135 Comments

• CG

  webby can you make a webathon for this shlaich i would send 1000.00 for this shliach. what a sad story.

• Yosef S.

  Welcome to Lubavitch!!! Why is it that chassidim in BP dont have these problems…Oh yeah because they take there resources and make sure they are secure in their own circles first…Not that we should close shop and stop shlichus…but if it means we have to grow at a slower pace to enable our kids to get a descent education then this is what must be done… WE CANT LET OUR KIDS SUFFER FROM THIS…

• Anonymous

  I am terribly sorry to hear your story. I am in the same boat as you when it comes to tuition and have been struggling with it for years.

  We parents who struggle with this issue monthly, year after year must find some way to deal with these hanhalas. There is no question that THEY ARE WRONG to put parents through these hardships. There is no justification to rape parents – if you are an educational mosad you must expect to have to raise funds.

  I suggest publicizing the names of the moisdois and the hanhala so that parents will be able to make an informed decision about which yeshivos to steer away from. If enough parents stop sending their kids and submit to this extortion the yeshivah will have to rethink its policies.

  On the other hand we should publicize those yeshivos that do work with parents to find a way educate their kids.

  I must say that I found the yeshivah in Miami to be very understanding in this area.

• An empathetic parent

  My heart goes out to you and your child. The money problem is a problem in ALL of our mosdos. Yeshivas, sems etc. If you’re sending your child out of town it is especially difficult as the mosad you’re sending them to has an attitude “Our price is… we need to raise money for the people of our town, if you want to send your child to us, you raise the money”. Or even better as one hanhala member told a shliach who was begging for understanding “are you kidding? We live off the money we get from out of towners. It makes my life easier as I don’t have to raise that money”. Our daughter is in a sem in Israel and the feeling amongst the girls is that the sem cares more about the money than anything else. It’s a sad state of affairs. Best of luck with your son.

• Eli

  that fact that your son was improving and respected the Hanhala of the Yeshiva say’s that they are good well meaning people and they cared enough to make a change in your son. its hard to run a Yeshiva without Money. i feel sorry for your son, but dont blame the school, there are teachers out there who can barely put food on the table.

• SAD,, very very sad

  I hope this does not turn into another rant session about how yeshivos are disgusting. I wish I had a solution, and the plight of these parents makes me want to cry,,,, especially because I dont see solutions. What am I going to do with my kids I cant afford 10g a year for each kid either….. Hashem HELP! Rebbe Ratevet! These are your shluchim doing YOUR work, that dont have money! Bring Moshiach NOW

• Feigie

  OUTRAGEOUS!
  How awful for your child. Even if Anash collected the funds now. How could he go back there after being so humiliated?
  The Hanhala will get their “rewards” from Hashem. Embarrassing someone is a big aveirah!

• a yid

  you can find relief in the fact that your son isn’t learning by such hypocrytical and distorted people, who claim to be not only talmidei chachamim but also chasidim. If you publicize the name of the yeshivah, then I won’t either send my son there.

• concerned community member

  why dont you name the yeshivah so we can at least know who these so called rebbe’s chasidim are, this way we can put them on notice and when they ask the world for donations we can point out that they are not following the rebbes example or doing his work and not give them money or support them.

• I feel for you

  Disgusting! If everything here is accurate and it is true that Levi is a good student and he was sent home because of money, I would ruin that Yeshivas name but good!! I would spare nothing to make sure that Yeshiva never recieved another application ever again!! What have we come to! When we needed to send our first son away to a Yeshiva that has been around before I was born, We were clueless, registered him in the yeshiva he wanted to go with his chavrusa ,sent all the nessesary form, report cards and refrence letters and thought we were done. Well, a few weeks later the finacial office called and asked for the money and when we aseked for a break or payments they said and I quote“within 24 hours, if we do not recieve a fax that states the money is on the way then your son is off the list! We have plenty of boys waiting on the waiting list!” Well you can imagine how shocked we were ,I was in no way going to send any of my children to a yeahiva that behaves like that!! We found another Yeshina BH he did great there and all is well.
  To whomever wrote this letter: be strong! Explain to your son that you were mislead, that is not the kind of Yeshiva you want him in anyway and find him a yeshiva that knows how to be a yeshiva Good Luck and may we only have nachas from our children and may we parents guide our children in the right derech with the help of Yeshivas that know how to be a Yeshiva!

• Seen it from both sides

  As someone who has the job of collecting tuition from parents at a Lubavitch school, on the one hand I find your story appalling, and at the same time, I find that usually there is more to the story. Not to ever excuse sending a child away from school, but I hope the administration presents their story. Sometimes I have to chase after parents MANY times, until they call me back-just to find out the situation and to work things out. Sometimes the parents have renegged on many payment plans that they themselves proposed. Sometimes parents pay one yeshiva, because they know they have to, but are less diligent in paying another, because the yeshiva doesn’t press them too hard. Sometimes I have a credit card from a parent that works maybe only one day in the month and I have to try to run the card every day until, if lucky, the charge goes through. And sometimes some of these same families have nicer homes, nicer clothes and nicer cars than mine. How do you reconcile all of that? If the yeshiva was so especially accommodating to every family, the staff could not get paid, the rent could not get paid, there would not be enough food for the boys (my own sons have gone to schools like that!). There has to always be a balance. I don’t know the answer, tuitions are way too high for everyone, and I wish Lubavitch as a whole could find the same kind of money that funds Chabad Houses, shluchim simchas, etc. to fund quality education for us.

• shimi

  Terrible,

  how can i send this family some money?

• curious

  what happened to the “most of the money we paid” – what happened to that money – did you get it back?

• Huh?

  You offered a payment plan and they won’t accept that? I mean – I would understand that the Yeshiva can’t run without money, but you did offer to (eventually) pay full tuition.

• there are no words

  i am crying with you. i wish i had an answer.

• Anyone?

  Are there any Crown Heights or any other neighborhood people that thank G-d are wealthier and can sponsor a Yeshiva student? There are funds for new Shluchim etc., but how many funds are there that help EXISTING Shluchim?

• What do you think?

  The new Shluchim come in thank G-d with money and many more things to work with based on the hard work and effort of the older Shluchim – The older Shluchim worked their heads off and created amazing resources for the younger generation of Shluchim. Now they are totally broke and the younger Shluchim get tons of attention because with money they can do amazing peulos. What about money to give to the older Shluchim so they can continue to give chizuk and be an example to the younger generation with peulos as well?

• shimon

  I do not believe this story. I don’t mean that “oy vay i can’t believe it” I mean that i think this story is eithr partially or totally fabricated. i have myslef and know of a lot of friends who have had problems paying tutition. The only time that i heard of s atory of a bochur being threatentned to be sent home in the middle of the year, was with a parent who refused to cooperate. i cannot believe that the parent was so understanding and he received this response.

  also, please explain how he got from the holy land by bus?

• Can-t believe this!

  The Rebbe’s schools are kicking bochurim out of Yeshiva for money – I mean obviously they must have dough to run a Yeshiva, but would you rather have empty (of Bochurim) Yeshivos that are rich, or full of Bochurim Yeshivos that are poor. The Rebbe always stressed the importance of filling up the empty seat at the Seder – regardless of affording another guest – isn’t this a clear answer???

• Levi Hecht

  You couldn’t be more correct!!!!

• mendel

  this kind of stuff is old news. they are putting up multi million dollar chabad building projects, and chabad is raising millions of dollars a year, but nobody cares enough to put some of the money in to the education , usuallly people feel that the most important thing is the education of a group , because thats where the leaders for tomorrow will come from , however it just seems like nobody cares!??

• Disgusted

  How can the Mashpiim farbreing about not going to collage…And then ask for inflated tuition?

• frustrated parent

  i have the same problem
  i dont want to say which school/yeshivah in crown heights i send my children
  but this year semach ches my tuition was raised almost 75% I TRIED TO FIGHT IT BUT THE RESPONSE WAS WHY DOES THE SCHOOL HAVE TO FUND RAISE THE TUITION BILL FOR YOU. THIS IS YOUR CHILD

  then in the last 3-4 months tried to get some cooperation from the administration with a problem i was having and they wouldnt show too much cooperation.

  the system stinks and all of us as parents from these little neshamalach in the hands of these robbing schools must get together as one and protest this. try to cut down your bill and they close the doors on you saying go somewhere else. beis rivkah tells you go to bnos menachem oholei torah says go to u.l.y. etc. etc.

  and we are crunched with finantial burdens because they want to get rich.

  but one thing please remember what ever happens please dont let the kids get involved and dont let them suffer from it. remember the maamer of ve’atah tetzaveh “through the kosis we acheive the mo’oir

  i was once told that if you want to see how much of our money goes to the mosid and how much goes to their packets look at the homes they live in
  it is mamash g’neivah from each one of us

  hatzlachah in the chinuch of every single one of the children

  moshiach now

• KICKED OUT BECAUSE OF MONEY

  FINALLY SOMEONE IS TALKING!

  THANK YOU FOR MENTIONING THIS IMPORTANT ISSUE.

  I HOPE EVERY HANHALA READS THIS AND FURTHERMORE, I HOPE EVERY HANHALA THAT EVER SENT A KID AWAY FOR NOT HAVING TUITION WILL FOLLOW UP THIS KID AND SEE WHERE HE IS TODAY BECAUSE HE WAS ASKED TO LEAVE !

  YES! FEEL GUILTY…YOU DID A CRIME!

• What-s the second side to the story?

  Although it must be tough to be short on money, this also sounds over exageratted. No shliach is paying $13,000 tuition, especially if it’s an Israeli yeshivah. So since no one reading this article knows exactly how much the “only few thousand” left in tuition is etc. let’s not all start cursing out the “eil” hanhala that is probably also strugling to pay their bills.

• Upset Shlucha

  Shluchim all over the United States are having the EXACT same problem! The Rebbe ALWAYS said theat for Shluchim, their children’s chinuch comes first. And it should be an HONOR for non-shluchim to assist in this huge mitzvah. One person is an entire world. One young yeshivah bachur, happy, learning and stable in Yeshiva, to be thrown out because his parents are doing the Rebbe’s shlichus and just can’t afford the pay? Especially after a traumatizing death in the family, Yeshivah is wehre the boy goes for security, for a stable life surrounded by friends and encouraging Rebbeim. No. Something MUST BE DONE!

• very dissapointed

  It doesn’t make much sense. I thought Eretz Yisroel yeshivos were cheaper than American ones, and there are so many grants to make things cheaper, Masa, being one of them.

  Either way, it’s a shame and disgrace that such a thing happened. Pressure sometimes helps, speaking to people with the right connections to speak to the Hanhala usually triggers results.

• anonymous

  unfortunately Yeshiva’s have turned into money making schemes, your article is heartbreaking, and i hope everything works out for you….

