Yeshiva High School of the Twin Cities needs to raise more than $500,000 by May 15 to remain open
By ERIN ELLIOTT BRYAN /Â Community News Editor
Rabbi Moshe Weiss tears up when talking about the community of Cottage Grove.
“I didn’t realize the extent of our impact that we’ve had on the community, and vice versa, until these past several months,” Weiss said. “I’ve met some of the most wonderful, caring people I’ve ever met in my life in Cottage Grove… and there’s not a lot of Jews in Cottage Grove.”
Weiss is director of Yeshiva High School of the Twin Cities, or simply MyYeshiva, an Orthodox Jewish boarding school for boys that opened in Cottage Grove in September 2006 (6-16-07 AJW).
The school is housed in what was once the Eagle Grove Baptist Church, and MyYeshiva purchased the building on a contract for deed from the Minnesota Baptist Conference (MBC).
Last fall, MyYeshiva was faced with parents who couldn’t pay the full cost of tuition and donors who couldn’t support the school in ways they once did. To deal with the economic downturn, which has affected nearly all nonprofits, MyYeshiva launched a financial sustainability campaign, which included both fundraising and budget reductions. As part of the plan, MyYeshiva staff negotiated with the MBC, which agreed to lower the mortgage’s principal from more than $900,000 to $660,000.
“That was a significant achievement,” Weiss said. “We just didn’t expect that [the MBC] couldn’t finance it, like they had been doing until then. That was a surprise. It turned our sustainability plan into an emergency need. We weren’t planning for an emergency… And we need to be rescued.”
The MBC gave MyYeshiva a Feb. 1 deadline to raise the $660,000 to purchase the building (12-25-09 AJW). MyYeshiva raised more than $100,000 and the council agreed to extend the deadline.
Now, MyYeshiva must raise the remaining $525,000 by May 15 — and there will be no further deadline extensions.
“[MBC] needs to sell that building and take that money and do their ministry,” Weiss said. “And it’s not so much that they don’t want to… They can’t be the bank anymore.”
Rabbi Moshe Weiss
Rabbi Moshe WeissMyYeshiva exists for boys who were not getting the kind of educational experience they needed.
Students come from across North America — including New York, Pittsburgh, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Baltimore and Canada — to attend MyYeshiva. Some have learning disabilities and can’t function in conventional classroom environments; others are from broken homes or low-income families who are headed down a dangerous path.
“In MyYeshiva, its main goal is you,” a ninth grade student wrote in a financial appeal letter. “If it ends up closing down, I have no idea where I’ll go.”
And unlike other schools that are facing closure, MyYeshiva’s enrollment is up. The school currently has 36 students (an increase from 18 students in its first year); and Weiss said applications are already coming in for the 2010-2011 school year.
“We have the students,” Weiss said. “They need the building. They need this building. And it’s not just a building, it’s a community.”
And the largely non-Jewish community of Cottage Grove has rallied around MyYeshiva. Whether it’s the woman who called to thank the boys for shoveling her out of a snowy ditch or the man who dropped off a check for $2,500, Weiss said it’s been an “eye-opening experience to the overwhelming love that people have.”
Jody Antoniou lives in Cottage Grove and drives by MyYeshiva every day on her way to work. She often encountered the boys at stores around town and was sad to hear that the school might close.
But when she read a Pioneer Press article about the final fundraising deadline, she reached out to Weiss.
“I was overcome with this feeling that something had to be done,” Antoniou, who is not Jewish, told the AJW. “I felt like no matter what we could do, big or small, those boys had to know that we cared that their school might close, that we cared about who they were as people and we cared who they were as neighbors, and we could do something.”
Antoniou e-mailed Weiss, whom she had never met, and the two hit it off. Antoniou has fundraising experience and offered to help plan a gold-buying event on Jan. 31 — just three weeks away — that was attended by “a couple hundred” people and raised approximately $7,000.
Antoniou is now involved in a letter-writing campaign, reaching out to congregations and private donors, and helping Weiss plan a phonathon.
“I am really impressed with all of the rabbis and the sacrifices in their personal lives that they have made to keep this school going, and to support the boys and their families that are involved with the yeshiva,” Antoniou said. “People should search their hearts and see the good that’s being done, and if they are so moved that they should donate to the school, then they’ll touch a lot of lives.”
Weiss stressed that this is not a fundraising drive, but a “rescue mission” to save MyYeshiva. He is looking for a private donor to “make a good investment in humanity”; but he is also encouraging everyone to visit the yeshiva and take advantage of the opportunity to support its mission — even if it’s with a $5 donation.
“I have complete faith in God and humanity,” Weiss said. “We need $525,000 by May 15 or we’re done, and that’s not acceptable.… A unique, special place for young boys who are getting what they need and will not receive it anywhere else, and have not received it anywhere else, needs to be rescued.”
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For information, visit: myyeshiva.org; or contact Weiss at 651-398-4850 or e-mail: rabbiweiss@myyeshiva.org.
(American Jewish World, 4.16.10)
