Yeshivas HaOlim ישיבת העולים

A Jew in the Rain: Charlotte Mason on secular studies

2012-01-10T22:06:00.000-08:00

A Jew in the Rain: Charlotte Mason on secular studies

Another Post, Verbatim:

Charlotte Mason on secular studies

Charlotte Mason is one of those "names" in education, like Maria Montessori. I first heard of her when my friend quoted her that it is better for a child to practice writing a few perfect "m"s than to write a whole page of sloppy ones.
I am waiting for someone to make a systematic analysis of what in Charlotte Mason's approach to education is compatible with Torah and what is not. But, I don't think it's going to happen. She appears to have had some influence in turn-of-the-century England; but nowadays she is largely unknown to all but homeschoolers.
Her theology is incompatible with Torah; her analysis of character development is something I am not qualified to evaluate; but here are some of the tenets of a Charlotte Mason approach to secular studies:

-"Never be within doors when you can rightly be without" - preschool children especially.
-Training preschool children in the habits of sustained attention, close observation, and faithful description.
-One of the first areas of study for preschool children, therefore, is nature study, performed outdoors (while Baby soaks up his Vitamin D) --- the other is foreign language; [and these, of course, along with my friends and I used to call (after Dr. Pangloss) philometaphysicotheologocosmolosophololololoardoanthrosociopsychomusarology, which to Charlotte Mason was more like "theology and character", but which in Judaism is infinitely more complex - Rav Hirsch calls it "Divine anthropology" - and which therefore, as indicated above, is beyond the scope of this post.]
-"Living books" - teaching language and history by reading to one's children, and eventually by having them read on their own, original sources, especially biography: not textbooks or children's adaptations - and even fiction read for leisure should be well-written and rich in ideas.
-Similarly, geography is to be acquired from travel accounts, not from textbooks.
-Narration: children read a passage only once (no "cramming" allowed), and then narrate what they have read. This is so that they pay attention to what they read, and reflect on it enough to put it into their own words. Good composition comes from good reading and so is not harped upon much as a separate subject.
-Short and varied lessons - to maintain the habit of sustained attention: when a lesson lasts ten or thirty minutes, and is both preceded and followed by something totally different, you can't space out for part of it. Charlotte Mason homeschoolers are notorious for managing to fit a graduate-school-level education into a few hours a day over twelve years, and spending the afternoons on extra-curriculars.
-Art instruction is what I would call right-brained, and handicrafts are useful, not just for the sake of doing projects -- teaching children to do dry-brush sketching ("nature journals" are one of the props of a CM education) or to cane chairs, not to poke popsicle sticks into a flowerpot. Examples of art, like nature, are studied with emphasis on close, appreciative observation.
-Math starts with manipulatives - but there are no fancy manipulatives in any subject; you have to use your imagination.
-Grammar and music are pretty much the same as anywhere else.

Charlotte Mason differs from Montessori in that the latter creates a child-sized environment, whereas CM makes use of an adult-sized world.
~~

There is relevant material in Vol. VII of Rav Hirsch's Collected Writings, of course - especially pp. 112-117. But it is too scary to paraphrase a wee bit of Rav Hirsch in a blog, especially in so trifling a post, when he has an entire OCEAN under his words. Look it up in your friendly local kollel library.

A Jew in the Rain: And here's how they do it in Finland

2012-01-10T22:04:00.000-08:00

A Jew in the Rain: And here's how they do it in Finland

The post, vebatim:

And here's how they do it in Finland

You may have guessed by now that one of the blog writers is an Education major...

Finland is a fascinating country for many reasons -- women receive three YEARS of maternity leave (not all of it paid) and picture books from the government on the birth of a child, the lack of sunlight makes many people depressed, children eat candy only once a week on "candy day", there are beautiful auroras, the word "not" is an inflected auxiliary (we not, he nots), and the Samis assign their children not only a name but also a melody.
Altogether one of the more interesting pockets of the planet.
There are an estimated 1500 Jews in Finland.

This post, though, is about the Finnish public schools, which are rated (using purely academic criteria - not on anything like self-control) as some of the best in the world.
Finland spends approximately $1000 less per student per year than America - but Finland has it easy: it is a country of Finns, not of emigrants, there are not many of them, and they are all literate in Finnish. They also pay exceedingly high taxes.

The purpose of this post is to mention a few points of interest in the Finnish school system, not to hold them up as ideals. Some, I believe, are better ideas than others.
Here:

Children enter school at age 7. Most attend kindergarden starting at age 6, but the kindergarden program is not very academic - mostly about play.
Teaching jobs are highly sought-after. Teachers must have at least a Master's degree.
Each teacher has his or her own office in the school. A teacher spends 20 hours a week teaching and 20 hours a week preparing. Teachers choose their own textbooks.
Classes are small, and there may be three teachers in a classroom, to ensure individual attention.
Teachers may stay with a particular class for two or even four years.
School typically starts at 8am and finishes at 2pm, and students have no more than half an hour of homework each night.
Skills like sewing, knitting, woodwork, downhill and cross-country skiing, and horseback riding are taught in school.
Students start learning English in 3rd grade, Swedish in 7th, and other languages in 8th.
Schools have a great deal of latitude in designing their own curricula.
Schools often have a common room with a functional fireplace.
Students do not wear shoes in school.
Outdoor recess is mandatory unless it's colder than -13 degrees Fahrenheit.
High school is not mandatory.
Hot lunches are free, university is subsidised, and children living in remote areas are picked up and dropped off by free taxi.

There are some contradictory articles on Finnish education - they do or don't use a great deal of technology, they do or don't have a great deal of testing, students door don't address their teachers with an unusual degree of familiarity - and then there are all the liberal policies one would expect of a Nordic country.

The New Yeshiva

2011-12-25T19:01:00.000-08:00

http://tide-yeshiva.blogspot.com/2011/12/new-yeshiva-will-be-beis-medrash-and.html

The New Yeshiva will be a Beis Medrash and a High School for boys.

The mission of the yeshiva is to provide a superb beis medrash and/or high school experience that will set its talmidim on pathways to meaningful, inspired, and fulfilling lives of Avodas Hashem.

Our goal is to produce Talmidei Chachomim and Bnei Torah imbued with Yiras Shomayim, who will serve as models of Torah-true living in every sphere of their lives, amidst both Am Yisroel and the greater society in which Hashem has destined us to represent Him.

Various life pathways emerge from the unique set of characteristics with which each individual is endowed. The yeshiva will foster among the talmidim mutual life-long respect for these unique characteristics and life choices. The yeshiva will provide hadracha to each talmid, based on his individual strengths, toward a life of Kiddush Hashem and Kavod Shomayim, whatever his future endeavors.

The learning of the yeshiva will be based on the best practices of the classic Lithuanian Darchei HaLimud. The personality development of the yeshiva will be based on the best practices of theMussar movement. The inspirational events of the yeshiva will be based on the best practices ofChassidus. The integration of secular studies and pursuits will be based on the best practices of classic German-Jewish Torah Im Derech Eretz.

In this spirit The New Yeshiva will approach the challenges of the 21st century, with the goal of producing the leadership of the next generation, both in the areas of Torah(Gedolei Torah, Rabbonim and Mechanchim) and Derech Eretz (Ba'alei Battim who areBnei Torah and Yerei'ei Shomayim) that will lead Am Yisroel towards greater Kiddush Hashem and Kavod Shomayim.

Please join our new Yahoo group.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/the_new_yeshiva/

To subscribe please send an email to:

the_new_yeshiva-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

At Waldorf School in Silicon Valley, Technology Can Wait - NYTimes.com

2011-11-14T19:59:00.000-08:00

At Waldorf School in Silicon Valley, Technology Can Wait - NYTimes.com

October 22, 2011

A Silicon Valley School That Doesn’t Compute

By MATT RICHTEL

LOS ALTOS, Calif. — The chief technology officer of eBay sends his children to a nine-classroom school here. So do employees of Silicon Valley giants like Google, Apple, Yahoo and Hewlett-Packard.

But the school’s chief teaching tools are anything but high-tech: pens and paper, knitting needles and, occasionally, mud. Not a computer to be found. No screens at all. They are not allowed in the classroom, and the school even frowns on their use at home.

Schools nationwide have rushed to supply their classrooms with computers, and many policy makers say it is foolish to do otherwise. But the contrarian point of view can be found at the epicenter of the tech economy, where some parents and educators have a message: computers and schools don’t mix.

This is the Waldorf School of the Peninsula, one of around 160 Waldorf schools in the country that subscribe to a teaching philosophy focused on physical activity and learning through creative, hands-on tasks. Those who endorse this approach say computers inhibit creative thinking, movement, human interaction and attention spans.

The Waldorf method is nearly a century old, but its foothold here among the digerati puts into sharp relief an intensifying debate about the role of computers in education.

“I fundamentally reject the notion you need technology aids in grammar school,” said Alan Eagle, 50, whose daughter, Andie, is one of the 196 children at the Waldorf elementary school; his son William, 13, is at the nearby middle school. “The idea that an app on an iPad can better teach my kids to read or do arithmetic, that’s ridiculous.”

Mr. Eagle knows a bit about technology. He holds a computer science degree from Dartmouth and works in executive communications at Google, where he has written speeches for the chairman, Eric E. Schmidt. He uses an iPad and a smartphone. But he says his daughter, a fifth grader, “doesn’t know how to use Google,” and his son is just learning. (Starting in eighth grade, the school endorses the limited use of gadgets.)

Three-quarters of the students here have parents with a strong high-tech connection. Mr. Eagle, like other parents, sees no contradiction. Technology, he says, has its time and place: “If I worked at Miramax and made good, artsy, rated R movies, I wouldn’t want my kids to see them until they were 17.”

While other schools in the region brag about their wired classrooms, the Waldorf school embraces a simple, retro look — blackboards with colorful chalk, bookshelves with encyclopedias, wooden desks filled with workbooks and No. 2 pencils.

On a recent Tuesday, Andie Eagle and her fifth-grade classmates refreshed their knitting skills, crisscrossing wooden needles around balls of yarn, making fabric swatches. It’s an activity the school says helps develop problem-solving, patterning, math skills and coordination. The long-term goal: make socks.

