Jerusalem – Prominent Israeli Educator: Schools Murdered Malky Klein; Public Must Demand Changes To Educational System

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    Rabbi Chaim Yisroel Blumenfeld of  Yeshiva Neveh Zion, also known as “The Mash” Jerusalem – Moved to tears after learning the details of the tragic life and death of Malky Klein, a renowned Israeli educator slammed those who rejected the teen in her formative years and called upon his former students to demand an overhaul of the current educational system.

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    Rabbi Chaim Yisroel Blumenfeld has been a key figure at Yeshiva Neveh Zion since 1978, serving as the school’s dean and spiritual advisor and forging long lasting connections with students. Known fondly by his students as “The Mash,” Rabbi Blumenfeld has helped steer thousands of young men through their formative years, including many who, like Malky, led difficult lives.

    After hearing how Malky turned to drugs after being shunned by multiple schools, Rabbi Blumenfeld sent a letter to Neveh Zion’s friends and alumni, sharing his outrage and wondering if any of the responsible parties were ever held accountable for their actions.

    “What I want to know is what was done with those ‘educators?’” wrote Rabbi Blumenfeld. “Was the principal that sent her away … dismissed? Was the school closed? Such educators are not educators, they are murderers.”

    Rabbi Blumenfeld also castigated community leaders for not demanding change in the system on behalf of the many Malkys who are slipping through the cracks.

    Having taught many students who, like Malky, faced educational challenges, Rabbi Blumenfeld noted that our schools must learn how to deal with students with learning disabilities, focusing more on instilling a love of yiddishkeit than on enforcing unrealistic expectations.

    “I think the schools are too worried about their reputations and not enough about what a child needs,” Rabbi Blumenfeld told VIN News. “There is so much concern about finishing the curriculum, overly high standards and having better girls. It is a senseless competition that goes against the matara of Bais Yaakov.”

    The goal of a girls school should be to transmit proper Jewish values and not to see how many Rambans students can learn in a year, observed Rabbi Blumenfeld.

    “Down the road they are going to forget most of those Rambans but those middos will be with them for the rest of their lives,” said Rabbi Blumenfeld.

    Boys’ yeshivos are plagued by the same failures as the girls’ schools and the situation will likely continue unless there is a public outcry demanding change, observed Rabbi Blumenfeld.

    “There has to be a re-evaluation of the entire system,” said Rabbi Blumenfeld. “The world is changing so fast – today a generation is only two years – and our schools are not keeping up with that reality.”

    Concluding his letter, Rabbi Blumenfeld challenged readers who live near the Kleins and the schools that rejected Malky to take a stand to prevent future heartbreak and tragedy.

    “One word to our alumni who live in Boro Park,” wrote Rabbi Blumenfeld. “The ball is in your court.”

    Read below the email sent out today by Rabbi Chaim Yisroel Blumenfeld the Rosh HaYeshiva at Yeshiva Neveh Zion in Israel.

    Dear Alumni and Friends,

    Once in a while something happens which so overwhelms me that I must share it with you, our alumni and friends. This time it was a story which occurred not long ago. At first I heard it from recent talmidim. I hesitated to write about it since I didn’t want to publicize something so negative about the system. It was a tragic story of a young girl who overdosed. But last week her father told her story and it was published in the Mishpacha, Issue 672, 17 Av – August 9, 2017. While I read the article, I was interrupted three times (yeshiva business) but each time I returned to it, I shed tears. I am sure others who read the article did so as well.

    Malky was a young girl who suffered from severe learning disabilities. For her to concentrate was actually painful. We know what this is, as we observe in some of our talmidim. But she was a spirited girl and tried so hard. The first high school she was accepted to notified her the evening before the year was to begin that her acceptance was nullified. How do you do that? The second school dismissed her because she wasn’t intellectually mastering her studies. I don’t understand. What is the purpose of Bais Yaakov and educating girls? Is it to master Rambans on Chumash? Or is it to use Ramban’s on Chumash to help a young lady become a ba’alas middos and have the hashkafa, the Torah outlook of a bas Yisroel? Only if the purpose of your Bais Yaakov is to gain a reputation so that parents who can afford it will want to flock to your school, only such a motive can blind “educators” to think that mastering the curriculum is most important.

