New York -When administering educational evaluations, it is axiomatic that the testing be done in the child’s ‘first language’ so he or she need not silently translate the question before answering. Testing a child is his or her ‘second language’ often skews the results, as incorrect answers on the part of the child may be attributed to the added burden of converting the question from the less familiar language to the primary one.
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To satisfy my curiosity, I once posed a question to a friend of mine who is a credentialed educational evaluator. “What do you do,” I asked, “when you have a bi-lingual child and you are not sure which of the child’s languages the primary one is?”
“Oh, that’s simple,” he responded. “I just place a number of coins on the table and ask the child to count them. Invariably, he or she will count them in his/her native tongue and that is the language that I use for the testing.”
With that in mind, I would like to suggest the following exercise for those who are fortunate to have Holocaust-surviving grandparents of Hungarian/Romanian background: Place several pictures of your children on the table and ask them to start counting. In all likelihood, you will hear, “Egy, Kettö, Három” (pronounced “et, ket, harom” – the numbers, “one, two, and three” in Hungarian) as that is the language they think in. For even sixty years after they left Europe, many of them still revert to their native Hungarian when thinking or while speaking to their peers. If you need further proof that this is so, take a trip to Miami Beach this winter and listen to the dialogue between the members of the ‘Greatest Generation’ one evening on the boardwalk.
The indisputable fact that virtually all fervently observant Jews in Hungary/Rumania were fluent in their native language is an important one to reflect upon. Why? Because it counters the revisionist history that developing English language skills in our children is somehow charting a ‘new’ path that deviates from our mesorah (tradition). In fact, throughout the centuries, even in times when the general population was mostly illiterate, Jews were known as the ‘people of the book’ who placed a great value on educating our children not only in Hebrew reading and writing, but also in the language of the lands in which we lived. The Rambam wrote in Arabic, and Rashi continuously referenced Old French in his commentaries, as those were the languages spoken at that time. What more proof is needed that Jews in France were fluent in the local language than the fact that Rashi repeatedly translated difficult words from Hebrew to French?
What is most unsettling, is that having a command of the native language is more crucial in today’s job market than it has ever been in history. Our grandparents in Europe, who did speak the local language, ironically did not need to draw upon those skills for their daily bread, as they mostly toiled in manual-labor positions or traded with other Jews, where Yiddish was the common vernacular.
Even in America a few decades ago, a solid general studies education was not as critical as it is nowadays. When my parents got married, jobs that did not require schooling or enhanced language skills, such as working in the diamond line, were readily available and provided sufficient income for a growing family. Due to outsourcing and the volatile job market created by the economic downturn, that is just not the case today.
It is certainly reasonable for one to make the case that due to the rapidly eroding moral culture in the world around us, it is necessary and prudent to safeguard our children from its negative effects. But it is one thing to shield your children from the Internet or television, and entirely another to raise them lacking the rudimentary skills to earn a living. Many point to individuals who became fabulously wealthy without a command of their native language. But they are just that. Individuals. The brutal reality is that most people who are poorly educated struggle mightily to earn a living and support their families – and this applies even or especially to those who plan on entering chinuch or rabbonus. Expecting to strike it rich with limited education is analogous to a 15-year-old dribbling a basketball and dreaming of playing in the National Basketball Association. A few make it while the others. . .well, . . . they don’t.
A close friend of mine owns a business in an area with a large charedi population and is always looking to provide avrechim with jobs. His ‘entrance exam’ is rather simple. He gives prospective applicants a pad and paper and asks them to write two paragraphs in English expressing the reasons they would like to land a job in his company, and then to turn on a computer and type those lines. His thinking is that if an applicant cannot perform those two tasks, they are useless to him in his business. Suffice it to say that this would probably be my last column in Mishpacha if I shared with you the percentage of applicants he turns away because they cannot do that.
In more than twenty-five years of dealing with at-risk teens I have not noticed a lower drop-out rate among kids who are raised in more sheltered environments. In fact, my experience leads me to support the observation made by my colleague Reb Yonasan Rosenblum, in a number of columns in these pages over the past few years, that out-of-town children have a lower drop-out rate than those who are raised in very sheltered communities.
What is indisputably a colossal risk factor, for marital discord and kids abandoning Yiddishkeit, is poverty. With that in mind, it is my strong and growing feeling, that not educating your children nowadays, and overly sheltering them from acquiring basic general studies skills, dramatically raises the risk factor that your grandchildren will be raised in stressful, unhappy homes – and more vulnerable to all the negative influences we wish to shield them from.