Down the hall, a teacher drilled third-graders on multiplication by asking them to pretend to turn their bodies into lightning bolts. She asked them a math problem — four times five — and, in unison, they shouted “20” and zapped their fingers at the number on the blackboard. A roomful of human calculators.

In second grade, students standing in a circle learned language skills by repeating verses after the teacher, while simultaneously playing catch with bean bags. It’s an exercise aimed at synchronizing body and brain. Here, as in other classes, the day can start with a recitation or verse about God that reflects a nondenominational emphasis on the divine.

Andie’s teacher, Cathy Waheed, who is a former computer engineer, tries to make learning both irresistible and highly tactile. Last year she taught fractions by having the children cut up food — apples, quesadillas, cake — into quarters, halves and sixteenths.

“For three weeks, we ate our way through fractions,” she said. “When I made enough fractional pieces of cake to feed everyone, do you think I had their attention?”

Some education experts say that the push to equip classrooms with computers is unwarranted because studies do not clearly show that this leads to better test scores or other measurable gains.

Is learning through cake fractions and knitting any better? The Waldorf advocates make it tough to compare, partly because as private schools they administer no standardized tests in elementary grades. And they would be the first to admit that their early-grade students may not score well on such tests because, they say, they don’t drill them on a standardized math and reading curriculum.

When asked for evidence of the schools’ effectiveness, the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America points to research by an affiliated group showing that 94 percent of students graduating from Waldorf high schools in the United States between 1994 and 2004 attended college, with many heading to prestigious institutions like Oberlin, Berkeley and Vassar.

Of course, that figure may not be surprising, given that these are students from families that value education highly enough to seek out a selective private school, and usually have the means to pay for it. And it is difficult to separate the effects of the low-tech instructional methods from other factors. For example, parents of students at the Los Altos school say it attracts great teachers who go through extensive training in the Waldorf approach, creating a strong sense of mission that can be lacking in other schools.

Absent clear evidence, the debate comes down to subjectivity, parental choice and a difference of opinion over a single world: engagement. Advocates for equipping schools with technology say computers can hold students’ attention and, in fact, that young people who have been weaned on electronic devices will not tune in without them.

Ann Flynn, director of education technology for the National School Boards Association, which represents school boards nationwide, said computers were essential. “If schools have access to the tools and can afford them, but are not using the tools, they are cheating our children,” Ms. Flynn said.

Paul Thomas, a former teacher and an associate professor of education at Furman University, who has written 12 books about public educational methods, disagreed, saying that “a spare approach to technology in the classroom will always benefit learning.”

“Teaching is a human experience,” he said. “Technology is a distraction when we need literacy, numeracy and critical thinking.”

And Waldorf parents argue that real engagement comes from great teachers with interesting lesson plans.

“Engagement is about human contact, the contact with the teacher, the contact with their peers,” said Pierre Laurent, 50, who works at a high-tech start-up and formerly worked at Intel and Microsoft. He has three children in Waldorf schools, which so impressed the family that his wife, Monica, joined one as a teacher in 2006.

And where advocates for stocking classrooms with technology say children need computer time to compete in the modern world, Waldorf parents counter: what’s the rush, given how easy it is to pick up those skills?

“It’s supereasy. It’s like learning to use toothpaste,” Mr. Eagle said. “At Google and all these places, we make technology as brain-dead easy to use as possible. There’s no reason why kids can’t figure it out when they get older.”

There are also plenty of high-tech parents at a Waldorf school in San Francisco and just north of it at the Greenwood School in Mill Valley, which doesn’t have Waldorf accreditation but is inspired by its principles.

California has some 40 Waldorf schools, giving it a disproportionate share — perhaps because the movement is growing roots here, said Lucy Wurtz, who, along with her husband, Brad, helped found the Waldorf high school in Los Altos in 2007. Mr. Wurtz is chief executive of Power Assure, which helps computer data centers reduce their energy load.

The Waldorf experience does not come cheap: annual tuition at the Silicon Valley schools is $17,750 for kindergarten through eighth grade and $24,400 for high school, though Ms. Wurtz said financial assistance was available. She says the typical Waldorf parent, who has a range of elite private and public schools to choose from, tends to be liberal and highly educated, with strong views about education; they also have a knowledge that when they are ready to teach their children about technology they have ample access and expertise at home.

The students, meanwhile, say they don’t pine for technology, nor have they gone completely cold turkey. Andie Eagle and her fifth-grade classmates say they occasionally watch movies. One girl, whose father works as an Apple engineer, says he sometimes asks her to test games he is debugging. One boy plays with flight-simulator programs on weekends.

The students say they can become frustrated when their parents and relatives get so wrapped up in phones and other devices. Aurad Kamkar, 11, said he recently went to visit cousins and found himself sitting around with five of them playing with their gadgets, not paying attention to him or each other. He started waving his arms at them: “I said: ‘Hello guys, I’m here.’ ”

Finn Heilig, 10, whose father works at Google, says he liked learning with pen and paper — rather than on a computer — because he could monitor his progress over the years.

“You can look back and see how sloppy your handwriting was in first grade. You can’t do that with computers ’cause all the letters are the same,” Finn said. “Besides, if you learn to write on paper, you can still write if water spills on the computer or the power goes out.”

With an App, Your Next Date Could Be Just Around the Corner

Jewish Education Failures

2011-11-08T12:00:00.000-08:00

Jewish Education Failures | YU Beacon

By my talmid in my inaugural year at MTA. I figure anonymously in the essay. Well done! (The article concerns MTA, but under the previous administration v'duk.)

Jewish Education Failures

Posted on 07 November 2011. Tags: education, Jewish education

Written by: Akiva Y. Weisinger

I am currently a freshman in Yeshiva College, and I plan to go into the field of Jewish Education. I am very set on this career choice, and no manner of attempted persuasion by well-meaning relatives who want me to go into a field more lucrative will veer me off my chosen course. Seeing my steadfastness, people will occasionally ask me why I have chosen this career path. I answer, usually, that my experiences in high school showed that the current situation is so unsustainable, so incredibly dire, that I feel I have no other choice. The failures that I saw were so highly problematic, and went so alarmingly unaddressed, I saw no choice but to go into Jewish education.

The story I like to tell that I feel pinpoints the problem begins in my Junior year of high school, when I noticed something interesting. Many conversations in my Judaic classes– shiur, Jewish History, Tanach– would inevitably veer off onto tangents of philosophical issues. People would want to know about whether the Biblical account of Bereishit was meant to be taken literally, the status of evolution, the validity of kabbalah, morality of certain mitzvos, divine authorship of the Torah, etc. These conversations would go on in class occasionally, and happen outside of class more often, in a setting where kids did not feel as if they were being judged on their religious observance if they asked a tough question. I also saw that there was no official forum for these kinds of conversations. There was nothing resembling a Hashkafa class, no official study of Jewish philosophical writings. Maybe the Rambam’s philosophy gets mentioned in Jewish History Class, maybe one of the rebbeim talks about a philosophical point on a tangent in class, but as far as an official forum for getting answers to questions on Judaism and gaining and understanding as to what it means to be Jewish, there was really nothing.

So, I, an idealistic sort, who had been brought up with an understanding that the answers to such questions are out there if you look for them, decided to try starting a Jewish Philosophy Club. My goal was to bring philosophical discussion into the school, provide a forum for kids to understand what Judaism and mitzvos actually mean, rather than what I should be doing now, which was something I saw they never got. The club never really got off the ground, as I could never get enough people to come to meetings, and we could never decide on what we honestly wanted to do. The natural reaction to this failure would be what many people told me, which was, “See, no one cares about philosophy.” And I sort of refused to believe that while pretty much accepting that conclusion, until one day, someone comes over to me, and asks me, excitedly, “You hear about the debate?”

“Debate? What debate?”

Turns out, after a number of tangents taken in shiurim and Jewish history classes, some of the kids had come to the conclusion that two of the rebbeim employed by the school had radically different philosophies. One of the kids (and I say this not to insult him to but to emphasize my point), not a serious student by any means, came up with the idea to have a debate between the two on issues of Divine Providence, not a lightweight philosophical subject by any means. The debate was a resounding success, and was well attended by all sectors of the school’s population. I joyfully realized that the failure of my club was not due to kids not being interested in philosophy, but in my own failure to present it. I went over to this kid, expressed my admiration for what he had done, and resolved to work with him to plan more debates in the future.

A while later, I met again with this kid, and we started to plan another debate. I went over to one of the rebbeim in the school, and ask him if he’d like to participate in a debate. He shook his head, no.

“I’m not allowed to,” he told me.

“What do you mean, not allowed to?” I asked incredulously. Why would they intentionally stifle an educational program?

“The administration feels it is unproductive to give students the impression there is divergence of opinion as to what the school holds.”

“What?” I responded. “They got that impression on their own, by listening in class! And who cares if they think there’s a ‘divergence of opinions’ about what the school holds? They didn’t have any idea about what the school held until now! Why would you intentionally frustrate a kid’s attempt to learn more?”

Soon afterwards, signs started to go up around the school, advertising a new club called the “Torah U’Madda Society.”Besides for the title, which was written in English, the description of the club was written entirely in Hebrew. I assumed the club had nothing to do with me, until I was told by one of my rebbeim that the administration had taken my idea for a Jewish Philosophy Club and modified it a bit. I was also told that I was allowed to come. “Why wouldn’t I be allowed to come?” I asked innocently. “Well,” he responded “It’s only open to members of the top shiurim, but because the club was basically your idea, we voted to allow you in.” Needless to say, this was not what I had intended the Jewish Philosophy Club to be. I intended it to be a forum for everyone to think about philosophical questions, not just the elite. The first meeting rolled around, and all of us attendees sat there, eating the free Chinese food given to us, as a program was outlined. We would have opprotunities to hear special guest speakers, and go on special trips to places like the Metropolitan Museum Of Art. We were to be given free books signed by their authors, and we could bring any topic up for discussion with “the society.” At last, I had enough. I raised my hand, and spoke up.
“This all sounds great, but by limiting the program to the top shiurim, you’re basically just preaching to the choir. Most of these kids know this stuff pretty well. If they don’t know this stuff well at all, then, as far as I can tell, it has not presented an obstacle to their religious observance. Meanwhile, we have kids in the lower shiurim with legitimate hashkafic issues, and their problems aren’t being addressed at all. These programs for the top classes are great, but maybe a guest speaker or two for the whole school would be a good idea?”
I was nearly laughed out of the whole meeting. “That’s a waste of our resources,” one rabbi said, “You think the lower shiurim have any interest in philosophy? We should spend our time teaching people who will listen to us.”

