Jewish School Tuition Crisis: Parents Feeling 'Priced Out' of Their Religion

I respect anyone who lives an honorable life. However, don't for a second believe that people who can't afford to send their three kids to yeshiva (Jewish day schools) live any less honorable a life or are any less willing to sacrafice their own wants for their children. They don't all have condos in FL, drive fancy cars, take trips to Europe or schnoor (beg) off of relatives. The vast majority are living tenuous lives, are seriously afraid of ever losing their jobs and many have had to actually calculate if they could afford to have more kids (unfortuna­tely, many times the answer is, no).

Yeshiva is the single greatest form of Jewish birth control known to man.

Do the math.... 3 kids at over 15k each per year (that's conservati­ve!), after tax money. That's only for tuition! Most people save for a lifetime in order to afford to send their kids to university but the Jewish community is almost expected to be able to afford this for each kid from the time they enter kindergart­en!

I don't know your brother and I hope nothing but the best for him and his children, but believe me when I tell you, he is in the top 5% of earners in one of the richest nations on earth. Mazal tov.
About Judaism
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Law, Ethics and Jewish Divorce

Law, Ethics and Jewish Divorce - Rabbi Mordecai Finley - Spiritual leader, Ohr HaTorah Synagogue

[Below is my response to Rabbi Finley. Please see link above for complete article and our posts to each other.]

I understand your point Rabbi and I hope you understand that I meant no disrespect at all. The lessons that we learn from the Torah are, however, supposed to be eternal lessons. Unfortunat­ely our interpreta­tions of those laws sometimes get caught up in deference to our elders instead of constantly learning and building upon the knowledge of those who came before us.

Would Beethoven only use a piano if he were alive today? I doubt it. Today the ‘classics’ are rightfully revered, but shouldn’t we also understand that those people used the most advanced instrument­s known to them at the time? Isn’t it that way throughout mankind’s history in all segments of our population and all industries­? Why did we all of a sudden stop expanding our horizons and stunt our growth? Why do we feel that we are showing the utmost respect to our elders or teachers who came before us, if we simply follow in their footsteps and claim that they were smarter and therefore we cannot change what they have taught us? That seems like an insult to those great minds instead of respect. I apologize in saying this but I feel that we have become intellectu­ally lazy by NOT continuing to grow. I look at this as a parent does with their children. We impart our knowledge to them in the hopes that they not only avoid the mistakes we made but also to learn and go further in their developmen­t than we were capable of doing ourselves.

Isn’t it about time that we begin to interpret “man” to be “mankind”? Shouldn’t our understand­ing of equality be extended to our understand­ing of the Torah?

P.S. You say “virtuous behavior is the desired norm”. I couldn’t agree more!!

Obama: Reforms, Economy Are 'Moving In The Right Direction' (VIDEO)

One of the most poignant summations of the "Obama Dilemma" was made by (I can't believe I'm saying this!) Jon Stewart: “Obama ran as a visionary and leads as a legislator... People were open to major changes, and they didn’t get it."
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Employers Pushing Health Care Cost Increases Onto Workers, Report Shows

Even though we all must understand that the health care reform passed by congress has very little to do with this increase, this is still further evidence of a missed opportunity. Obama never got into the fight and without the full weight of the White House behind true change, it didn't have a chance.

Congress worked tirelessly and diligently. They deserve much more respect for their accomplishments. Obama on the other hand deserves our derision and scorn for being so timid in a time of real need and opportunity.
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Democrats Unlikely To Repeal Bush Tax Cuts

It disgusts me that Democrats have zero guts and even less discipline. They have a mantra that they can easily use over and over ("Do you want the Bush economy or the Clinton economy?") and can't even stick to the script!

This is so pathetic its infuriating!!!
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Palestinians Crack Down On Hamas After West Bank Shooting

You need to think like Hamas. They take pride in killing. Hamas uses them for their own promotion! Palestinians in the street, as reported by numerous agencies, look up to Hamas for these murders.

Their mentality is completely different than ours and not recognizing that is simply pulling the sheets over our eyes and making us look very naive in that part of the world.
About Hamas
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U.S. Tells Israel That Iran Nuke 'Dash' Could Take A Year

You bet I'm a Zionist and proud of it.

I'm also proud that the US, unlike other nations, has stood up for Israel, liberal ideals and democracy instead of bowing to the OPEC cartel. Its something to be proud of. I wish we would push much further in that direction and tell OPEC that they can drink their oil, that we're going for American fuel - wind, solar, and yes, nuclear..... It's time for a new economy and the first one there is going to own a big part of it.



Try being a woman (can't drive in Saudi Arabia and much lower literacy rates throughout Arab world), a homosexual (care to get stoned?), a person of any other religion other than Muslim in the Arab world (2nd class anyone) and then tell me what life is like and if their culture, morals, ideals are the same as ours in the US. I'm not judging them. It's their country and they can do as they wish. What works for us is not necessarily what works for everyone else. But don't lie to me and say that we are closer to the Arab world culturally, democratically....than Israel. It just isn't true.

Unfortunately many democrats in these chat rooms have become reactionaries. "Anything that GB2 was for, I'm against". Grow up children! Presidents of both parties have supported Israel because our interest are congruent and when they have diverged we are able to work things out.
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