    But the third school was the most absurd. She was asked to leave because she committed a hideous crime of giving another student a gift that was worth $20 and considered too much by the administration. Her father explained, “She was a new student and wanted to be friendly, she wanted to make friends. ‘No’, said the wise educator, ‘she wanted to buy off other students.” Is that giving the benefit of the doubt? Not only that but she actually brought a second, a new briefcase to school. Her father explained that to compensate for her having to switch schools again he got her a new briefcase which didn’t come until then. For this, you throw a girl out of your school and into the streets? Her father begged them not to ask her to leave until he finds a new school. But when he returned home she was lying on the floor and crying, with her books sprawled out – they didn’t wait.

    Malky found acceptance on the streets, she got into the wrong crowd and eventually overdosed. She had not found acceptance, love, empathy, understanding or encouragement from those schools that contradict the values of the Torah and mitzvos they are meant to teach.

    What I want to know is what was done with those “educators”? Was the principal that sent her away because of the gift and briefcase dismissed? Was the school closed? Such educators are not educators, they are murderers. Have the leaders of that community stood up and demanded changes in the ‘system’? Or are we just to sit back and perhaps shed a few tears and allow the system to cripple our children?

    One word to our alumni who live in Boro Park, the ball is in your court.

    Hatzlacha and kol tuv,

    Mash


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    102 Comments
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    6 years ago

    Interesting how he could judge someone for murder by reading the claims of one side.

    Wise-Guy
    Wise-Guy
    6 years ago

    Why doesn’t anybody name the schools that practices such sinful behaviour?!(after giving the schools a chance to voice their side of the story…)

    Such publicity will serve as a future deterrent and, therefore, is likely not Loshon-Ho’ra. (albeit I’m not authorized to Pasken this Shailoh on my own.)

    Honestly, if the Administrator/Principal carried out such vicious injustice, I would not trade places with them for all the gold in Fort-Knox.

    dermunkatcher
    dermunkatcher
    6 years ago

    I am quite sure that he also heard the side of the story of those educators that he is asking if they were dismissed.
    ???”Prominent Israeli Educator” ???
    First time I have heard of him was today on Vosiznies.

    6 years ago

    An educator wrote this? .I wish people will stop blaming the schools I have a number of children who didn’t pass the farhers to get into the mesivtas that their friends went to. I know the feeling of trying to get into a level 2 yeshiva..I know the feeling to have children be out of yeshiva at age 15. However I’m a rebbi in an elementary yeshiva so I get to see the other side of the story. First of all the first upgrade must be with teacher training. To be a rov ,a dayan, a sofer, schochet etc you need shimush. – hands on training and a mentor. The most a rebbi or morah does today is go to year of teacher classes or some workshops. Second every parent must go to parenting classes. As a rebbi I see it year after year parents who push their children too much. If there is a social issue they often blame everyone else besides the source of the problem .and to go for help is a small fortune. Parents are over whelmed.by many pressures especially financial and if there is a problem they push it off until its a big problem. The yeshivas have to have resource rooms to help struggling students. Often the 10-15 minutes even once a week is enough to bring many students up to par.

    6 years ago

    anyone who needs to hear the other side…
    pls go ask mechilla at the graves of the lost humble neshamas…
    we as a klal better open our hearts and deal with this machla…

    stavnitzer
    stavnitzer
    6 years ago

    Shame on us for allowing this to go on for so many years. We are allowing people to turn educating our future generations into personal businesses.

    lazy-boy
    Active Member
    lazy-boy
    6 years ago

    Yes, I have personally known girls who have been turned away from the Bais Yaakov system because of one foolish action on their part. The parents try to get her in different schools but none will take her.

    Certainly these girls finds themselves friend-less and depressed. It is the school that shares responsibility to educate them and the school drops their responsibility in order to preserve its “pure” name.