• chaim

  something sounds odd over here because yeshiva tuition in any chabad yeshiva does not coast 15 g it cost maybe 7 or 8 so is this just one of those BS lectures

• john

  did this really happen specifically recently did something happen recently to warrant this peice now or this a op-ed for the sake of building readership to make noise and wine! zeit besimcha how low!

• unhappy

  Horrible story and yet so common… There are so many Lubavitchers – Shluchim and otherwise – who struggle daily to make a living. To have food and clothes for their families is a constant struggle. And then when it comes to Chinuch al Taharas Hakodesh, when all they want is for their children to grow up to be proper Lubavitchers, our OWN mosdos won’t accept them b/c of problems with money? Where has our concern and care for our fellow Yidden gone. Honestly, [and I hope some people involved in Hanhalas Yeshivos and schools and seminaries for girls are reading this], Would the Rebbe have turned away even the simplest Jews because he had a lack of money? 13000 dollars for every student? Is this a money making busines or a mosad that honestly cares for their students and for the CHinuch of nowadays.
  THink of all of the shluchim who send 8 children away from home at a time. 13000 times 8 104000 plus room and board, plus basic living neccesities. .. For people who are barely making ends meet. What happened to the concern for our fellows. What happened to the Idea of Tomchei Tmimim – a yeshiva meant for everyone, no matter what they had…

• anon

  the hanhala involved in the above story should let the public hear their side of the story through these comments

• dtw

  Yeshivas have not been very successful at fundraising in recent years. The main source of funding since then has been tuition. In some yeshivas, wealthier parents pay more so that less wealthy can pay less but there are not always wealthy parents in each yeshiva to cover for all of the students that can’t pay the going rate. Many yeshivas are on the verge of collapse due to lack of funds. A solution must be found but meanwhile, the frum commmunity spends in ways that does not filter down to money for chinuch. This is not the first case that I have heard of where a student was refused entry due to lack of ability to pay. Maybe the answer is to find local people to learn with bochrim so that they do not have to leave home and board. Maybe more online programs are needed. Maybe we should decide which is more important, sem in EY for girls or yeshiva for bochrim. Maybe we need to be realistic about some of our other expenses, such as simchas, so that there is more money available for chinuch. The money must come from somewhere.

• ch bochur

  i am very sorry to hear that and i know someone personaly that was thrown out of yeshiva because of a lack of money and the end didnt turn out to well maybe you should send a letter of you story to the people in charge of tuition maybe it will affect them enough to make them think twice before they throw someone else out

• shmuel Y

  There is a joke that I keep hearing in the outside world “the best form of birth control is tuition” that might be a good reason why the Jewish population is not growing aside for the orthodox.

  As an FFB lubavitch child from a combined family of 15 (my wife and I) it is no longer a joke. Having to pay 34,000 for 3 children to go to school next year is no joke either. Schools no longer will “work with you” they decide and you listen…

  For me, it is a choice of paying twenty dollars or so a month for a total of 250 a year not to have any more children or having to find a way to pay another 13,000 a year for the child to go to school.

  My current choice is $250.00 a year. I can only say that if things do not change children will start going to public schools, we will have no choice, we will have to home school, I don’t know anymore what are choices are, but I do know that over half my income currently is going to pay for my children’s schooling, and that means that no, I do not drive a fancy car, live in a fancy home or go on any vacations, forget fancy.

  The last time we had guest for shabbos was months ago and we are lucky when we come within a few hundred dollars of what we bring in. I am not a shliach so I do not even have the option to collect more money, my only option is to wonder, is it really worth the final outcome.

• veteran shalaich

  What-s the second side to the story? wrote:
  “Although it must be tough to be short on money, this also sounds over exageratted. No shliach is paying $13,000 tuition”

  chaim wrote:
  “something sounds odd over here because yeshiva tuition in any chabad yeshiva does not coast 15 g it cost maybe 7 or 8”

  I write:

  1- Girls’ High schools cost about $12-13 thousand per year, not to mention sems

  2- Mesivtas and Yeshivas cost about $8-9 thousand per year if the bochur is eligeable for PELL.

  What is a shaliach (who is NOT the fundraiser but works under a head shaliach and gets paid nothing) with 12 kids to do ? If he has 3 kids away at any given point, he’s heading for CH 7 !

• anon

  about time people started understanding that yeshivas are a money making business and dont care about the bochurim, only getting the yeshivas a good name so they can get more boys which equals more money. i was in a yeshiva last year which was going through a court case for a few million dollars the hanholaha half the time stood around discussing the court case and didnt have time to answer questions. this is just one example in the yeshiva world where they only care about money and not the bochurim. people post your stories let the oilam know…

• Melamed-Teacher

  The Shluchim should (and many probably do)have the right to pay their children’s tuition as part of their own Moisad’s budget.
  What happens to the Shliach under the Head Shliach or the Melamed who does not have that option.
  I, like so many, am in that category, and I like many, I am sure, am going crazy trying to figure out how to manage.
  Tell my son/daughter he/she cannot go to that Yeshiva/Sem?
  Put it on another credit card for which I can not even make the minimum payments anymore?
  Ich fargin alleman who are able to manage, I just wish they would tell the rest of us the secret!!!!!

• To the parent that wrote this article

  After reading your article I must say I am wondering why you don’t name the Yeshiva. If you truly believe what they did was wrong you have a responsibility to save others from making that same mistake (of sending their children to that Yeshiva). I’ve read in several comments of parents that claim to have gone through similar ordeals. Ironically you are partially responsible for what your own child has gone through. Should you be following these comments, you should either confirm your story by naming the Yeshiva, or apologize for misleading everyone who read this article by presenting yourself as an innocent party. You are NOT innocent if you do not name the Yeshiva that did this, and you should apologize to your child for not doing everything in your power to ensure the Yeshiva is dealt with in the proper manner.

• Kloinemas Kalman

  This is only one part of the problem. At least you had a yeshiva that the hanhola were worth something.

• looking ahead

  We the parents are now paying the price ( no pun intended ) for the Admin/Boards
  lack of vision. When these schools get large donations there is no thought of creating future earnings from the money just to spend it all now. The next year is going to be so hard financialy with the the cost of gas and heating and FOOD going thru the roof. The yeshivas should take steps now to raise the short fall that is coming for next year. I am sure they will not.they will try to squeeze the parents. But be prepared for a shock when the parent’s say we can not afford any increase and yes if that means taking our children out of your schools we will do that and you will loose the $9,000 i pay plus all the Govt programs!!!!

• 2up

  Put it like this. For them to keep him there, even with out paying off the rest of the money, it wont really cost them much, So from here it can ONLY show that the reason thy have a school is for money, and it can also show that thy dont care who thy take, and thy dont care who you are, just give my the MONEY. its sick and disgusting, maybe have the rabbonim make a ban in Yeshivas that take a kid out in the middle of the school year. Got a problem school dont take them t first, why throw out a bochur in the middle of the year.

  As the chofaitz chaim once said, throwing a bochur out of yeshiva is like throwing him off a ship. It was said to take the bochur to a BAIS DIN OF 71 if you cant then at least 3, thats if there is a problem, but for tuition how can you even call it a yeshiva, call it a businesses or a baby sitting service.

  Any one with me at least most of it?

• In Israel

  $13,000 tuition, in an Israeli yeshivah???

• 2up

  IM also sure the hanhalas and rebbies are not reading this, why? Internet computer feh! So maybe print the OP-ED and mail it to them to read.

• from a frustrated melamed

  i teach in a yeshiva in eretz yisroel where the yeshiva owes me and from what i understand other staff members as well a few months worth of pay. my electricity has been shut and at other times my water. the hanholoh is doing their best to collect money in all different ways. if the yeshivas don’t try to take a stand regarding tuition that is due to them what are the teachers supposed to do and where will your children be without teachers?

• A Shlucha

  A Chassid was once in Yechidus with the Rebbe and he was incharge of collecting money for a Lubavitch boys’ School, he was telling the Rebbe how hard it was to cover the costs because not every person was able to pay the fees.
  The Rebbe responded “If you are carrying a heavy bag full of diamonds and someone came along and asked if they could put another diamond in your sack, you would of course say yes”.

  I’m not sure if the story is copletely accurate but the point is!( See Rabbi Vogel’s keynote speech at the kinnus banquet)

  If the Hanhola are truely doing their ‘holy’ work for the Rebbe then they must believe that the Rebbe will help them if it comes to paying the teachers( if that’s what the money is really needed for)

  We know that the Rebbe called his Chassidim diamonds. To the Hanhola of this Yeshiva ,whose name these heartbroken shluchim out of decentcy did not mention, HOW CAN YOU THROW A DIAMOND GIVEN TO YOU BY THE REBBE OUT OF YOUR SACK!?!?!?

  To the Parents: Chazak Veametz!Many of your fellow shluchim are struggling with you!

  MOSHIACH NOW!!!!!!

• I AM THE AUTHOR MY RESPONSE

  I AM THE AUTHOR OF THE ORIGINAL LETTER

  My story is 100% true and i would not have written it if it werent tur to the tee. I am an honest shlucha of the Rebbe sent on Shlichus 26 years ago to the other side of the world, with 3 babies, and with the complete faith that the Rebbe is looking after us. And the Rebbe still does.

  I promise you that the story is not blown out of proportion.
  The tuition i paid last year was $10,000 and this year we paid about half when this crises happened, and they just didnt listen. They said the money now or i put your kid on the next bus to Tel Aviv to get to the airport, to catchthe next bus home.
  Im not sure i want to name the Yeshiva as yet, but you could figure it out. They also arent eligible for any grants.So we get no subsidies. You take it or leave it, they say.
  They approached my son and said in 1 hour if we dont get the money in, your gone. He had one hours notice to say goodbye to a year and a half friendships he has formed, and they all hugged and cried goodbye on such a short moments notice. Can you imagine how traumatic this is for a 15 year old kid? What a scar it leaves for life?
  We are shluchim of the Rebbe and still have faith and have our son home now wondering what Yeshiva is out there for him that will take him for who he is, and not the bank account is.
  It is a month now and my 15 year old still has no place to go. Does anyone recommend a warm hrearted yeshiva any place in the world that cares about the student, and will receive this gorgeous sweet boy with open arms, and nop threats about the tuition? I spent the last month enquiring of such a yeshiva and the first answers i got so far was, fill out the tuition form and then we’ll get back to you.
  We have no money.We were blessed with 14 kids k“h , what was ‘the plan’ when we were told to have many kids? The Rebbe said ”atleast a minyan”. We followed. Now what? How can we school them if it costs us so much and we dont have it? How are the schools supposed to get paid?
  I am not complaining i love and will never trade in my kids, but…..a 15 year old kid should be humiliated as such?
  What did he do?
  I promise you, my every word is true. When and i feel it right i weill announce the name of the moisad. i am contactable personally thru the editor.

