Almost 20,000 high school girls took part in a kennes held in Jerusalem's Arena and in broadcast locations around the country. The main message of the rabbonim was that girls should stick to the established chinuch institutions for their education. Among the warnings about straying from the established derech was also the announcement that the rabbonim are working hard to find paths to parnossoh in a kosher way for the many thousands of young women who are the mainstays of their Torah homes.
HaRav Yitzchok Mordechai Rubin
HaRav Yitzchok Mordechai Rubin of Kehillas Bnei Torah in Har Nof opened the kennes with a review of the main issues. He gave Yated a summary of what he said.
What has suddenly come to the fore regarding higher academic studies that was not present in the past?
The situation has changed in the past few years and our community is unaware of this. Our `wayward brothers' have pondered how they could batter down the strong barrier separating us from them, like the Gal'ed monument which Yaakov erected against Lavan.
Heads of the educational system have allotted billions of shekalim for their five-year plan with a bluntly-stated objective to breach those barriers. They understood that the chareidi sector would not venture to the halls of the universities which are coeducational and therefore devised the plan to establish colleges within the chareidi environment.
Who said that this is indeed their goal? Perhaps they just have the good of the chareidi public in mind?
They offer scholarships only to chareidi girls. A girl from a different sector will not even get a shekel reduction in tuition fees. In the world it is known that a person who showers gifts upon a fellow to an abnormal degree is not doing so out of love but simply to entice him and try to win over his heart. Fliers distributed in mailboxes are filled with all kinds of come-ons suggesting a wide array of colleges. When Yosef Hatzaddik realized that Potiphar's wife was talking to him every day, he understood that she was not interested in his welfare but rather in her own, and knew he had to flee.
Wherein exactly does the danger lie?
Answer: In every college, beginning with curricula over which there is no control because they must be identical with those studied in every university, and also including lecturers, male and female which are not from our circles. They want to create a bridge from the chareidi colleges to the regular universities. In the so-called chareidi colleges, one can only get a B.A. and for an M.A. one must go over to the universities themselves, while a degree for a job requires two academic degrees, that is an M.A.
There is no doubt that they want our daughters there and not here. They want our daughters to be career women and not pure Jewish girls who want to raise families. Not girls who revere husbands who are avreichim and those who opt for a life of Torah. They don't want our daughters to remain refined and pure with sacred values transmitted through the ages. The danger lies in those contaminated waters, the cracked troughs which cannot contain [pure water].
Rabbonim at the kennes
In the rally, it was mentioned that you are working on finding suitable solutions. Why aren't we hearing about them? The public of young girls and their mothers are desperately seeking them.
Prominent roshei yeshivos have joined forces with public askonim to find solutions of employment for our daughters, obviously in the desired spirit established by our Torah leaders. This activity has been immediately launched because of the dire necessity thereof. But as is the case with a medicine which addresses heart disease - it takes years until it reaches the market because of the chain of hurdles it must navigate, including laboratory tests and approval from government health authorities. Experiments must be made to assure that it does not harm any other systems in the body.
Similarly, work places and job opportunities must be very carefully examined, including places where internship or training periods are offered and on to the environment of the actual work place once a graduate has gained the required qualification. Obviously, the danger does not only lie there but also beforehand, regarding the actual material which must be mastered.
We have begun searching for solutions but this must be done with full responsibility, sensitivity and the ongoing supervision and direction of our gedolim and their Torah viewpoint.