“They do have an interest in philosophy!” I protested. “What about that debate? Why did you put an end to the debates? They wanted to know more about Jewish Philosophy, and you ended it.”

“Please!” Was the dismissive response. “Those debates were not about wanting to know any more knowledge, they just wanted to see two rabbis fight. That’s why we stopped them.”

I was dumbfounded. First of all, the fact that they did have philosophical discussions both in and out of class clearly showed they were interested. Second of all, even if they were not at all, and the debates were the rabbinic equivalent of a wrestling match, it still was more than they would learn otherwise, and who really cared if their motives were impure? After all, it’s not like there were no Gemara tests, and all learning done in my high school was purely lishmah. Why do you need an intellectual purity test to learn some hashkafa? Third of all, by telling me they were only interested in teaching Jewish Philosophy to those who they knew would listen, they were implicitly telling me they did not care if three quarters of the school had no religious meaning to their lives whatsoever. That they were content if three quarters of the school had their philosophical questions unanswered.

Why this is, I’ve never truly understood. I mean, I understood it from a business angle. It made more sense to throw all your resources at a kid so that he goes to Harvard, and becomes a renown rabbi and lecturer from the stuff he learnt in Torah U’Madda Society, because now you can write in a brochure, “A product of our school went to Harvard and is renown Rabbi and lecturer.” It didn’t make business sense to sit with a kid, spend your energies explaining philosophical points to him, why this makes sense, why this is actually moral, so now he can feel that Judaism makes sense to him and he becomes a frum, god-fearing, insurance salesman. You can’t brag about insurance salesman in a brochure. My problem was I could not fathom that people entrusted with transmitting Jewish tradition had flat out given up on explaining it to most of the school. How this could possibly be, how rabbis could look at themselves in the mirror knowing they had not done all they can to help all of the students placed under their watch understand what God wants of them, was, and is beyond me. But that was the reality that I saw in my four years of high school. And it was a rude awakening.

However, my problems run deeper than that. It is bad enough that we are content with abandoning most of our population to their own philosophic devices. But, at least those kids who were invited to the Torah U’Madda Society will be great leaders, right? Wrong. First of all, by limiting ourselves to teaching those who will readily accept whatever we tell them is true, we risk alienating people who were smart enough to ignore us. Some of those kids sitting in the back, not caring about Gemara, do so not because they are stupid, but precisely because they are intelligent enough to not settle for a superficial education. By not even trying to reach those kids, we risk losing out on intelligent, original and creative contributions to Jewish thought, not to mention the fact that many educators have no idea how to react to students asking questions they never bothered to think about. I really believe that some of the greatest names in Jewish thought never would have come to our attention if put in our current educational system.

However, let’s, for a moment, fool ourselves into believing that every kid we fail to educate will amount to nothing anyway. Is there a still a problem? Absolutely. Because if you educate those kids who do well on your spit-back tests and do whatever they tell you, those kids in the top shiur, in an environment where it is believed they are of a higher priority, and deserve a better education than those less capable than themselves, they will come to believe it. If the school believes that the ultimate end goal of the school is the education of the most gifted, they will believe in their own education at the expense of others. If their school is not concerned about the kids in the lower shiurim, neither will they. While kids down the hall have no idea what a gemara is, they learn a Rav Chaim, unperturbed, because their school has long given up on those kids down the hall. The fact that there are Jewish people who do not know as much as they should, who have questions about Judaism that could be answered if anyone bothered to take the time, who forsake religion over questions that have good answers, does not bother them at all, because it never bothered their schools. As a result, we are in danger of having raised a generation of Jewish leaders that does not care about the Jewish people as much as they care about their own learning, leaders who lock themselves in their ivory towers so they can they can ignore the sounds of the people long enough to focus on their sugya. Maybe you think I’m exaggerating, but when I made that complaint at The Torah U’Madda Society Meeting, none of the students backed me up. None saw themselves as having any duty to educate their brethren. All of them insisted that what was important was that they learn, and guest speakers shouldn’t be wasted on the unwashed masses. That’s what they told me, anyway. I suspect they were more concerned about having to share the free Chinese food.

Perhaps this is all just an exercise in youthful idealism, but this is what is what has driven me to my career choice. I feel that for the sake of our future as a Jewish people, a nation in which every single person, not just the best and brightest, are important, schools must do a better job of caring about the welfare and spirituality of every single student. Without that, not only will we never be surprised as to what someone can accomplish, our leaders will be flawed as well. And yes, I recognize, it is not easy to preach outside the choir, but no one ever said education was an easy job, and anyone who is in education for an easy career should quit and find an actual easy career. We stand nothing to lose by pouring all our energies into trying.

Time to do something!!!

2011-11-04T10:40:00.000-07:00

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?id=244187

Fundamentally Freund: Teaching kids to hate Talmud

By MICHAEL FREUND02/11/2011

The centrality of the Talmud in Jewish life now faces an alarming threat from a most unexpected source: Israel’s religious educational system.


For the past 1500 years, Jews around the world have devoted themselves to the study of Talmud. More than any other book besides the Bible, the Talmud has shaped the Jewish people, its values and world-view. Generation after generation has rejoiced in its intricacies and delved into its complexities, poring over the text with an extraordinary combination of love and purpose. The debates between Hillel and Shamai, Abbaye and Rava, and Rabbi Yehuda and Rabbi Meir fired our people’s collective imagination and helped to preserve the integrity of Jewish tradition throughout the exile. But the centrality of the Talmud in Jewish life now faces an alarming threat from a most unexpected source: Israel’s religious educational system. Sadly, it seems that a large number of students are learning to hate – yes, hate this most remarkable of books. Ask any Israeli religious high school student what subject he likes least and chances are that the Talmud will be right at the top of the list of the most unpopular. In an admittedly unscientific survey that I recently conducted among a number of religious Israeli teens, I could not find one – not a single one! – who said that he enjoyed learning Talmud in school.Some were quite enthusiastic about math, computers or even history, but mere mention of the Talmud elicited reactions that were often visceral and tinged with frustration. “I hate it,” said one. “It is boring and has nothing to do with my life,” said another, echoing many of the criticisms that I heard from others. “I don’t understand it,” he added, “I can’t follow the text, and don’t see why we cannot just learn what the halacha is instead.” THE PROBLEM is hardly new and has been a topic of discussion for more than two decades. In 1989, Hebrew University Professor Mordechai Bar-Lev published a ground-breaking - and heart-breaking - study of the subject. Asked to rank their subjects of study in order of preference, many respondents put the Talmud at or near the bottom, while 44 percent said it was “boring.” Nonetheless, not enough has been done in the interim to correct the situation. The fact that hundreds and possibly thousands of religious Israeli youth are systematically being turned off to the Talmud is a Jewish tragedy in the making and it must be addressed. To be sure, there are objective difficulties in teaching Talmud to teens. The text is in Aramaic and has no punctuation, making it intimidating to many would-be students. It takes time to grasp the methodology and structure, and the topics under discussion can often seem arcane to youths growing up in the iPod generation. Accustomed to immediate gratification, many teens seem to lack the patience and perseverance that are necessary to work one’s way through the thicket of legal argumentation. Clearly, a lot of tinkering needs to be done with how the Talmud is taught, especially to those who are more likely find it difficult. Simple changes, such as taking a topical approach rather than plowing straight through the text, could go far in making Talmud study more appealing to such youth. For example, instead of opening up the seventh chapter of tractate Baba Kamma to teach students about various laws relating to theft, they could instead learn how the Talmud might view the purchase of pirated DVDs or the download of music from the internet. By making the text more relevant to their everyday lives, teens are far less likely to be turned off to its study. Instructing youths in some of the basics of Aramaic might also make the Talmud more accessible and less intimidating. But it may just also be time to consider some more radical alternatives as well. Two months ago, Rabbi Yosef Avraham Heller, a prominent Chabad-Lubavitch rabbi who is a member of the Crown Heights Rabbinical Court, did just that, causing a stir when he suggested that perhaps not everyone needs to study Talmud intensively. “Before the War, it was unheard of that every child learned in yeshiva the entire day; it was only a selection of students,” Rabbi Heller said, adding that, “Today, however, there is a new ideal that has no source in Torah: everyone has to learn Gemara, and someone who learns Mishna is considered a ‘loser.’” “Never in history,” he noted, “was there such a phenomenon. Throughout the generations, each person learned according to his level.” Rabbi Heller rightly pointed out that “it does not make sense for each person to learn the same thing, for Hashem [God] did not create us the same.” Indeed, sometimes less is more. Now, don’t get me wrong. Personally, I love the Talmud and find it to be an endless source of wisdom and fascination. But for many Israeli teens, spending two to four hours a day studying Talmud may actually be pushing them away from Judaism rather than enhancing their spirituality. The current system is simply not working, and a way must be found to impart a fondness for the Talmud among Israeli youth. Left unchanged, the present method will surely continue to produce many formidable Talmudic scholars, but it will also result in a frightening number of graduates filled with animosity and distaste for one of our people’s greatest masterpieces. The writer is Chairman of Shavei Israel (www.shavei.org), which assists lost tribes and hidden Jewish communities to return to the Jewish people.

For the past 1500 years, Jews around the world have devoted themselves to the study of Talmud.

More than any other book besides the Bible, the Talmud has shaped the Jewish people, its values and world-view.

Generation after generation has rejoiced in its intricacies and delved into its complexities, poring over the text with an extraordinary combination of love and purpose.

