It actually happens to be my position too. I'm pretty impressed. - not sure about his proposals.
Regardless, I just find the whole argument between Rechnitz and Rich about Lakewood to be hilarious.
With all due respect to them both.
EXCLUSIVE: Refining Rechnitz Targeting – by Richard H. Roberts, M.D., Ph.D. -
...... is not due to arrogance, a lack of caring, or elitism. It is due to a desire to insulate pure souls, during their developmental years, from secular values and the pervasive electronic media which pushes those secular values in tempting and seductive packaging to children who do not yet understand the world around them.
Intel makes computer chips, and pharmaceutical companies make injectable drugs, in absolutely pure environments since introduction of contaminants during the formation process can ruin the resultant product. The more contaminants there are the greater the risk of a faulty product that is supposed to perform correctly when launched into the world.
Many people in Lakewood accept a life of severe economic hardship to live and raise their families in a pure Torah environment.... it is to protect the success of their most important product, their children.
During adolescence, children are developing their own identities separate from their parents and within the context of the group that surrounds them (which is a child’s society). The degree that secular values are permitted to enter that child’s society is an increased level of risk that the child’s development will be distracted or derailed from Torah values.
interesting how the Lubavitcher Rebbe sent young families, including impressionable young children and rabbis to assimilated places in the 1970's and 1980's to locations such as Hawaii, Las Vegas, Sweden, Thailand, etc.. to build new open schools where their own Chassidic children would be blended into classes with non-Shabbat observing/Kosher keeping students. The key was to always be above the crowd and to be the 'teacher'/'influencer' instead of being taught/influenced.
It takes strength and constant learning, and yet it's possible to be raised in places like that and remain a "Yosef" in our generation and stronger than if we had remained in a 100% orthodox environment.
