Bais Yaakov Elementary School of Lakewood Closes Down, Teachers and Students Left Stranded

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school-closed[Audio below.] With the official closing of Bais Yaakov Elementary School of Lakewood, a large number of teachers are left without employment and dozens of girls are out of school. The school, which is located at Fifth Street and Madison Avenue in the heart of Lakewood, had been going through a trying period, and the decision was reached to close now, rather than hold out to the end of the year.

Parents received a recorded message stating as follows:

In accordance with the court order, Bais Yaakov Elementary is officially closing. All the parents are advised to please place their children in another school, and the teachers are advised to seek other employment. We would like to thank the teachers for all their tremendous mesirus nefesh to the school and to the children as well. And the same applies to all the parents who stood by the school through all its trying times. Thank you very much.

The school first closed approximately two weeks ago, leaving about 65 students in grades primary through eighth out of school. The final decision to close the school is unfortunate, and it is the hope of parents and askanim that the girls will be placed quickly and the teachers will be able to find employment.

Click below to hear a portion of a school message sent to Matzav.com by a parent of the school:

[media id=596 width=400 height=60]

{Dovid Bernstein-Matzav.com Newscenter}


25 COMMENTS

  1. what is their problem, this is not responsible of a school, the school should place them an find the teachers other employment.

  2. Just another sign from the Ribbono Shel Olam that the American golus is coming to an end. G-d willing, the mitzvah of yishuv ha’aretz will take root in Lakewood and the nonsense of building new subdivisions will come to a halt as people start signing up with Nefesh B’Nefesh to make Aliyah. Wake up Lakewood! Your homeland is calling you; it’s time to go back home!

  3. How in the world are the parents able to place the kids. Most parents are people with no “protektzi”.
    What will be? Each school needs to take in 5-7 kids so that all kids can go back to school.

  4. Tragic,What was once the Original Hebrew School of Lakewood, Destroyed by [deleted by moderator]! Bezalel was the Middle of the road school OPEN to all.

  5. What a tragedy! There are many children at risk here of ending up in public school!

    May Hashem give Rabbi Shmuel Tendler the strength to find a way to allow these precious children to at least finish off the school year in their beloved school.

    After all Rabbi Tendler has done to establish the school, put up the buildings, hire devoted principals like Rabbi Yehudah Pollack, and simply put the chinuch of the children ahead of all else, it is so sad to see this happen.

    A freilichen Purim to all!!!!

  6. #5 I enjoyed your Purim “turnaround”!

    It reminded me of the Purim story where Mordechai wanted to kill the Jews but was thwarted by Haman!

  7. Lets get real. No money, no honey. I’m sure if everyone paid his share the school would still be open.
    The closing was no surprise.

  8. I think people should stop and say a few kapitlach tehillim for this tragic matter. For parents and kids to go through something like this is simply devastating. HOW can we just shrug our shoulders and say “Shalom Olai Nafshi” and cluck our tounges. THE TEARS OF THOSE WITHOUT A SCHOOL CRY OUT TO SHOMAYIM!!! WE MUST DO SOMETHING TO SHOW OUR SINCERE CONCERN!!!
    OY!

  9. Home schooling is always a possibility.Or pay one teacher to teach Torah and one teacher to teach Eng.It will result in small classes, and the parents can contribute an agreed upon amount.

  10. Is it possible that this mosad haTorah has closed down in the “iyr haTorah” because the bnai haTorah of the iyr haTorah have, for the most part, neglected the mitzvah of yishuv b’eretz haTorah?

    HaRav Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld zt”l wrote: “Because of our sins were we exiled from our country and distanced from our Land. This we have done VOLUNTARILY. Many times have I directed that the religious Jews in the diaspora be instructed that anyone who has the ability to come to Eretz Yisroel and doesn’t, will have to account for his FAILURE in HaOlam Haba.” (Ha’ish Al Hachoma, vol. II, p. 149)

    In this Lakewood case, perhaps the judgment is not awaiting HaOlam Haba, but is being visited upon Jews in HaOlam Hazeh as well, for “voluntarily” remaining in golus and “failing” to make aliyah.