    Yes the heads of the schools and the teachers share in responsibility of girls who are not allowed a second chance to come back. They are elitist murderers and deserve a special place in gehenom although in our frum society they only seem to get ahead and succeed; they are not doing their jobs properly.

    hernoor
    hernoor
    6 years ago

    STOP BLAMING THE SCHOOLS! STOP BLAMING THE PRINCIPAL! Enough! I am very critical of schools’ education and I feel they must incorporate more creative and intellectual type of learning as opposed to all this memorization they keep on pushing. Nevertheless, it is stupid to blame the schools every time a child gets thrown out. In a previous post I wrote why I felt the principal had a right to do what she did. Then I heard Mr. Klein’s speach and I felt I had judged Malky unfairly and asked the parents to be moichel me for saying bad things about her. But after more research, I now understand the principal . In fact, the school who threw her out had accepted her despite of her learning disabilities, do you think they would throw her out because of it? The parents too did not ask the school to throw her out because of the marks. It is incredibly naive to think so. The principal had every right to do what she did to protect other students in the school . If anyone is being murdered, it is the poor principal who simply wanted to protect her other students and had every right to do so.

    6 years ago

    This happened to my daughter. She was in a well known school in Flatbush and was pushed into a special Ed program in another school. I was not given an opportunity to see if the program was appropriate for her instead I was lied to and bullied by people who honestly believe they are frum because they wear the frum uniform. The new school thought that their only job was to provide free rent to this special ed program and they were ill prepared to deal with a group of girls that were looked upon by other students as second class citizens. Suffice to say this devastated my daughter and we as a family are dealing with the long term repercussions. Let’s just say she hates yiddishkeit because her frum role models in both schools let her down. I’m sure there are many parents who are facing this and their children’s pain might not be visible to outsiders but are paralyzed and don’t demand change because they are too busy picking up the pieces from misguided educators. Just like there are dysfunctional parents who don’t be want to deal with reality there are many uneducated ill prepared educators who don’t update their skills and come to their jobs with their own emotional baggage or just plain arrogance. Remember, there is a very strong emotional component to teaching, children are not empty pitchers that you just pour water into.

    6 years ago

    I know of a sweet girl in a mainstream school that her behavior was borderline ADD but she was so trying to please. The teachers had such pachad from her as if she would all round them up when all she wanted was to sit and listen but of course wasnt it came very hard on her.
    Came hi school, she was so humble but the teachers cldnt accept her as a fresh kid wanting to make a fresh start. It was the third day of school that she was kicked out ONLY because of borrowing a paper. They just saw her moving and thought an explosion is rocking. She cried bitter crocodile tears and was accepted back in. Teachers, principals lack the umph and measure to be soft to a child that humbly tries to be obedient. They can never erase the past. If this girl grew up normal is a big nes.
    Our teachers are old and nervous. Yidishe neshumas should not be at their disposal. I can go on and on. Tremendous change needs to sweep thru our systems. Its rusty and kids are getting badly affected.

    triumphinwhitehouse
    triumphinwhitehouse
    6 years ago

    Yeshiva are now literally competing to be the jewish Harvard with anyone even slightly uncomformist kicked out, there is no love of Judaism taught all numbers and grades and of course, money. I had to say it but I have a hard time convincing those that aren’t drum or on fringes to send kids to yeshiva where they’ll struggle and have no support.

    rbsmom
    rbsmom
    6 years ago

    The Mash is 100% correct. These “educators/principals” are responsible for Malky’s death.
    Response to #4 , the Mash has saved thousands of boys that were similar to Malky. I had friends that went to Neve, and they are incredible people whose lives were turned around bec of The Mash.
    Kol Hakavod for saying it as it is and not being scared of what people wold say. It’s time to hear the truth about these ridiculous schools who are “so frum” but can literally kill a Jewish neshoma. My kids who didn’t go thru the Bais Yaakov system are much better off than these Bais Yaakov girls.
    May Malky’s neshama have an aliya and may her parents have the strength to go on.

    6 years ago

    We are facing major problems these days with the “Chareidi” school system. There are too many problems to list. I too, wish there was a way for us to help educators understand children better, especially in this day.Schools need to focus on each child as an individual, and love, and respect them for who they are. They need to appreciate their strengths, along with their weaknesses, and guide them in a kind, patient, respectful manner. The focus on how smart a child is, is not a Jewish one, and is destroying many children.We certainly can not blame the school system for all of our children’s problems, At the same time, schools are responsible for their students chinuch during school hours, and are not taking this job seriously enough.The horrific stories of teachers putting students down for unimportant things, are mind blowing.I am not sure how we can change the current “system”, and if we can at all. We are living in crazy times,and we must all do our best to educate our children in the proper way, with respect, and kindness, focusing on the important things, like Middos, and Mitzvos, and pray for their hatzlocha, more than that I am not sure what we can do unfortunately.