Rabbi Horowitz his the mark on this one, as usual. I know many teens that begged there parants to remove them from the chasiddish (Ilive in that neighborhood, and know that population) yeshivas and send them to a yeshiva that will split the day between “english and yiddish” studies. This was at astage when they were unhappy and significant signs of discord. They were willing to sit in yeshiva and try to turn there life around givin the oppurtunity. They were refused, and they totally left yeshiva. while the ones that went from Boro Park chasidish yeshivas to more “modern” (English learning) Yeshivas, stayed the course and grew up (or still growing) to be very solid individuals.
Without sttiring any conruversy, & without being judgemental or separist. Or anti Litvishe Chasidih, Yeshivish, moderen ETC. I want to chalange his oppinion.
Its a fact that when grab any Chasidish 10 year old boy 9 out of 10 they will sttuter on any english question throwen at them. Vs. You take any Litvish 10 year old they will be most comfortable in the english language.
Now 2 points:
1) To say there’s a higher rate of well of Litvish families then Chasidish would be a straight out lie…!
2) We all know where the highest rate of drop out students are… Which has most to do with the Yeshivois & Bais Yakovs throwing the avarage students out on the street & only accepting the cream of the crop…
My spouse and I come from yiddish speaking homes and yiddish being our first language. We made it our business for english to be our kids first language. It is every parents responsibility to prepare their kids for the future….the above article says it all….
How True! It’s sad to see that these days Yeshivahs are abandoning english education. I was ridiculed by my friends for attending the english department. Once even the maggid Shiur opened the door to the english class and asked if there were more boys wanting to leave the class for a shiur!
Although Yiddish/Limudei Kodesh is top priority, secular studies should not be held in contempt. If the Yeshivahs put more emphasis on english, we would all be better off.
Litfishe Yeshivas are not better than the Chasidishe ones when it comes to English studies.
Maybe kids abandon yiddishkeit because they have a yetzer horah and it gets the best of them. Maybe they go off the derech because they are rebels and dont give a darn about whats right . Instead of trying to make excuses for these kids , look at reality. Thats all. Today every thing and everyone has an excuse and a cheshbon. Everyone has a psycological issue and reality is never the issue. Its always maybe this and maybe that. For cryin out loud , blame the kids themselves.
Would anyone like it if we make excuses for suicide bombers and killers? No, of coarse not. So why are we making excuses for these kids? They do wrong, they only have themselves to blame
Rabbi Horowitz ! Yasher Koach on telling it Like it is.I have to tell you , in the darkness that is our chinuch system you are truely the bright light.
Thank You
The Admor is correct once again. Those that cannot speak english find themselves a step behind a public high school dropout when competing for a job.
There has been a complete failure on behalf of the leadership to plan for this economic crisis. Performing no hishtadlus does not mean that one has stronger emunah. I feel one who does not do their hishtadlus may actually be a kofer by denying that Hashem set up nature.
TO COMENT NO. 4 VERRY WELL SAID YOU TOOK YHE WORDS OUT OF MY MOUTH
Rabbi Horowitz is an unusual person in that his keen insight into Yiddishkeit problems and issues and the fact that he’s always right about possible solutions, only serves to earn him strong criticism from the community that he’s trying to help.
kids are abandoning Yiddishkeit for one reason.
THE ADULTS. The hypocrisy they see in the teachers Rosh yeshivas and parents, that’s all.
let me say it again.
THE ADULTS. The hypocrisy they see in the teachers Rosh yeshivas and parents, that’s all.
When the adults get their act together everything will straighten out. Its got nothing at all to do with English etc.
When the children will see AND feel adults who are truly proud of their YIddishkeit and walk the talk they preach in Yeshivois and shuls – when the children see adults who are worth aspiring and learning from , the children will want to keep the path of Yidishkeit.
I taught English for many decades and worked in many sorts of Jewish schools. It is fair to say that the message that English is traif is readily communicated by rebbeim to their talmidim in myriad ways. It is not unusual for English teachers to receive phone calls out of the blue from former students who always say, “I am getting married tomorrow and would like mechila from you for my conduct during the time I was in your class.” The problems faced by English teachers are hardly of a lesser kind than those that trouble science teachers. Literature is at the heart of any English curriculum and even Shakespeare is not acceptable. The irony often is that the most vociferous opponents of education are parents and rebbeim who were themselves educated in an earlier time (though this is quickly becoming less and less the case with the younger rebbeim).