• Avraham

  I remember when I was in school that at the beginning of every year the night before school started my mother would be franticly running around trying to borrow the last bits of money to be able to get me back into school the next day. Sometimes it was even the next day as they were collecting our tickets (that’s how they kept track of which kids had their tuition paid)and I still didn’t have one that they were told that I could be allowed in because my mother had just given the final amount in.

  At that time in my life I remember looking over my family budget (which my father kept very carefully and each dollar was carefully scrutinized and acounted for) that I saw that although my father (a college graduate with masters degree and for all intents and purposes a very good paying job) was getting a tuition reduction for the seven of us all in school at the same time (totaling about $60,000 a year and that’s just for school, forget about food and a mortgage) we were going steadily into debt at the rate of about $2,000 a month.

  Now that I and some of my siblings are out of school my parents are in debt to the tune of over $100,000 which they will be paying off well into their retirement years without any means of saving for the myriads of issues that come up as they get older.

  And of course all of us kids went to yeshiva and as a byproduct will never have even remotely close to the well paying job that my father has. So besides not being able to help them we most likely will not even be able to help ourselves.

  I am not by any stretch of the imagination suggesting college as an alternative (which of course for any lubavitcher who has any hiskashrus to the rebbe is completely out of the question) and of course we must have bitachon but just as we say every morning do not let us be brought to a test so too we cannot have an educational system which bleeds dry the very people who it educated to not have the ability to make the money that it demands.

  SOMETHING DRASTIC MUST BE DONE AND IT MUST BE DONE NOW. WE CANNOT STAND BY AS THE VERY BLOOD OF OUR BROTHERS AS WELL AS OUR OWN IS BEING SHED LIKE WATER.

• A Simple Person

  I am aware of an identical problem where the parent also owed a nice sum of money but the sum included the balance from the previous year, the current year and other expenses. The parent was not cooperative, ignored many phonecalls and emails. The hanholah themselves called me to help them in their tuition but at the time I could not. They also had rebbeim to pay plus all the other hefty bills that come along with running a yeshiva. I know many hanholahs in the same situation which do everything possible to accomodate parents and their children and at times it gets to a point in which leads them to take some sort of action or chas vsholom close the yeshiva. there are two sides to every story especially when it comes to money – unfortunatetly. Yet there are parents who will not let such a situation happen, they will even go out and raise their childs tuition especially if he is doing so well. I have such parents come to me day in and day out and there are times i can help and there are times i unfortunately can’t help. I can’t believe a hanholah would do this without begging and begging for what is coming to them and without any warnings.

• ANOTHER VICTIM OF TEH SICK LUBAV SOCIETY

  wow! its so nice to finally see this written out, i was also kicked out because of money my parents couldn’t fully pay at that exact moment. the worst was that i had trouble getting into another school because i had gotten a reputation of being kicked out, people just figured it was me that did something. WHAT WOULD THE REBBE TO THIS?? IS IT FAIR THAT BECAUSE MY PARENTS ARE DOING THE REBBES SHLICHUS, US THEIR CHILDREN NEED TO SUFFER!???

• Anon

  Shame on all of you who think this story is not true. It is very real!

  I’ve gone through it when I was in yeshiva and I’ve seen many of my friends go through it as well. The heads of the yeshiva’s can careless about anything but their own pockets.

  Help this shliach…help everyone you can.

• dont wait for that red line

  i agrea with “Seen it from both sides”

  there are 2 sides of a story, so if some one were to say the name of the yeshiva ide like to see it come with a responce from the yeshivas side.

  i have had that job of taking money for tuition, wow how the parents are never availible when i call the homes, how many of them will pick up only after i block my ID.

  regarding polocies of schools and the way they are, i will not fully side with all of them, but here is a bottom line.

  Before your kid goes to a yeshiva, you ask for a price, and then you argue, then you make up a price, the harder you fight the smaller the cost… we all know the way it goes…

  you end up signing a paper thats says I WILL PAY THIS PRICE…

  do not sign it if you dont intend to pay.

  when you have a choice of Tropicana or Shoprite orenge juice, you take the one you can afford.

  if you think that one is better and worth the price, good take it, if you cant afford it dont get it.
  and when do you pay for your phone or electric bill, when the red ribbon goes through you envalope.

  and if you dont pay it gets cut off…

  and last but not least

  when you fly your whole family to israel for your sons barmitzvah or you drive that fancy least car.

  dont tell me that some one else is paying for it. if you want a disscount, that same person can pay your tuition bill

• funding

  Maybe yeshivas need to get better fundraisers so they can keep the tuition cost down. Also, maybe merkos or some other chabad leasdership organization can provide funding for chinuch of children in our community?

• insight@sem.com

  whats the deal with parents paying top dollar for sem in lsreal and then having their daughters live in very low living conditions? Where does that money go? shouldnt tuition be invested in the school programs & boarding arrangements?

• grants@lub.com

  I’m sure most schools struggle to cover their own budgets? Also the melamdim need to get paid so they can pay tuition to send their own children to school? maybe there should be a fundraising effort to help parents and yeshivas with the cost of schar limud.

  Also, what about school choice vouchers? and other government programs? perhaps someone can help facilitate such funding? Perhaps there are grants available for low income families.

• DO YOU BELEIVE ME NOW???????????????????

  THE AUTHOR OF THE ACTUAL STORY SPEAKS AGAIN.
  I AM COMING BACK WITH ACTUAL CONVERSATION THAT WE HAD ON EMAIL, TO SHOW YOU HOW FAR THIS CAN GO. hOW INSENSITIVE WE HAVE GOTTEN.

  MY HUSBAND PROPOSED A CERTAIN PLAN OF ACTION, SINCE HE COULDNT DO ANY BETTER WITH NO MONEY.
  HERES THE HANHALAS RESPONSE IN BLACK N WHITE FROM AN EMAIL I SAVED.

  This is what my husband proposed, by the way, requesting a mere understanding of our difficulties right now.

  THIS IS My husband’s proposal that was refused,
  “The best I can do now is as follows”
  On Jan 20 $400
  On Feb 20 $500
  On March 20 $600
  On April 20 $800
  And on May 1st talk again about the rest.
  This is what the Rosh Yeshiva answered, I quote from the original email,

  I was given to understand very clearly and bluntly by the board that they will hear nothing other than the above stated ( full payment right away) and if not properly adhered to then we will have to unfortunately ask your son to leave and they will turn to the collection agency and to their connections in Your country.

  The Rosh Yeshiva continues saying,
  The proposal you gave us is not only unacceptable but it is a smack in the face.
  1. It would be acceptable if my rebbeim would accept getting paid late.
  2. It would be acceptable if the landlady would accept to take her rent in payments.
  3. It would be acceptable if the electricity & water companies and food stores would accept to get paid in installments.
  4. Never once did I say I’ll give your son what he needs in installments. I,and my rebbeim have never hesitated in putting tremendous strengths into your son. The first and foremost way that a child’s chinuch is affected and jeopardized is by his parents neglecting paying tuition and therefore to sum this up, your proposal is totally unacceptable. I thought I made this situation very clear over the phone regarding your past balances and therefore your son, will not be able to remain in the yeshiva until this is taken care of as per my phone conversation with you yesterday. I’m sorry that it had to end up this way and that Your son’s chinuch has to suffer but right now it is all in YOUR hands. Please be advised that if YOUR decision is to remove him from the yeshiva today you will still be responsible in paying up your past balances of $1750 in which already…………………..

• BP yid

  I read all your comments, my heart cries out for the parents and their children.
  I am impressed by the sensitivity and Yiras Shemayim of the author who did not publicize the yeshiva’s name.
  We are not the ones to decide who to condemn, a mashpia and rov/posek should be consulted if this should or shouldn’t be publicized…
  ever heard of shmiras Halashon?

• Levi Rosenblum

  I agree with,
  PULIC SCHOOL IS THE ANSWER!!!
  If every single child from our community get registered for Public School next fall the city will not have place for all of the new kids in classes and they will have to find a solution what to do with all the new Jewish kids in school.
  At that point they may be willing to work with the community and give us Money to send our kids to Private school.
  there is no reason the city should get away with not helping pay for our kids tuition when they pay full tuition for every other kid in this city.

• budget

  while I feel bad for the author I the article, I feel we are missing something.

  Namely, why did parents that are struggling to pay their bills, choose to send their son to such a expensive yeshiva? There are many cheaper yeshivas out there, for example morristown or Lubavitcher yeshiva.

  so was the yeshiva that kicked him out wrong?

  Maybe.

  But don’t purchase a Ferrari, and then complain that you can’t make your monthly payments.

  Just by thoughts.

• OTHER SIDE OF THE STORY!

  I HATE TO SAY IT BUT THIS STORY STINKS.
  I AM INVOLVED IN TUITION COLLECTION AT 2 SCHOOLS. LET ME GIVE A FEW EXAMPLES OF PEOPLE I COME IN CONTACT WITH THAT CRY THAT THEY HAVE NO MONEY AND WE MUST REMOVE THEIR CHILDREN BECAUSE THAT IS THE ONLY COURSE THAT CAN B TAKEN FOR THE PARENTS TO COUGH UP THE MONEY! (WHICH MEANS ITS THE PARENTS FAULT THAT THEIR CHILD IS BEING ‘KICKED OUT’).
  STORY 1: A GUY COMES CRYING TO ME BEFORE SUKKOT HE HAS NO MONEY THIS MONTH I SHOULDN’T CASH HIS CHECK. ITS GOING TO BOUNCE. HE HAS TOO MANY THINGS COMING THROUGH FOR YOM TOV ETC. YOM TOV IN SHUL HE BUYS AN ALIYA FOR $800! NEEDLESS TO SAY THE NEXT DAY I PUT HIS CHECK IN AND IT CLEARED. HE CALLS ME THE NEXT DAY SCREAMING THAT ALL HIS CHECKS ARE BOUNCING. I TOLD STRAIGHT UP THAT IF HE HAS THE $800 TO BUY AN ALITA HE MUST HAVE THE 1200 FOR TUITION. THIS WAS HIS RESPONSE: “YOU THINK YOUR THE ONLY SHOW IN TOWN WHERE I NEED TO GIVE MONEY TO – THIS IS MY SHUL!”. NEED I SAY MORE?
  STORY #2: I DROPPED TUITION BY 35% ON THE CONDITION THAT A FAMILY WHICH WAS RENTING THEIR BASEMENT WOULD BRING ME HEAD CHECKS FROM THE RENTER FOR THE NEXT 10 MONTHS. (MEANING INSTEAD OF HIM PAYING RENT TO THE OWNER OF THE HOME – HE WOULD PAY IT TO THE YESHIVA). I WAS HAPPY TO DO THE DEAL BECAUSE HE WAS BOUNCING CHECKS ON US EVERY MONTH. THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL HE WAS SUPPOSED TO BRING THE RENTERS CHECKS IN WITH HIS CHILD. THE CHILD SHOWED AND THE CHECKS DIDN’T. WHEN I CALLED HIM HE PLEADED WITH ME THAT HE’S JUST WAITING FOR THE RENTER TO GIVE HIM THE CHECKS HE’LL HAVE IT IN A FEW DAYS. I HAPPENED TO SEE THE RENTER SHOPPING A DAY OR 2 LATER. I APPROACHED HIM AND TOLD HIM I NEED THOSE CHECKS… HE TELLS ME I GAVE THEM TO … (THE OWNER) A MONTH AGO!!!
  I DECIDED TO NOT TO ATTACK THE OWNER AND GIVE HIM A CALL AND TELL HIM EITHER I GET THE MONEY BY MONDAY (6 DAYS) OR I NEED TO ‘KICK YOUR KIDS OUT’ (I KNEW HE HAD THE CHECKS). ON MONDAY, HE COMES WITH HIS KID AND “HIS PERSONAL HEADCHECKS” CLAIMING THAT HE STILL DIDNT GET AND HE’LL JUST GIVE ME HIS CHECKS INSTEAD (THE CHECKS I KNOW WILL BOUNCE AND HE’LL TAKE THE GOOD MONEY..)
  i HAD NO CHOICE BUT TO HUMILIATE HIM AND TELL HIM HE LIED TO ME ETC.. WHAT IS HIS REPLY? “WHO GAVE YOU THE RIGHT TO SPEAK TO MY RENTER – THAT’S NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS”!
  THERE IS A SECOND SIDE OF EVERY STORY.
  I’D LIKE TO HEAR THE OTHER SIDE!!!

