With all respect to the opinion of the one who wrote the article;
I read/ heard recently about the life of the first kollel yungerman of the yeshiva. (As a side point- he never left the yeshiva, he went on to work for the yeshiva for the rest of his life. When he passed away he was also the person with the longest affiliation with the yeshiva).
What I found very interesting was the amount of mesiras nefesh he put in, not only for his own learning but for the well being of the yeshiva. Besides for learning a full day in the yeshiva, during bain hasedorim he would ride his bike to different hotels in the area (he didn’t own a car) and raise money from the Jewish people vacationing at the hotel. (This was in the 1940s when kollel was virtually unheard of in the U.S. Imagine how hard it was to explain to people on vacation what he was raising money for.)
He supported his growing family on the meager stipend the yeshiva provided at the time. That was sincere mesiras nefesh for learning.
When his kids got older he moved them to New York where they would not have to attend a coed school. He commuted to Lakewood during the week and back to New York for the weekends until the yeshiva opened the New York office and he got a job there.
I’m curious to know if the writer did any research for the article.
Contrary to what the author wrote- Lakewood was a resort town when Reb Aaron Kotler decided that he wanted his yeshiva located there. He wanted it at least three hours away from the distractions of New Yrok (as Squeek hinted to above). It was not “established with the Yeshivah at its core to accommodate bnei Torah”. With no separate schools, Lakewood was definitely was not a place “to raise their families in an atmosphere of Torahdike hashkafos and dikduk hamitzvos”.
I hope I don’t get in trouble for writing this but from what I understand the purpose of the yeshiva was for bochurim/ yungerleit to learn for a few years with all their needs provided and no responsibilities to distract their learning. In the early days of the yeshiva the bochurim were not charged tuition for that reason. Reb Aaron, if I remember correctly, was against talmidim taking support from the government for then the time one was able to spend in yeshiva would seem infinite and the talmidim wouldn’t give it “their fullest” compared to if they knew they only had 6 to 12 months left and they had to “chap arayn”.
As this is a sensitive issue, I sincerely hope I did not offend anyone. Please forgive me if I did.