The Attempt to Restore Rav Aharon as Rosh HaYeshiva
After the failure to retain the services of Rav Hershel Shachter, Rabbi Well formed a committee of which I was asked to be a member. Its purpose was to study and evaluate the needs of the Yeshiva and to recommend where improvements might be made. Rabbi Moshe Possick, Director of School Supervision at Torah U’Mesorah was also invited by Rabbi Well to come to the Yeshiva and do his own evaluation. We came up with a number of what we believed were vital recommendations for Skokie to succeed as a Yeshiva. One of the things we all felt was imperative was to hire a Rosh HaYeshiva who had full autonomy with no veto power from the board of directors or any school official, including the president.
This was a radical departure from the past. The constitution of the Yeshiva gives the president, an employee of the board, full power. The last time this was tried was when Rav Aharon was hired. And that resulted in one of the most painful periods in the Yeshiva’s history. Some of the board members on the board at that time were also on the board then. Their memories were still very fresh and very painful. But the newly constructed board of now mostly Orthodox members voted in favor of it. So a search committee was formed and the search began. A short time after this decision was made, I met with Rabbi Don Well in his office and asked him if I could approach Rav Aharon to become the Rosh HaYeshiva again. Surprisingly, he agreed.
One of the saddest days in my life was when Rav Aharon left the Yeshiva. I have never really quite gotten over it to this day. It had always been my wish… my hope… my dream... that somehow the Yeshiva and Rav Aharon would reconcile. I had duel loyalties during those years. The Frum community in Chicago was divided. Most people who were even remotely aware of what was going on took sides, strongly supporting one and blaming the other. The opposition was often vehement. And amongst partisans, strong language was used by one side against the other. This added to my sense of loss.
But I never saw either side as evil. Passions spilled over. Careers were at stake. To Rav Aharon’s antagonists, Mizrachi’s name had been tarnished in a town where it was the dominant movement. And the Yeshiva was split in two. To Rav Aharon’s supporters, the Yeshiva , Mizrachi and their supporters had besmirched a righteous Gadol. People were upset and angry!
Nowhere was this better illustrated than the last day Rav Ahron spent in the Yeshiva. He was already terminated. The official last day of the school year had passed. But Rav Aharon still had one more shiur to give and came the next day to give it. He found the doors to the Beis Hamedrash shackled. He gave shiur on the front lawn. Someone had called the press. They sent a potographer. And the next day on the front page of the Chicago Sun-Times, a photo of Rav Aharon giving Shiur on the Yeshiva Beis HaMedrash front lawn appeared with a very unflttering caption about the Yeshiva locking the rabbi out.
Most people were angry about this turn of events. But I was just plain sad. I had always sided with Rav Aharon, but I understood the opposition. Many of them were good people, that I admire and respect to this day. I believed them to be wrong, but I could not attribute nefarious motives to them.
With all this in my mind I nevertheless finally saw an opportunity to fulfill my dream of getting Rav Aharon back.
I called and made an appointment to meet with Rav Aharon. We met for a period of over three hours one evening to discuss ways, in which this could be achieved, to the satisfaction of all sides.
This had been tried before by others, including HTC president emeritus Rabbi Oscar Fasman, all to no avail. But there was a new climate in the Yeshiva then with a new mandate by a new board. I thought the timing was right. What an impact that would have made in the Torah world!
I was able to get Rav Aharon to agree to come back but with conditions that seemed insurmountable. I nevertheless reported back to Rabbi Well. He was pleased with the results and asked that I discuss this initiative privately with key members of the board and explore the possibilities of making it happen.
It ended as it began. As expected, the obstacles were too great to overcome. My dream would never happen.
The New Rosh HaYeshiva, Rav Shlomo Morgenstern
The board desperately sought a Rosh HaYeshiva. It was imperative that nothing go wrong this time. The new Rosh HaYeshiva would be permanent. He could not be fired as that would mean the end of the Yeshiva. The Yeshiva could ill afford to do anything like that again.
Rabbi Well’s efforts to rebuild the Yeshiva had included plans to infuse a Kol Torah into the Beis Hamedrash. Hiring full time Avreichim seemed the quickest way to do that. One of the first things he did was to convince the board to underwrite the expenses of a full time Kollel.
As a Mizrachi oriented Yeshiva he felt it important there be an Israeli presence in the school. He thus killed two birds with one stone: He would have a serious Kol Torah emanate from the Bies HaMedrash and it would be with a decidedly Israeli overtone. So, an entire Kollel was imported from Israel to Skokie, including its Rosh Kollel, Rav Shlomo Morgenstern. Few of the Kollel members understood English including the Rosh Kollel. But at least there was a Torah presence and serious learning now emanating from the Skokie Beis Hamedrash. The original plan was that it be here for a few years until the Beis HaMedrash became established
At about the time I had attempted to get Rav Aharon back as the Rosh HaYeshiva, the end of the Kollel’s tenure had arrived. The time had come for the Kollel and Rav Morgenstern to return to Israel. But as successful as the Kollel was at instilling its own voice in the Beis HaMedrash, there was no real additional growth.
The immediate prospects staring the by now mostly Frum board members in the face was that there would be no Rosh HaYeshiva, no Kollel, and no learning beyond high school. That would have been a major blow to the Yeshiva. The board then decided to offer the Rosh Kollel, Rav Shlomo Morgenstern the position of Rosh HaYeshiva.
He consulted with his Posek, Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv and then accepted. He negotiated a no cut contract that gave him full power. In return he understood that HTC was basically a religious Zionist type school that supported college and he promised not change its character, though he was not a religious Zionist himself.
Rav Morgenstern’s new powers directly contradicted the constitutional powers given to the president. Friction developed. Rav Morgnestern and the board were on one side and Rabbi Well on the other. After many years of loyal and successful service to the Yeshiva, Rabbi Don Well was let go.
It is ironic that Rabbi Well’s own successes ended up being the cause of his own demise. It was Rabbi Well who guided and implemented all the policies and changes that caused him to be terminated from his position as president.
In an effort to circumvent the constitutional powers given to the president of the school, the board of directors decided to leave that position vacant. A new position was created called chancellor. The chancellor would be the chief executive officer under the direct authority of the Rosh HaYeshiva. Then acting president, Rabbi Dr. Jerold Isenberg was offered this position, one he has retained and executed magnificently ever since.
Rav Morgenstern took the Yeshiva to new heights. During his tenure, and through the untiring efforts of Rabbi Isenberg, the Yeshiva’s liberal arts college became fully accredited. Rav Morgenstern was also successful in giving the Yeshiva a respectable reputation even in the right wing Yeshiva world. Considering its history that was no easy feat.
The stigma of it being a Yeshiva that produces Traditional rabbis was now gone . The Yeshiva was now sitting pretty. Its high school was filled to capacity for many years. They had even developed an excellent screening process to avoid enrolling problem students. It was called Yeshivat HaKayitz.
Yeshivat HaKayitz is a very successful summer camp program which consists of a half day learning program and half day activity. It was geared for seventh and eighth graders. Parents from all the day schools, right to left wanted to send their sons to this camp. The school thereby had an opportunity to observe many of the potential applicants first hand. And since they always had many more applications for admission to the school than they had room for, they had the luxury of being very selective.
And through heavy recruitment drives, the Yeshiva was now begining to attract some students to its Beis Hamedrash program. And its Kollel was home grown with the best and brightest of its Beis Hamedrash students staying on after marriage. The Yeshiva was now riding high as one of the most successful Yeshiva high schools in the country.
