I fear that we are operating under the misconception that kiruv or outreach is not being compromised by the weakening of day schools. Increasingly, our focus is on adult activities and the establishment of community kollels. These are meritorious institutions, if only because the study and teaching of Torah is vital. It remains, however, that without strong day schools in communities where kollels exist, what they plant will be on barren land.
Although it is a sensitive subject, there is abundant evidence that kollels can undermine day schools, inadvertently or deliberately, both via fundraising competition and by promoting the attitude that day schools are ineffective vehicles for Judaic growth.
It’s noteworthy that as day schools have declined in the Orthodox frame of reference, the kiruv movement has also suffered – this despite the large investment in kollels and claims that great numbers of Jews are returning to Judaism. It appears, in fact, that defections from our religious life now exceed the number of returnees. Such statistics are inevitably fragile, but they are supported by the observations of key outreach leaders.
I am mindful of the fundamental Talmudic principle that saving a single life – and this includes spiritual salvation – is akin to saving an entire world. I would hope that those who believe that there can be successful kiruv without strong day schools would reflect on another Talmudic teaching: If there are no young goats, there cannot be adult goats. More to the point, if there are no young students, we cannot have scholars and leaders.
We are witness to a multi-faceted abandonment of Torah education. We do not care enough about these schools, nor do we give them the respect and support they deserve. I know that times have changed and that standards and expectations have risen. Yet, we should remain faithful to the example of the great Torah leaders of the previous generation, particularly the great rosh yeshiva of Lakewood, Rav Aharon Kotler, zt”l, the transcendent Torah leader of our time.
I have endeavored in my communal activity and in this essay to be faithful to the last words spoken to me by Rav Kotler shortly before he died forty-one years ago, words that were echoed nearly twenty years later by his son, Rav Shneuer Kotler, zt”l, during my last visit to him, also shortly before he died.
