AAQ said – “On one hand, Aguda approach was able to isolate and save from assimilation a lot of Yidden and many had large families in several generations. Those who were more exposed to non-Jewish world have higher assimilation rates and smaller families. But notice that both EY and US leaders considered these measures as emergency (midbar, Chazon Ish, breaking ribs while doing CPR R Kotler) – and now these communities normalized this emergency method, leading to three generations of Yidden with broken ribs wandering about the desert”
You are misching together several unrelated issues, some of which have nothing to do with anything I posted. ‘Agudah approach was to isolate’ – no, actually Agudah was a political party/lobbying group. Its stance vis-a-vis Zionism was and is considered moderate. It was and remains an umbrella organization representing diverse groups (Chassidish, Litvish, German Jews in the early days, Sephardim before Shas). Being ‘isolated’ from the Goyim was the norm for most of Klal Yisroel pre-Haskalah.
The mass Kollel movement you seem to so deplore is peculiar to one particular branch of Chareidim, i.e. Litvaks, and isn’t the subject of this thread. It also didn’t start as an emergency measure, or have anything to do with preventing assimilation. When and where assimilation was an issue (pre-War Europe), there were very few people in Kollel. Lakewood didn’t begin to grow anywhere near its present size until well after the petirah of Reb Aharon Kotler, at which point American Jewry had become well established ברוחניות ובגשמיות. Why they do it the way they do is beyond the scope of this thread. (Disclaimer – I am not a Litvak, but I deeply respect כל אשר יראוך)
Chassidim typically were and are more zealous in distancing themselves from Goyish ways and influences, and typically have large families B”H, but generally did not embrace Kollel-for-everyone OR college-for-everyone. Many of them live near Lakewood/in Tom’s River… Chassidim also aren’t the subject of this thread.
“But mostly, there is a large community that focuses on self-preservation rather than Emes of Torah – and redefines what “emes” is according to their limited understanding. I don’t think this is what Hashem expects from Jews.”
WOW, that is a ‘humble’ statement. Thank you for kindly sharing with us of ‘limited understanding’, your profound השגה of ‘Emes of Torah’, based upon your presumably ‘unlimited’ understanding of what Hashem expects from Jews… Something you apparently believe you know more about than all of the Gedolim of the past 100 years who, nebbech, were busy with ‘self preservation’… Get real… I am not campaigning here for a particular Shittah or Gadol or subtype of Chareidim, חבר אני לכל אשר יראוך, but emphasis on the יראוך, and not איש הישר בעיניו יעשה.