The debates between Hillel and Shamai, Abbaye and Rava, and Rabbi Yehuda and Rabbi Meir fired our people’s collective imagination and helped to preserve the integrity of Jewish tradition throughout the exile.

But the centrality of the Talmud in Jewish life now faces an alarming threat from a most unexpected source: Israel’s religious educational system. Sadly, it seems that a large number of students are learning to hate – yes, hate this most remarkable of books.

Ask any Israeli religious high school student what subject he likes least and chances are that the Talmud will be right at the top of the list of the most unpopular.

In an admittedly unscientific survey that I recently conducted among a number of religious Israeli teens, I could not find one – not a single one! – who said that he enjoyed learning Talmud in school.Some were quite enthusiastic about math, computers or even history, but mere mention of the Talmud elicited reactions that were often visceral and tinged with frustration.

“I hate it,” said one. “It is boring and has nothing to do with my life,” said another, echoing many of the criticisms that I heard from others. “I don’t understand it,” he added, “I can’t follow the text, and don’t see why we cannot just learn what the halacha is instead.”

THE PROBLEM is hardly new and has been a topic of discussion for more than two decades.

In 1989, Hebrew University Professor Mordechai Bar-Lev published a ground-breaking - and heart-breaking - study of the subject. Asked to rank their subjects of study in order of preference, many respondents put the Talmud at or near the bottom, while 44 percent said it was “boring.”
Nonetheless, not enough has been done in the interim to correct the situation.

The fact that hundreds and possibly thousands of religious Israeli youth are systematically being turned off to the Talmud is a Jewish tragedy in the making and it must be addressed.

To be sure, there are objective difficulties in teaching Talmud to teens. The text is in Aramaic and has no punctuation, making it intimidating to many would-be students.

It takes time to grasp the methodology and structure, and the topics under discussion can often seem arcane to youths growing up in the iPod generation.

Accustomed to immediate gratification, many teens seem to lack the patience and perseverance that are necessary to work one’s way through the thicket of legal argumentation.

Clearly, a lot of tinkering needs to be done with how the Talmud is taught, especially to those who are more likely find it difficult.

Simple changes, such as taking a topical approach rather than plowing straight through the text, could go far in making Talmud study more appealing to such youth.

For example, instead of opening up the seventh chapter of tractate Baba Kamma to teach students about various laws relating to theft, they could instead learn how the Talmud might view the purchase of pirated DVDs or the download of music from the internet.

By making the text more relevant to their everyday lives, teens are far less likely to be turned off to its study.

Instructing youths in some of the basics of Aramaic might also make the Talmud more accessible and less intimidating.

But it may just also be time to consider some more radical alternatives as well.

Two months ago, Rabbi Yosef Avraham Heller, a prominent Chabad-Lubavitch rabbi who is a member of the Crown Heights Rabbinical Court, did just that, causing a stir when he suggested that perhaps not everyone needs to study Talmud intensively.

“Before the War, it was unheard of that every child learned in yeshiva the entire day; it was only a selection of students,” Rabbi Heller said, adding that, “Today, however, there is a new ideal that has no source in Torah: everyone has to learn Gemara, and someone who learns Mishna is considered a ‘loser.’” “Never in history,” he noted, “was there such a phenomenon.

Throughout the generations, each person learned according to his level.”

Rabbi Heller rightly pointed out that “it does not make sense for each person to learn the same thing, for Hashem [God] did not create us the same.”

Indeed, sometimes less is more.

Now, don’t get me wrong. Personally, I love the Talmud and find it to be an endless source of wisdom and fascination.

But for many Israeli teens, spending two to four hours a day studying Talmud may actually be pushing them away from Judaism rather than enhancing their spirituality.

The current system is simply not working, and a way must be found to impart a fondness for the Talmud among Israeli youth.

Left unchanged, the present method will surely continue to produce many formidable Talmudic scholars, but it will also result in a frightening number of graduates filled with animosity and distaste for one of our people’s greatest masterpieces.

The writer is Chairman of Shavei Israel (www.shavei.org), which assists lost tribes and hidden Jewish communities to return to the Jewish people.

Yeshiva Without Borders Survey

2011-08-30T11:03:00.000-07:00

We did not have enough lead time to start Yeshivas HaOlim for 5772. We are beginning to explore the possibilities for 5773, b'ezras Hashem.

In the short term, however, an idealistic young man has decided to devote significant resources, time and effort, to the founding of a web-based "yeshiva without borders." This would serve as a

vehicle for myself and other future maggidei shiur of Yeshivas HaOlim to be teach Torah to the broadest possible audience.

A recording of a weekly web-based shiur that I am already giving can be found at:

http://www.youtube.com/user/rygbvideos

(The shiur normally takes place Thursday nights, 11:00 pm Eastern Time.)

So as to plan and facilitate the broader scope of the yeshiva without borders, we would like to ask you to take a minute to complete a very brief survey at:

http://tinyurl.com/3du36tv

or

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?hl=en_US&pli=1&formkey=dFRVa0RpSmU0UE1BanA3TFNFUTlvNVE6MQ#gid=0

I encourage and urge you to share any additional feedback or ideas with me directly. If you are willing to participate in funding, publicizing or laying the groundwork in any other way, please let

me know as well.

May we merit seeing "Haromas Keren haTorah" and a Kesivah vaChasimah Tovah!

KT,
YGB

Before "The Hirschian" (WHO IS NOT ME) abandoned the project, he outlined his plan:

2011-07-27T10:02:00.000-07:00

- Starting a Yeshiva in Elul 5771 is not the way to go.

- Starting a Hirschian Yeshiva (HY) without a feeder high school is not the way to go.

- Seeking approval/endorsement of Gedolim in the current Yeshiva world is a non-starter.

- Establishing an “office” to publicize the intent of a group to establish an HY is required (irrespective of the means that is decided upon to spread the word). *see below

- The HY would attract young men who come from backgrounds that are supportive of the ideal of klal Yisroel consisting of multiple shevotim, whose talents are used in different ways to serve Him and to represent Him in the world at large.

- The HY would have intense limud HaTorah as the supreme goal of its academic program, with suitable Rebbeim who can impart a high level of learning and who are able to motivate students to achieve on such a level. Ideally, the faculty would be attractive to students whose future lies in full-time learning.

- The HY would thus not be suitable for students with a weak academic background or students who are looking only for an institution that offers high-level secular studies.

- Parents who welcome the HY effort and are highly interested in sending their sons to such a Yeshiva need to be identified.

- After formulation of the HY ideals, publication of these, and gauging the level of public interest, a funding effort can begin.

This seems like the wave of the future and the way for Yeshivas HaOlim to go

2011-07-27T09:49:00.000-07:00

http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/new_york/has_tech_reached_tipping_point

Published on The Jewish Week (http://www.thejewishweek.com)

Has Tech Reached The Tipping Point?

At Yeshivas Ohev Shalom, all secular studies happen through an online charter school. Photos courtesy of Yeshivas Ohev Shalom

From haredi yeshivas to Hebrew schools, the race is on to adapt to new learning tools.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Julie Wiener

Associate Editor

No one standing outside Yeshivas Ohev Shalom would peg it as an educational technology trendsetter.
This tiny, fervently Orthodox high school is housed in a rundown synagogue in Los Angeles’ Fairfax District, a neighborhood that, like New York’s Lower East Side, has largely transitioned from old-world Jewish to hipster. Even inside — where boys, headphones over their yarmulkes, sit on mismatched chairs at long, battered wooden tables facing a velvet-curtained aron kodesh (ark) and tap away on black laptop computers — the scene seems more Borough Park than Silicon Valley.
Nonetheless, this modest 15-student yeshiva is the first Jewish school in the United States to offer all of its secular studies via a fully accredited (and state-funded) virtual charter school — enabling it to keep tuition at $7,500, less than half the cost of most American Jewish high schools.
Judaic studies at Ohev Shalom take place the traditional way — face-to-face, often in chavruta (paired learning) with students and teachers poring over bound volumes of Talmud.

But at 2 p.m. each day the laptops come out and the boys are virtually transported to the online high school, Kaplan Academy of California. Then, while an Ohev Shalom teacher and administrator circulate about the room to make sure everyone stays on task, the boys watch live-streamed lectures, Power Point presentations and videos; chat with their Kaplan teachers via instant-messaging and e-mail; take online quizzes (and learn their grades instantly); research and write essays — and even read the occasional print-and-paper book.
“I like it a lot more” than typical classes, says Elisha Tropper, a 12th grader, giving a reporter a demonstration of the various features of the online school during a visit this spring. “We have a lot more resources and are able to go straight to work instead of wasting time listening to teachers disciplining kids.”
As rapidly advancing technology transforms virtually every sector of society, a diverse group of Jewish educational institutions — not generally thought of as early adapters — are increasingly turning their attention to digital tools and resources.
Whether distance learning or online gaming, Skype or Twitter, Google Earth (and a plethora of other free educational apps available at the click of a mouse) or iPads, SMART boards or Smartphones, QR codes or robotics, Jewish day schools and supplementary schools — and their funders — are struggling to sort the useful, cost-effective and engaging from the gimmicky, expensive and simply overwhelming.

