[Avodah] Co-education

[Joseph C. Kaplan]

I asked R' Micha if he could give us the citation to his claim that RYBS 
"writes the co-education was the only way to get as many children into the 
school as possible, and not an ideal he himself believed in."

R' Micha replied:
> See the two letters RYBS wrote R' Leonard Rosenfeld of the Hebrew
> Institute of Long Island (HILI). His defense of coed at HILI is pragmatic
> despite ideology. His defense of gemara for women is more ideological,
> but not for mixed classes.
>
> Also, RYBS was vehemently against moving Stern (the women's college)
> to Washington Heights (near RIETS and YC -- the men).

I have, of course, read those letters (in fact, I have a Hebrew copy of the 
letter R. Rosenfeld (a close family friend) sent to RYBS which elicited this 
response), and they say no such thing; i.e., they say NOTHING about what 
"ideal" RYBS did, or did not, believe in.  Moreover, they do not contain a 
"defense of coed at HILI."  Rather, he answered a very specific question 
about the curriculum that HILI should use in teaching Torah to girls.  (BTW, 
HILI completely ignored RYBS's advice.)  He was not asked, and did not 
answer, about whether coed classes were an ideal, a bedieved or anything 
else.

As for Stern, it is clear RYBS was against having coed classes at Yeshiva 
University where RIETS was located.  That tells us nothing about his 
thoughts regarding coeducation in lower levels (i.e., elementary and high 
school).  If one wants to deduce what he thought about that, it would be 
more appropriate to see what he did at Maimonides in his later years when he 
could have, if he wished, make the classes separate -- which he did not.

But I think it's a bad idea for anyone, R' Micha or me, to put words in the 
Rav's mouth.  So I make no statement about what the Rav thought about 
coeducation, notwithstanding what he did at Maimonides, and I believe it 
would be proper if R' Micha retracted his statement about what the Rav 
thought about this issue based on his advice regarding HILI.

Joseph Kaplan