.
Committeeman Meir Lichtenstein told Hamodia on Monday that such a deal is “possible,” but said that the choice to commit additional township funds was a “difficult decision to make.”
“On the one hand, we feel we’re getting squeezed, but what are we going to do with these 10,000 kids? They’re going to be the ones who lose,” he said.
An additional fear expressed by Mr. Lichtenstein was that even if funds were committed, “Will they lose [busing] anyway in a few months?”
That scenario seems hardly hypothetical, as the present crisis erupted only months after a deal was reached at the end of the summer, intended to secure the service. At that time, the township agreed to contribute $1 million in surplus reserves, but higher-than-expected rates from busing companies made the plan untenable for the entire school year. Despite reservations, Lichtenstein said that the township felt a need to “lean towards safety.”
Local leaders and askanim blame the present financial crisis on the state’s funding freeze enacted in 2011, meaning that the amounts given each year have not been adjusted to match increased school populations since then. In addition to the rise in non-public-school children from the Orthodox community who receive financing for busing, special education and a smattering of other services, public school enrollment has increased by 500 to 600 since the freeze.
“Everyone says it’s a problem; they say ‘you’re right, you’re right,’ but nothing happens,” Lakewood School Board member Isaac Zlatkin told Hamodia.
The state BOE has been unwavering in its position that they do not bear responsibility for providing the non-mandated service.
“The Department has stated that courtesy busing does not fall under the category of a ‘thorough and efficient’ education and, as such, there is no state funding for courtesy busing,” Michael Yaple, director of Public Information for the New Jersey DOE, told Hamodia. He cited a vote held last month that would have raised taxes in order to cover the present busing arrangement. Local leaders urged voters to reject the measure, which was defeated by 99 percent of the electorate.
“It’s entirely a local decision to fund courtesy busing, and local voters have rejected that proposal … Besides assistance from the township’s surplus account, the township could also look into reducing the need for courtesy busing through efforts such as additional sidewalks, crossing guards, a township-wide transit system, or covering all or part of the costs of courtesy busing needed for safety reasons,” he said.
Transportation is only mandatory for students who live two miles or more from their schools. The district has traditionally provided the service using extra funds as a “courtesy,” as do many districts in New Jersey. If the service is canceled, it will affect an estimated 2,700 public school students and 7,100 who attend local mosdos.
“I think that whether there is courtesy busing or not, learning will go on and kids will get to school, but I am worried that some people will send their children on bikes or by walking, which in Lakewood can be treacherous,” said Mr. Zlatkin, referring to the town’s lack of sidewalks in many areas and scarcity of crossing guards.
Mr. Lichtenstein said that the township “does not have a plan” to deal with the possibility of cancellation of service.
“The state did not give us enough time … you can’t just come and tell us that there are going to be 10,000 kids on the streets,” he said.
Parents who stand to be directly affected have begun to consider their options, but expressed frustrations over the prospect.
“I do not have a problem with kids walking to school, but two miles is a bit much for children in kindergarten through eighth grade,” said a parent whose daughters stand to lose their transportation services. “I feel there has to be more transparency. We have such high property taxes as it is — where is that money going?”
Others considered carpooling options and weighed the effects this would have on people’s daily lives, as well as on the town as a whole. Others said that they were comfortable with older children walking, but would only send younger ones along if routes to schools had sufficient crossing guards provided.
“I’ll survive, but it’s a tremendous inconvenience for people with little children, never mind the traffic, honking and pollution,” said one mother.
Mr. Lichtenstein said that whether a deal between the township and the state would go through should become clear by the end of the week, but that the leadership was hoping any arrangement would provide a long-term solution to the district’s perennial busing woes.
“We’re not going to cure the problem, but we can’t have it come up every six months,” he said. “There has to be some movement from the state. We need to see that they are committed and engaged in addressing the issue.”
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February 17, 2016, 2:50 pm
An unusual and rare move the Lakewood Vaad makes an endorsement in the local fire elections which has little impact on the overall budget compared to all other expenses. No explanation why to vote for the chosen candidates or why they expect people to schlep out motzei shabbos for such an important vote when the Vaad has been silent previously in more important elections. Politics as usual.
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February 17, 2016, 5:12 pm
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February 17, 2016, 6:49 pm
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| Matthew Boxer |
Shannon Mullen from APP.com reports -BOE votes to continue courtesy busing for remainder of the school year State monitor overrides it. Over one thousand residents packed the auditorium again hoping for a deal. The Board passed a resolution to hire attorney and former State comptroller Mathew Boxer (who graduated from Lakewood High School in 1988),to sue the NJ Dept of Education should Azzara cancel courtesy busing. On Thursday, the attention shifts to the Township Committee, which plans to discuss at its 7:30 p.m. regular meeting a request from the school district for $2.5 million in township surplus funds read more at APP.com
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February 17, 2016, 8:07 pm
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February 18, 2016, 7:05 am
Audio on Lakewood starts at minute mark 7:15
R' Shlomo Yehuda Rechnitz 9:28- 17:20 (recording of speech)
Rabbi Gedalya Weinberger 18:00 - 22:49 (No real problem)
Rabbi Meir Hertz 23:00 - 26:10 Founder & Dean Tashbar of Lakewood
Rabbi Moshe Sternbach 31:25
Rabbi Nachum Eisenstein 36:40 Rav In Maalot Dafna, Talmid of Rav Elyashiv
Rabbi Dovid Yosef Rav, Har Nof, Member Moetzet Chachmei Hatorah
Rabbi Binyomin Ginsberg Noted Mechanech, Author & Lecturer
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