• 2up

  Well Well, teachers melamdim, we I understand what you go threw, i can only suggest you right A op-ed like others, get your union together and right up some thing, i will stick up for you all.

• Yochanan

  Time to make use of the only free yeshiva in lubavich “the ohel”.
  you need a chavrusa and have to be self motivating. It is mamosh like the yeshivos of old it the “hoif” of the rabbaim.
  almost all rabbonim roshai yeshivos and shluchim, come there in a hislahavus.
  all it takes is a bochur to sit down with them and drink from the waters …
  The yeshiva system of forcing a 18 year old to learn is wrong/sick/broken!
  at 18 if you don’t want to learn Torah, get a trade or schooling!
  we need to give our kids the skills to learn, and love for yidishkait.
  Back in the day a bochur left home at 15 and never came back!

• A real solution:

  This problem is the result of small Yeshivos popping up all over.
  If there was one, two or even only five central Lubavitch yeshivos, and all fundraising and donations goes towards these huge yeshivos, that would lighten the financial burden on both the yeshivos and the parents paying tuition. It would get rid of multiple unnecessary administration positions, mortgage payments for the buildings, utility bills, etc. Eveyone’s resources would be pooled together, dedicated to these few central yeshivos, ie. government funding, donations from various manafacturing companies, perhaps wealthy realtors could help with the dorming, etc. What a zechus it would be to support such a huge yeshiva. And we’d be reaping the benefits from people who can offer wholesale prices on the major expenses a yeshiva has.

  Perhaps others reading this can enhance this tremendous project with their own ideas.

  The wealthy among us can create a Yeshiva for the rich, if they so choose.

• genug

  how is it that in the other chassidishe communties, they have a FAMILY TUITION CAP of $2000 per year???????????
  check it out.

• to all the shluggers

  it could be that the details were changed to protect the bochur involved, but even so, it COULD VERY WELL BE TRUE, because similar things have happened to so many parents. reardless, it’s a TRAGEDY!!!!
  there’s only 2 answers: 1)people have to care, BOTH THE HANHALAS AND THE PARENTS, and 2)there has to be a family cap on tuition.

• to budget

  your words are a sting to all those families in this plight who DON’T drive ferraris.

• me

  to anyone who says that $13,000 for tuition makes no sense:
  I dont know about yeshivos but i definitly know about seminary- tuition is $14,000!!!! so dont say 13,000 impossible.
  Good luck with everything. i hope it works out

• Hendel

  Sounds weird…as if alot of details have been intentionly omitted….always 2 sides to a story. The author claims to have offered the yeshiva money and was turned down!?@!?? Secondly, yeshiva’s have bills too. Families depend on a father to bring back enough food to sustain and support them, when we withhold money from a yeshiva, ultimatly it is the families of hanhola who bear the brunt. Maybe before we critisise those who devote their lives to teaching our children (and in this case it sounds as if the yeshiva employs good rebeim)we should ask ourselves what it would be like not to be able to put food on our shabbos tables because of fee related concerns.
  Before we send our kids to a yeshiva we all sign a form or give our word that we will pay ‘x’ amount. Maybe before we give our word or signiture we should think about those who are truly effected by the outcome…the rebeim and their families. Before comitting to pay $13000 a year perhaps, for a fleeting moment ask youself if it is right to promise something you know you can not deliver. Dont stab someone in the back and cry help when he stabs you back.

• chossid

  please
  in EY u have cheaper Yeshivos thaN 13K a year!
  u should choose something that u can pay
  U could also ask money trough here, letters, phone calls,etc
  it is not easy, but Yeshivos have a budget, and if u commite to pay, u have to pay, (food is not free, Rebbeim need salaries for their families)
  Please, stop this LH

• Been away from home

  All this talk of children being kicked out of yeshiva – what about how they’re treated while they’re still in yeshiva or sem? The physical treatment they get is usually horrendous, ESPECIALLY considering the outragious amounts of money they’re paying for it.

  Some children come back fattened from so much fatty and unhealthy (cheap) food. Others come back obviously malnourished. Living conditions usually aren’t much better.

  How are the schools not ashamed to charge so much and give so little?

• moishe

  If this happened and the writer would want to create accountability there’d be no problem supplying supporting factual data. Without the name of the school, this is obviously a tear-jerker to get eyeballs and responses.

  Yes there is a tuition crisis. Yes the crisis needs airtime until it is resolved. But for honesty sake this article should have been clearly described as fictional based loosely on combined facts.

  And not being forthright with facts actually is counterproductive, diluting the strenth of attention this should have and allowing attention to be diverted to the holes in the story, rather the real issues.

• I was expeled from a CH Mesivta......!!!

  I read and reread this story with all its details and could only wonder how sadly not much has changed. Merely, a decade ago, I was a 9th grade bochur at a local Mesivta in CH. I was from the good boys; learning well, chassidish, good family, came on time, farbreged, participated in all extra programs etc…..

  Yet, one day, while sitting in class preparing for the shiur, my teacher received a note calling for me to leave the class. I came into the principal’s office thinking what kind of trouble I could have caused; maybe I came a few minutes late to Chassidus this morning. Why would I be called out of class during seder, while I was in the midst of preparing the Gemara with my chavrusa to be learned during the Shiur.

  To my utter dismay and shock, the rabbi informed me that I was to take my belongings and go home until my parents paid up the due tuition… I tried to reason with the principal, explaining that my parents were going through difficult times and were paying tuition for a large family, kay”h. We both knew that my father was paying, but I wasn’t aware that he was somewhat behind.

  The blame from the principal was of course shifted to the administrator who said that it wasn’t he who made the decision. I was thrown around from office to office where each member of faculty said that it was someone else’s fault…. My teachers were given strict orders not to permit me back to class.

  I came back to the principal, I told him that I rather not leave, and maybe I can do some sort of VOLUNTEER work in the Yeshiva. Perhaps I would put away the seforim after days’ studies. I told him that I was willing to learn Tanya, Mishnayos, whatever it could take. I cried to him, pleading to spear me the embarrassment of being kicked out and for what. None of my pleas were accepted. He said there’s nothing I can do until the tuition is paid in full.

  Embarrassingly, I gathered my seforim and emptied out my locker of all my possessions and went home. My mother wondered why I was home during Yeshiva hours. Obviously, neither she nor my father was informed of any decision. I told her that I was sent home because tuition was behind in payment.

  Immediately, my mother called the school and in her fine manner asked the principal to allow me back in and that she would arrange with my father the payments. The principal wouldn’t hear it; they said that until ALL payments were made up to date, they would not readmit me.

  My parents were embarrassed and apologized to me profusely. I didn’t need to hear it; I knew. For the next three weeks, until my father was able to make the payment, I was home – out of school.

  During those three weeks I stayed at home and learned at my own pace, went to Shul and spent time there and grew to appreciate the friendship of the Yeshiva social life even more than ever before. Most of the time I tried to hide from the public eye to avoid the embarrassment of having to explain to my friends why I wasn’t attending school. I remember that day very vividly, when my father wrote three checks (two were post dated) for the remaining months of the school year and told me to go back to school. It was a great simcha for me; I packed my briefcase with the necessary seforim and ran back to school. Upon handing the checks to the principal, I was given a note permitting me to be readmitted into all my classes.
  Luckily, I grew up in a fine home with superb parents, albeit not rich, and an amazing family. I’m sure that had I grown up in a different type of home with not such amazing parents and siblings, I would have had the fate as did many my friends whose parents did pay the tuition on time, yet weren’t prime examples of how a Lubavitch bochur should be.
  This incident forever left an indelible impression on me of what the hanhala really cares about. Despite my pleas, requests and offers to volunteer in the Yeshiva, all they cared about boiled down to money.

  They didn’t mind to have another bochur valgering zich on the streets, as long as no one was learning for free. There were many options they could have chosen from before doing what they did to me, let alone to be responsible enough and call my parents to discuss the matter with them before taking such swift action, as they did expelling me.

• cont. I was expelled...

  The solutions aren’t simple. I’m certain that the Hanholas HaYeshivos face tough decisions to make. However the actions that they take have far reaching repercussions. For another bochur, that may have meant the end of his yeshiva tenure. For me, I remained forlorn with thoughts of what really counts.

  As I approach the big world today there are tough decisions that I’ll have to make. I have to balance in my mind and decide what’s more important: family planning or an inferior chinuch. Many of these would reflect the impression of the hypocritical yeshivas that I attended (no I won’t do that!).

  I think it is high time that the Yeshivas, not only in Lubavitch, but especially Lubavitch, should rethink not only their tuition decisions, but many others that have strong impacts on the future of am yisroel. It is no wonder or secret as to why many folks today are opting out Yiddishkeit. And it would be blatantly preposterous for the Yeshivas to think that they aren’t to blame!

