Maxwell -my other post was deleted -so I’ll try again -“Rav Aharon Kotler ZT’L made some kind of commitment not to allow English studies on the HS level in Lakewood. The exact details, and if this was actually a Takanah or merely a preference, is not clear and depends who you ask. In any case, Rabbi Elya Svei, Rosh Yeshiva of Philadelphia and a student of Rav Aharon’s, was asked why he allows English in Philly if Rav Aharon was against it. What difference can there be between the town of Lakewood NJ and Philadelphia PA? Reb Elya answered that he has no choice, and that currently, the Baalei Batim would not send their kids to the Yeshiva except under these circumstances.”
I don’t know why R’ Ahron held there was a difference between Lakewood and elsewhere, perhaps he didn’t want any high school in Lakewood. R’ Ahron held that you had to go to secular studies in high school.
The truth is R’ Ahron just didn’t want English in Lakewood, (or High School in general), but everywhere else he wanted. This is what I once heard -the 12th grade class of Philly near the beginning of the yeshiva didn’t want to go to English anymore and stopped going. R’ Elya said you have to go and they said no. So they went to R’ Ahron and he said 12th graders still need babysitters and can’t learn a whole day and they have to go to secular studies.
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