Abraham Pinter - Yesodey Hatorah Secondary School

Yesodey Hatorah Secondary School

Pinter made efforts to secure state aid for the Yesodey Hatorah Senior Girls School and was successful. Several notable figures attended the formal opening of the School in 2006, such as Tony Blair, Lord Levy, Gerald Ronson, and Richard Desmond. In 2007 under Rabbi Pinter as Principal of the school, the school was named "the most effective school" in England, beating 81 grammar schools, under the Department for education's school's "value added" scoring system for pupil progress. Few Yesodey Hatorah girls go on to attend universities, and Rabbi Pinter said on a BBC Beyond Belief radio programme that although forgoing a university education comes at a price, it is "one well worth paying", and that he was concerned with the "decadence and drug taking" that exists in some universities that university students would come home with. When asked about the level of respect and opportunities in the community for women scholars he says "the role of women in the haredi community, they're equal but different" and that is the women's role to "ensure that we have Jewish grandchildren".