    6 years ago

    I think many commenters are overthinking all this . They claim schools don’t hire qualified enough teachers and rabboem and they are ill equipped etc ..

    I think the opposite is true . We have become crazy about therapy and individual attention etc . Then if we can’t provide it, schools get all nervous and have to place kids on special ed or other schools … Just let the kid live . Yes let her go thru classes flunking . Life will go on . Don’t worry so much about her perfect therapy and ADD . As long as she has a social life just chill . It’s true you should try to help her . But if it doesn’t work nu so what . There are plenty of great moms with reading disabilities . As long as the kid is sociable relax .

    As a side note , anyone who says rabbiem are not qualified should look. at the past . Rabbiem use to be nervous wreck holocaust survivors who just smacked the kids all day . And it was not better in Europe . A rebbe job has historically been a shleper job . Nowadays rabbiem get paid very nicely all considering that it’s a semi part time job . And they are far more qualified . However I think we have gone to the other extreme where everything has to be so perfect and analyzed and therapzed in chinuch.

    Buchwalter
    Buchwalter
    6 years ago

    We don’t have an achriyas f Jewish children. We receive a salary and perform commensurate with the salary Who cares about a yiddishe neshomo

    6 years ago

    In my days (the 80’s) I had two girls that I recall who did zero work and made it through 12 years of BY. Guess what? They are both married. I shudder to think how they would’ve ended up in this harsh society especially because one of them did not come from an intact family. For everyone who said the school and principal should not be blamed please read Rabbi Shais’s article in Ami two weeks ago. I’m sure when the principal rejected her she was not shooting up herion and doing meth!

    admin
    Admin
    Member
    6 years ago

    There are ‘Rashaim Aririm’ who sit on school boards who are like the nazi Josef Mengele Ym’s who made decision which will die, you go right, or left, and those so called ‘Lidegiers’ on the boards who have zero understanding of ‘Chinuch’ they decide, accept, or not accept. sooner or later this bubble will burst, and the elitism schools will fall like straw.

    Oyvey
    Oyvey
    6 years ago

    1) קשוט עצמך תחילה
    To read an Israeli criticizing American schools is a joke!
    In Israeli Yeshivas a boy gets kicked out of Yeshiva if his father goes to work!

    2) A few decades ago many Yeshivas were mixed with frum & not kids in the same class. The biggest upshot of it was it allowed the not frum to remain Jewish and even become frum.

    answers
    answers
    6 years ago

    Having very close family members as principals in local schools I will make the following observation:
    When a boy or girl is out of a school for whatever reason, and a well intentioned rav or askan calls the principal and puts pressure on the principal to just try it, many times, they are doing a disservice to all.
    Prinicpal: Do you know the child personally?
    Askan: No, but it is a chashuve family.
    Principal: Will you at least take achrayus to raise 25,000 dollars for an in house tutor so that I can do whatever necessary to make it work?
    Askan: NO! the parenst are paying so much tuition already!
    Principal: So in other words, you want me to take the child that

    answers
    answers
    6 years ago

    you don’t know to a school that you are slightly familiar with, and walk away a hero without any achrayus?!
    Anyone that wants to help the children with schooling should walk into the principals office with a minimum 10,000 check (besides tuition) and tell the principal that here is my cell number and call me if there is anything I can do to help.
    Sorry, it my book it all comes down to money in general. In Malkies case it seems that Mr. Klein did offer anything he could and he and only he is able to be a baal davar here.
    Oh and Mash, Remeber what chazal said: Chachamim , hizaharu bedivreichem. Please be careful to call anyone a murderer as sad and unfortunate this story is.

    hernoor
    hernoor
    6 years ago

    People can be ridiculously unthinking. To expect the school to cater to every single student to their every single need is ridiculous. And besides for that issue regarding whether schools are required to cater to every child a personalized education, which is a ridiculous expectation, people make their own choices. I know it’s not a fashionable concept, but bechira is real. We can blame frum schools for making at least 40% of the student body miserable, but the bottom line is that people choose the path they want to walk on.

