🚨A CBN Letter to Lakewood Rabbanim and askanim
Are we really prepared to begin another school year with approximately 60 girls still without a school?
Are we really prepared to accept the ongoing busing problems as if they are simply inconveniences?
We have serious problems in our community. If Tyler wants to come to Lakewood and ask difficult questions, let him come. If our leadership is doing everything it can and there is truly nothing being hidden, then what are we afraid of? Are we afraid that our words will be twisted? Then let us speak clearly and stand behind what we are doing.
We always seem to have answers when it comes to defending our community, our institutions, and our politicians. But where are the answers for these precious girls?
These girls are not numbers. They are the future mothers, teachers, and members of Klal Yisroel. How can a community that is one of the largest Torah communities outside of Eretz Yisroel, with so much Torah being learned every day, allow Jewish girls to begin the school year without a place to learn?
At some point, we have to ask ourselves: What have we become?
How can we tell our children that they should remain frum, stay connected to Torah, and believe that Hashem never gives up on them when they see members of their own community being left behind?
Every child needs to know that Hashem does not give up on them. But how do we teach that lesson if we, as a community, give up on children because their circumstances are difficult?
Then we complain when young people spend their time at places like Smash House or Lipa Munch. We ask why our kids are hanging around on the streets, but are we asking ourselves what we have given them instead?
We cannot demand better from our children while refusing to take responsibility for the environment we have created for them.
And what about the parents? Maybe some parents are careless. Maybe some parents have made mistakes. But does that mean we abandon their children?
A child should never have to pay the price for their parents’ failures.
There is a well-known idea that the street is the one place where everyone is accepted. So maybe we need to stop saying, “That’s not my child.”
Because the question should not be whether it is our child.
The question should be: Is this a Jewish child who needs us?
If the answer is yes, then we should care.
This cannot be about ego. It cannot be about protecting reputations. It cannot be about which politician gets credit or which institution gets blamed.
The children have to come first.
Maybe Hashem is giving us these challenges as a wake-up call. Maybe instead of asking why there are busing problems, why children are struggling, or why kids are ending up on the streets, we should ask what we are being called upon to fix.
We say we are one community. We say we are Klal Yisroel. We say every Jewish child matters.
Now is the time to prove it.
If these girls do not have schools, then we cannot simply move forward as though everything is fine.
If a child needs help, we cannot say, “It’s the parents’ fault.”
If a child is struggling, we cannot say, “That’s not my problem.”
And if someone is willing to expose the problems that we have failed to solve, perhaps instead of being afraid of that attention, we should use it as an opportunity to finally confront those problems.
We have to ensure that Lakewood School owners put the ego second. Put the politics second. Put the reputation second. Put the children first.
Because if we cannot stand together for our own children, then what does it really mean when we say we are one nation?
We need to do better.
Not tomorrow. Now.
