Not for Everyone

Found Poem #5/Not for Everyone

“If my parents knew where I was
Right now —
They wouldn’t have sent me to Israel,”
A very drunk 17-year-old
Confides during a night out
With his school buddies at “Crack Square,”
— a well-known downtown hangout
For thousands of young Jerusalemites
In search

of a good time.

The teen, who says
His father is a very Orthodox American rabbi,
Explains that his parents sent him
To a mainstream Orthodox yeshiva
“To get me back on the derech,”
The Hebrew term for path.

He spent part of the previous year
In the States "drunk
And high...a lot.”

The rabbi’s son comes
To Crack Square
A few nights a week
Where he throws back
“six or seven drinks” a night.

Up to a third of
The estimated 2,000—3,000 yeshiva students
Spending their year before college in Israel
Are dealing with:
Anxiety,
Depression.
Eating disorders,
Overwhelming religiosity — commonly referred to
As flipping out —,
A crisis of religious faith
Or substance abuse.

“It’s the elephant in the room
Nobody’s talking about,”
Said Arthur Poleyoff, principal at
The Torah Academy of Bergen County,
A boys’ yeshiva high school
In Teaneck, New Jersey.

“It’s not popular to say so,” he said
But Israel isn’t for -- everyone."

Source: The Jewish Week, Jan. 15. 2010