  11. My friend that teaches in the school told me for a long time that they’ve been having problems. You cant go blaming the community or others for their financial and other issues. Yes its very unfortunate that it closed down but its not for no reason.

  12. Why has the comment about yishuv eretz yisroel which has no shaychis to this painfull situation not been deleted how dare someone hack about an issue that has no shaichis be allowed to comment here its painfull enough to have to undergo the pain of having no school for your child and the children loosing their school friends is psychologicaly traumitising how dare some mishugini hack about yishuv erety yisroel here its almost like walking to a shiva house and saying oh you deserved it cuz you didnt make aliya how sick

  13. FIRST THEY TELL PARENTS THE SCHOOL WILL REOPEN BUT YOU MUST PAY UP ALL TUITION OWED. PARENTS BORROWED AND TOOK OUT MORTGAGES AND SOME DIDN’T PAY THEIR MORTGAGE TO PAY THEIR TUITION DEBT. THEY TOOK THE MONEY THEN SAID THEY’RE NOT OPENING. WHAT ARE THE PARENTS AND CHILDREN TO DO? THEY MUST FIND A WAY TO AT LEAST FINISH THE SCHOOL YEAR.

  14. There are schools in Lakewood that could take in girls. They have room. However, a school can’t undertake free kids. If parents pay tuition they can get in. Nebach on those parents that fell to the difficult economy.

  15. What a tragedy! There are many children at risk here of ending up in public school!

    >May Hashem give Rabbi Shmuel Tendler the strength to find a way to allow these precious children to at least finish off the school year in their beloved school.

    >After all Rabbi Tendler has done to establish the school, put up the buildings, hire devoted principals like Rabbi Yehudah Pollack, and simply put the chinuch of the children ahead of all else, it is so sad to see this happen.

    Unless Rabbi Shmuel Tendler was around 60 years ago to open the school, I doubt this is true. Please check your facts.

  16. To commenter 19, Mr. “think Torahdig” (funny how you capitalized “Think” but wrote “torahdig” with a lower case ‘t’):

    So, how about doing what you call yourself and think in Torah, to understand the sheichis between this news report and the mitzvah of yishuv ha’aretz.

    (1) I assume that you are familiar with the concept of “chevlei Moshiach,” the time just before the final redemption when Klal Yisrael will suffer from the severe pain associated with childbirth. The Chessed L’Avraham wrote in this regard: “Israel’s troubles will become as grave as can be, and they will suffer intense pain…The reason for this is that the Divine Presence will judge it’s household…” (Chessed L’Avraham, 1:17)

    (2) Now, you described the result of the closing of the Bais Yaakov Elementary School with the following words: painful, painful, pain, and traumatizing (albeit misspelling two out of three). So, you should be well able to make the connection between this “painful” event and chevlei Moshiach. Yes?

    (3) Now we come to the final connection made by Rav Yosef Chaim (Sonnenfeld) who says that we will be answerable (i.e. our household will be judged) for the sin of voluntarily staying in golus and failing to make aliyah (see quote at comment no. 14). Well, how is our household made answerable for our sins? By yissurim… pain and suffering.

    (4) Conclusion: there is the POSSIBILITY that the pain and suffering from the closing of the Bais Yaakov (just one more of the sufferings that the Orthodox community is presently experiencing here in golus America) is as a result of our failing to honor the mitzvah of yishuv ha’aretz that many gedolei Yisrael hold is a preeminent mitzvah in our day (as expressed by Rav Yosef Chaim, and the Chazon Ish as well). GET IT?

  17. a school with low enrollment is not viable — unless the parents are wealthy– these parents for the most part were not and given the ‘nebach’ stigma attached to the school enrollment increases never materialized

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