Technology Is Hot Topic
Technology has headlined almost every major Jewish education gathering this year, from the North American Jewish Day School Conference (“The High Performance, High-Tech Jewish Day School of the Very Near Future”) to the Conservative movement’s Jewish Educators Assembly (“From Sinai to Cyberspace”) and Reform movement’s North American Association of Temple Educators (“Imagineering Jewish Education for the 21st Century”).
In June, both the Avi Chai Foundation, a major supporter of day schools, and PELIE, a group seeking to improve “complementary” Jewish education (better known as Hebrew school), for the first time sent delegations of teachers to the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Conference. Avi Chai also sent 10 educators to Games For Change, a conference promoting the use of computer games in education.
Caren Levine, director of the Learning Network at Darim Online, a group that works to help Jewish organizations use technology effectively, notes that the Jewish education world is approaching a tech tipping point of sorts.
A frequent speaker and consultant on Jewish education and technology, and former associate vice president of media and technology at the Jewish Education Service of North America, Levine has been hosting networking events for Jewish educators at the ISTE conference for 11 years. This year’s turnout of more than 65 was the highest on record, helped partially by the Philadelphia location, with its proximity to many major Jewish communities — but also buttressed by Avi Chai and PELIE’s recruitment and funding.
Rachel Mohl Abrahams, a program officer at Avi Chai, told The Jewish Week that the foundation’s sponsorship of participants, mostly Jewish day school teachers, at ISTE and Games for Change, is part of a larger stepped-up focus on technology. That includes helping to fund an East Brunswick, N.J. startup Jewish high school that uses a mix of online and in-person learning, training day school leaders in the use of social media tools, and working with Tel Aviv University to develop online Judaic studies classes for North American day schools.
Technology, Abrahams said, holds the promise of “strong cost-cutting elements” for day schools. In addition, “from an educational perspective, day schools need to think about what it means to be a 21st-century school and to focus more on skills, on project-based work, all the things people are taking about in the secular education world. And technology is certainly one of the main ways of implementing that kind of learning in schools.”
While a handful of Jewish schools are clearly tech pioneers, many more, particularly in the part-time world of Hebrew schools, are only in the very beginning stages of integrating technology into their operations. Start-up costs, professional development, and the sheer difficulty of navigating the ever-evolving tech landscape, can be daunting.
Not to mention the problem of tech phobia among many teachers and administrators.
“When people say they’re scared of technology, it’s not about technology, it’s about change,” said Levine.
Rabbi Saul Zucker, director of the Orthodox Union’s department of day schools and educational services, has been trying for the past two years to encourage more Jewish day schools and yeshivas to take advantage of the growing market for online education. In particular, he’s been a champion of the company K12, a leader in online education, and he led a group of principals on a tour of its headquarters last year.
However, he said, there’s a lot of resistance.
“The problem with this is that no one wants his or her child to be the guinea pig,” he said. “And there are disadvantages: some kids need more face-to-face contact, and parents don’t like the idea of kids sitting four to six hours a day at a computer screen.”
With any change, he said, “everyone wants to see what everyone else is doing first.”
While some remain resistant, others are nervous about falling behind. At ISTE’s Jewish “Birds of a Feather” session, participant after participant spoke about not only wanting to make better use of their school’s existing tech resources, but to stay up to date on the rapidly shifting field — “to make sense of it all,” as one participant put it.
Like many in the field, Levine emphasizes that technology is “a means and not a goal — the goal is Jewish learning and Jewish community, and tapping into resources that foster and enhance them.”
For Orthodox institutions, especially in the haredi world where the Internet and popular culture are viewed with suspicion and where many people are without home computers, bringing in technology is especially challenging and complicated.
At the ISTE conference, one teacher from an Orthodox girls’ school in Baltimore complained that her school does not allow any Internet use in the classrooms. And at a recent social-media training session for day schools, several Orthodox participants discussed their ambivalence about using sites like Twitter and Facebook — fearing that a school presence on these sites would encourage students to go on them and then engage in inappropriate conduct.

‘It’s Easy To Monitor’
Yeshivas Ohev Shalom, founded in 2009, has had to counter rumors in the local haredi community that its students are given carte blanche to play around on the Internet.
Rabbi Chaim Tropper, the yeshiva’s principal and founder, emphasized that Internet use is carefully controlled and that students have only limited contact with their virtual classmates, mostly kids who are being home-schooled.
“We have a lot of rules,” he said.
While the students have access to the Internet, Rabbi Tropper monitors their activity through an online program called LogMeIn, which allows him to see all the screens at one time and ensure the kids aren’t doing anything but schoolwork. Even when students log in from home, Rabbi Tropper can still view their online activity and says he checks most nights until about midnight.
“We’re a small group, so it’s easy to monitor,” he said.
Going through Kaplan not only makes the school affordable but also enables it to serve a wide range of students. Each pupil selects his own courses, and they range in level from honors and AP to special education and remedial. Plus, Rabbi Tropper said, he encounters “much fewer discipline issues” when the students are working on the computers than in a traditional classroom setting.
He emphasized that the boys “aren’t sitting by computers all day” — the Judaic curriculum is with “regular classes” and “the school is a full well rounded program with sports and extra-curricular activities” like Shabbat retreats and school trips.
That said, the technology does pose some challenges. The school’s Internet connection frequently goes down, and students occasionally have to miss live-streamed classes held during the morning (when they’re in Judaic studies classes) or on Jewish holidays.
Nonetheless, the students interviewed during a visit this spring seemed very pleased with the online learning.
“The full syllabus and lessons are all posted, and the teachers are very easy to get along with,” said 12th grader Elisha, who is Rabbi Tropper’s son. “And one of the main things I like is that every single lesson you know you’re going to have a quiz to make sure you understand — so you don’t have to cram at the end.”
While the online school was “a little hard getting used to at first,” mostly because he’d had minimal computer experience, Elisha said he was pleased to be getting computer skills, noting proudly that he recently designed Yeshivas Ohev Shalom’s website.
Shimon, also a 12th grader, said he likes that “you can go at your own pace” and that “you don’t have to take notes” because all lectures are archived on the course website.
He also likes having a wide choice of courses and electives.
But is it lonely sitting at a computer for four hours?
“Sometimes, but not really,” he said. And there’s an added benefit to doing so much work at the computer, rather than in a classroom.
“If I stay on pace during the day, I don’t usually have to bring work home,” he said.
This is the first in an occasional series on technology in Jewish education. Next: Playing to Learn: Experiments in Jewish Gaming.
E-mail: Julie.inthemix@gmail.com

Source URL (retrieved on 07/27/2011 - 12:46): http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/new_york/has_tech_reached_tipping_point

From a Hirschian who has "given up" (at least for now)

2011-07-11T08:12:00.001-07:00

In speaking with others as well, I'm getting the feeling that people who are interested in a "Hirschian" yeshiva are looking at it from the aspect of college/family support. For example, I met Rabbi [deleted] in [deleted] at the [deleted] wedding, and his slant was to decry the lack of pride that young men have today in working and supporting a family. All well and good, and I'm confident that the current view that it's desirable (even for those who aren't cut out for it) to sit and learn forever and rely on father-in-law/food stamps/govt. handouts,etc., will collapse under its own weight. At that point, institutions that prepare young men for parnassa will be back in vogue. Maybe this is starting already...

But this has little to do with my vision of a Hirschian yeshiva. After many more conversations, I'm beginning to see that my ideal is so far removed from current practice that pursuing it without bountiful independent fniancial resoures and without identifying personnel (e.g., potential Ramim) who share the ideal is foolish. The ideal of a yeshiva where young men who are cut out to be Roshei Yeshiva, poskim, etc., sitting and learning seriously alongside young men who plan a career in medicine, law, business, etc. but are also seriously learning when they are not engaged in their secular studies -- all in keeping with the Hirschian outlook of klal yisroel as a model nation composed of 12 shevotim v'chu, v'chu -- is untenable in today's climate where "serious" learning is associated only with institutions that reject all else. I despair of ever attracting the really serious bachurim to an institution that, in the velt, stands for a rejection of the "Yeshiva" derech promulgated by Lakewood. .

[cut]

While I remain highly interested in a Hirsch high school/yeshiva project, I am afraid that now is the wrong time for me to pursue it. Of course, my best wishes for success to those who would work on this, especially if the vision corresponds with my own.

Revised and Expanded Yeshivas HaOlim Vision Statement

2011-04-07T11:14:00.000-07:00

Revised and Expanded Yeshivas HaOlim Vision Statement

Meeting reminder

2011-04-05T21:55:00.000-07:00

Reminder, All invited to Thurs. night meeting,

7:00pm,

3 Zabriskie Terrace, Money, NY 10952.

Please come!

Q from a corespondent and my A (edited)

2011-04-05T20:32:00.000-07:00

On 03/31/11 11:57 PM, a correspondent wrote:

Is there any true Gadol alive today who you could point to and say that you consulted with him and he told you to found such a Yeshiva? The reason I ask is not because I think you can't succeed without doing so. Rather, I am curious as to which crowd you wish to attract to such a Yeshiva. Those who have a concern for the authority of Gedolim (whoever they may be) or those who have no concern for it?

Another point of curiosity for me is where did you learn and who were/are your Rebbeim? Although you are trying to start something new, there will always be an influence of your roots manifesting in it and I would like to know what those roots are.

To which I answered:

I don't know of any "gadol" alive today who would endorse such a plan explicitly. I imagine that the gedolim who are willing to cross borders and give regular shiurim in hesder yeshivos, such as RZN Goldberg, RS Fisher, RA Weiss etc. would implicitly endorse such an endeavor, but to come out too publicly might cause them difficulties.

I have an eclectic background. After HS in CC in FH I was in Sha'alvim for three years. There I was exposed to a Rosh Yeshiva of staunch Yekkish background; a main Rebbe who was a talmid of RIZ Meltzer and the brother of RIZM's successor at Eitz Chaim; a Rebbe who said a weekly shiur klali who is a Rosh Yeshiva at Kol Yaakov, a talmid of RS Rozovsky; a Mashgiach who had been a talmid of R' Yerucham in the Mir, another Mashgiach who is a baki nifla in Maharal and other Sifrei Machashavah and Kabbalistic sources.

These influences gelled over the following years at Ner Yisroel, both Mirs, and 17 years in Kollel in Far Rockaway and Chicago. Other Rabbeim were critical influences, but the drive for complexity and diversity over simplicity and uniformity remains one of my core values.

KT,
YGB

Addressing the WHY? (Excerpt from a longer essay on Pinocchio and Yahadus)

2011-04-04T20:05:00.000-07:00

This question leads me to another facet of my experience. My wont, when preparing and giving a Hashkofo Shiur, is always to present all sides of the issue, even those that we will ultimately reject. Someone once asked me: Why present positions that are against Mesorah even as an intellectual Hava Amina? Suffice it to say that the Gedolim oppose position X!