As an aside, it’s curious to note that in Monsey, it clearly appears that YSV is going out of its way to cater to those chassidishe families that have moved “to the left” and are trying to establish new identities in the frum world but outside the chassidish, while Darchei is not doing nearly as much for this new sub-class.
A few years ago Susan Schulman MD had written an article on this very issue. In my opinion she carried it a bit far. However the main points are the same.
I don’t condone fostering ignorance, but to say that all frum prewar families were fluent in their native languages is incorrect. The Hungarians spoke Hungarian but the Slovak and Polish Jews did not for the most part.
My secular education formally ended before my Bar Mitzvah, Yet I completed a four year college degree in two and earn my living as a licensed professional.
I struggle with this issue for my own children and there is no easy answer. In our Kehilos and Mosdos teaching children how to read, write and count is just not a priority…..
I agree 100% with the writer of this article. My father A”H, though he worse Shtreimel, Bekeshe and vaaser zokin, make it a major priority in his life, that my brother and I should speak American English with no accent at all. Not even a NY accent. He himself worked on learning a Midwestern version of American English, and both my brother and I learned to speak that way.
Though we had extensive Yeshiva education, he made sure that we had a full high school education, and did not discourage us from getting a college education. He was not in favor of attending college, but learning the material was a good thing in his opinion. He felt that we should be able to carry on conversations with anybody we meet in life.
Today, I am very much like my father. I still wear a Shtreimel, Bekeshe, Kurtz Hoisen/Vaaser Zoken, I sat and learned in yeshiva, and received Yoreh Yoreh, but I can walk into a classroom and teach: mathematics through Calc III, College level: Biology, Chemistry, Physics (classical and modern/quantum), Astronomy, American Literature, Expository Writing, Argumentation and Debate, American History as well as Computer Science, programming in C++, and most popular software packages. I also hold a Private Pilot’s certificate, and can build race cars, and drive anything on wheels.
Do I write this to boast? Absolutely not. If anything, I was and still am obsessive about learning all I can about anything. (yes, I still learn Torah too)
I write this to show that the author of the above article is correct. I can proudly walk anywhere in the US, converse with anyone, and not feel inferior. I do not have to abandon my faith and customs to feel equal and accepted. I never need worry about earning a living. No, I am not rich by any means, not even “comfortable” financially. I spend much of my time reading, and less in business. But I have never had to do without what I needed, and could usually afford what I wanted. I am happy.
I never fear not having, because I KNOW I would always be able to earn a living.
I have lived all over the Eastern half of the United States. I have earned a living in so many field, that listing them would not even be believable. But just to give y’all an idea, one year, while living in Alabama, I tutored College Math/Calculus during the evenings, and worked rebuilding engines, alternators, and starters in a machine shop during the day.
The point I am trying to make, is that the more educated we are, but better we feel about ourselves. Many heimishe people I meet are embarrassed to interact with many gentiles, since they know they are semi-literate. When they need to interact, they are uncomfortable and feel inadequate.
So, many feel they need to “be more like them” to feel more comfortable. Hence they start trimming their beards, hiding their payos, changing their clothes, etc., When they travel, they leave their shtreimlech at home. Sure sometimes it is to make it easier to travel, but sometimes, often, it is a symptom of their feeling uncomfortable being who they are. Just like when they travel away from home, and dress like a gentile “until we get home.”
But, the dressing is the part we see from the outside. It is when they say yes to their new “friends” and go with them to clubs at night, or don’t have the confidence to say, “No, we have to go to a kosher restaurant.”
TODAY, education protects the Jew from assimilation.
It is true that years ago it was different. But, today it is true.
Kudos to the author.
(sorry, wife calling me, no time to proof read.)
1) Who’s stopping these boys from learning English after their yeshiva years?
2) How did all those Hungarian/Romainian speakers ever make parnassah in this English speaking country?
3) How about all the Polish/Russian yidden that barely knew a word of Polish/Russian?
3) Rashi may have used Old French words for things that had no word available in the local Yiddish vernacular.
4) To say that the lack of fluency in the English language causes kids to abandon Yiddishkeit, is really stretching it. One can make an argument to the exact opposite.
