Betsy: meet Bender! Secretary of Education visits Yeshiva Darchei Torah

Editor's Note: Ive been fascinated the past few years with politics and governance as a way to help me understand the world and learn how to navigate within the systems and maze that had for so long bewildered me and left me feeling lost; aimless and adrift. Perhaps my interest in policy and political philosophy is what gave me the courage and curiosity to explore the world outside my four walls (I had spent majority of a five-year period huddled in my bed,hiding in the safety of the four walls that were both my refuge and my prison.) During the 2016 presidential primary I was struck by the fsct that the candidates were proposing ideas for education as if they were so insightful and revolutionary that for this alone they deserve to be elected; while i knew that these were ideas that had already been implemented years before in Yeshiva Darchei Torah. Also innovative options such as charter schools, school choice - I cried when the girl stood up at the State of the Union speech when President Trump congradulated her for academic acheivement. I think she got a masters in social work, but im not sure, and this is in some credit to the opportunity to attend a private school through school voucher after she failed out of two public schools -and to know that Darchei has already paved the way on these trailblazing issues as well. Many choices I have made in my life hounded me years later deliberating the could have should have and would have. I have never regretted choosing to send my son to darchei and therefore it was especially meaningful for me to see the intersection of public policy and private life when betsy devos visited darchei. Jewish people should be a light onto the naitions and this was an incredible kiddush hashem and that is why I felt moved to post the write up of this even onto my blog.

U.S. Education Secretary Visits Yeshiva Darchei Torah, Making History

Secretary DeVos discussing poetry with fourth graders in the Willens Literacy Library at Yeshiva Darchei Torah. Standing, L-R: Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, Rabbi Moshe Bender, Mr. Ronald Lowinger and Rabbi Yaakov Bender.

FAR ROCKAWAY, NY— Yeshiva Darchei Torah was privileged to welcome the Honorable Betsy DeVos, the secretary of education of the United States, for a tour of its campus on Wednesday morning. Ms. DeVos made history as the first-ever head of the federal Department of Education to visit a yeshiva since the cabinet-level post was established in 1980. Secretary DeVos, a lifelong champion of school choice, was led on a panoramic tour of Yeshiva Darchei Torah’s 9-acre campus that showcased several salient aspects of the Yeshiva’s world-renowned educational experience. Accompanying her were Rabbi Yaakov Bender, rosh hayeshiva; Mr. Ronald Lowinger, president; Rabbi Moshe Bender, associate dean; Rabbi Eli Biegeleisen, director of community engagement; and Rabbis Chaim Dovid Zwiebel and Abba Cohen of Agudath Israel of America. The first stop was a third-grade classroom, where the rebbi was in the midst of a lesson on the shivas haminim. Using props from plastic fruit to freshly baked cookies, the rebbi ensured that the lesson came to life—and Secretary DeVos clearly enjoyed following along. She was shown the room’s SMART Board, one of many throughout the building, as an example of the Yeshiva’s successful integration of technology in the classroom. Further down the hallway, Ms. DeVos entered the Yeshiva’s Willens Literacy Library, where she sat down and joined the fourth grade boys in learning about poetry. The Secretary’s next stop was to one of the crown jewels of Yeshiva Darchei Torah, the Rabenstein Learning Center, where she witnessed some of the 300 students with special-education needs who regularly receive tutoring, therapy and self-contained classroom instruction within the school setting. After stopping in on a sixth grade class that was studying Gemara, the tour moved across the campus to the Weiss Vocational Center, a trailblazing program where a select cadre of Mesivta students spend part of their afternoons learning trades such as carpentry, plumbing, electrical contracting and home wiring—in addition to a core curriculum that includes math, sciences and language arts. The Secretary was shown a fully-functioning bathroom built from top-to-bottom by the students and watched as a talmid soldered an iron pipe. Another talmid presented her with a gift: a skillfully hand-crafted wooden cutting board with an American flag motif.

Yehuda Reisman demonstrates his skills at the Weiss Vocational Center of Yeshiva Darchei Torah. Looking on, L-R: Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, Mr. Ronald Lowinger, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, Rabbi Eli Biegeleisen, Rabbi Moshe Lubart and Rabbi Yaakov Bender.

At Mesivta Chaim Shlomo, Secretary DeVos joined a class of high school bachurim for an enlightening, hands-on chemistry lesson in the Yeshiva’s state-of-the-art science laboratory. Arriving at the Yeshiva’s 5,000-square-foot bais hamedrash during first seder was visibly an eye-opener for the secretary, as the hall reverberated with the sounds of hundreds of bachurim and yungeleit learning together at woodenshtenders. She approached one pair, who happily explained to her the basics of studying Gemara with Rishonim and Acharonim and the efficacy of chavrusa learning. The visitors were also introduced to bachurim with physical disabilities who, in classic Darchei fashion, are integrated within the regular Yeshiva framework. The delegation then walked across the campus promenade, passing the Yeshiva’s spacious ballfields and magnificent playgrounds, for a brief visit to a room full of precocious children in the Harriet Keilson Early Childhood Center. The tour was followed by a luncheon meeting with a cross-section of Yeshiva Darchei Torah parents, teachers, alumni and board members, who shared their personal reflections with Secretary DeVos. Among the issues discussed were the success of the Darchei educational model, including the dual curriculum of limudei kodesh and limudei chol; the challenge of tuition affordability; and the need to ensure that programs for children with special needs receive their fair share of government funding. Secretary DeVos listened attentively and offered her own perspective on the need for continued advocacy on behalf of school choice, on both the federal and state levels. The Secretary of Education was visibly moved by her visit to Yeshiva Darchei Torah. As she made her way back to the waiting motorcade for her return flight to Washington, she commented that the children were amazing and that she had seen some unique things at Darchei Torah that she had not seen at any other school. * The visit was widely covered in the mainstream press, which tended to focus on the fact that Ms. DeVos visited only religious schools during this swing through New York. Her spokeswoman responded that in New York and across the country, “religious education plays an important role in the education landscape. Every child and family has unique education needs, and for some, that means not having to bifurcate religion from education.” The spokeswoman added that the two-day visit to New York yeshiva institutions “gave the secretary an opportunity to see firsthand how that’s working for Orthodox families.”