I talked to the Rav today and told him about my very serious concerns about the ideological and cultural-educational dilemma in which we find ourselves, pressured by the obscurantism of the Right and the ignorance of the Left.

He too is depressed by all this. He feels that those people who are letting their children grow up under this obscurantism are producing cripples and they will live to regret it.

He is deeply disturbed by the fact that some of our students, in an attempt to be super-pious, actually develop a foreign accent in their English, are culturally illiterate, and have no knowledge of Western culture. He believes it is weird, etc.

I told him that merely being critical of a situation for which we are responsible is inadequate. I asked him to think creatively and programmatically about what strategy we have to adopt in order to change the situation. He promised to think about it and I told him I would get back to him at the end of June or sometime in July.

In addition, I asked him to speak out on these issues both to the RY's and also in his class as frequently as possible. He agreed.