  However, I must conclude that “kol Yisroel areivim ze laze”. If the hanholas are failing then action must be taken b the wider community; we can’t sit idle. If necessary, some of them should even be overthrown and replaced with capable people. No one denies that it’s tough, but it is the future generation that is at stake.

  May we all merit that long before we figure out the solution, the ultimata final solution will be materialized (not c’v thatof oso harasha, but the Geulah haamiti).

• Trunyah Im Briyoisov

  As a parent (Shliach) who’s just starting out, the only solution is fewer kids.

  It is very hard to raise money. Telling me to “find a bh’b and ask him for…” is like telling a parent who works 12 hours a day to take a second job. It’s insensitive and comes from a lack of understanding of what the reality of fundraising is.

  Who I am and what I do really doesn’t matter to this discussion since most Lubavitchers have very hard time making money. We don’t get a professional education and with the exception of the 15% of people who are entrepreneurs or come from money most, unfortunately, don’t have money.

  PLEASE don’t attack me. No, I don’t go on any vacations that cost money. I drive an old car. Wife buys a new shaitel every five years. Don’t eat out.

  Stop asking the parent to tell you what yeshiva it is. Their trying to protect their son’s identity.

• everyoneisachossid

  This may be a partial solution. When someone gives a large donation to a yeshiva/seminar he should request a school voucher equal to the amount of money which he is donating. This voucher should be available to distribute to families in need, by a va-ad, and the families can use these vouchers to pay for their childrens tuition. For example if someone gives a donation of $100,000.00 he should request 10 vouchers of $10,000.00 each and give these vouchers to a va-ad to give out to ten families to be used for tuition payments for their children.

• Are your crazy so I am tagged for A-hZ?

  You know what, this has nothing to do with being a Shliach. The situation in Lubavitch is so mad, that if you have more than 3-4 kids in schooling you will easily pay up to $20k a year. Now, for the weaker ones, that is a minimum of $30 gross pay, an average second salary. And what if you have babies and your wife doesn’t work? Well, sorry, who told you to have kids?
  Ah, the Rebbe??? So do you think these institutions care? I wouldn’t call them yeshivos, cheders, mesivtas… These are local work opportunities to uneducated, untrained people, who just don’t want to get a job, they become melameds. And I respect the Exception, it is just in my city, there is no exception. We got lucky one year, at least a Shliach who had to stop his shlichus was somebody who knew how to talk to kids, at least he had a relationship with them. The rest??? It’s rather criminal what’s happening to your children.
  So on one hand you have the carrier institutions to provide a parnose for these fellow ‘chasidim’. And of course, let me introduce you to the PRINCIPAL, and the deputy PRINCIPAL, and the directory and the board etc.
  Now since they also lack experience, education and knowledge, you will end up with an organization that is not organized, a building that you cannot call a building, sanitary conditions that are not sanitary, food that is hard to call food and the bill of your PLEDGE by the way, you never PLEDGED. I observe every year how new and new items creep up there eating up all the payments we send… There was a year that after paying six months I didn’t pay a cent of the TUITION part of the pledge… I didn’t know to laugh or to cry… Then you can ask for a break… And give over all your personal information to a group of people that you won’t even trust to run get you milk from the store… Of course now, they are a committee and as such, they have the right to your tax return and so on… Just ask for the Privacy policy, and data protection standards (like emailing each other unprotected pdf files)…
  I could go on and on… And there would be no end to this. I am only sad, that my comment will be at the bottom of the page and most people won’t see it.
  Becuase i read the other comments, and they fail to state:
  There is Luba outside of NY and CH.
  It’s everywhere an issue, and not only for shluchim
  We don’t get nothing really for what we pay for
  It’s a crime agianst our children to let them waste their time in a yeshiva, and tell them, this is the Rebbe’s Mosdos, becuase it is NOT. Just Calling it Menachem is not quite enough.

  Well, Kol Tov and Hatzlacha to all of us, that we get to a solution. In the meantime, we can send our children with the other chassidim, $200 a months, and in the evening you can even teach them Chabad.

• Don-t bash Lubavitch

  Bs“D
  When it comes to tuition, the last thing that anyone should be doing is bash Lubavitch. If you think that the schools in Crown Heights/Lubavitch are expensive-you should do some shopping around for prices in other frum communities.
  I think that people need to keep their cool and think about this issue with their head and not with what your heart might want to say. MOACH SHALEIT AL HALEV!
  THERE ARE DEFINITELY TWO SIDES TO THIS STORY!!!
  Yes, it’s true that many can’t afford tuition, but it also true that many that don’t want to pay tuition asked also buy pricey clothes or their kids, have cars, summer homes, etc
  You can say what you want, but a lease of the latest minivan IS NOT A NECESSITY…
  And, what about the teachers-how are they supposed to feed their kids???
  It’s sounds all glorious to take the side of the ”underdog“, but if you really look at things in perspective, there are situations where the school and it’s teachers end up being the biggest ”underdogs” of all…
  Don’t go bashing so quickly-especially when you only heard one side of the story. YOU would not want to be judged based on a one sided story either.
  May Hashem bring MOshiach NOW!!!

• A sad parent

  I live outside of CH, and none of my kids are in Lubavitcher schools. Why? We could not afford tuition. My high school kids are in litvishe schools locally, because we got a huge tuition break. Many close friends told me to just put it on a credit card. I can’t do that. Why should I put $17K a kid (plus transportation and various other living expenses) on a cc knowing full well that I could never pay it back? I don’t know how our local school does it, but I only pay $6K combined for 5 kids. When are the Lubavitcher schools going to do help their own?

• too

  we crown heighters always complain about the tuition amount, how expensive it is etc, i have friends who are not chabad, sending their kids to yeshivas, school seminary are twice the amount of ours.. they think twice before sending their kids to seminary in israel, which for a fact i know one in yerushalyim is $26000. but then again you get what you pay for.
  so having this in mind , i pay my tuition happily struggling like the rest of the community, but thankfully its not more.

• parent

  i agree with levi rosenblum and genug. instead of harrassing each other for money and counting people’s means by the car they drive or house they live in. we should unite. have a decent system. either we get together and register for public school and get funded for private school or somehow get the government to pay for private schooling. or we plan a decent fee per family no matter which school, how many kids or if they are shluchim. a jewish education is a top priority so it should not be run by money, but with love, care and utter sensitivity. there needs to be a simple way for everyone to pay and children to go to school like they should. there are too many people in charge, too many people who are money hungry and too many parents in distress. this causes children to become confused and we all know the results of that. i know from firsthand. please please please, for the future of our communities and beliefs, there must be some solution to all this….

• yungerman once a bochur

  This article breaks my heart! memories flood back to me of when i was in yeshiva and experienced the same situation. The rosh hashiva after personally asking everyone i know for moeny(which was extremely embaressing). gave my father the resolution, “pay or tell your son to go home”. No words can describe the hypocracy i felt from one of the supposely greatest rosh hayeshiva of our times. This is our system.

• CAshliach

  “Ich volt oich gelacht oib der nar is nisht meiner” it is easy to dismiss this story. Unfortunately it sounds true based on personal experiences with yeshivas, sems and camps. Unfortunately, the “snag” world is reeling from the same issue. Some people mentioned other chassidic groups. They have community structures for their schools and work hard at raising money to cover thier expenses. Already, birth control has entered Lubavitch. Check how many young couples live in CH and how many sholom zochors take place.

• Avrohom

  Avrohom wrote, it would be nice for the parents to name the Yeshiva. That way ,it would force the school to give their side of the story and possibly fix this situation in particular and in general. This is for a constructive purpose. Are you up to it Crownheights.info?

• Chabibi

  It is Satmar where the price per child is $2,000. Draw your own conclusions.

• Open your eyes

  Ladies & Gentelman Whoever said Gimel Tammuz never happened well guess what it did. open your eyes look around have you read what is going on is that not proof enough. We need the Rebbe

• many comments from a shliach and parent

  The reason we are sending our kids to the place they want, is al pi shitas the Rebbe of yilmod bmokom shelibo Chafaetz, we live in a time that if we would “force ” our kids to a cheaper yeshivah, they would drop out…

  I think having many Yeshibvos is the solution, not the problem, the more that open the less monopoly, and eventually they will need to recruit…

  The vicious cycle of tuition is the cause of the yeshivah needing to pay the melamdim’s tuition for their kids, if there would be a system like was mentioned of capping tuition for $2000, then the hanholo would not need so much, and then the yeshivah can take less.

  It is definitely a post 3 Tammuz situation…
  i is time to shout ad mosai?!!

• Holy Land Bus Service

  I happen to know who they are talking about….sad to say it but about 75% of the details where omitted. Perhaps the writer suffers from amnesia? oh, well! If this is what makes them happy and smile then so be it. Go on, bash a yeshivah that loved and cared for your son. Bash a yeshivah that pleaded with you for months, only to get a cold shouder and zero cooperation.

• sad...

  for all those who are doubting the details of this story, shame on you! is it not clear that there are shluchim who are doing OUR rebbe’s ahlichus who are in trouble?? did it ever occur to you that a young teenager’s chinuch is at risk?
  i am disgusted

• Hanholo member

  No israeli yeshiva charges 13000 dollars, and if they told this to the parents it must be because they wanted to send the bochur for different reasons and they used this as an excuse.I myself work in a yeshiva and we would never send a bochur away because of inability to pay.I am only aware of one yeshiva that does that and that yeshiva is in crown heights, which is probably the richest yeshiva in the world, because they dont give anybody a break and they charge 17500 dollars.In israely yeshivos they would never charge more then 5000 or 6000 dollars.So based on these facts i think this story is totally untrue.besides for the fact that if it is true you are making a bad name for all the yeshivos where this doesnt applie to.

• parents need to catch a life

  I went to sem close to ten years ago. What shocked me the most (and I hear it still happens these days) was most girls had usage of their parents credit cards.

  So don’t shout about high tuition and then be so hypocritical.

• SM

  Many people wonder how the tuition in EY could be that high. I assume the reason for the high tuition cost is that the yeshiva was an alternative yeshiva. I suggest this because the letter states, ‘he finally found himself and his yiddishkeit is improving’.

  In this situation it is apparently true that the cost is higher than other Israeli Yeshivas. I have heard that they have special learning and incentive programs set up and even staff that includes psychologists. It seems that the school would need to charge more to cover these costs. And parents who choose to send their son there are not doing so because they prefer an alternative school, but because the less expensive schools would not fill their child’s needs.