    Public schools provide all kinds of help and their education system is not based on so much (extraneous) memorization, they don’t demand as much from their students as frum schools and yet they have over enough students doing drugs.

    6 years ago

    “What I want to know is what was done with those “educators”? Was the principal that sent her away because of the gift and briefcase dismissed? Was the school closed? Such educators are not educators, they are murderers. Have the leaders of that community stood up and demanded changes in the ‘system’? Or are we just to sit back and perhaps shed a few tears and allow the system to cripple our children?”
    Nothing was done with the “educators”! They will be allowed to continue in this path until we call them out by name and say, enough is enough — lo zu haderech! I call out Refoel Bernstein of Mesivta Ohr Yisrael of Marine Park known as Zuckers. This yeshiva is a boot camp run by a slew of nasty people. They have thrown out many children — even in the middle of the year, for reasons that are not good enough! No parent should place their child in this school for it needs to be closed down!

    chachom
    chachom
    6 years ago

    Naar Hoyisi V’gam Zokanti. When I was in high school,I was “written off” and allowed to do what I want because they could not throw me out due to outside influences. I am B H, I raised a beautiful family of 27 children and grandchildren.
    When I see the teachers who “wrote me off”, I show myself to let them know how wrong they were. They are close to going to the Olom Hoemes, and I am not moichel them, till they ask.

    6 years ago

    Chansie Tabak is not a person I would to have anything to do with the education of my daughter. Her personal life is a mess and some of her children are OTD. There is a lot to be desired from our educators and she is in the wrong business.

    Happy22
    Happy22
    6 years ago

    Lchvod R” Mosh.
    Though you do do great thing for klal yisroel you should get the facts straight and know there is another side to the story. Even from your letter the facts are mixed up. she was never thrown out of the 3rd school. if you listened to her fathers interview you will hear him say she did not want to go back because she felt they accepted her because they needed girls ( which was not true) and wanted to be with her friends so she went to a principal and tried to get into a different school even though she was doing well and accepted by the class. He had great respect for that principal.
    Also in the mishpacha article it says straight out that she was challenging authority and breaking rules. it wasn’t just the briefcase. before that principal is condemned maybe we should hear her side of the story.
    Though for Malky’s honor I think nothing more should be made public.

    hernoor
    hernoor
    6 years ago

    I don’t understand why everyone is hanging up against the principal who threw a young lady who made her own decisions and have no issue with the

    hernoor
    hernoor
    6 years ago

    I don’t understand why so many people have a problem with the high school principal expelling a student to protect other students from negative influence.

    Everyone seems to miss that the biggest contributing problem to this sad story is not the fact that she was thrown out, but the fact that Malky became severely depressed because she felt like a failure every moment of her life. This feeling of failure caused her to make bad choices in life. Had she felt successful in areas she was good at in her formative years, the outcome of this story could have been very different. Everyone needs to feel they are good at something, Malky, and many others like her, felt they were good at nothing.

    That is why I feel that schools should teach creative subjects that will enable girls who are failing or not so good in other areas in school to feel good about themselves so they can make good choices throughout life..

    BLONDI
    BLONDI
    6 years ago

    we need to duplicate him!!! and/or find a female version to defend the girls. happens to be that usually the sensitive types are not so academically strong…so be more aware of their feelings. i feel for the kids and parents’ heartache…almost no compassion for the schools. let the schools learn how to deal with the guilt..

