This is a very interesting topic. Thank you Joseph for bringing it up.
The feeling I have heard, and to echo WtP; is that the children of shluchim do better, because their parents do not rely on school for the children’s chinuch, don’t rely on the street for their children’s company and don’t rely on the community to provide a yiddishe atmosphere. Therefore they HAVE TO do it themselves. They do it themselves and they put their kishkes into it. Halevai, ‘in-town’ parents would would be so hands-on involved in their children’s chinuch. It’s no surprise therefore that the children of shluchim turn out to be ehrliche Yiedden and eventually shluchim themselves.
@chabadshlucha, The Rebbe’s brocho will continue to become true, for as long as ‘Shlucho shel odom kemoso’, and ‘Chazoko shliach oiseh shlichuso’, it will be ‘Shlichei mitzva ainon nizokin’.
A couple of questions, Gateshead is a very frum litvishe town in NE England, and right next to it, is Newcastle, a city with very little yiddishkeit. The Chabad shliach in Newcastle sent his children to the litvishe schools in Gateshead. (This was 14 years ago but may still be true.) How would a potential shliach feel about going to a place which is very near a thriving mokom Torah, as opposed to a place which is a genuine hick town in the back end of beyond? Is a Newcastle type place more attractive or does it make no difference to a young couple starting out on shlichus.
Secondly, how does the OTD rate compare in Crown Heights with the OTD among shluchim?
To end off, this is the opposite point of view, but we have to be balanced…
Ohr LaGolah, is Ohr Somayach’s training program for OOT Rabbis. They tell their trainees to only live out of the Yiddishe centres for two years, because they don’t want their children coming back to them as customers, i.e. as non-frum, needing kiruv themselves.