At first glance, this approach is tantalizingly appealing. It certainly saves significant mental exertion, which may then be devoted to mego, rov and chazoko. Furthermore, there is a strong emotional appeal in “Ru’ach Yisroel Sabbah.” Much literature in our circles is based on this approach. I hope, however, that by now the reader realizes that this apparent short cut is not without potential pitfalls:

Declarative statements remain extrinsic. Nominal, even occasional, commitment remains a “valid” option. It is only by inculcating the quest for truth and meaning; by acquiring and imparting both the truth and its basis; by training one's self and others to rigorously assess, analyze and critique, that we internalize the yetzer ha’tov of emes, and we “mohn” (demand) of ourselves. It is only when we ourselves make demands of ourselves that they are truly inescapable. We (the congregation) will only change when we ourselves demand it of ourselves, not when the Rav demands it from us.^¹

Of course, it may seem somewhat strange for us to build all of this based on Pinocchio. Excellent point. Let us turn, therefore, to a parallel in the Maharal, Be’er Ha’Golah, end of Be’er 7 (free translation):

When an individual does not intend to scoff - rather only to state his belief - even if these positions stand against your belief and system, don’t say to him: “Don’t talk, seal your mouth!” For then the system will not be clarified. On the contrary, in such matters we should say: “Speak as much as you want, all that you want to say, so that you will not be able to say that were you granted permission to expand you would have spoken further [and convinced me with your beliefs].” If, however, you do close his [the questioner’s] mouth and prevent him from speaking, that points toward a weakness in the system. This [approach] is the converse of the general impression, which is that it is not permitted to discuss the system, and that thus the system is strengthened. On the contrary! That approach undermines the system! ... Thus [through the former approach] a person comes to the inner truth of matters... For [after all], any hero that comes to compete with another to demonstrate his might wants very much that his opponent muster as much strength as possible - then, if the hero overcomes his opponent, he proves that he is the mightier hero. What might, however, does the hero display if his opponent is not permitted to stand strong and wage war against him? ...^²

1 The Shem me’Shmuel on Dayeinu in the Haggadah says that the reason Am Yisroel in the Midbar fell so many times from very high levels to great depths is because the madreigos that they acquired were not their own internal accomplishments, but extrinsic ones conveyed to them by Moshe Rabbeinu.

2 Cf. the Alter from Kelm, Chochmo U’Mussar vol. 2 p. 50 and p. 76 - Mesorah and Thought must go hand in hand.

Target Populations?

2011-03-31T23:23:00.000-07:00

The truth is that Am Yisroel is the target population. But to an inquiry from a former talmid at MTA I responded:

The RW MO kid who realizes that YU talks the talk but doesn't necessarily walk the walk who may be looking into Lander or Ner Yisroel; and the the Charedi kid who finds his questions are not being answered (or even permitted to ask!) and not necessarily enjoying his learning.

They don't both have the same precise needs, but would be best served by the same environment.

Culture: Internet, Music, Gadgets

2011-03-31T12:35:00.000-07:00

3. Contemporary Culture

3. The development of arts, especially architecture, music and poetry, rooted in the spirit of true Jewish Mesorah, and the establishment of competitions in these areas.

4. The previously mentioned (in the section on Da’as Hashem) ban on excesses.

OK, skipping a but here.

The Internet is here to stay. There is no way the bulk of Yahadus HaTorah can hide their collective heads in the sand. And if that means that almost every bachur today is exposed to pornography, we have to deal with it. If it means they will be texting constantly, acting inappropriately on blogs and on Facebook, we also have to deal with it.

The bulk of talmidim are into "goyishe music," are up on TV and movies (even if we have no TV's in our houses! even if we have extensive web filters - amazing, right?! I was blown away the other day by the existence of a site called bahalt.com - check it out!!). So we have to deal with it.

And, I am very pained to say this, but we have hid our faces from the phenomenon to our own detriment for far too long. Many, if not most, bachurim have problems with what we can delicately call ni'uf b'yad. So we must deal with it.

Moreover, most of our talmidim find a certain sippuk in these pursuits that we are not giving them (in no small part because 75 years ago we ignored those lines of Dr. Nathan Birnbaum).

Yeshivas HaOlim will deal with it. This is not the place to explain how. Those who know me and my shiurim know some of my methods.

Davening

2011-03-31T12:19:00.001-07:00

Part 2: Davening

2. Festive gatherings of Charedim, for spiritual purposes (such as the introduction of the Eastern European Shalosh Seudos, etc.).

3. Special instruction in the history and development of Hislahavus and Dveykus in Israel and its practice.

The davening in many contemporary Yeshiva High Schools is horrific. On the right, there is somewhat more of a sense of tzurah, of decorum. But ha'tzad ha'shaveh is that for all too many talmidim, davening is "down-time" - for shmoozing, at best for sleeping and/or sleeping. YhO will srive to make davening meaningful and uplifting, and to ensure a talmid is not just "acting," but knows and means what he is saying. This can be accomplished by shiurim andva'adim in Emunah, in the power of davening, and biurei tefillos.

1. Yeshivas HaOlim, The Yeshiva Gedola, and Dr. Birnbaum's Vision, part 1

2011-03-31T11:21:00.000-07:00

1. Torah study in a more profound manner: Every "Oleh" is required to expand and deepen his knowledge of Torah and Chochmas Yisroel. Before all else, if he does not possess basic knowledge, he must acquire it upon entering the society. The society must constantly supervise its members to ensure that they are fulfilling this obligation. It must provide the opportunity to learn and grow through shiurim that it will conduct within its circle. The society shall campaign among its members, their children and their students to convince them to embark upon a term of study in a yeshiva or under a renowned talmid chacham for one to three years.

Although this first clause was primarily directed at the German-Jewish milieu for which it was written, it is readily translated to address the crying contemporary need of the day.

Good boys, who may do well in other subjects in high school, are often miserable when compelled to learn Gemara. They may have never had a Rebbe who gave them a geshmack in the profound analysis of a Rashi, the minute dissection of a Rambam, the intellectual challege of a Tosafos, the scientific approach of Reb Chaim, or the philosophical profundity of Reb Shimon.

Yeshivos on the right teach from an axiomatic religious imperative; day schools on the left teach from a "subject among other subjects" - albeit, under the best circumstances, a "first among equals" approach bereft of specialness.

And so fine talmidim can go through twelve years of traditional chinuch with but the most fleeting glimpses of the areyvus of Gemara, of its hod v'hadar, of that which makes one exclaim: Ma ahavti Torasecha!

Particularly in the T.I.D.E. milieu that YhO promotes, a solid one to three years Kodesh la'Hashem out of Simchas HaTorah, is an essential cornerstone for life-long exciting and uplifting pursuit of Talmud Torah k'neged kullam.

"Der Aufsteig": Dr. Nathan Birnbaum ZT"L, Ascent and Agudah

2011-03-30T11:24:00.000-07:00

"Der Aufsteig": Dr. Nathan Birnbaum ZT"L, Ascent and Agudah

Rabbi Yosef Gavriel Bechhofer

Nathan Birnbaum is not a Ba'al Teshuva. He is like Avrohom Avinu in that he came to recognize his Creator.

- Rabbi Avrohom Eliyahu Kaplan zt"l^¹

We generally define a Ba'al Teshuva either as one who was held captive by a yetzer hara and then overcame it, or as one who was ignorant of Judaism who then came to appreciate its ideals and their relevance. By these definitions, the most famous Ba’al Teshuva of our century, Dr. Nathan Birnbaum zt”l, was never a Ba’al Teshuva at all! Dr. Birnbaum never succumbed to yetzarim. At every step along his way to Emunah he sought the truth of Yahadus.^² He shaped the ideology and accomplishments - and experienced the shortcomings and frustrations - of each of the various movements that vied for the soul of our nation. Like Avrohom Avinu, by process of elimination - and no small measure of Divine Providence - he came to realize the Emes of Torah-true Judaism.

This Pesach was his sixtieth yahrzeit. This year also marks the eightieth anniversary of a remarkable movement he founded within the Agudah: “Ha’Olim,” “The Ascenders.”

Nathan Birnbaum was born in 1864, to observant parents from Galicia and Hungary, in Vienna. Although he distanced himself from Orthodoxy, he did not do so to assimilate, but to pursue Jewish national renewal. In 1885, he founded a Jewish nationalistic movement - a movement which he himself named - Zionism. By 1897, he served as chief secretary of the central Zionist office.

Over time, he recognized the Zionist movement as bereft of true Jewish culture. He came to the realization that the struggle for land could not supplant the struggle for cultural advancement. Dr. Birnbaum broke with the Zionist movement to seek an authentic Jewish modality that would transcend the narrow quest for a homeland. He thought he found it - in Eastern European Jewish culture. He became an ardent Yiddishist. From 1906 until 1911, he published Yiddish periodicals that promoted an autonomous Jewish culture focusing on the Yiddish language.

This second phase of his career brought him into intimate contact with Eastern European Jewry. The vibrancy of both Polish Chassidus and Lithuanian Mussar made a profound impact upon him. An “erlebnis” (religious experience) while at sea on a ship to America pushed him along. He came to recognize the yad Hashem. Dr. Birnbaum came to see the role of Am Yisroel in Creation as a religious destiny. By 1919, Nathan Birnbaum was a fervent Agudist, and the first general secretary of the Agudath Israel World Organization.

Personal, even professional, fulfillment never satisfied him. Like Avrohom Avinu, his quest was never personal salvation or achievement, but the renaissance and growth of the entirety of Klal Yisroel. Thus, after returning to Torah and Mitzvos, Dr. Birnbaum felt compelled to publicize and promote what he had found.

But not to his estranged brethren! To Dr. Birnbaum, the great challenge was to energize Torah true Jewry! His "return" spurred him to new ambitions: Ambitions to rise and uplift his fellow Ma'aminim with him, that we might all live lives that befit scions of a holy nation, of G-d's nation. Already in 1917 he published works in Yiddish and Hebrew that were challenges to us:

You complain about the traitors to Toras Hashem and about our period that produces such traitors. You are angry with these traitors, that have distanced themeselves from Torah for the sake of an easy life. But you who cling to the Torah - do you not also seek comfort? Can't their pursuit of affluence be attributed to your attitude?

Why are you not angry with yourselves?

