The Ida Crown Jewish Academy is a co-educational Modern Orthodox high school here in Chicago. It was established well over sixty years ago.
It was created when there was no formal Jewish education to speak of in an era when Jewish assimilation was at the mercy of the ‘melting pot’ culture of the times. The climate for a Torah way of life was less than ideal and the outlook for the future seemed dismal. So the Rabanim of that era decided to do something about it. They rightly believed that the only way to perpetuate Torah Judiasm was to create an atmosphere that inculcated Torah values. And the best way to do that was through education.
But they also needed to speak to the times. It was a sort of Eis La’asos… a so called ‘time to act’. The only way to attract both students and their parent was to offer them a comparable alternative to secular education and environment of the public school system. And so The Chicago Jewish Academy (later re-named Ida Crown at the behest of a major Jewish philanthropist) was born.
This is the school that all of Torah Jewry in Chicago sent their children. There was no secular department at the Chicago Yeshiva, The Hebrew Theological College, which was formed decades earlier. HTC was designed to produce modern Orthodox rabbis post high school. They did not have a secular studies department. At some point they started accepting high school aged boys and those boys attended the Academy for their secular studies. But even then the secular studies department was not independently accredited. It was accredited only through the Academy as a branch. This is where my own high school diploma is from. It was the mid sixties by the time HTC had a fully accredited high school.
But mine isn’t the only diploma from the Academy. The Rosh HaYeshiva of arguably the biggest Yeshiva in Israel, if not the world has an Academy diploma as well. And he not only has a diploma from there, he actually attended the school. But I’m sure that Academy graduate and Mir Rosh HaYeshiva, Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel, doesn’t talk about that too much these days.
Not that I would expect him to. What occasion after all would he have to bring it up? But the question is would he bring it up at all, even if the occasion would demand it? I think he would. But I think that would be the exception to the rule. The prevailing attitude in Charedi circles both in Israel and in America is that Taruvos …co-education… is Assur, especially in today’s Torah world. We are so far removed from the Orthodox America of yesterday’s Eis La’asos that the Torah world can no longer countenance a co-educational high school. But that doesn’t mean they wont utilize it when they need to.
I understand their reluctance. And I agree with their reservations about a co-educational high school facility in our day. I’m sure that the rabbinic leaders would agree that it was a necessary ‘evil’ in the days before a Torah climate had established itself on these shores. And I even agree that the time for that type of school has passed as a ‘first choice’ option for adolescents. I’ve written about the reasons before.
Basically I think the distraction of the opposite sex in the classroom, and the casual interaction between the sexes as a whole in that environment combined with the heightened libido of the typical teenager makes for at best a distraction from studies and at worst a very dangerous threat for serious Erva violations.
The counter argument from many serious and committed Orthodox Jews is that a co-educational facility will better acculturate these adolescents in how to deal with the opposite sex. They will better be able to learn the social graces and how to get along. By interacting with the opposite sex, they are better conditioned to the real world and learn how to live in it. It is also true that adolescents become better prepared for dating. A lot of the awkwardness experienced by a typical Yeshiva Bachur not having undergone this kind of socialization is eliminated, for the most part.
But I would counter there are other ways to do it that do not require co-education. One can learn how to interact with the opposite sex in social environments outside of the classroom. And in fact I believe they should be given opportunities to do so. But that is for another post. This post is about the Academy type school.
Co-educational high school schools are very much an important part of our educational system. There is a need by some students for that type of structure if they are going to survive as observant Jews. And there are many scenarios that qualify for that, such as the Modern Orthodox family that would only send to a religious high school if it were co-educational.
And it is of no less importance to Charedi parents. The ‘Kids at Risk’ phenomenon comes into play here. There are some students from even in the best of Charedi families that have children who simply cannot hack it in the austere environment of a yeshiva high school. The tendency for such young people to simply drop out is too great. And it’s happened in many some cases that I personally know about, and I’m sure there are many others that I don’t. There are Charedi children that were literally saved by this school.
The Charedi Rabbanim who constitute the leadership of the Vaad HaChinuch at Hanna Sacks Beis Yaakov can testify to that. One of those Rabbanim has more than once placed a call to the principal of Ida Crown to see if an about to be expelled teenage girl would be accepted by them. To the best of my knowledge, the Academy has always done so. And to the best of my knowledge most if not all of these young women have remained Shomer Shabbos and are integrated into the wider Torah community both here in Chicago and elsewhere.
But what disturbed me is the following story. In the course of one of those conversations the principal of the Academy asked the Charedi Rav whether he would be willing to express his Hakaras HaTov publicly at their annual banquet as a guest speaker. He flatly turned them down!
Of course I understand his reluctance. How can a card carrying ultra-Orthodox Rav who strongly identifies with the Agudah Hashkafa dare to stand up and speak at a co-educational high school banquet? How would it look? What message would it send? It would be as if he is endorsing an institution that the Gedolim have said is Assur. Nope. He can’t do it. But under the table, well… wink wink, it’s OK. “Shhh… Don’t say I had anything to do with this.”
Perhaps privately he will tell you that it was the right decision for a particular young adolescent. I don’t know. But I think it is high time for our rabbinic leaders to express Hakaras Hatov publicly as well. There is a time and a place for everything. The Academy does not teach their students to do Aveiros. They teach them Torah and Halacha. Ask Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel.
The environment isn’t perfect? It’s Assur to send an adolescent to that school? Let’s hope they don’t have to find out the hard way that it isn’t always so Assur. There are Charedi Rabbanim who did find out that way. Some of them chose the option of Chanoch L’Naar Al Pi Darko. And they chose wisely. Those who didn’t? Well you may be reading about them in the next issue of the Jewish Observer dealing with ‘Kids at Risk’.
