On Tuesday evening, May 26, Our Jewish Children and Chazaq hosted a shiur by Rabbi David Goldwasser at Rabbi Oelbaum’s shul to launch a Charidy campaign for Our Jewish Children.
Rabbi Avraham Dovid Garber, Rav of Yeshiva Kesser Torah and director of Our Jewish Children, welcomed everyone and thanked them for coming to show their support.
He explained that Our Jewish Children is an organization that provides tuition assistance to help students transfer from public school to yeshivah. Baruch Hashem, this year the organization, founded by Rabbi Garber and this writer, is helping almost 370 children; and with applications pouring in, it looks like that number will grow to over 400 for the upcoming school year. For many families, tuition assistance is the deciding factor that motivates them to transfer their children out of public school.
Rabbi Garber began with a d’var Torah. He pointed out that Rus decided to give up a royal life in Moav to follow Naomi to a foreign land, despite knowing that she would be poor. What motivated her to do such a thing? It was the influence of Naomi.
Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky zt”l taught that there are two ways of educating someone. The traditional way is to teach them and lead them to the right place. The second way is through influence, and this form of teaching can have a powerful impact. Naomi didn’t teach Rus about Yiddishkeit; rather, she influenced her through her actions and her way of life.
Rabbi Garber shared the metaphor of a sloped roof, where water automatically pours down. The Hebrew word for a slope, shipua, and the word hashpaah, influence, share the same root. The roof doesn’t actively do anything. Naomi was like the roof in the sense that she didn’t do anything to try to change Rus, but her influence acted like the sloped roof.
Public school influences children, and the values and teachings there are antithetical to Torah values and have only gotten worse over the past 15 years. This, along with growing anti-Semitism, can have a detrimental impact on the neshamos of our children. They must be transferred away from this and brought to yeshivah or an all-day Jewish day school.
Our Jewish Children has, baruch Hashem, helped over 1,500 children with tuition support to transfer from public school to yeshivah. This year, the organization is supporting 368 children with tuition supplementation. Chazaq and other organizations send the children, and Our Jewish Children provides the tuition assistance. Sometimes this help is the deciding factor for parents to move their children to yeshivah.
After the first year that children attend yeshivah, parents see the value of this type of education and are more willing to take on the tuition investment.
Following this, Rabbi Goldwasser, well-known speaker and author, addressed the crowd. He noted that we have just come out of Shavuos, and the greatest way to accept the Torah is to enable others to learn. “There is no greater mitzvah than to help another person learn Torah.”
He added, “We have no idea of what this means.” Rabbi Goldwasser commented that Chazaq and Our Jewish Children are a beautiful partnership.
He shared stories of children who longed to go to yeshivah but were unable to do so due to financial constraints.
He then told the story of Rabbi Eliezer ben Hurkanus, who cried because he wanted to learn Torah. His father told him that he was too old and should go to work. Eliezer made a strong resolution that he would learn. Hashem hears crying and tears. Eliyahu HaNavi came to visit him because he cried so much. The Navi told him to go to Yerushalayim and speak to Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai.
Eliezer ben Hurkanus left his father’s house and went to the great rabbi. Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai reached out his hand and made him his chavrusa. He taught him a couple of halachos. Rabbi Goldwasser said that a person can learn two halachos a day from anywhere in the Shulchan Aruch and become great. Eliezer ben Hurkanus learned, and he became Rabbi Eliezer ben Hurkanus.
Eliyahu HaNavi saw the desire, dreams, and enthusiasm to learn Torah. Rabbi Goldwasser shared, “Every Jewish child deserves to have a Torah education.”
We are the guarantors for these children. It is our responsibility to do it.
Rebbe Nachum of Breslov taught that there are 600,000 letters in the Torah, corresponding to the 600,000 neshamos in the Jewish nation. If a sefer Torah is missing one letter, we have to procure a new one. This is true even if there is a doubt about one letter. Even one missing letter pasuls the whole sefer Torah. The same idea holds true for klal Yisrael. If one child is missing, then the Torah doesn’t shine, and the Torah of klal Yisrael is not complete. Our job is to be the sofer and to fill in all the missing letters and words. We are obligated to help these children attend a Jewish school. Jewish children are our future.
Following this, Mrs. Sarah Yagaduyeva spoke. She shared her story of coming from Russia and how, at first, she enrolled her children in public school. In many ways, it was because of her that Our Jewish Children got started. The organization first helped her and her sister with tuition support and then went on to help other children. Rabbi Lonner, who was the executive director of the Yeshiva of Central Queens at that time, suggested that Rabbi Garber start an organization, and Our Jewish Children was born.
Sarah shared that the Jewish education her children received influenced her family, and, baruch Hashem, she now has frum grandchildren. “I am so grateful for how far our family came, building Jewish generations.”
After this, Rabbi Garber shared a slideshow with graphs showing the contrast between those with a Jewish education and those without, in terms of continued interest in marrying Jewish, living a Jewish life, and caring about Israel.
To donate, please go to charidy.com/ojc. Checks made out to Our Jewish Children can also be mailed to 147-37 70th Avenue, Flushing, NY 11367. The Tax ID is 33-3509212.