Every day you take pride in that Hashem chose you and gave you His Torah. Didn't he also command you? "Be holy unto me?" How can you take pride in that He chose you, yet not pursue holiness as He has commanded?

It can only be because it is easier for you thus.

Every day you await the moment when Hashem in His great mercy and love for you will send you Moshiach. Why do you expect a gift, a grant, a favor? Why don't you improve your deeds, to merit Moshiach's coming by your own righteousness? Indeed, the only way to merit such a reward is by travelling the road that ascends toward the most lofty holiness that man can attain. But this road appears to you too difficult to travel. You seek only that which is easy.

You know the Torah's words well. You also know which road leads to holiness. Why is it that you have not walked along that road?^³

A generation earlier, Rabbi Yisroel Salanter zt"l had toiled to introduce the idea of ongoing self critique and development. Dr. Birnbaum undertook a similar task. The main difference, perhaps, lay in that Reb Yisroel focused on individual Avoda, while Dr. Birnbaum stressed the elevation of society.^⁴ Dr. Birnbaum strove to mobilize Klal Yisroel's energies in pursuit of shleymus as an Am Hashem.

It followed that the organization that unified Orthodox Jewry under the banner of Torah true principles should serve as the vehicle for that elevation. This was Dr. Birnbaum's perspective on Agudas Yisroel. He saw the Agudah as the ideal forum in which to promote constant striving for his'alus and shleymus. He persistently lobbied the Agudah's leaders and members to join in his great push for mass refinement.^⁵

Dr. Birnbaum organized small groups of individuals that would devote themselves even more intensely to the cause of his'alus. Known as Ha’Olim,” these groups were to be the vanguard of a great movement toward heightened Avodas Hashem.

Ha'Olim groups were extant from the 1910's until the 1930's. It was with the solidification of the Agudah after the second Kenessia Gedola (in 1927), however, that Dr. Birnbaum first mounted a major effort to expand the movement.^⁶ [See Box]. He publicized a signed call to join his fledgling movement. Most of the signators were well-known ideologues and activists of the early Agudah. The Kol Koreh was printed simultaneously in the newsletter of Agudas Yisroel in Germany and in the Telzer HaNe'eman (in Hebrew).^⁷

Kol-Koreh (Free Translation)

"And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a sacred nation." G-d commanded Israel to sanctify itself and raise up that sanctity as an example and a banner. This is the task of the Jewish nation. It has not yet completed this task. It is still distant from the pathway that leads to this sanctity. It is still far from true awareness and service of Hashem; far from compassion and extra care in matters bein adam l'chaveiro; far from arranging itself in a modest way amid the world's grandeur, a way that would reflect the majesty of G-d Himself. Even worse, a part of the level that the nation had already achieved has eroded. Our bein adam laMakom is frigid and has become flippant; our bein adam l'chaveiro has become artificial or political. Our lives are either patterned after foreign, empty ideals, or bereft of all esthetics and order, not sacred unto Hashem.

Will this decline continue? Is it permissible to gaze with equanimity on this destruction? Has the time not come to turn the evil back? Hasn’t the moment arrived for Am Yisroel to strive for that ascent for which it was chosen? Who [but us] is responsible for fortifying themselves and calling out to Yisroel: Become more than you presently are! Be more than true to Hashem and His Torah. Take on the mighty responsibility for the life force of the Jewish nation!

One thing gives us hope, the fact that Charedim have recently organized themselves and become productive. Through these efforts they have gained much in distinction, in confidence and in the quest to act. This gives us hope, that soon they will come to realize their capacity for the greatest task of all.

To fulfill this hope, the undersigned committee has decided to found

The Society of Olim

Based on the ideas expressed by Dr. Nathan Birnbaum in his book "In the Work of Promise."

This society, as part of the framework of Agudas Yisroel, will not be a political party or entity aspiring to rally masses under its flag. It will not compete with independent Orthodox organizations. On the contrary - it yearns to be an army of pioneers upon which others can rely.

The purpose of the society is: To promote the idea that Agudas Yisroel must create the necessary conditions to refine the entire Jewish nation... Then, under the leadership of the Rabbonim of the Mo'etzes Gedolei HaTorah, the nation will be enhanced. It will become a true "Kenesses Yisroel," one that embraces the entire nation of an Israel that is chared l'dvar Hashem with strong and tight knit bonds, as opposed to the state of anarchy that currently reigns.

Before all else, however, the society must ensure that it itself will be an example and role model. Not just in a return to agriculture (in that it will found a model colony now, and, subsequently, various colonies in Eretz Yisroel and other lands). Primarily, rather, by proving that courage of spirit and self education will have enabled the society to achieve significant ascent despite the current less than ideal situation. The society is obliged to build groups of those who yearn for sanctity within the body of Am Yisroel.

To attain its goal the society will use special techniques and regulations whose fundamentals have already been formulated, but whose details must still be resolved. With no shred of politics the society will educate all those who accompany it:

To the capacity to withstand the modern rebellions against both Emuna in Hashem and Mesorah and against the laws of Tzeniyus and Kavod Chachomim.
To strengthened Emuna and diligent Torah study.
To imbue their hearts with true love and awareness of Hashem.
To habituate themselves to the midda of Rachamim: empathy, assistance and good will in matters bein adam l'chaveiro.
To arouse themselves to thoughts of Kiddush Hashem and to pattern their public lives in a splendid and majestic authentic Jewish manner.

Anyone who yearns to see Yisroel ascend to its proper level as a nation of destiny and example, and knows that he has the capacity to toil with his entire personality for the benefit of this purpose - should come and identify himself to us!

We must mention an individual that to our sorrow has already passed from among us: Rabbi Avrohom Eliyahu Kaplan z"l was among those who began to gather under the idea of "Ha'Olim." He signed this Kol Koreh some years ago. Were he still alive, he certainly would have had his name signed on the Kol Koreh as it is now being publicized. He surely would have participated and helped us now in our work.

Friends who want to support our ambitions in some specific area, even if they do not wish to enter the "society" - are of interest to us.

We will eagerly provide more information to anyone corresponding to the address of:

Samuel Ostersetzer, Duisburg (Germany) Charlottenstrasse 62.

From Poland and throughout Eastern Europe, to the address of:

Advocate Dr. Ben-Zion Fessler, Kolomea (Poland) Sobieckiego 8.

In the month of Kislev 5688:

Rabbi Dr. Elie Munk, Ansbach

Mordechai Knoblewitsch, Dortmund

Samuel Ostersetzer, Duisburg

Lawyer Isaac Rosenheim, Frankfurt

Dr. Gershon Schnerb, Frankfurt.

Dr. Solomon Birnbaum, Hamburg

Wolf S. Jacobson, Hamburg

Moshe Elzas, Kassel

David Ullmann, Kassel

Dr. Ben-Zion Fessler, Kolomea

Henry van Leeuwen, Rotterdam

Rabbi Tuvia Horowitz, Rzeszow

Binyomin Mintz, Tel Aviv

Dr. Leo Deutschlander, Vienna

Alfred Stroh, Vienna

Yehuda Leib Orlean, Warsaw

Few records of their activities remain.^⁸ But the Ha'Olim literature and Dr. Birnbaum's writings, affords a glimpse of Ha'Olim's program and activities.

Dr. Birnbaum identified three areas in which we must sanctify ourselves: Da'as, Rachamim and Tiferes.

By Da'as he meant awareness and knowledge of Hashem. He did not mean that one should study the evidence of G-d's existence and the like. Dr. Birnbaum meant that we should be intimately acquainted with Hashem. This intimacy would be manifest in fervor (hislahavus) in Hashem and submission (hachna'ah) before Him. Awareness and knowledge that do not lead to fervor and submission are imperfect. Submission before Hashem leads one to submit to others that submit to G-d's will as well, but not to those who do not, i.e., evildoers, scoffers and the haughty.

By Rachamim he meant that we should cling to Hashem's middas harachamim and have mercy upon our fellow beings. Such rachamim must be aroused when one perceives either physical or spiritual anguish in another; it must concern itself both with remediation of extant pain and with prevention of potential pain; and it must address communities and individuals equally.

By Tiferes he meant that we must consciously borrow a part of the ultimate glory that is Hashem's and adorn ourselves with it. The stress here is on "borrow" - as opposed to "acquire." We must see ourselves as a part of the glory that is the Creation, not as independent sources of splendor. The danger of the latter attitude is haughtiness and self centeredness. Kedushas HaTiferes requires us to identify, define and pursue a Torah esthetic - in our dress, our abodes, our art and our music - one that reflects the values of an Am Segula.^⁹

This was not abstract idealism. Dr. Birnbaum created a detailed plan for ascent in holiness. A 1927 address to the Agudah's Central Committee captures the essence of the Ha'Olim's program:^¹⁰

It is the greatest demand placed by Judaism itself on the Jewish people: "And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a sacred nation." If Charedim seek to be true activists, then they must consider how they will fulfill this lofty demand that Judaism makes. They must place this demand at the center of their activism.

I know that many - and not necessarily the most base among us - respond to such demands with a smile on their lips. They perceive this as exaggerated temimus, as a naivete that refuses to recognize the nature of humanity and its inescapable frailties. In truth, even I am far from believing that all human beings possess an equal capacity and ambition for a life of Mussar...

What I think, what I hope to achieve, what I demand from Charedi activists who recall G-d's ancient charge to the Jewish people, is a society that attains a lofty character, so that each member of the society ascends discernibly, whether to a great or small degree, even if that individual does not end as the outstanding Ba'al Middos...

How can the ideal of sanctity and character refinement become the new driving force within Am Yisroel? It seems to me, without doubt, that this ideal can only serve as a driving force if we can find suitable individuals to accept upon themselves to enunciate and declare this ideal in all its breadth and depth. They must do so incessantly, without slavishness, with the full weight of the idea. Furthermore, there must arise a small force of pioneers in self sanctification to serve as an example and role model for Am Yisroel...

[Organized Orthodoxy] is obliged to come together and create societal tools that will teach: 1. How to deepen our awareness of Hashem out of love for Him [Da'as]. 2. How to dedicate ourselves to love our fellow human beings [Rachamim]. 3. How to pursue modesty [hatznei'a leches] as a manifestation of the glory of our Hashem [Tiferes]...