This article is absolute truth, and absolutely brilliant. The message, however, is also in direct conflict with the educational philosophy of the gedolei hador, who, after all, have personally engineered the degradation of limudei chol in their Yeshivos. You cannot accept the unquestioned authority of the gedolei hador and the absolute truth of this article at the same time. Never has there been greater cognitive dissonance.
In my eyes, language has NOTHING to do with yiddishkeit!
I agree that everybody has to learn english, but to say that if not, they are more likely to abandon yiddish keit???
so what if they don’t know english? does it make them more target of all SHMUTZ out there???
There’s Only ONE way to fight today’s yetzer horah and that is with torah and kedusha… A secular english education is none.
It is beneficial towards a parnosso and qualifies as hishtadlus, but nothing more.
Shaul from monsey. You can’t have brought out the point any better. I don’t think darechi noam has any less of a problem then anywhere else even though they have the “messiah”
the 2000 census, 178,945 people in the United States reported speaking Yiddish at home. Of these speakers, 113,515 lived in New York (63.43% of American Yiddish speakers), 18,220 in Florida (10.18%), 9,145 in New Jersey (5.11%), and 8,950 in California (5.00%). The remaining states with speaker populations larger than 1,000 are Pennsylvania (5,445), Ohio (1,925), Michigan (1,945), Massachusetts (2,380), Maryland (2,125), Illinois (3,510), Connecticut (1,710), and Arizona (1,055). The population is largely elderly: 72,885 of the speakers were older than 65, 66,815 were between 18 and 64, and only 39,245 were age 17 or lower.[17] In the six years since the 2000 census, the 2006 American Community Survey reflected an estimated 15 percent decline of people speaking Yiddish at home in the U.S. to 152,515.[18]
Just a point of reference. the Talmud is wriitten in Aramaic not Hebrew. Aramaic was the language of the street(The English of its time) not the language of prayer. In fact I believe that ‘National Geographic” magazine had an article a few years ago that noted that Aramaic is still spoken in a small community in Syria. You can make an arguement that the gamara was written in “Lashon Artscroll” because that’s what people spoke even in the Beis Hamedrash. Would todays “machmerim” assur the the gemara because its not in Hebrew.?
There are no general rules in Chinuch. Each child is a unique entity, and must be treated as such.
The basics that must be taught to every child are the Three R’s–Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic. Social Studies, Literature, Chemistry, Algebra, Quantum Mechanics, Astronomy, Psychology, Economnics are not basic necessities.–You can function without these subjects, if you do not aspire to be a professional–Accountant, Lawyer, Doctor.
The basics can be acquired in a very short period of time, if you are a serious student–take a GED course. You don’t have to spend 12 years learning the basics–A few months of intensive study will suffice. Most of what is taught in Public Schools today is sheer fluff, designed to acculturate the students to Liberal Theology–it’s pure propaganda–“Heather has Two Mommies.”
Learning the basics is no big deal, and can easily be incorporated into even themost Hassidic Yeshiva curriculum.
I think what Rabbi Horowitz writes here is true, but it’s part of a bigger problem: happiness.
There are many isolationist homes in which the kids know next to nothing about the outside world and yet they are happy, well-adjusted and functional people, and conversely, modern homes in which the kids get a full general studies education and yet the kids grow up miserable and turn to secularism and various drugs to relieve their pain.
I think the main thing is simply to be happy, to be in touch with your feelings and those of your spouse and kids and to otherwise not broadcast the message that being frum is an unhappy or burdensome or otherwise negative experience.
You don’t necessarily have to send your kids to English for them to grow up happy and successful–but you do have to be successful and happy for them to grow up successful and happy, regardless of their schooling.
Just my point of view, my husband did not got to english classes (which I do not commend) but took on more shiurim instead. Today, he is a successful businessman being that it’s the middos that count most.
There is an interesting story about the Artscroll English gemara related to this thread and Anonymous’ (26) comment. Some prominent gedolim were against publication of the Artscroll English Gemara because it might serve as a “crutch” to bochurim, who might never learn how to make a laining in the Gemara. R. Nosson Sherman responded to the criticism, saying that the problem was academic: in a generation or so, no Yeshiva guys would be able to read English anyway!
It is amazing to see the ignorance of people who are presenting themselves as rabbis, psychologists, or even worse, a combination of the above.
