Have We Lost the Tznius War? (Submitted)

By RL

For the past few years there has been constant talk about Tznius, or the lack thereof, in our community.There were Articles and asifos, speeches and letters from Rabbis. Now it seems nobody talks about tznius anymore. Walking around town it seems that the clothes have gotten entirely away from the standards that used to represent our community. It looks like we have lost the war against immodest dress. 

What was the failure? How come so many women, and yes even men, are clueless when it comes to proper Jewish dress?

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The message that has been imparted by the Schools of Lakewood is that dressing modestly is a burden that we all must bear. Not that modest dress is above all fashion trends. They should make children feel how special it is to be modest. Instead they taught them that they have to dress modest or they will suffer consequences. 

We lost the war because the generals didn't pick the right battles. They picked on every last detail in the way girls dress. They allowed no individuality in case it would lead to non tznius behavior. This caused girls to get entirely turned off and throw the ideals of tznius away.

Maybe now that the war is over, the teachers and principals can try once again to teach the children the true beauty of dressing tznius, and not focus on the evils of every trend that comes along.