• M.Marks

  I myself as a seventh grader experienced this. Today the daughter of the founder of the yeshiva, who herself is an educator and author denies her father ever did such a thing. My children unfortunately experienced this too.Is it any wonder that we now have a group of “at risk” chilkdren. When will the Yiddishe Yeshiva world wake-up and smell the roses? The way they treat the teens is why many are leaving. Then organizations are formed to “bring them
  back”. Yet, many don’t want anything to do with Yiddishkeit because they were humiliated and the scar remains ingrained. Many have told me to forgive but I can’t. Does one have the right to deny a yeshiva education to a child because of financial difficulties? Other means of payment can be sought.On the one hand we are saying a yiddish education is so important and on the other if you can’t pay let’s slam the door in your face. Which is it , bring one closer or drive them away?
  It is hard to find a yeshiva with the warmth and love that will heal the wounds. They are few and in high demand. Let us band together to reach these families and help the youth before Chas v”Shalom they are lost forever.

• Didnt pay tuition

  I personally went through a few yeshivas and my parent could not afford it. and i would like to thank those yeshivas for understanding, they did not send me home, although they tried threatening but they didn’t receive allot from my parents. it’s not always black and white, it’s very though on those yeshivas. it was definitely a good investment on they’re part because as soon as i can repay these yeshivas i will bli neder.

• problem

  Living an observant Jewish life and even more so a Lubavitch Life is very expensive; food, cholov yisrael, kosher food, pas yisrael, SHMURAH MATZAH (instead of Manischewitz or the other brands), two pairs of tefillin, yearly checks on mezuzah and tefillin etc…, sukkahs, oil for menorah, IT IS VERY EXPENSIVE— to afford all this and then TUITION ON TOP of it all is nearly impossible if you make an average salary ($50,000 which is considered a good salary), there is so much meaning to our lives being Jewish but it comes at a large cost! What to do?????

• Its not just Shluchim - its all of us

  A few points:

  * Shluchim are not the only ones who can’t pay tuition. There are a lot of hardworking Anash, working on the books who simply cannot make enough money to live and put their kids through school. This is a general problem in Lubavitch – not just a shluchim issue.

  When it happens to a shliach’s child people make it out that it is a cardinal sin–but how different is it really from another member of anash?! Only shluchim need help?

  Maybe if tuition wasn’t so high, you would have less people (anash and shluchim) involved in illegal money laundering schemes.

  Chinuch should not be something that is available only to the rich.

• A concerned jew

  For those who think paying $13,000 per year for an out of town yeshiva is impossible No it’s not. I personally know several of the out of town Yeshivos charge that much. Some of the better ones offer tuition discounts to Shluchim & others who have sincere financial troubles such as Manchester. For those that think big huge yeshivas are the answer wrong again. Look & open your eyes our children are falling thru the cracks in these “big yeshivas”. 40 0r 50 kids in a class doesn’t work. we see that even in the public schools.The Yeshivas that do such things & the Hanhalas who run them ought to be Publicly named & The Hanhalas ought to be brought before Din Torahs. Tuition is supposed to be what the parents can afford. Not necessarily what the yeshivas decide they want. Those who can afford it should pay full tuition. Those who cannot should not be punished. Aguch helps shluchim as one said build multi Million dollar Chabad houses etc. why not take some of the money they raise & give it to the specific yeshivas with conditions of course that the money be used for real expenses such as paying the teachers & basic expenses. Yeshivas are corp. as well They should be subject to a yearly independent audit & accounting of their finances.Let Mr. Mrs Katz know & understand that some of their Million dollar donation is going to real expenses not just Their name on a building & a fancy cars offices furnishings for the executive staff!

• It Worked in Monroe

  Levi Rosenblum wrote:
  I agree with,
  PULIC SCHOOL IS THE ANSWER!!!
  If every single child from our community get registered for Public School next fall the city will not have place for all of the new kids in classes and they will have to find a solution what to do with all the new Jewish kids in school.
  At that point they may be willing to work with the community and give us Money to send our kids to Private school.
  there is no reason the city should get away with not helping pay for our kids tuition when they pay full tuition for every other kid in this city.

• Mottel

  Some of the comments left here are so amazingly vile, the rudeness erases any chance of sincerity.

  “Sick Lubavitchers”, “Hashem will curse the Hanholo”, “They opened the school for money,” etc. etc.

  And some of the comments are simply ridiculous: “Go get school vouchers,” “get better fundraisers,” “Yeshivos get big donations and spend it all right away,” “What would Rabbi Chadokov say,” etc. etc.

  When you open a yeshiva you don’t automatically become responsible for the salaries and parnasa of the school parents. You figure out how much you can raise, what your budget will be, and you figure out the cost of tuition. Then you can hire people, hire families, take loans, spend money – knowing that you were responsible and you made a proper chashbon of what it will all cost and how it will work out.

  Why can’t Mr. Anyone’s employer tell him or her “I can’t pay your salary until all the money the company is owed gets paid back?” Or why can’t the employer say “I’ll pay you eventually, but I need to go out and make some fundraisers, b/c a lot of people owe us money”?

  And then to top it off, like we do to almost every issue, we use the Rebbe Card. “Instead of making people pay the tuition they owe, believe that the Rebbe will help!” Of course the Rebbe is helping! B/c of the Rebbe’s brochos and help, I know that I only need to raise X amount of money b/c I know that X amount is going to come in from the parents who promised it.

  You’re suggesting that parents promise tuition, and then once they’re child is “safely” enrolled, stop paying and tell the school that the Rebbe will help.

  Finally: to suggest that b/c “Levi” was a great student” it is worse to be sent away from yeshiva for financial reasons, is very insulting to parents of less-than-great students, implying that sending away their son is more justified.

  It’s very nice to have a comment board, but that doesn’t give you free reign to be mean, insulting, and the opposite of a chossid.

• chen

  looks like poor hillel ha’zakain froze out on the roof for nothing!!

• genug

  is this a kugel fest? in 10 years from now will our schools be growing?
  who wants to be a slave?

• Mother

  What about those Yeshivas and “Smicha” programs that get lots of money from the PEL program and STILL ask for lots of tuition money. THey actually don’t ask, they demand mor else your son is not welcome!!!
  What about those Smicha programs that go longer than the 10 months of the year and then your son has to go elsewhere to finish off cuz that Yeshiva no longer wants you???

• another problem

  aside from the matter of tuition being expensive for school what about the summer camps? The prices are ridiculous!! what are you going to do with teenagers at home when you cannot afford to send them to camp? The scholorships forms that you fill out to get a break is a joke what break do you get They benefit from you filling that out. Something has to be done so every kid can enjoy ther summer without the parents goind into debt from tuition and now the camps

• sad but true

  choosing a cheaper yeshiva can not in ANY WAY compare to cheaper car, house, or orange juice. If your child Rachmana Litzlan needed a new kidney or they would die – would you go to the person who does it cheapest or does it best? Ay, you can’t afford the best – you need to save the child’s life….. it’s the same with schools – unfortunately it’s not neccessarily the cheapest yeshivos that do what the specific child needs. There are vocational yeshivas…. there are boys who will not go to yeshiva if not the one they want… you need to do what’s best for your child. When signing up your child you do have the FULL INTENTION of paying the tuition – then it’s tough, things aren’t working, there are tragedies or hopefully simchahs…. should the shliach tell his son I’m sorry you can’t get married because I need to pay tuition?!?! My brother was in a yeshiva overseas. My parents owed tuition. The RY etc were gr8 people BUT the administrator showed his true colors – when my brother returned from Sukkos the country deported him because this guy told them to revoke his visa!!! Wow! What “chassidim” the Rebbe has!

• pained in the heart

  oiy vey

  there is so much to say and so little time and space to say it.

  first of all i hope the editors of ch.info did a little research before publishing this article to find out the facts if it is true or not. and they at least should have offered the yeshiva a right to respond.

  there are some distictions that need to be made to all the commnets above

  we cannot bunch all shluchim to gether as on group. we can not buch all non shluchim together

  the hardest thing we have is the “mentality” of some, to be able to pay the “least tuition”. and that goes to all, the shluchim and the balabatim.

  i will give you an example

  take cgi (new york or montreal) ovenight camps they have as do many other moisdois a “shluchim discount” in which “all shluchim” get a discount. on the surface that seems like a great idea of helping shluchim. but is it really?

  we have shluchim that work for themselves and they fundraise succesfully and they build nice moisdois and they in essence can afford to pay the full price. on the other hand we have shluchim that either work for another shliach or are even on their own and they dont have enough to put food on the table. but we give them all the same “shluchim discount” and they nebach can not send their child to camp becaus even with that discount they can not afford it.

  but if we were truly “chasidim ein mishpocha” and those shluchim paid thier full share maybe these other shluchim would be able to get the bigger discount they need.

  the same would apply to balabatim and all. if we as parents realized the trick is to pay the maximum we can for our own children then maybe the moisdois would have enough money to cover their budgets and pay their teachers etc.

  this is only the tip of the iceberg

• Shanda

  Corporate Chabad, the machine needs to be fed. Our future Shluchim will become business men first chassidim maybe second

• a reader

  why don’t the boys/girls go to college when they reach 18? if they had professions they would probably be able to pay the tuition bill more easily.

• Dont worry be happy

  to all the concern people

  my brothers and sisters .

  Unfortunately Lubavitch is privatized after the gimel tamuz so this is part of the golus we are in
  In the olden days we had the central lubavitce yeshiva run by the rebbe’s shvoger and every boy
  Had a place in yeshiva and the bais rivka was under merkaz rabbi chodokov so every girl had
  A place in bais rivka. But now it is choshech hagolus and kids are falling out so the shluchim should
  Have more work . but with the current economy in the world I doubt this yeshivas have any future
  All big machers are small machers today and soon enough all this yeshivas will be on the auction .
  Because the “owners” of this non lubavitch private schools will not be there to support their business.

  Happy purim everyone

• Miriam

  You need someone with a lot of clout,(such as the rabbonim who closed the concert) to put any of the grand plans listed here to work such as getting large numbers to enroll in public school or closing down smaller yeshivas. Until then, most people will have to search out which plan works best for their families. If more and more people have to find an alternative to sending a boy away to yeshiva, the alternatives will eventually become more common.

• FRAUD

  TO A Real Solution

  WELL SAID!!

  At least let me say this,

  There are two requirements to be in Yeshiva #1:you must breathe #2the check must clear, if you fulfill the second requirement they’ll waive the first!!

• Mortified

  There are additonal factors when selecting a yeshiva aside from money! Maybe this was an excellent social environment for the bochur. We turn off so many of our own and then are asked to support shluchim who are helping outsiders. Charity should begin at home. As for “driving a ferrari” etc. don’t be so quick to judge.Having a sick family member can destroy any family’s financial situation. Shame on this Yeshiva for being a poor example of what true chinuch is. If there is a way to send money to help this family please post how.