People –my self included- thay use Yiddish all the time, will still count and do their math in English. The reason is actually very simple. In all languages the pronunciation of the numbers are in the same decanting order as the members. For example: 128 will be pronounced as one hundred twenty eight, in English. Or in Hebrew it will be meah esrim ushmona. While in yddish it will be hudred acht un tzvntzig. It starts with the hundred, then the singles, and then back to the tens.
This is the reason that you will see many adopt the number system form their native country. This has absolutely no indication on the language they spoke. Anyone of us that have grandparent of this age or even their own function of speaking Yiddish will realize it immediately. And you don’t even need to be an ‘internet rabbi’ or psychologist.
The way to go is Yiddish all the way, our parents did survived and prospered, so will we. And these rabbis / psychologists will have to use Sigmund Fruede’s junk on those who think from the bottom…
It is well known in field of psychiatry that they believe all of our thought are controlled by particular desires… this is absolutely contrary to Torah thinking, where these thought are not the center of a Jews life.
Great article. For those who suggested that kids can learn English skills on their own after yeshiva, it is much, much, much easier to learn a language and become fluent and skilled by early exposure — i.e. starting during toddler and early childhood years. While its not impossible to do later, it’s never the same as learning as a child.
As someone who tutors religious boys in all English subjects we see how important education is but the problem arises when these boys make trouble in class or are toldthat english is not important by either parents, peers, or even the schools. Wives are not always able to support and these kids need to be able to get jobs. My kollel son has his high school advanced regents diploma and was taught Mi Kol Milamday Hiskalti and to respect all teachers
this is a old fight against orthodox jews of Yiddish language it is a orthodox law by are old rabbis to not to hold speeches and lernen in lason laeimim only in yiddish -it is the aganda of the reform and the” modern orthodox” to fight yiddish
i am a satmar boy, an i learn english from Artscroll…
#13 says:There are many (and I know many) that come from wealthy families who have dropped out and it is precisely like Rabbi Horowitz said. Those who are not Machshiv English end up not being Machshiv anything.
No kidding- but not because it’s English. Rather, because if you teach a child disregard for another teacher, for another subject and for another part of what they are required to do, you ruin a certain important aspect of work ethic. That one has to do their best at whatever they are up to at that moment.
However, that is not the premis of this article. If Rabbi Horowitz wants to use Hungarians as his example…How much of pre-war Hungary was frum? Not the big city Jews who “made it” financially. Those few families from Budapest that are frum to this day were Kanoim, along with speaking Hungarian. It wasn’t the language that kept them frum.
It’s not the English or lack thereof, it’s the attitudes of many towards anything outside of the 4 walls of the beis medrash. It’s the disdain towards anyone who ventures into the workforce.
As another point, it doesn’t hurt and can only help if young men on their way into the working world to support a family were encouraged to take a short course on the language of the working world, but that does not equal English in schools.
Rabbi Horowitz diserve a great yashar koach. It was inevitable that this will occur. Societies everywhere become more sophisticated and more demanding in skills.
What many pointed out that Rashi was fluent in French ,the Rambam was fluent in Arabic and Latin and many other luminaries also were well versed in the “treife world sciences” Unfortunately the Yeshivas have created a model which is self-serving but everybody cannot become a Rebbi and is not cut out mentally to perform . Unfortunately Hitler deprived me of a formal education but I managed to accumulate two years of college with 3.5 average. Even after 4 years of concentration I took tests and obtained a federal employment. I only wish that I had the opportunities which are available to frum kids today.
This article is so true.
I personally know several people that ths happened to exactly as Rabbi Horowitz writes.
Of course he will be attacked by those who like to keep their heads in the sand.
But he is so right.
He is courageous and he is exactly on the mark.
He is right.
He is right.
So, so right !!!
Shkoyach, R’ Horowitz.
You are absolutely right.
Unfortunately, I fear that soon you’ll be ostracized from the Haredi velt, and that your words will never be published in yated or hamodia.
Hashem Ierachem.
Im a Rebbisher einkel, My father made sure all our sibs spoke a correct english.
I skipped HS and at my fathers urging I went to collage and earned a degree and work now as a professional, I wear a shtramil and no zoken. I make it a point that all my children speak a correct english IN SPITE of the yeshiva education
have u done studies on this subject how large was your sample that you observed was there a contrfol group you’d be shocked to find out that results from a study group are totally different than an “observation” or a hunch your guesses are irrelevant to studied reality
I think the effectiveness of this article might be increased if a Yiddish translation was provided 🙂
I did not learn english due to a tsavuah from an ancestor (written in Hungary…) but i suceeded in becoming a accountant hired by a respectable firm to prepare tax returns. which is to say that you could achieve success with hashems help without disputing our Guedollim vision.
