Reasons for a girl to go to Seminary? Israel or domicile country?

As far as I know There are no real Seminaries in the US like there are in israel. In fact the only seminary I can think of not in Israel with Dorms like Israel is in Gateshead

There are plenty of seminaries in the US, even more now to fill the need of those who don’t go to E”Y. I’m a bit out of date on them, but you can see the adds in the frum nagazines/newspapers. The need for dorms will depend on whether the student body is local or not, and whether the community can board students or not. But I don’t think that a dorm makes a seminary.

But I guess this is what Alizgit means that “going to seminary” means different things to different people- ZD, to you it means moving away from home to a school with a dorm.

1. There are very few seminaries in the US. The few that there are for a certain type/types, and for many girls, there is nothing in the US that is their type. I know girls whose parents didn’t let them go to US for sem, so they had to go in the States, but there was nothing at all matim for them.

2. Person1 – Israeli girls are not considered to be “going to seminary” the way that American girls do. In the Israeli BY system, seminary is a continuation of high school. You learn in the same school, and it is called ?-?, since it is just the fifth and sixth years of high school. The basic difference is that you have a “maslul” (major) but that makes it college, not seminary.

3. A big part of the seminary year is to be in a dorm – to grow in independence, to learn from other girls, etc. Also, if you are talking about a girl who is really trying to change, it is usually easier to do so away from her home and old environment.

4. Most importantly, as Shopping said: “Israel is where we all belong…(see post above)”

The question isn’t “why are you going to seminary in EY?” but why are you in the US in the first place??!! We are all supposed to be in EY all the time, presumably anyone who lives in chu”l, it is only because there are reasons why they feel they have no choice, but we have a chiyuv to live in EY as much as we can, so at least for the first year of adulthood, one should start off in EY, even if they can’t stay longer.

I would also guess that there are many people who ended up living here post-marriage becase of their year in EY. It is very hard to move to EY post-marriage, and it can be very hard for the girls whose chasans are learning, and they don’t know anyone and don’t have any kind of social setting,etc. I would imagine that it is much easier for those girls who already spent a year here, so they know people here and they know their way around, etc. It is very different to move to a place that you have never been to before and to move somewhere where you already spent a year and are very familiar with.

LU, everything you said about seminary in Israel is true, it’s an experience that is life changing and wonderful.

But there are some girls whose parent can’t afford it- think about how much it costs, x however many girls there are in the family.

Also, some don’t feel it is right for a single girl to be on her own, far from her family, even if in a supervised dorm. Some girls grow and mature, and some don’t handle the freedom well.

Mostly, chasidim feel that way and don’t send their daughters to learn in E”Y.

These are legitimate viewpoints, and girls shouldn’t be made to feel second class if that is their circumstances.

If more girls stayed, there would be more options in the US, just as the options in E”Y have expanded with the increased demand.

Shopping – true, but they have dorms. I was responding to Person1’s statement that Israeli girls go to sem but don’t have dorms. My point was that the typical Israeli girl who goes to a seminary w/o a dorm is not “going to seminary” the way Americans do.

I was going to mention that Ofakim and the seminaries for American-Israelis are different, but like I said, they do have dorms. Also, they are not typical Israeli seminaries. The typical system is different.

You had mentioned that you are not in a dorm, so I guess that girls who go to these seminaries don’t always dorm, but I imagine that it is always an option. (correct me if I’m wrong). I would also guess that it is not the same experience if you are not in the dorm (although I guess that some prefer that – I know one girl who chose her seminary on that basis).

“The connection to E”Y is one answer that satisfies me.”

I think that really is the main one. But I think that people feel like they need to come up with other reasons (and there are many) to justify spending so much money to send a girl away from home to learn. From my perspective, we should all be here anyways. But when I am speaking to people in America and trying to convince them to send their daughters here, I have to keep in mind that they themselves live in the US, so why should they think that davka their 18 year old daughter needs to come here for the year?

But since the seminary year is about growth, I can talk about the fact that you can’t grow in chu”l the way you can in EY, and the people here are different and there is so much to learn from them, etc.

And in addition, I do think that it is very good for many girls to get away for a year, especially those who are over-burdened at home as well as those who are from more modern backgrounds and want to or need to change.

In terms of how it started, it probably started (at least in the BY world) when Rebbetzin David, shlit”a decided to start a seminary in EY. I don’t know if there were any seminaries in the States at the time, but if there were, I imagine they were not on the same caliber.

And then, more and more girls wanted to come, and they couldn’t all get in, so new seminaries opened up, and the process kept repeating.

That was exactly my point. They have dorms and therefore, one does get the real seminary experience there. The typical Israeli seminaries do no have dorms and one does not get the “seminary experience” there. (although, one get other things).

Pninim isn’t exactly american israel, the majority is plain american. There’s rinat tzipporah who caters to both and 2 or 3 other places I do not remember the names of. One in bet shemesh, one is tsfat, (Darchei Emunah, I think) and another is Jerusalem