The Frum Community’s
Financial Hamster Wheel
I could not agree more with the front-page essay that you published last week by Rabbi Yehuda L. Oppenheimer (“Lo Sachmod in a Culture of Pressure,” Feb. 6).
Rabbi Oppenheimer saliently notes that too much of American Orthodox life is about earning money and spending lavishly. I don’t think it was always thus. And the main culprit we should look to (in my humble opinion) is the cost of being frum in the United States – particularly the cost of paying for yeshiva tuition.
A family of four children, ages 5 to 17, in the Five Towns could easily have a list price of over $100,000 in tuition bills and related expenses. Let me say that again: $100,000! After taxes!
And that’s before they pay a dime in mortgage costs, healthcare costs, or a myriad other things. And forget about sending their kids to camp and saving any money.
And the desire to become a top-5%-of-the-nation household has led frum Jews to place a far higher emphasis on materialism and dollar-chasing than we would have otherwise. (This is besides all the other associated problems, like the temptation to skirt tax laws and the fact that very many households do not make enough money.)
Rabbosai, we’re a very smart community. With Hashem’s help, let’s find a solution.
Until then, Hashem yerachem.
F. Goldbaum
Brooklyn, N.Y.
Josh Shapiro Did Not Step Up
To Protect Jewish Students
I agree with Jonathan Tobin’s piece about Governor Josh Shapiro (“NAME,” DATE) except for one statement. Mr. Tobin writes that Shapiro was supportive of the Jewish students at Penn. I take issue with that for the following reason. When the I-95 highway was closed due to a fire in an underpass, Governor Shapiro swiftly held a press conference at the site and the highway was repaired faster than expected.
That act put him on the national stage.
That’s what was needed at the University of Pennsylvania, but it never happened because his national political ambition was more important than protecting Jewish students. Shapiro is no Senator Fetterman or Elise Stefanik, G-d bless them.
Zachary Margolies
Philadelphia
Consequences of the Holocaust
Still Plague the Jewish People
The world has just commemorated International Holocaust Remembrance Day (as mentioned in your editorial of February 6, “What to Make of the Vice President’s Omissions on Holocaust Remembrance Day”) and will soon be commemorating Yom HaShoah. Both are memorials to the blackest period in Jewish history. It is impossible for me to put into words the thought that as horrific as that event was, it may be even worse than we realize. That tragedy not only took the lives of six million men, women, and children living at that time, but in doing so, also wiped out generations of future potential Jewish leaders.
Jews have always been a proud people – proud of their heritage, their accomplishments, and their contribution to the world’s culture and religion. In just a little more than the last century, we’ve had giant, world-renowned figures like Herzl, Einstein, Waxman, Salk, Brandeis, Weizmann, and Ben-Gurion. But alas, more recently, our most visible Jewish figures are more like Madoff, Weinstein, Epstein, Bernie Sanders, Chuck Schumer, and George Soros.
I submit that one of the major problems of today’s Jews around the world is not just rampant antisemitism. We have had that for over 3,000 years and have always survived. One of our problems today is that we do not have enough leaders to help us, guide us, and inspire us to overcome this latest challenge. This dearth of Jewish leadership is another one of the fallouts of the Holocaust genocide.
Therefore, I think that when we commemorate the Holocaust, we should not think of it only as a past event, but also keep in mind that it is not over yet. Its effects are still being felt now, and will continue to do so into the foreseeable future.
Max Wisotsky
Highland Park, N.J.
They Blazed a Trail for Shomer Shabbat Professionals
I really enjoyed Mr. Nathan Lewin’s tribute to Rabbi Julius Berman, z”l (“Remember Rabbi Julius Berman, z”l,” January 9). In the article, Mr. Lewin states that Rabbi Berman was instrumental in helping shomer Shabbat law school graduates get jobs. Up until the 1960s, law firms required that all lawyers be available seven days a week. One can imagine the problems that this would cause an observant Jew. Rabbi Berman helped to stop that requirement. This hit very close to home for me.
In 1975, my father, a”h, accepted a position at a major hospital in Philadelphia. He was made head of his department and associate professor of medicine. When he started at his new position, he realized that with all the medical schools and hospitals in Philadelphia and the surrounding area, there were no shomer Shabbat medical residency programs. People who wanted to complete their residencies had to go to New York. My father approached the president of the hospital and the chief of medicine and proposed the idea of starting a shomer Shabbat medical residency program to compete with those in New York. Soon afterward, his hospital started the first such medical residency program in the Philadelphia area. Many other similar programs were started soon afterward.
Harold Rose
Via email