Rabbi Horowits: I greatly commend your work and your articles where you challenged the mainstream on children safety. but one more article like this and i start thinking you’re not one “of us”. it’s one thing to say that the urgency of child safety issues forces us to readapt and be more open about it although different than precedent, but it’s quite another to reengineer the whole system that did bring us a few dropouts but on the other hand allowed for a thriving chasidishe community that no one thought possible after WWII
The Gedolei Hador of previous generations were careful to avoid full acculturation and assi,ilation. So, they intentionally supported a crippled form of the prevailing language00Crippled German=Yiddish; Crippled Spanish=Ladino.
It has nothing to do with whether or not u have money or if u speak english, there are kids at risk where ever u look either by chassidim, litvish, heimish where ever so don’t try blaming it on english speaking or poor/rich families…if anything it has more or less to do with sheltered families or schools that reject boys/girls for stupid reasons…
The VIN photo used of a boy smoking a cigarette is supposed to show the other side– the kid who drops out or leaves yiddishkeit???? Why is it that in the frum world, leaving yiddishkeit is so often equated with smoking and other vices? Truth is that when the kids leave they have no education or skills-sets to survive a tough harsh world, so they often fall in with those in the lowest strata of society.
What confuses me is when I welcome a meshulach at my door who has a letter attesting to his difficulty in making a parnasah which is signed by the very same Rabbonim who are anti-college and working to begin with. How any Rov can sleep at night knowing his issur on college may cause even a single yiddishe family to go hungry is beyond me.
The bigger problem is Laidegaing – The majority of kids are not up to learning full time. If English learning is a joke and they are not learning instead they are being Yoshev Botel which brings them to the worst Aveiros.
Rabbi Horowitz did not discuss priorities in learning.
English should be taught later, after a student has achieved a thorough gounding in Torah. You can’t ride two horses at the same time.
It is important to note that R. Eliyahu Dessler, in Michtav Me’Eliyahu, writes that there should be no secular studies at all in yeshivos. The objective of Yeshivos, according to R. Dessler
“…has been to uphold a single objective, to grow gedolei Torah and Yirei Shomayim as one. For this reason, [roshei yeshiva] have prohibited university to their students, because they could not conceive how to grow gedolim in Torah if not to concentrate their entire educational efforts towards Torah alone.
However, do not consider that they do not know, a priori, that through this approach a number [of students] will, G-d forbid, become adversely affected, since they will be unable to withstand this extreme [educational] policy, and as a result separate from the ways of Torah. However, this is the price that must be paid to create gedolei Torah and Yirei Shomayim educated in their Yeshivos. Of course, they must stand guard and do all that is possible to help those who can not remain Bnei Torah, but not in a way that will attract the other students. For example, those that must leave the Yeshiva should become storekeepers or have other jobs that are not considered trades, requiring no training, so as not to attract the [other] students. Those whose strong desire is indeed to learn a trade, and certainly those who choose a profession that requires secular training, should be ignored, so the other students are not ruinously influenced by any one individual’s restoration.”
The relationship between kids going off the derech and tyhe lack of limudei chol is explicit in R. Dessler’s statement. According to him, it is the price that must be paid to create gedolim.
It is this educational philosophy, ingrained in Yeshivos today, the R. Horowitz is up against.
zeier git gezugt…….
Im a full fledged Chasiddishe Out-ofTowner. We (out of towners) our proud that our kids (with gekrazelte peiyes) have a solid command of the Lingua Franca.
Es iz a Charpe in a Bishe, tzi tziheren BoroParke kinder reden English, siiz kimaat a chilel Hashem.
He is simply right. Halevy, yeshivos should have the fortitude to consider this reality.
I would like to know, that if a kid who only speaks english, goes to a shull but, the Rov gives all of his droshers in yiddish and the kid does not understand any thing that the Rov is saying and feels that he has no shichers (connection) to the place, can that also turn him off from yiddishkite. can you find any time in history that the kids did not understand the language what the Rov is speaking? now days this is happening to a large extent In Europe more or less everyone spoke yiddish.