Thank you to the Teach NJS staff for creating a venue for our community to reach out and interact with government officials regarding non-public school tuition costs at the Teach NJS Annual Legislative Breakfast on April 15. While this event has been lauded a success, with over 300 people in attendance (much more than at the previous Teaneck event), we left wondering, where was everyone? For an event that was hoping to help Jewish students from all over the state (in addition to Christian and Muslim), where was everyone?

With all due respect to the comments put forth by Chaviva Rosenbluth in this paper in November 2017 (The Question Should be “Why Did You Not Show Up?”), none of which I am negating at this current time, I am still certain that there were more than 300 attendees who could have shown up to a Sunday morning breakfast. We are a full-time working couple in our early 30s. When we heard about this event (which was widely publicized for weeks), we made the decision to find a babysitter and spend our precious Sunday morning away from our daughter and all our other obligations so that we could show up. Our daughter is not yet in day school! Who did we see there? We saw the teachers, the rebbeim, the school donors and 50-some-odd students.

Who did we not see? We did not see our peers, those who have just begun the day school process or are about to. We did not see the thousands of parents one step ahead of us who already have children in the schools. We did not see every grandparent. Where were you?! Could that soccer game have been played later in the day? Could one spouse have stayed home with the younger kids so that the other could have come with the older students?

What did we see? We saw a bored counci-member at our table who left the event early. We saw empty chairs. How much more of an impact could our community have made if each and every one of us took the responsibility upon ourselves to show up? If this had been a standing-room-only event? Had the line been out the door and around the building to get in? There was a list of 20 day schools that were supposed to be represented by the event, with a total of thousands of students and parents. Only 300 showed up? Where is our power in numbers?

As a community, we can do better. Where were you?

There is one event coming up through the OU Advocacy Network, the Annual Leadership Mission to D.C., on Wednesday, June 13, 2018, and countless opportunities to get involved locally with Teach NJS! We encourage you to do both! Attendees will be advocating for issues critical to the security and strengthening of our schools. Understandably, this is a workday, not a five-minute drive from your home, and most of us working folks do not have the luxury to take the day off to go. But please ask yourself, can I be there?

We will also be hosting a Teach NJS parlor meeting at our home in New Milford for young parents. For more information regarding this and to RSVP, please email Jacqueline Kelly at [email protected]

We can do better.

Aviva and Avi Cohen