• E.W./L.W./Z.K./C.K. Sheyichyu

  For all the older shluchim etc. here
  i have a q? for you how much did you pay to go to yeshiva? find out from your parents and dont give me the inflation B.S. in Morristown 20 years ago NOT A SINGLE BOCHER PAID
  In ohlai Tora 20 years Ago SAME and the israeli yeshivas for example migdal haemek take 7-8 thousand from american bochrim israelis pay a laughable fraction about 50 bochrim a year 375,000 thats 1,500,000 shekel
  There is NO WAY that the yeshiva cost this much the hanhala live in nice big houses Fact. as does the fundraiser etc.
  same is true of kfar chabad fundraisers they all take 49% of everything they fundraise for the yeshiva no wonder the money is dissapearing. wake up. people have become greedy at your expense as for the mesivta in tzfat they are trying to pay american salaries for the american staff In ISRAEL. The seminary’s are a pure for profit industry very succesfull one at that the menaheles in Jerusalem gets a six figure salary to preach judaism.WHat IS THAT????????? and girls have to pay from their own money when the sem goes on a trip since when was chinuch a business ???? chinuch is a shlichus you dont need a bentley because you give 2 shiurim a week GOD help this women and her family from the evils of human greed!oh and to who ever said rabonim etc. take a look at the house of the RY of 770 please wow what a tzadik

• genug

  if the hanholas set the example, and lived the standards expected from the parents, it would be more tolerable.

• to chabibi

  so what? and besides, it’s not only satmar.

• genug

  the mikuravim in the multi-million dollar chabad houses are NOT STUPID. what do you think will happen when they get wise to what’s going on?

• seen it from both sides

  Why are children EVER being told that they aren’t in school because their parents don’t pay? Why is it EVER the child’s place to know about their parents’ financial issues and to worry about their parents’ financial issues. These are CHILDREN. This scares me more than any other thing I’ve read so far. By the way, we should ALL remember to be grateful to have children to pay tuition for and mosdos to pay tuition to. Do you hondle with the gas company, phone company, electric company too, or just the schools? Why do people feel tuition is optional and always negoitable? At the same time, my family has also been crushed financially, but not only by tuition but with the prices of everything. Oyy, what a golus!

• Ipche Mistavra

  B”H
  An Interesting discussion on a painful topic.I read most of the comments and was left with quite a few new questions.
  1. Sending your child overseas i.e. to a seminary in Israel is not an honest thing to do. Can’t afford Tuition for the other children, then don’t undertake such a big expense!
  2. To whom do these yeshivas belong to, in the first place, that they decide to throw out a student for late payment? In our community they belong to US (including the parent of the child that has been thrown out!!??)
  3. I was taught that a yeshiva is a community service not a business. For community service (servicing all the Shluchim wherever they may be) you can not charge, you can ask of those able, to help defray some of the costs, the balance has to be raised form other sources.
  4. Why is it that a Chabad house does not charge the community for its service, and here they charge (big charges) for education? When I went to Yeshiva (Bedford Ave.) my parents paid what the were able to afford (not much), no one asked for their tax return (I wonder why?).
  5. We all know that the Rebbe did not allow the throwing out of our Moisdos (accept for extraordinary reasons as he wrote in numerous letters). Before Gimmel Tammuz not a single Moisod had the audacity to throw out any student for not paying. All that the Rebbe inculcated in us is now out the window, and by whom, by those in leadership positions today, those representing Lubavitch today, those making dinners for their Yeshivas (schools) and posting their photos all over, as to say “ich bi oich a Man Deomar in Lubavitch”.
  6. The most appalling thing about all this is that these people who have never paid a single cent touition to any yeshiva (because one hand washes another) are now sitting in judgment on us, parents!! Ma DEaloch Soni Lechavrach Lo Taavod is not in Lekutai Shichos and does not apply to Lubavitchers??!! It applies only outside Lubavitch!!??

  I ask this of all Mnahalim and Menahalos of ur Moisdos all over

• WHAT KIND OF YESHIVA IS THIS?

  NO MATTER WHAT YOU NEVER THROW A KID NEVER THROW A BOY OUT OF YESHIVA! DOSENT MATTER ABOUT MONEY! MONEY ISNT EVERYTHING! PEOPLE ARE WAY TOO IMPORTANT! THAT CHILD’S WHOLE EDUCATION AND EVERYTNING THEY TAUGHT HIM IS NOW DOEN THE DRAIN! WHAT IS THE WHOLE PIONT OF YOUR YESHIVA! IF YOUARE WILLING TO THROW A BOY OUT OF YESHIVA THEN YOU ARE NOT A YESHIVA AT ALL BUT A MONEY MAKING BUSINESS! I WOULD ASHEMED IF i WERE YOU!

• A Very Disappointed Lubavitcher

  Although the efforts of the Shluchim must be commended, I find it rather presumptuous to assume the Baalei Batim have gelt. Many do, this is true. But many don’t either! On the other hand, there are Shluchim from wealthy families as well or those who have “made it” by well-to-do supporters, albeit through great efforts. The point is, is that there are many Baalei Batim who are poor, many without the necessary money to support their families, even without the tuition. Many families struggle to make ends barely meet. Some families I know have unemployed fathers, others have faltering businesses, heavy debt or bankruptcys threatening to foreclose on their homes. Yes, there are those families within Anash, who are not Shluchim, who get no extra money for their chasunas or their simchas. Yet they too have experienced the humiliation of not being able to send their child to sem or yeshivas because they simply do not have the money. Shluchim deserves their proper accolades, but all in its proper context. DO NOT assume that just because one is not a Shliach, that they have money. I personally know Shluchim who indulge their children in a very unhealthy manner to the extent of making other children jealous. Hats, new suits and dresses out of necessity are a luxury among many families, whereas many Shluchim appear to be doing quite well with their expenses and children thank G-d. Must one wear a sign on their back announcing to the entire world that your house is in arrearage and you can’t make the payments? Others may qualify for Medicaid and food stamps. Otherwise, everyone assumes you’re well off. DONT count other people’s money, or lack thereof! People just assume that if your a Baal HaBayis, that you’re wealthy. I’m sick when I see so much attention given to the financial needs of Shluchim when people I know can’t get a scholarship for their kids at CGI NY, because the funds are only for Shluchim’s children. Hence, their children stay home for the past several years because they cannot afford it, while Shluchim’s children go for two months, not one month. At one point in time, Tzirei HaShulim in Sefas, had scholarships for Shluchim children for $1,000/yr. Non-Shluchim children cost $8,000. Bottom line is, is that if you do not have money, you cannot send your child anywhere in Lubavitch, even if a moisad will give you a discount.
  The Litvisher Yeshivas have us beat. I know people who send their boys to Yeshivas in Israel and elsewhere for $1-$2,000/yr. If a family has little to no income or is unemployed they take the kid for free if need be. They refuse nobody! Their administrative needs are no different than our Yeshivas. Our yeshivas simply do not want to raise funds. They say they have a “waiting list” who will pay full price, so why should they give you a discount. The law of “supply and demand” rules our Yeshiva and Sem marketplace. They simply do not need you. It makes no difference to them if your child is there or not,as opposed to another child paying full price. Then we may all wonder, why is it that a child doesn’t seem to display a serious commitment to Lubavitch when they get older, after having gone to “other local Yeshivas” that parents could afford rather than a Lubavitch moisod. We have no one to blame but ourselves. I never realized Lubavitch was a system of “surival of the fittest”.

• HEY__GRANTS FOOLS!!!

  B“H
  MOST of you people do not realizr that THERE IS MORE THAN ENOUGH MONEY to send our kids to Yeshivohs– pre-K thru ”College Level,”even Kollel, BUT the Yeshivahs DO NOT HAVE THE LONG-TERM STRATEGIC VISION NECESSARY BECAUSE THE ADMINISTRATION IS GEJER-F.F.B. LUBAVITCHER RETARDS!
  THEY HAVE NO VISION. I, MYSELF, HAVE WRITTEN MANY, MANY,MANY GRANTS FOR goyishe institutions over the years and THEY are the ones runniong away with all the cash! ALL I AM SCRE3AMING IS THAT there are alternative means of financing our institutions. One just has to try to think,out-of-the-box. Satmar does. Bobov does. Krasna does. Pupa does. ANd the list goes on and on. As long as fundraisers take 50% of whatever they bring in and as long as the institution does not build endowment funds necessary to keep the school in pace with inflation, the school system in Lubavitch is doomed to muddle along to frugality until some has the weltschaantunge to embrace new ideas and alternative means of funding. By the way, Yeshiva University’s encdoement fund just hit $850 million. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

• Only 13G, room &/board too?! METZIA!

  Consider yourselves lucky to be spending so “little” on schar limud in Lubavitcher mosdos.

  We are shluchim in a city where the cost of living is insanely high. We send our THREE YEAR old to preschool at the Chabad preschool of other shluchim in a nearby neighborhood. As shluchim, we pay HALF of the full tuition. That is, we pay $6000 per year as full tuition is $13000 per year for a THREE year old who is in school from 9am to 2:30 pm daily! No room, no board, no transportation!
  Since it is a long ride in traffic to the preschool, and we need to spend our day doing our shlichus, we PAY a bochur a few hundred dollars EACH MONTH (more than yeshiva tuition for a yeshiva boy getting room and board in EY or in NY!) just to take the kids to and from school!
  So, even if we, as shluchim, are able to raise funds successfully, there is no way we can “easily afford” these expenses, and yet we do.
  We do not even ATTEMPT to bargain with the shluchim who run the preschool. Because when you raise funds yourself, you know how OTHERS (who run yeshivos, etc….) must struggle to pay their staff, rent, etc….
  WHY SHOULD OTHER PEOPLE IN CHINUCH BE RESPONSIBLE TO RAISE MONEY TO SEND YOUR CHILD TO SCHOOL. This is the PARENTS’ responsibility.
  This said, the yeshiva SHOULD allow for payment plans (the way we pay) and UP TO 3 “deferred” payments per child, per year. But how much more can we as the schools to stretch? How will they pay their staff?
  It is the responsiblity of the parents to find the yeshiva for thier child that will charge an amount closer to their budget.

• Miriam

  In some communities, the local day school has funding from the Jewish federation which means that Orthodox education is paid for by non-Orthodox people who often have high paying professions and work on Shabbos. Those schools do not turn anyone down but they do require proof of poverty for those asking for a reduction. They also operate day camps since in those communities, overnight camp is considered a luxury. I don’t think that they give the reduction until at least kindergarten since pre-school is also considered an extra.
  I agree with the above statements that anash members are not necessarily wealthy enough to support the educational needs of shluchim. Many are struggling in order to pay their own children’s tuitions. Face it, just as in the Litvish community there is not enough money to support all who want to sit and learn, there are not enough wealthy anash members to support all who want to go on shlichus. That support usually must come from non-Lubavitchers.
  Future generations of families where there are not large wage earners might be making different chinuch choices than previous generations. One thing that bothers me however, is those posters who want to limit their family size in order to pay tuition. You can’t put a price on a life. I would rather see a child home-schooled or even public schooled rather than not born at all.

