By COLlive reporter
Rabbi Moishe Shur, a synagogue cantor, has been named interim principal of the Lubavitch yeshiva boys school in Montreal, Canada.
The 68-year-old Rabbinical College of Canada – Tomchei Tmimim Lubavitch is currently shuffling staff, ending Rabbi Yosef Sputz‘s long-time position as principal.
Financial and organizational dificulties has been the school’s fate since the passing of its founding director Rabbi Leib Kramer in 1999.
A young group of Lubavitch community members are trying to change that, with Shimi Traurig as administrator.
In a letter to parents, Traurig wrote “we are hard at work all summer planning what promises to be BE”H a fantastic upcoming year.”
The school has been consulting with Rabbi Yossi Rosenblum of the Yeshiva schools of Pittsburgh, who has traveled to Montreal to meet with staff and parents.
Rosenblum recommended that they hire an interim principal to effectively manage the day to day operations until a permanent one is found.
Rabbi Shur, a father of 9 and chazzan of Beth Israel Beth Aaron Congregation in Cute S. Luc, has agreed to fill the position for the time being.
He will be joined by Rabbi Zalman Kaplan, Director of Adult Education at the Montreal Torah Center – Chabad, who will help with organizing a unified curriculum with a focus on the older grades.
2 years ago the school added a third floor to accommodate growing enrollment. It serves close to 400 boys from pre-kindergarten through high school.
Regarding replacing the teachers who were let go, Traurig wrote: “Our Vaad Hachinuch has already identified a number of potential candidates for our available teaching positions. We shall be announcing our newly hired Melamdim as soon as we confirm them all.”
“Our entire Vaad Hachinuch and Hanholo including myself as volunteer administrator take great pride in Rabbis Shur and Kaplan for undertaking this holy task of guiding our Rebbe’s Yeshiva through this year of change,” he added.
Bb
i am forever thankful to him for being such a kind caring principal..he is a real mentch
The best Rabbi! 🙂
hahahahaha round and round round it gos……….
Rabbis Shur and Kaplan are both professionals in their field. I know Rabbi Shur has a beautiful voice and I have been told that Rabbi Kaplan gives wonderful shiurim to adults.As a parent with children in Yeshiva,
I would like to know what are their qualifications to run an elementary school?
As a Montrealer I would like to set the record straight: It was not Rabbi Kramer alone who kept the Yeshiva alive, it was the entire Hanhola: Rabbi Sputz A”H, Rabbi Hendel A”H, and YL”T Rabbi Feigelstock, Rabbi Gurary, Professor Teitelbaum. Parents in Montreal need to understand the expense to educate a child, it cannot be the burden of the Board alone. What I don’t understand how one fires a Principal without knowing who will be his replacement, why not have an assistant principal for a year work under Rabbi Sputz. What the board and parents need to understand that… Read more »
Being a resident of montreal i was disappointed that Rabbi sputz left he is a great man and as a former student i can say hes a very respectable man and a great principal
but now seeing that they are serious about ( not only changing but also) improving i cannot think of a better candidate than Rabbi Shur
Kol hakavod and thank you for doing this for our community
when we need it most? OK, we read about Rosenblum, but Shneur is strangely out of sight. Could it be that he knows better than to get involved in his birthplace (where we know where he came from)?
i am with you! we might have been classmates (or hallway mates, since that is where i spent most days)
as if the yeshiva was better off then, finnancially and academically! Melamdim and suppliers were not paid then (and now they are). There was a much higher percentage of kids off the yeshiva path then than there are now.
No, as much as the esteemed Rabbi Kramer is missed, the yeshiva has been better off since 1999. It all went down when the expension of the building became too much to handle, and the good principal was given mundade administrative duties that were to the detriment of his great talents in chinuch.
very wrong analysis you’ve got here (and there).
Hmmmm, seems like they were all from the same person on the yeshiva board.
PPL do appreciate Shimmys work, but thats where it stops, how many of us really think with this interim, 5 fresh clueless naive teachers moving to montreal with their familys for this position will do any good? time will tell we’ll be asking for the old members back and these will be ashamed from their embarrassing results, putting 300 students chinuch at risk!
and may Hashem reward their efforts
Chaval Al DeAvdin. Rabbi SPutz has been beloved by all Talmidim. We will surely get passed this recurent crisis. We’ll certainly be back to this same point in 15 years. History repeats itself, so we must learn from it.
The Yeshiva is in it’s 70th year!
http://pirsumrishon.blogspot.com/2011/01/2-cheshvan-5702.html
While I was in yeshiva there, way before 1999, there were strikes going on every couple days… guess not much has changed.
Fire the good ones. then check if you ahve anything else.. yup.. same ol’ same ol’
we look forward to a year of positive change and thank you to all those involved in making changes -.
may all future comments on this topic please remain positive. positivity breeds positivity. let’s keep it that way. maalin b’kodesh.
Yasher Koach to Shimmy and the hanholo for all they are doing to try to improve our Yeshiva.
We wish Hatzlocho Rabbo to R. Shur, R. Kaplan and all the Rebbis and look forward to a great year!
We Montreallers are so grateful to the special group of individuals who have spearheaded the effort to improve our schools. We know that you are working hard and that things are not always easy. We support you and look forward to good things ahead for our boys.