Matzav Inbox: Where Is the Bus Keren for Lakewood-Area Families?

Dear Matzav Inbox,

There is something deeply disturbing about the news that Lakewood, NJ families are now being asked to pay $945 per child for non-mandated busing, up from $385, and it has less to do with the LSTA itself than with the silence that has followed.

Over the last few years, when the Torah world in Eretz Yisroel faced a financial crisis, Klal Yisroel responded in a way that was truly extraordinary. Keren Olam HaTorah was established, gedolim traveled, askanim threw themselves into the effort, and gevirim stepped forward with enormous sums of money. Communities across America were mobilized because there was an understanding that families of bnei Torah could not possibly shoulder the burden themselves.

It was beautiful, and nobody should minimize what was accomplished. But watching what is happening now in Lakewood raises an uncomfortable question: Where is that same sense of urgency when the families being crushed are our own neighbors – or us?

The increase announced for non-mandated busing is not some minor adjustment that families can simply absorb. The cost is jumping from $385 to $945 per child. A family with three children using the service is suddenly looking at $2,835. With four children, it is $3,780. There are even larger mishpachos. For families already paying staggering tuition bills while dealing with the cost of housing, groceries, insurance, camps, clothing and everything else involved in raising a large family, where exactly is this money supposed to come from?

There are families in Lakewood who simply do not have it. WE DO NOT HAVE THE MONEY.

They are not poor enough to be the faces of a tzedakah campaign, and they are not wealthy enough to shrug off another few thousand dollars a year. They are the enormous middle of our community, the people who work hard, pay tuition, give whatever tzedakah they can, try not to complain, and somehow make the numbers work every month. Except eventually, the numbers stop working.

And that is why I would genuinely like to know: Where are all the askanim now? Where are the gevirim? Where are the people who can get ten major donors on a conference call and have a multimillion-dollar fund established by tomorrow morning when they decide that something is important enough?

Why isn’t there a fund being created right now to help Lakewood families cover this increase?

We have seen what this community is capable of. We know that when a crisis is declared a crisis, the resources suddenly appear. Meetings are called, donors are approached, matching campaigns are established, and people work the phones until the problem is addressed. Yet thousands of local families are suddenly being handed bills that have more than doubled, and somehow the response seems to be that this is simply another expense parents will have to figure out.

That is not good enough.

And yes, everyone understands that the increase is connected to state funding cuts and that the LSTA cannot manufacture money that it does not have. But explaining why the bill went up does absolutely nothing for the family that cannot pay it. The question is not merely why transportation suddenly costs $945. The question is what a community with enormous charitable resources intends to do when thousands of its families are told to come up with money they do not have.

We are constantly told that Klal Yisroel is one family. We prove it magnificently when Jews in Eretz Yisroel need us, when a mosad is struggling, when a community suffers a tragedy, or when an emergency campaign is launched. Baruch Hashem, Lakewood has gevirim who give staggering amounts of tzedakah and askanim who devote their lives to helping others.

So where is everyone now?

Does a crisis only become a crisis when it has a name, a logo and a fundraising dinner? Does financial pain only count when it happens somewhere else? Is a Lakewood father supposed to quietly put another $2,000 or $3,000 on a credit card because his problem isn’t dramatic enough to inspire a campaign?

Perhaps instead of simply asking families how they intend to pay $945 per child, the people with the ability to do something should be asking a different question: How can we make sure that no Lakewood family is forced to choose between paying for transportation and paying another essential household bill?

Keren Olam HaTorah showed what can happen when gedolim, askanim and baalei tzedakah decide that ordinary families cannot be left alone to carry an impossible burden. It is time to bring some of that same determination home.

Lakewood families need help. The bill has arrived. The numbers are impossible for many of them, and the clock is ticking.

Where is their keren?

Where is OUR keren?

G. F.