The Church Council meeting is scheduled for September 6, 2005 with Father Anthony Hernandez.  We insist that the leaders of fraternities and other church group leaders bring to the meeting his or her projects, suggestions, and plans for the new term.

Closing of the Transfiguration School

The Transfiguration Catholic Church and school has been a cornerstone of the Williamsburg, Brooklyn community for decades. In recent years, enrollment has been slipping so low that church leaders decided the pre-kindergarten through eighth grade school is no longer sustainable.

A slow, steady stream of cars cued in front of Transfiguration on Thursday…parents picking up their children…an 18-year veteran,named Mary, waited out front. Mary knows that she is in the final few months of ushering her students to their cars at the end of the school day.

I enjoy being a teacher, so it`s going to be very hard for me not to do anything.

Neither Mary nor Alyssa…another teacher, who is in her second year at Transfiguration…wanted to give their last name.  Since the diocese announced that it was closing the schools last week, most teachers think it safer to keep mum.  But Leonora Verella…a mother who has a seventh grade son at the school…wanted to talk as she waited for her son.  For her, Transfiguration`s closing indicates a neighborhood that has changed.

The community is changing…it`s becoming mostly Hasidim/People have nowhere to go; there`s not a lot of minority people here.

Alyssa, the teacher, also worries that…after the schoolcloses…the once dominant and influential Catholic presence will be overtaken by the growing Hasidic population.  The 2000 census showed small increases of Hasidim in Williamsburg.  Most residents…including Alyssa…say the dramatic increases have come in the past three or four years.

We worry that the Catholic Church will be eliminated from this neighborhood because this is so heavily Hassidic.  And we fear that this is first going…give that a couple of years…and it`s going to diminish the entire Catholic presence in the area.

In fact, to walk on Hooper Street…past Transfiguration…today, you probably would not have any idea that a Catholic school was nearby.  Signs are posted in Hebrew. School buses are driven by men with payess…the long, curly locks of hair hanging beside their ears. Women dress in a uniformly plain, conservative style.

The Hasidics are growing very fast and they need more room.

Javier Bosquez is the church administrator at Transfiguration. He said he has been offered money by Hasidic Jews for the school building already…before it has even closed.  That fierce market competition is difficult for many of the Catholic families…who are generally poorer… to compete with.  And he says that as Catholic families are priced out, the school enrollment has declined.

They give you cash as much as you want…it`s unbelievable. They`re going to grow and they`re going to take everything, little by little.

Hasidic Jews are known for their isolation from the outside world.  Most walking on the street were not willing to talk about the departure of Transfiguration School…a neighborhood landmark they see everyday.  But Leib Goldstein…a non-orthodox Jew who lives just a block from the school…was interested in talking.  He said no one is being pushed out of the area.

They co-exist, each one…the Jew never denies anybody his rights.  Neither do the Catholics.  We might not like each other but we co-exist…We do separate each other; we don`t want the way of life imposed on us and vice versa. 

It`s not as if the Transfiguration School will dissolve into thin air come May.  The students will be absorbed...along with students from several other closing schools…into the Most Holy Trinity School in southern Brooklyn. George Spencer, Columbia Radio News.

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Priests Organize, Focusing on Right Within the Church

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