Dear Shalom,
I am cautiously optimistic about the bold synergistic initiative to create a unified national day school organization. The potential economy of scale created by a merged mega day school network organization could be significant. The reason I am optimistic is because on paper the idea makes perfect sense and should create a new whole that is greater than the sum of it's individual parts.
If a bigger organization gives the field of day school education overall more prestige it could make all day schools more investment worthy and it may ultimately bring more resources to the field and to individual schools. If it turns out either short term or long term to unintentionally draw funding away from individual schools and towards a central organization, it could make funding day schools even more challenging than it already is.
There are many day schools still suffering from institutional PTSD from the last economic downturn with lingering concerns about funding challenges. Day schools across North America are already dreading a post-Avichai world with few foundations waiting in the wings to fill the void left by their hard to fathom self imposed demise. Already limited resources may become even more scarce as the bulk of the remaining years of Avichai's existence will now direct funds, that perhaps could have gone to individual schools, to help incubate this newly formed conglomerate with the goal of helping the overall day school field as a whole.
Of course there will be many nice advantages on the professionalization side of the field such as better sharing of best professional practices and quality of networking that are important, but at the end of the day the answer to will it be good for the Jews is dependent upon how well resources are utilized and distributed as a Jewish community to benefit the needs of as many schools and students as possible.
The ideological landmines to avoid deal with denominational values and norms that may be at odds with each other. How to view the state of Israel, the role of Halacha, etc. are complex issues that vary greatly from school to school and movement to movement. Hiring a broadly credible, politically savvy, and sensitive leader who will balance the legitimate differing points of views within this newly created entity will be vital for it to be a step up from the status quo and avoid Yidlock.
This whole approach is more in line with the world views of Gedolim like Rav Joseph Soloveitcik, Rav Aharon Lichtenstein and perhaps even Rav Yaakov Kaminetsky who valued and even promoted some level of inter-denominational cooperation to at least some degree as long as Halachic values weren't compromised. Others such as Rav Aron Kotler, Rav Yaakov Ruderman, and perhaps even Rav Moshe Feinstein didn't promote or even allow inter-denominational cooperation when it came to things like Torah educational organizations. These approaches probably stemmed from the different views of Rabbinic figures originally espoused in Europe of Rav Bamberger, the Wurtzberger Rav and Rav Ezriel Hildesheimer who had a more big tent approach to allow Orthodox working with non-Orthodox movements as opposed to Rav Hirsch and the Chasam Sofer who opposed Orthodox working with non-Orthodox movements.
This outcome was perhaps inevitable in the 21st. Century as the more traditional day school organizations like Mercaz LInyanei Chinuch of Chabad and Torah uMesorah became more and more Yeshiva centric and less focused on community type schools. Others such as the Consortium of Jewish Day Schools have tried to fill that void to some degree but there was still a large vacuum that was waiting to be filled and maybe this new Prayer To Be Named Later will do just that.
Shalom,
Elisha Paul
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/21/2016 08:09AM by mlb.
