The Education Ministry's demand — which goes against the firmly held position of gedolei Yisroel shlita — to set up seminary placement committees run by municipalities and overseen by the Education Ministry suddenly became superfluous when principals took over and completed the task of arranging the placement.
Dozens of Beis Yaakov principals heard about the development during a workshop held for the members of the Seminary Union at Galei Tzanz Hotel in Netanya.
Rav Zeev Wolf, who serves as union chairman and principal of the Beis Yaakov HaRav Y. Wolf Seminary in Bnei Brak, spoke of the memory of HaRav Elazar Abuchatzeira and mentioned Rebbetzin Rotberg, who devoted her life to chareidi education. He spoke about the latest decrees issued by the Education Ministry, which is constantly trying to intervene in the curriculum.
"We were witness to the Ministry's draconian directive for municipalities to set up committees under the Education Ministry to handle the placement of the remaining girls in seminaries," said Rav Wolf. "Gedolei Yisroel objected to this, the municipalities obeyed their instructions and the decree vanished. Seminaries do not have to accept instructions from any government ministry and seminary principals were again in control, taken care of placement properly and ensuring at all of the girls had a seminary to attend."
During the course of a hesped given in memory of HaRav Michel Yehuda Lefkowitz zt"l, who was a key figure in upholding traditional Jewish education, HaRav Yechiel Mendelson, the principal of Beis Yaakov Darkei Rochel in Jerusalem and a board member of the union, said, "Rebbi Michel Yehuda often warned about the weekly newspapers [with minimal halacha and hashkofoh oversight], which contain terrible temptations. Even if they also include good things, the main message that comes through from reading them is scorn for talmidei chachomim and for all concepts held sacred and dear to us. Rebbi Michel Yehuda issued calls, both oral and written, to instruct children to avoid them, for they are truly an elixir of death. Indeed, in the list of regulations the union prepared for seminary teachers, there is a sentence calling on us to avoid all newspapers except those whose formation Gedolei Yisroel initiated."
Seminary principals issued public warning previously, at the beginning of the year, against the impact and cumulative damage of unacceptable media. (See the article from parshas Noach.) This was even before Mishpacha and Bakehilla published entire supplements filled with articles that undermine important values. At the start of Cheshvan, 70 principals asked parents to stay alert to these negative influences.
In a notice under the heading, "Ko Somar Lebeis Yaakov," seminary principals wrote, "These periodicals seek to have an impact on the shaping of our daughters' inner world, to distort the pure worldview and to bring the atmosphere of the streets into the Jewish home. Both the contents and the tone cause disdain for the sacred and chill the heart and take away the motivation that Jewish women have felt throughout the generations."
"These weeklies," they continued, "provide a platform for the remarks and opinions of people whose entire lives contradict Torah and mitzvas... These articles are published alongside Torah articles, which gives the false impression that the paper presents the proper hashkofoh. Slowly and gradually this allows `daas baalei battim' to seep in, removing Torah study from the top priority and making room instead for the temporal. "