• Be realistic

  to “sad but true”

  Sorry, but you did not look at the full consequences of your kidney analogy.

  let me put it this way.

  G-d forbid a son needs a kidey transplant.

  You have only five thousand dollars available.

  A typical operation, by a regular surgeon costs $5000, while if you want the top of the line surgeon it will cost 13000.

  So you have a choice, you can use the regular surgeon, make the operation,and hope everything goes well.

  Or you can insist on the best, choose the top of the line surgeon, start the operation, but have the surgeon walk out in middle of the operation, when he realizes that you can not afford to pay him.

  Let me ask you, look at the big picture, what is a better option for your son?

  The same applies to yeshivas.

  Don’t send you son to the most expensive yeshiva, and then complain that you cant make payments.

  “but he wants to go” “if i don’t send him he won’t go to any yeshiva”

  Let me ask you, who is the parent? and who is the child?

  Parents are the ones who decide what is best for their children, and not the other way around.

  And hopefully your son has the ability to understand that while his parent would love to sent him to the best yeshiva, they just cant afford it. It’s not such a difficult concept to understand.

  The End.

• CHASSIDIM EIN MISHPACHA

  My heart gores out in pain for the shluchim and the yeshivah. I remember when i was in ULY the Rebbes had to go on strike because they could not get paid and the Yeshivah had to close down a few days b/c the boiler bust.As G-d is mywitness i wish i had money to give to moisdois to help alleviate the costs.I remember i wanted to drop out B/c it hurt me that my parents could not afford the tuition. but somehow ithink they scraped it togeter.How could you blame these rebbes who dony get paid? and we r losing the good rebbes b/c they do not see a financial future in Yeshivah and the Mesiras nefesh is too great for them to stay in their job as much as they may love teaching. for every complaint on CH.info if we donated % dollars each per complaint it is a start to help give money to the schools everyone who is complaining i understand the situation is tough but the real question we have to ask ourselves is not who is right and who is wrong, but what r WE DOING TO FIX THE PROB.The easiest thing to do is tell everyone else how to dfo their job. WE have to try and do something. And i would like to make a appeal to the wealthier people in Lubavitch wether u were burnt by the sytem or not. PLEASE HELP SUPPORT OUR YESHIVOS AND IF YOU R ALREADY PLEASE GIVE MORE. Iam not trying to point fingers, criticize or put the blame on anyone else anyone G-d forbid.I m just making a public appeal for all yeshivos in ULY The future is our greatest investment. and if you do agree to support these moisdos and for every person who does their part to support or try and help support these Moisdois MAY HASHEM BLESS YOU WITH PROSPERITY IN ALL YOU DO. AND I PROMISE WE WILL MAKE THE REBBE PROUD and we will be given all the Rebbe’s Brochos. PLEASE LETS STOP this spiritual holocaust i m not pointing fingers at the parents or yeshivos. We already have enough trouble in lubavitch. it is not the yeshivas obligation alone. this is the responsibilty of EVERY SINGLE LUBAVITCHER CHASSID. may the zechus of our good deeds bring Moshiach now Amen!

• Wake up

  I am a son who saw what his parents went through to pay my school feel but at the same time were teachers themselves. Both of my parents work very hard to pay there fees but could not because other parents of the school were not paying at all. This situation is an old one and its a catch 22. No mater what side you take there is a problem with the other side. Its very sad to see this happen. A school cant run with out money but parents cant pay. Do the math!

• seen it from both sides

  By the way, I live in a city where the hanhala sent home elementary age children because the parents didn’t pay, and this was before Gimmel Tammuz. I don’t know any school system that requires parents to raise all of their own tuition. The school is in a much better position to raise money to support the mosad than an individual. In the secular world as well, there are a lot of financial grants given. In one school that our child attends, parents do work for the school in lieu of tuition. The parents do office work, repairs, etc. That only works for in-towners but at least both sides gain. While the non Lubavitch frum world pays much lower tuition than we do, the amount of money they have to pay for a shidduch and to support kollel learning for many years would make you happy to pay our tuition! A family I know had to pledge $1,800 a month for 10 YEARS to support a particular son-in-law. The reason their L’Chaims are held by the girls’ city is because the boy’s family flies there to sign the financial deal before the engagement is finalized………………

• a CHer

  instead of leaving loshon hara comments do what the first comment did! offer to pay money!!

• emotions overwelming

  im crying.
  this is so sad….
  yidden,help out a fellow brother in distresss!!!!!!

• MIKE

  I AM SHOCKED AND BAFFLED TO READ SOME OF THE ABOVE POSTS. THERE ARE SO MANY COMMENTS SAYING STUFF LIKE “I DONT BELEIVE THAT THIS KIND OF STUFF HAPPENED TO THIS EXTENT” OR “THERE ARE ALWAYS TWO SIDES TO THE STORY” . AND ALSO LIKE “WHY DID THEY CHOOSE SUCH AN EXPENSIVE YESHIVA”. FIRSTLY, PICKING A YESHIVA IS NOT LIKE LIHAVDIL CHOOSING A COLLEGE OR UNIVERSITY , WHERE YOU GO BASED ON ACADEMICS, OR SOCIAL LIFE. THIS IS A YESHIVA, A PLACE YOU SEND YOUR SON TO WHERE YOU FEEL HAS THE BEST MASHPIIM AND BEST FOR HIS RUCHNIUS, SO THE PRICE USUALLY SHOULD AND CAN NOT BE A FACTOR WHEN DEALING WITH HIS LIFE AND HIS RUCHNIUS. ALSO THERE ARE HUNDREDS OF INNOCENT VICTIMS OF SUCH HEINOUS CRIMES, AND DONT TRY AND SWEEP THIS UNDER THE RUG. THIS IS A MAJOR ISSUE AND THERE OBVIOUSLY WILL BE REPROCUSSIONS IN THE FUTURE FROM THE SPILLED MILK. AND IM NOT BLAMING ANYBODY , JUST SAYING THAT WE MUST FACE THE FACTS!!!

• 3 solutions to contemplate

  1) The Yeshiva should get a fundraiser like in the old days

  2) The Yeshiva should get a fundraiser like in the old days

  3) The Yeshiva should get a fundraiser like in the old days

• sensitive child

  A child can usually figure out where their parents stand regarding parnasa. Although all schools cost, some are cheaper than other. For both the parent and the child: you don’t have to live like the rich if your not! Don’t complain over something you can prevent.

• AUTHOR WRITES

  AUTHOR RESPONDS AGAIN:

  I AM THE AUTHOR. I WROTE THE ARTICLE:

  LET ME MAKE A FEW THINGS CLEAR:

  FIRST OF ALL THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR OFFERING YOUR SINCERE HEARTFELT ASSISTANCE AND SYMPATHYS.

  YOU REALLY MADE US ALL FEEL ALOT BETTER BY UNDERSTANDING AND SHARING YOUR SUPPORT,& ESPECIALLY TOUCHING WAS THE GENEROUSITY OF A FEW THAT SAID “LETS HELP OUT AND SEND THEM MONEY”. YOU ARE SO SWEET. REALLY.IT TOUCHED OUR SOUL.

  WHAT I WANT TO MAKE CLEAR THAT MAY NOT HAVE BEEN UNDERSTOOD IS,

  WHEN WE SENT OUR CHILD OVER A YEAR AGO, TO THIS YESHIVA IN ISRAEL, WE HAD THE MEANS, GOOD INTENTIONS, AND PAYMENT PLANS TO PAY FOR OUR CHILD’S EDUCATION. YES IT IS A ‘SPECIALISED’YESHIVA THAT TAKES CARE OF THEIR STUDENTS WELL.

  BUT….WHAT HAPPENED WAS, WE OWED SOME MONEY, PAID MOST OF TUITION TILL THEN,
  AND WE SAID TO THEM,
  “LISTEN, THERES BEEN A SUDDEN DEATH THAT IS TAKING A MAJOR TOLL ON US RIGHT NOW,WE CANT FUNCTION, AND OUR OTHER CHILDS WEDDING IS COMING UP IN A FEW WEEKS AS WELL, (WHICH WE DONT HAVE MONEY FOR)PLEASE PLEASE HAVE RACHMONOS AND WAIT A WHILE WITH THE TUITION TILL WE GET OUR ACT TOGETHER. WE EVEN PRESENTED A PROMISING PAYMENT PLAN,(LIKE A MENTCH) IN THE ABOVE ARTICLE YOU CAN SEE WE OFFERED TO COVER THE MONIES OWED.

  MY POINT IS
  WE DID NOT CHOOSE AN ALL OUT ‘FERRARI’ EXPENSIVE YESHIVA IRRESPONSIBLY.

  THE WHOLE STORY IS, THERE WAS A ‘SITUATION OUT OF THE ORDINARY’ AND WE NEEDED SOME UNDERSTANDING, AND INSTEAD OF THE YESHIVA SAYING ”IM SO SORRY FOR YOU“, THEY BLUNTLY SAID ”IF THE MONEY (OWEING)ISNT PAID TODAY, YOUR KID GETS SENT HOME ON THE NEXT BUS (THAT TAKES HIM TO A PLANE….)
  NOW THE KID IS HOME (IN AN ISLAND OF GOLUS)WITH NO PLACE TO GO LEARN.
  CAN ANYONE OUT THERE RECOMMEND A DECENT YESHIVA WITH A HEART?

• Chilulu Lubavitch

  What kind of yeshiva was it? Where there any special needs here?
  It sure seems that Mom is not exactly telling us the whole story.

  Gulus hurts and so does LH

  Col a kovod to hanhla in this case for not reponding to this LH

• ANONYMOUS

  MAY MOSHIACH COME NOW AND HELP US GET THROUGH THIS TERRIBLE TIME

• A parent

  The solution for good boys, YESHIVAS TZIREY HASHLUCHIM – TZFAT.
  They are having grate years recently and charge 1,000 Dollars a year from Shluchim!

• Relax and Breathe!

  I truly believe a lot of the sending home or withholding entrance tickets at the beginning of the year has to do with the fact that many people have off the books income and, yes, lie to the schools about it.

  But so many other families are suffering and losing sleep! I’ve been there. And you know what, take a deep breath and relax. Hashem gave you these kids, and in reality you (we) chose to not control your fertility and to have more than you could afford. their education, and more importantly love and fear of Hashem, are in your hands. That is accomplished mainly at home. No matter what happens, you can accomplish that. Of course s/he must go to a Chabad or at least frum school-but what if that doesn’t happen for financial reasons? You will survive. Go pick your kid up at school, make a nice dinner, and learn with him/her this evening.