An Inspiring Study – And A Lesson In Jewish Honesty

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sushiBy Adina

I want to share this inspiring story with the readers of Matzav.com.

I represent the Jewish Educational Center in Elizabeth, NJ, under the auspices of HaRav Elazar Mayer Teitz.

Our Director of Counseling Services, Dr. Akiva Perlman, conducted an experiment this afternoon which he secured and assured with his own personal funds.

The idea was to demonstrated the honor system and ethics of the boys in the JEC’s Rav Teitz Mesivta Academy boys high school division.

Every week there is a 12th grader who sells sushi from his father’s restaurant to students at lunchtime. Usually, he mans his makeshift booth and as people purchase sushi, he collects payment.

This time, with Dr. Perlman personally guaranteeing the financial part, the boy left the sushi out in the open with a list of prices and a small box that requested that people pay for what the take and if needed, take the appropriate change from the box.

The fact that this was set up by Dr. Perlman was unbeknownst to the boys.

At the end of the lunch period, Dr. Perlman joined the student to count the money and found that every penny was accounted for!

That result exceeded even his expectation of a certain percentage missing, which in studies, is what normally happens.

Today’s finding really punctuates a comments that Marcy Lazar, a well known NJ Federation (UJA) lay leader made during her tour of the Bruriah High School division as part of a post-merger Federation tour of community agencies several months ago, when she was astonished that high school girls were able to leave their lockers open, even with valuables such as digital cameras, clearly within view. She exclaimed that such a phenomenon would never be seen in a public school.

This is a level of honesty and dedication to Torah ethics and values that underscores the JEC’s commitment to not just educating its students, but to truly inculcating the morals upon which our faith, and indeed country as well, are based.

{Matzav.com Newscenter}


22 COMMENTS

  1. After publicizing this- perhaps the girls should now be more careful at their lockers -as after one reads this article he may be tempted to take advantage of the situation.

  2. I echo all the praise and admiration of the wonderful students who were being put to the test – and all passed with flying colors. However, I must seriously question the actions of those setting up the ‘trap’.
    As declared in the article, “That result exceeded even his expectation of a certain percentage missing, which in studies, is what normally happens.” – In other words, he EXPECTED at least a small minority of Yidden to fail this Nisayon! Which begs the question – WHAT RIGHT does anyone have to be machshil a Yid in any aveira??!! The fact that any losses were to sponsored by the organizer does not absolve the potential thief who is unaware of this! (see Rashi to Bamidbar 30:6)

  3. Beautiful.

    Every single Yeshiva has seforim for sale in the coat room or hallway, with the money to be deposited in the box. The money lays openly. Everyone pays, and only the seller takes the money every couple of days.

  4. This means their education in middos and ethics in the home and in the school is in place and compliment each other. Thank you for sharing this as we need such chizuk in a world that is evermore material, mundane and corrupted by the societies we live in. The Creator surely had much nachas ruach from this behavior.

  5. Are you all serious? How low have we gone that a story like this is news? Shouldn’t this be expected? People doing the right thing. The fact that this Dr. needed to try this experiment says a lot about ourselves. Matzav should be ashamed for posting an article that seems to be a terrible attempt at good publicity for a Yeshiva. What a joke.

  6. Many years ago a city education inspector visited Yeshiva Torah Temimah to see if they should qualify for certain funds. The inspector saw a box of seforim and some money inside. he asked what it was and was told that someone is selling a sefer and if people want to purchase it , they put money in the box. The inspector said that if this took place in one of the public schools there would not be a penny left. He said he will do his best to ensure the yeshiva receives the most help as possible.

  7. #12

    When Gov. Whitman visited BMG a decade and a half ago , she was admirably impressed to see a couple of seforim boxes with money lying out in the open.

    (Yeshiva leit consider it unnecessary to wear such day to day occurences on their sleeves)

  8. I’ve been expressing to my kids’ principals that I’m more concerned with them becoming Mentchen than Geniuses.

  9. As a parent of a current and former JEC student, I am proud of the values and middos of these young men. At a time when we read about so many financial crimes, hopefully these boys set the example of how yidden should act. SM

  10. At NIRC a state inspector examined one Sefer after another and when questioned about it replied that he observed they were all well used. Little did he know that they were estate donations.

  11. At a time when unfortunately there is no yeshiva that is immune from negative influences and behaviors, Dr. Perlman’s experiment was certainly appropriate. It could have gone either way and I believe that he would have used any result as a starting point for chinuch purposes. For anyone to think that their institution is “above” anything is naïve, and I am proud of JEC for never shying away from the uncomfortable realities of our times, and especially of our boys, who are the ones growing up in a very challenging world.

  12. As a current parent of two boys in RTMA, I am not surprised by the results of this experiment. They are a great bunch of young men who have terrific middos and ethics.

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