The Person Behind The Posts

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Shooting Ourselves in the Foot

Over Shabbat, I heard this story. It seems that, a few years ago, parents in a religious community in North America (not Baltimore, although it could have happened there) began to notice that their children were returning from their post-high school year in Israel all fired up about Shana Bet (returning to Israel for a second year of Torah study) and about aliyah. Anxious to put a stop to this behavior, these parents appealed to the administration of the local day school and to the local rabbis.

A community meeting was held where three or four speakers addressed the topic of how parents could deprogram their children. The goal was to get these young people to give up the idea of returning to Israel and "start their lives" by attending the colleges and universities the parents had picked out for them.

If I hadn't heard this from a parent who actually attended the meeting, I wouldn't have believed it. It's scary how profoundly we forget that we are in galus.

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