One Of Nine Girls Not Accepted Into Lakewood High School writes Diary

The following was sent to the OnlySimchas inbox. 

Dear OS!

My neighbors 14 year old daughter is one of nine girls not accepted into high school in Lakewood. Her mother discovered today that she has been keeping a diary. Here is today’s heart wrenching entry:

Today is 56 days since school started here in Lakewood. It is now 56 days of me being rejected. I have no more tears to cry and I promised on Shabbos that I would try not to cry again.

In the summer when I realized that this was really serious, my father told me that it was a nisayon from Hashem. When school started and my sisters went off to high school leaving me behind, my father said it was a nisayon from Hashem.

When my parents saw me crying on Hoshan Rabba and asked me why. I said I didn’t understand why Hashem doesn’t answer my teffilos. My father said I promise you that Hashem will answer your tefillos.

It is now 56 days since school started and more then four months since this nightmare started. My parents are the frumest people I know. My mother works so hard and never complains. My father learns every free second he has. When he is home he is always looking into a sefer.

When school started without me my father told me that if I keep my faith in Hashem and hold myself together it will be a tremendous zechus for Klal Yisroel. I still don’t understand why I am rejected. I always got good marks and was never a problem child.

I did well in school and never dreamed that I would have a problem getting into high school. My parents keep telling me that it has nothing to do with me and it’s only because the school owner doesn’t like my father. It makes no sense. My father is the nicest person I know. There were months that he gave away so much tzedakah, we were worried that he would leave nothing left for our family. My parents would give their shirt off their backs to help someone else.

What could the school owner have against my father that he would hate me so much.

I can’t even look at my tehillim anymore. Even if I get into school I have no idea how I will catch up on all the material. When I walk into class everyone will be thinking here is the rejected girl, there must be something wrong with her.

I haven’t seen my mother smile in such a long time. I sometimes wish we didn’t live in Lakewood. I wish we lived in a place where everyone got into school. I am so bored, how many times can I go food shopping with my mother?

Maybe today the school owner will call up my parents and let me into school.

Does he even ever think about me sitting home? I wonder if he has daughters in school.

I wonder if he understands what he has done to me and my family. My parents say don’t have tainos. I don’t know how I could ever forget this. I wonder if his wife knows that I am home crying while everyone is in school. I hope Hashem hears my cries. 56 days is way too long. Here I start crying again and have to stop writing.

Lakewood girl schools again turning away Jewish Children!

See this letter from a victim

DEAR PROPRIETORS OF LAKEWOOD’S BAIS YAAKOV HIGH SCHOOLS:

Once again, you have seen fit to send out acceptance letters to most of Lakewood’s eighth grade girls. The “undesirable” minority will go to their graduations publicly degraded – everyone knows who they are.

You say there is no room, “the boat is full.” That’s exactly what the Swiss government said when denying refuge to Jews during World War II. Incongruous with a “poor” community such as Lakewood, your mosdos scream wealth and plenty. Surely you can find room for a few extra desks – even a new classroom – in those enormous, grand high school buildings of yours? 

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You say the unaccepted girls are “not tznius.” This may be true of a select minority, and being in the business of chinuch, they are also your responsibility. However, you have an evil practice of persecuting the less academic students, children of divorce, those who have difficulty paying tuition, and those whose parents you can blackmail before you grant them a precious seat in your mosad.

Young, fragile, impressionable children and their families are at your mercy. Their hopes for the future, their self-esteem, their sholom bayis, and their physical health are being sacrificed on the altar of your egotistic iron grip of power. It must take a lot of strength to overcome your genetic predisposition to be rachmanim b’nei rachmanim. Or perhaps we should examine your genealogy.

No one is fooled by your beard-stroking, yeshivish-talking imitation piety; not even your own employees or your own children. It only serves to remind us that you should know better. The Torah you appear to represent and impart in your schools does not condone your behavior.

Have yourselves an Evian conference and decide how to solve the problem of universal high school acceptance in a way that does not shame or destroy precious bnos yisroel. Treat them as you would your own beloved, superior, deserving children. Stop feigning innocence and blaming others; do the right thing.