Until now, the secular school system in Eretz Yisroel has not
shown any signs of concern over the fact that it is
consistently losing several thousand students each year to
the religious school system. Media reports to this effect are
heard occasionally, but besides evoking some vapid statements
by a handful of anti-religious politicians, nothing much ever
comes of them. People in Eretz Yisroel, it seemed, were more
concerned over the security situation than the negative
impact that decreasing attendance will have on the secular
school system.
This fall, however, things changed.
Cities in which Lev L'Achim has focused its enrollment
efforts have witnessed record lows in secular-school
attendance figures this year -- down from an average of 40
students per class to 18-20. This dramatic drop has forced
the secular school system to combine classes, lay off
hundreds of teachers, close some schools and cut back on
overhead.
Reeling in the aftershock, senior secular system officials
are finally coming to terms with the full extent of the
issue. And in many cities, they are not taking it sitting
down.
In Bat Yam, for example, where Rabbi Avshalom Sarig
supervises Lev L'Achim's enrollment activities, the secular
school system has gone on the offensive.
Faced with the prospects of multiple school closures and
sharp budget cuts, the city's secular school system has set
up an emergency task force in each school to combat student
loss by carefully tracking attendance reports and determining
the exact reason for each student's absence.
If a student is absent due to illness, says Rabbi Sarig, then
no action is taken. But if the child has stopped coming to
school because Lev L'Achim enrollment workers convinced his
parents to transfer him to a religious school, the school's
emergency task force springs into action.
That very same day, a delegation from the school, comprised
of his homeroom teacher, a social worker and a psychologist,
visits the child's home and attempts to convince, cajole and
intimidate the parents into recanting their move.
According to Rabbi Sarig, the parents are told that they have
been brainwashed by a band of religious fanatics, that they
have made a terrible mistake that threatens to ruin their
child's future; and that, aside from everything else,
transferring their child to a different school is against the
law.
Before the parents get too upset, however, the delegation
assures them that they won't turn them into the authorities --
all they have to do is sign a form saying that they are
putting their child back into the secular school system.
But it's not over once the parents sign the form.
Bright and early the next morning, a school official shows up
at the child's home to personally escort him to the "right"
school, lest he somehow make a wrong turn and end up by
mistake at the "wrong" school again. This personal escort,
Rabbi Sarig says, is provided free of charge for several
weeks, until the child has been firmly reintegrated into the
secular school environment.
Where Does This Leave Lev L'achim?
Lev L'Achim fights back in the only way it knows how -- by
noticing the child 's absence from the religious school into
which he was recently enrolled, going right back to the
parents, and convincing them to cancel their cancellation and
transfer their child back to his religious school. And yes,
the next morning someone is there bright and early to escort
the child to the right school -- 15 minutes earlier than the
escort from the secular school.
"We are the people who invented the door-to-door system,"
Rabbi Sarig says. "We aren't going to let them beat us at our
own game. After reconvincing the parents, the key is getting
there early enough in the morning."
It keeps going like this -- back and forth, back and forth --
sometimes for several weeks. Occasionally the two opposing
sides will arrive at a home at the same time and a shouting
match will ensue, with the parents and the child playing the
roles of referee, judge and jury.
"We prevail about eighty percent of the time," says Rabbi
Sarig, "but the problem is that in order to win this war, you
need a lot of manpower.
"Also, it can be very demoralizing for an enrollment worker
to lose a child this way. So much effort has gone into
registering him into the religious school system, and finally
you get written, stamped confirmation from the religious
school that he has begun attending classes. Essentially,
you're job is finished. And then this happens."
The secular school system's new strategy presents another
problem, Rabbi Sarig adds. Spending more man-hours on keeping
newly registered children in religious schools means that
less energy can be devoted to registering new children.
"It's like the emergency room dilemma," says Rabbi Sarig.
"Which victim do you treat first? The one with the crushed
chest, the one with the bleeding arm, or the one with the
burns? That's the way I feel. I run from one to the other and
try to increase their chances of survival. A lot of times I
feel like the engine is at full throttle, but that I'm still
spinning my wheels."
Despite the difficulties, Lev L'Achim Director General Rabbi
Eliezer Sorotzkin says he believes that in the long run, Lev
L'Achim will emerge victorious.
"What the secular school teachers don't realize," says Rabbi
Sorotzkin, "is that it is their own lack of motivation and
dedication that has lead many of their students to leave
their schools in the first place. Now they are in a panic and
they want all their children to come back.
"But their motivation isn't the children's welfare -- it's
their own parnossa," he continues. "You can't compare
this to our level of dedication or our motivation -- to save
Jewish neshomos.
"This new situation," he concludes, "certainly demands a lot
from us, but we'll do whatever it takes to win. This is a
battle we -- and Klal Yisroel -- simply can't afford to
lose."