We must admit that cold intellectualism has penetrated our relationship with Hashem. Following through with that metaphor, Ha'Olim cannot remain at ease with this frigidity. They must toil until within their societies, within each of their groupings and within each of their members there arise divine hislahavus and inner spiritual feeling.

To achieve aliya in Da'as Hashem there float before my eyes [the following ideas]:

2. Festive gatherings of Charedim, for spiritual purposes (such as the introduction of the Eastern European Shalosh Seudos, etc.).

3. Special instruction in the history and development of Hislahavus and Dveykus in Israel and its practice.

4. Great emphasis must be placed upon a stipulation that every Oleh to refrain from any excesses or immodesty in speech, clothing, deed and from any competitive sport or gambling.

5. The development of a pure esthetic that will free the architecture of our Shuls and the nature of our music from the influence of other religions...

To achieve aliya in bein adam l'chaveiro I consider:

1. Instruction in the issues of bein adam l’chaveiro and guidance in expanded practical applications. Both modern and classic texts should be employed, with a particular stress on current situations. To develop a greater sense of belonging to Orthodox society as a whole. 2. The obligation of every Oleh to engage in Cheshbon HaNefesh at least once a week, to ascertain if, and to what extent, he has fulfilled mitzvos and refrained from aveiros according to the instruction and guidance provided to him.

3. An outright ban on certain material pursuits.

4. Substantive and apolitical common counsel to resolve Jewish societal problems in the spirit of Torah and Mesorah.

Even if the manner in which we display the public image of our lives does not currently convey our glory as the Chosen Nation, even if we are uncertain how to properly become the glory [pe’er] of the world, Ha’Olim cannot allow the status quo to continue. They must attempt to rectify as much as possible.

To achieve aliya in the manners of creating public lives, I depict to myself:

1. Instruction in issues concerning glory [Tiferes] and its correlation to religion and Mussar^¹²... [and] practical guidance in the application of these principles to the creation of appropriate public lives.

2. The development of an independent Jewish social structure following Judaism and Mussar.

3. The development of arts, especially architecture, music and poetry, rooted in the spirit of true Jewish Mesorah, and the establishment of competitions in these areas.

4. The previously mentioned (in the section on Da’as Hashem) ban on excesses.

As a means of ascent in all three aforementioned areas I consider:

Involvement in the education of young men and young women according to the demands of Ha'Olim - an involvement that will become especially substantial when it will be possible to arrange such education among large groups of Ha’Olim or in their respective communitiies...

There is no room to doubt the importance of Ha’Olim to the entirety of Agudas Yisroel... Not only will they carry the pressure of Yahadus in to the world of treason thereto; more so, they, through their Avodah in the ideals of Mussar and Middos (a labor unto itself) can be a special force for the Agudah, if only the Agudah realizes how to take advantage of this opportunity.

For although the Agudah’s strngths are mostly organizational and political, it cannot derive its life force from those strengths... It must focus on those inherent strengths of Yahadus itself, its eternal ideas and ancient yearnings as well. In the final analysis, stength of will is contingent on those ideas and yearnings...

Please do not allow your hearts to persuade you that all there is here is the foundation of yet another redundant new society. That which we will found here is a Kiddush Hashem that will and unite the driving forces of Chassidus, of the Mussar Movement, of the Talmudic Masters and of the ambition for loftier Derech Eretz... This will be a Kiddush Hashem to an extent never before attempted. A Kiddush Hashem that will be the first step toward the blossoming of the ancient Torah, a debt that we owe Hashem in return for the chesed He has granted us in choosing our nation. It is the first step toward fulfilling the task, for which Hashem has chosen us.

Unfortuantely for us all, Hitler’s rise to power put an end to the activities of those groups of Ha’Olim which had begun to form in various places. The unsettled conditions which prevailed in Europe doomed this attempt to create a nucleus of enthusiastic young Jews dedicated to the spiritual regeneration of their people.^¹³

Foreseeing the danger posed by Hitler yemach shemo v’zichro, Dr. Birnbaum fled Berlin (where he had lived since 1911) with his family in 1933. He moved promptly to The Hague in Holland. He continued there to publish yet another periodical, “Der Rufe.” The upheavals, however, took their toll. Dr. Birnbaum’s death in 1937, along with the Holocaust, decimated the Ha’Olim movement.

We have certainly not done Dr. Nathan Birnbaum or “Ha’Olim" justice! What we have attempted here, rather, is to replace upon the table of Judaism an array of essential ideas. The challenge that Dr. Birnbaum placed before the Agudah’s central committee seventy years ago, is still relevant. The Holocaust led to essential, “distractions”: the rebuilding of Orthodoxy and the Yeshiva world; the solidification of our socio-economic and political foundations; the popularization of large scale Torah study projects.

But isn’t it now time for determined, structured, ascent?

Notes:

1Related by Dr. J. Wolgemuth z"l, in Jeschurun, Berlin, Iyar-Sivan 5684. Quoted by Rabbi Tzvi Kaplan (Reb Avrohom Elya's son) in MeMa'ayanei Kedem, p. 330.

2His first pen name was "Mattisyahu Acher," Mattisyahu - a loyal son of his nation; Acher - but also, a heretic who denied his nation's faith (ibid., p. 319; see also Encyclopedia Judaica, vol. 4, pp. 1040-1042).

3"Am Hashem" - a collection of Dr. Birnbaum's essays in Hebrew translation, (Netzach, Bnei Braq, 1977), p. 91. The volume's name is taken from one of his major works in German, Gottesvolk, "G-d's Nation." This 1917 essay, "Eis La'Asos" is also printed in Rabbi Moshe Prager z"l's "L'Or HaNetzach" (Research Institute of Religious Jewry, New York, 1962), p. 437. “Divrei Ha’Olim” was published the same year.

4The resemblance was not lost on his contemporaries in the Lithuanian Yeshiva world. Many of his writings were translated and published in HaNe'eman, the Telzer journal that served as the voice of contemporary Mussar. I am grateful to Rabbi Tuvya Lasdun, librarian at the Gottesman Library of Yeshivas Rabbeinu Yitzchok Elchonon for providing me with copies of Dr. Birnbaum's essays in HaNe'eman. It would be a great favor to our generation were someone to reprint the HaNe'eman series, which is difficult to obtain.

5A fascinating facet of Dr. Birnbaum program was a firm belief that cosmopolitan lifestyles were detrimental to his'alus. He believed that the intensity and competitiveness of city life and trade were inimical to the contemplative and deliberate personality that is the Torah's ideal. He was, therefore, very vocal in his advocacy of a return to a rural, agrarian lifestyle. See, for example, Am Hashem pp. 106-107.

6Men of Spirit (New York, 1964), Rabbi Leo Jung zt"l, Editor, p. 337 (essay by Dr. Solomon A. Birnbaum z"l on his father, Dr. Nathan Birnbaum).

7The Kol Koreh in HaNe'eman is accompanied by an editorial essay (likely authored by Rabbi Yosef Shmuelevitz Hy"d, editor of HaNe'eman, and a towering figure in his own right), that expresses Eastern European amazement that such a movement might have been conceived in Germany - a country they perceived as bereft of spiritual strivings and Mussar inclinations; and also a heartfelt plea to the Lithuanian Yeshiva world to recognize the compelling necessity to join in these efforts.

8I am grateful to The Nathan and Solomon Birnbaum Archives of Toronto, under the auspices of Dr. Birnbaum's grandchildren, Prof. Eleazar and Mr. David Birnbaum, for providing me with the records and protocols that do exist, including the cover page of an issue of Der Aufstieg, a monthly journal published by Dr. Birnbaum in Berlin from 1930-1933, from which the title of this essay and the accompanying illustration are taken. A sad but fascinating sidebar: One of the prominent members of Ha’Olim was Daniel Schindler, father of Reform “Rabbi” Alexander Schindler. Another grandson, Mr. Jacob Birnbaum, informed me that Alexander Schindler’s tallis has an atara upon which are embroidered the words: “Da’as, Rachamim, Tiferes.

9The definitions here are taken from Am Hashem p. 109.

10Reprinted in L'Or HaNetzach, p. 439.

11We must be aware of the German Orthodox milieu, in which yiras Shomayim and shemiras hamitzvos were very strong, but Torah knowledge, scholarship and religious fervor were relatively weak. Advanced yeshiva study (except for those who aspired to the rabbinate) was unheard of.

12Dr. Birnbaum references here a work by Reb Yaakov Rosenheim z”l on Aesthetics and Judasim.

13Men of Spirit, ibid.

Yeshivas HaOlim ישיבת העולים

A Jew in the Rain: Charlotte Mason on secular studies

Charlotte Mason on secular studies

A Jew in the Rain: And here's how they do it in Finland

And here's how they do it in Finland

The New Yeshiva

At Waldorf School in Silicon Valley, Technology Can Wait - NYTimes.com

A Silicon Valley School That Doesn’t Compute

By MATT RICHTEL

MORE IN TECHNOLOGY (1 OF 27 ARTICLES)

With an App, Your Next Date Could Be Just Around the Corner

Jewish Education Failures

Jewish Education Failures | YU Beacon

Jewish Education Failures

Time to do something!!!

Yeshiva Without Borders Survey

Before "The Hirschian" (WHO IS NOT ME) abandoned the project, he outlined his plan:

This seems like the wave of the future and the way for Yeshivas HaOlim to go

Has Tech Reached The Tipping Point?

From a Hirschian who has "given up" (at least for now)

Revised and Expanded Yeshivas HaOlim Vision Statement

Meeting reminder

Q from a corespondent and my A (edited)

Addressing the WHY? (Excerpt from a longer essay on Pinocchio and Yahadus)

Target Populations?

Culture: Internet, Music, Gadgets

Davening

Part 2: Davening

1. Yeshivas HaOlim, The Yeshiva Gedola, and Dr. Birnbaum's Vision, part 1

"Der Aufsteig": Dr. Nathan Birnbaum ZT"L, Ascent and Agudah