On Tuesday night, November 12, Chazaq’s Tuesday Torah Talks hosted Rabbi Avraham Dovid Garber, rav of Yeshiva Kesser Torah and Founder and Director of Our Jewish Children (OJC).
Rabbi Yaniv Meirov, CEO of Chazaq and rav of Congregation Charm Circle, interviewed Rabbi Garber.
First, Rabbi Garber shared his background. He ran kiruv classes called the Jewish Flame, on college campuses for many decades. He still teaches Jewish Flame classes in Queens and virtually. Baruch Hashem, many former class participants went on to build frum families.
In 2008 he started Our Jewish Children. The tuition assistance from this organization is like the last hammer blow. It provides extra money for tuition that often helps parents make the crucial decision to transfer their children to yeshivah from public school.
Our Jewish Children has helped over 1,000 students attend Jewish day schools and yeshivos. Chazaq has sent many children to OJC for tuition support.
Rabbi Garber displayed charts that showed that four percent of the American population was Jewish before 1970. Now it’s down to two percent. Why has it decreased?
There are two major problems facing American Jewry: intermarriage and lack of having Jewish children. The intermarriage rate before 1970 was 17%. Now it’s 58%. That means that three out of five marriages are intermarriages. Only two percent of American Orthodox Jews intermarry. The rate for Reform Jews is 50% and for that of nondenominational Jews is 69%. The fertility rate for Orthodox Jews is 4.1 children per family. However, for the rest it’s below 1.8, which means that the Jewish population will continue to decrease.
Currently, secular society is an assault on Jewish values. There is a lack of emphasis on family, community, morality, and Israel. Lashon ha’ra, especially through social media, is constant. There is also a lack of emphasis on study.
Full-day Jewish education is the main factor to counter intermarriage. A 2020 study in Chicago that surveyed Jews who attended and didn’t attend full-time Jewish day schools showed a significant difference in terms of attitudes. Of those who attended full-time Jewish day schools for at least one year, 57% felt connected to Judaism, 65% felt connection to Israel, and 57% felt that Judaism was part of their lives. Also, for those who attended full-day Jewish schools, 66% had mostly Jewish friends and 71% were highly engaged in Jewish life. In contrast, those who had no Jewish education or minimal education had much lower percentages in the above categories. We see from this data that Jewish identity and a connection to Israel is greatly influenced by a full-time Jewish education.
The survey showed that Judaism was very important in the lives of those who attended full-day Jewish day schools. If we want Jews to prosper in America, then Jewish children need day school or yeshivah education.
How can we help save more neshamos? Talk to your colleagues and other Jews who are sending their kids to public school. Talk to them about how important it is to send their kids to yeshivah. Rabbi Yaniv shared that most people are interested. You just need to talk to people about sending their kids to yeshivah. Over 1,800 kids transferred to yeshivah through Chazaq.
Rabbi Garber started Our Jewish Children when a Russian immigrant we knew wanted her kids to find out about Judaism. We helped pay for their tuition. A few years later, her sister came from Russia. We convinced her to send her kids to yeshivah and helped with the tuition. Today, one sister has two kids learning in kollel in Lakewood, married with frum families, and the other has daughters, married with frum families.
Around 2008, Rabbi Yaakov Lonner, the long-time Executive Director at YCQ, suggested that since we want to help kids with tuition so they can attend yeshivah, we should create an organization. That’s how Our Jewish Children was born.
Rabbi Garber related the following story to illustrate how we all can help in this effort. Eugene Hurewitz, a member of the Queens community for many years, knew someone working in Queens who was sending her kids to public school. He told her to send her children to yeshivah. She said it was too expensive. He didn’t give up trying to convince her. It took many years, but eventually he wore her down. He contacted Our Jewish Children, and the organization stepped in. OJC has been helping with tuition for her children ever since.
What else can we do to stem the downward tide? Funding is always needed for Our Jewish Children for tuition assistance and for Chazaq’s work in transferring public school children.
Go to Chazaq.org or ourJewishchildren.org to donate. You can learn with someone and develop a personal relationship and that will have an impact. Chazaq has chavrusa options.
Mentors say they benefit more. You learn the most from your students.
Rabbi Meirov asked Rabbi Garber for a final message.
He said that the main factor in Jewish identification and to have Jewish grandchildren is to give your children a full-day Jewish education.
Rabbi Garber then shared a d’var Torah from this week’s parshah. Lot was living in Sodom and was informed of its impending destruction. He tried to save his whole family. The Chumash says that he spoke to his sons-in-law who took his daughters. He told them to stand up and get out of this place. Hashem is going to destroy the city. They laughed. Rav S.R. Hirsch points out that the language of the pasuk is problematic. Of course, his sons-in-law took his daughters. Hirsch explains that the Torah is teaching that the sons-in-law took his daughters away from the values of Avraham. Their values were of the city of Sodom. That was their outlook. It was antithetical to Avraham’s outlook.
When Avraham wanted a wife for his son, he made sure that Eliezer would search for someone with the same basic ethics and morality. Hirsch said, in his time, which was the 19th century, that Jews had the same value problems then, like Sodom, and so many German Jews assimilated. Unfortunately, in our time we face the same values clash with society.
We have to be like Avraham and not assume that we can isolate from society’s values. The only way to overcome this is with our children learning in a full-day Jewish school.
By Susie Garber