    BLONDI
    BLONDI
    6 years ago

    the other reason for her being thrown out of school was because she ate in the pizza shop instead of taking it to go..for all practical reasons, when was the last time anyone had a good slice of cold pizza? and who snitched on her?

    schwartzi
    schwartzi
    6 years ago

    1 quiz, which girl school principal( in Brooklyn) said to another girl school principal ” : Dont send me your garbage”
    and 1 quick story a friend of mine’s son who attended a flat bush h.s. was thrown out for the following reason(s) 1- He was smoking in front of the yeshiva bldg,( together with a bunch of boys, from his class,but the yeshiva insisted that he was the ” Leader” lol and also, he attended a Mordechai Ben David concert, this was around 24 years ago, maybe it was a different era for MBD concerts anyway,he was kicked out and no amount of cajoling,talking,pleading,helped, when the father told the rosh yeshiva,that throwing out a 16 year old in the middle of the zman is a matter of dinei nefashaos,as the yaaros devash( and others) brings in his sefer it fell on deaf ears, lol lol, who is the father to give mussar to a rosh yeshiva??? lol lol idiot,father,shoulda known better,its like telling a doctor what medicine to give to a patient, anyways, after calling various yeshivas and trying to get him in, in the middle of the zman,no one wanted to touch him with a 10 foot pole, which makes sense,because every yeshiva wants to know, why the boy was kicked out in the

    schwartzi
    schwartzi
    6 years ago

    the middle of the zman,and of course his former yeshiva,did not help him find another yeshiva to take him in. They just threw him under the bus.
    That’s the other problem you face if you get kicked out, you’re on you own The Yeshiva Mafia,all stick together, 1 bad word or incident,and a family can be destroyed,whether it be information,on a bochur,girl,or shidduch prosopect. People out there dont realize the tremendous power and influence the yeshiva mafia,has on their lives. They can either make or break a shidduch,and the family involved.
    Getting back to the story,after 6 months of being out of yeshiva ( note; the boy in involved was a very good boy,good middos,had lots of friends,and was very popular.but it seems,that either the concert,or the smoking ticked off the school) i know because i have 1st hand information,as i was involved with the family in trying to help them out. so, finally they consulted Rav Pam a’h who then talked to the yeshiva,and they agreed to take him back ( wonders of wonders) The yeshiva said that before they take him back they want to have a meeting with the boy and his father, they want to institute some takanos,before admitting him back. ok, no

    schwartzi
    schwartzi
    6 years ago

    ok the father agreed and they had the meeting, the takanos involved a ban on his son smoking ( even though HALF of the yeshiva was smoking,With the yeshiva’s knowledge,and right in front of their noses) but anyway no problem here, also, no MBD concerts, ok, there too. And 1 more thing ( here comes the kicker) the father has to pay tuition for the 6 months that his son was on the streets, lol lol lol.
    At this point, the father blew a fit ( can you blame him?) and he told the menahel and rosh yeshiva that he agreed to all their terms, BUT TO PAY MONEY FOR THE TIME HIS SON WAS ON THE STREETS? that’s worse than sodom, so the dear rosh yeshiva got angry and said to the father, ” what a chutzpah, you have, this is how you talk to a rosh yeshiva, KVOD HATORAH the nerve” and the father answered back. kvod hatorah? kvod hatorah? you BUMS almost destroyed my child,and now you have the nerve to ask me for tuition when he was on the streets? you can all go and shove, i lost all respect for you and your ilk, i would never send him back to this mafia run school. you make the shylocks look good. anyway, b h he found a chofetz chaim yeshiva out of town,that gladly took him in,

    schwartzi
    schwartzi
    6 years ago

    and he loved it there,and they loved him back,and he graduated from there,went on to college,raised a beautiful family k;ayin hora, and became a philanthropist at the same time, becoming a major supporter of his yeshiva,and others too. It so happened that around 3 years ago,when his old yeshiva sent out schnorrer letters,as all yeshivas do, he sent them back a $ 1 donation together with a picture of himself and a plaque being honored by another institution,
    Moral of the story, NEVER kick out a child, ya never knows what will become of him/her ( in the future) ,they might just be one of your biggest supporters,or even end up sitting on your board . of directors. I’ll tell ya, dose losers that kicked him out lost out on a golden opportunity , They blew it by being chazerim. lol lol lol. 1 story that had a happy ending b’ h

    schwartzi
    schwartzi
    6 years ago

    Ina, we cant make a blanket statement saying all mechanchim or roshei yeshivos are bad g d forbid, that would be totally false, but unfortunately there are quite a lot of screw ups among them.
    The rosh yeshiva in the above story is the son a well known Rav in Brooklyn ( who passed away some time ago, who happened to be a very down to educator) I myself am surprised that he acted this way. But fo figure.