Rabbi Moshe Weiss spent much of Monday and Tuesday packing boxes with his colleagues, emptying the old Baptist church that the Yeshiva High School of the Twin Cities has called home since it swung open its doors as the area’s first school of its kind in 2006.
Minnesota Yeshiva Forced to Close
Rabbi Moshe Weiss spent much of Monday and Tuesday packing boxes with his colleagues, emptying the old Baptist church that the Yeshiva High School of the Twin Cities has called home since it swung open its doors as the area’s first school of its kind in 2006.
Instead of preparing for the arrival of around three-dozen Orthodox Jewish boys from across the country for the school’s sixth academic year, school officials this week were preparing to shutter Yeshiva for the 2011-12 school year, unable to stave off a fate that has loomed over the financially unstable school over the past two years.
“It’s not sustainable,” Weiss, Yeshiva’s director of development, said recently of the school’s financial footing. “We did our best. We really did.”
Unable to work out a long-term plan to purchase the school’s building from the Minnesota Baptist Conference, and with tuition revenue falling due to the still-struggling economy, Yeshiva officials will suspend the school’s academic programs for the coming school year.
Weiss said the school “would need an angel” to contribute in the neighborhood of $1 million to purchase the school’s building on Indahl Avenue and set up a scholarship fund for students.
The move will leave roughly 40 teenaged Orthodox Jewish boys from around the country without a school — a fact Weiss and the school’s other three rabbis are working to fix by helping enroll students in other Yeshiva schools. And, it leaves the future of the Twin Cities’ first Yeshiva in question.
Weiss said school officials will work to restructure the school and undertake a fundraising push with the aim of reopening somewhere in 2012.
“It’s too important of a thing to just let go completely,” he said. “That said, we’ve done some things these last five years, helped a lot of kids, and that can never be taken away.”
For five years, the Yeshiva High School of the Twin Cities managed to keep its doors open, through the threat of losing its Cottage Grove building to ballooning payments and the theft of the school’s Torah.
Weiss credited an outpouring of support from the community during a fundraiser in late 2009 and early 2010 with helping the school avoid eviction. More recently, Weiss was cited by the city for minor property ordinance violations, which he and the school have challenged.
With many of the school’s students from impoverished backgrounds, Weiss said parents are continuing to find it difficult to pay the roughly $19,000 in tuition to cover academics, room and board and food. Only one student paid full tuition last school year, he said.
Despite the disappointment, Weiss said he is trying to focus on the positives of Yeshiva’s half-decade of existence.
“It was a combination of people, and programs and place — including the people of Cottage Grove and the city of Cottage Grove — that made [the school] a special place,” Weiss said. “And it will be hard to replace and — God willing — will be again.”
A DISAPPOINTED CHASID!
where are all the big machers etc? Many donate to diiferent places but when it comes to a actual yeshiva in need they are nowhere to be found! Many talk big game talk is cheap!
Perplexing
Why do you have to mention “the old Baptist church” in the article?
it is Avodah Zorah (according do some accounts), Please take it out!
Sad news
Truly sad, very sad. wish things will turn around for this very special school. The hanhala are special and they did a great job with their talmidim.
Father of a Kid Also
to#1 chabad drained them already
Nobody
#1, a bit of perspective. Most, if not all of the Yeshivas in Crown Heights haven’t made payroll consistently since 2008.
There are *many* worthy causes. Instead of looking at everyone else, look at yourself. What are you doing about it? If you don’t have money, how about going around and raising some?
Berel
What a joke.. the moisdos are the very foundation of our learning. This place closed for the same reason others can’t function – most of the money spent on the top students who would be learning anyway. A chilul Chabad and an embarrassment to the Rebbe.
EG for 3
What do Chabad ba’lei teshuvah and students at this high school have in common? They are both treated like second class drek when it comes to education. These two groups each hold some of the most enthusiastic and creative individuals but unless they come with dough dripping out their ears, they are often shut out. A shanda
Ridiculous
Agree. Mostly kids of baal tshuva parents who are sharp ducklings just waiting to hatch. A disgrace to chabad. How dare selfish people marginalize our bright future because they don’t play the politics game.
Rivky
How did the issue of bt or ffb enter into the discussion?
Hopeful
As hypocritical as it may sound, it has always bothered me how people can take such a sad (or nice or touching or any) story and find reasons to argue with other people about it.
That’s destructive, not constructive. Instead, write about how your going to try to help; by donating money or just spreading the word. As we’re in the 9 Days, (and I’m in camp, about to do a play about the Churban) we should realize that this needs to stop.
As an alumnus of this yeshiva, I don’t know which saddens me more; the closing of the yeshiva, or the moral bankruptcy that I see here.
Again, I realize I sound condescending, but that’s not my intent. I think it has to be said, even if I’m the wrong one to say it.
May our Golus end soon with Moshiach Tzidkeinu.
ffb
There were plenty of boys with ffb parents at the yeshiva. Please don’t start with all of that. Because the yeshiva adminstration cared so much for their students, they allowed many to attend school without paying full tution. The Minnesota community really tried to keep the yeshiva afloat, but there just isn’t enough money there. G-d willing, Rabbi Friedman and Rabbi Weiss will come up with something to reopen this very important school.
chabad
why is everyone blaming chabad and not the school itself for not spending money wisely – it is not always someone else problem but plain old mismanagement
former talmid
didnt rabbi nachman wilhelm have a yeshiva there for many years before and this not being the FIRST?
A parent
Very Sad…
For those who need to know.Shaare Temimim in Jacksonville has Shiur Beis and Gimmel.
It-s contagious
I hear Toronto Yeshiva is having the same problem. Why are Yeshivas closing???
My heart aches
I never had anything to do with that yeshivah, but my heart aches for the children without schools and the staaff which will need siyato dishmayo for parnosso.
Yeshiva woes
This is a problem that smaller Yeshivos are facing everywhere.
The costs of running a Yeshiva today have surged through the roof. The only way to cover the outrageously high costs is to charge for it in the tuition – thus the tuition costs $19,000, which most parents simply cannot pay.
The larger Yeshivos based out of NY have it somewhat easier. First, because they are receiving many government programs. Second, because they can divide the tuition costs among the many students. (A teacher gets the same salary whether there are 10 students or 30 students in the class, same goes for utilities, and to a certain extent, food).
I have looked into starting a Yeshiva myself at one point, and have come to the conclusion that the ONLY way it will be successful is if there are at least two dedicated wealthy donors to start off with, at least one dedicated fundraiser, and one person who knows “the ropes” (i.e. how to get government funds).
I went to both
mesivtamenachem.com probaly most similiar to Minnesota
chaval
water water everywhere but not a drop to drink.
Rabbi O a great alternative
Why not send these students to Rabbi O’s (Orimland) Yeshivah in NJ? I hear he is a great Mechanech and has a great staff with a beautiful campus. Who knows why he moved from Tzfas to NJ?