This article appeared in the August 2, 2013 Jewish Advocate.
Program fosters collaborative Torah learning experience for women
Three local congregations enjoy partnership with New York’s Yeshiva University
By Susie Davidson
Special to the Advocate
We often hear about rivalries between Boston and New York, but next month, eight young women from New York-based Yeshiva University’s Stern College will lead the way to meaningful intra-city dialogue and education.
From Aug. 4 to 18, in a partnership between Yeshiva University’s Center for the Jewish Future and local synagogues, the students will participate in a new program: the Yeshiva University Boston Beit Midrash. They will study with Rabbi Dani Rapp, Yeshiva University Associate Dean, during the daytime, and continue their learning at night with local women in the Bostonarea Jewish community.
A beit midrash, which means “house of learning,” can take place at a synagogue, a yeshiva, kollel or other site. In Boston, the learning will take place at Congregation Shaarei Tefillah and Congregation Beth El-Atereth Israel, both in Newton, and Young Israel of Brookline. Evening discussions will take place in private homes.
“Some years ago, I initiated a similar program with the men of Yeshiva [University] that ran for seven consecutive summers,” said Rabbi Gershon Gewirtz of Young Israel. “This summer, Young Israel of Brookline is pleased to welcome students from Yeshiva’s Stern College for Women. I see this as a marvelous opportunity for the women of our community to learn Torah with young women for whom Torah learning is an essential part of their lives,” he said. Stern College for Women is a small liberal-arts college that offers bachelor’s degrees in 19 majors, as well as a master’s program in biblical and Talmudic interpretation. Academic offerings include a science curriculum for careers in the medical, dental, health and science fields, and a humanities program in literature, philosophy and the arts.
The Stern students are from all over the United States, according to Rabbi Eliezer Mischel of Yeshiva University’s Community Services and Programs. They applied to the program and were accepted after being interviewed. “These young women are really fantastic,” said Mischel. “Their career goals vary, from education to business, etc., but they all share a passion for Torah study and a desire to give back to the Jewish community.”
Mischel said that each morning, the women will study Torah in depth with Rapp. In the afternoons, they will hear lectures from notable Boston figures including Dr. Jonathan Sarna and Rabbi Yaakov Jaffe. In the evenings, they will participate in community programming. “Most of these community programs are for both men and women; a few are for women only,” he said.
Congregation Shaarei Tefillah and Congregation Beth El-Atereth Israel is also looking forward to hosting the program, according to Rabbi Benjamin Samuels and Rabbi Gershon Segal.
“Congregation Shaarei Tefillah enjoys a longstanding relationship with Yeshiva University and is proud to co-host with Congregation Beth El the summer Beit Midrash for women,” said Samuels. “We are especially proud to support and promote advanced Torah learning for women. This past year, we engaged a Community Scholar intern from the Graduate Program in Advanced Talmud at Stern College, Yeshiva University.”
“We are also committed to promoting opportunities for women’s Torah learning and feel privileged to enable such to take place in our community,” said Segal.
Segal added that his congregation has also worked with Yeshiva University in other programs: “Every fall, our congregation raises funds for a specific charitable project in Israel, and two such appeals funded the Yeshiva University Center for the Jewish Future Counterpoint Summer Program in Israel.” In that program, Yeshiva University and Stern students travel to Israel to organize a summer camp for underprivileged children in Southern Israel. “It is a program that is life-transforming, both for the campers and for the students who run the program,” said Segal, who said that camps in 2011 for the town of Arad, and this summer, for the town of Kiryat Gat, were funded by the drive.
They collaborate in other ways as well. “Twice a year, on Simchat Torah and Shavuot we host ‘Torah Tours,’ where a group of Yeshiva University and Stern students spend the holiday in our community and help with youth and adult programming for the holidays,” said Segal, who added that several Scholars in Residence from the Yeshiva faculty have spoken there.
Segal has been invited to speak to the Stern students during the afternoon segment. “The Boston Beit Midrash program interested me because it promised substantive learning in addition to a forum to give back to the Boston community,” said Stern student Tal Meiri, who will teach an Aug. 4 segment titled “Law or Loophole? The Value of Creative Thinking in Halakha” at a private home in Newton.
Boston means a lot to Meiri, a youth director in Elizabeth, N.J., who recently returned from Israel, where she was a head counselor for Counterpoint Israel, teaching English to southern Israeli teens. “My grandfather was born and raised there. I’ve been there two or three times for short vacations, but this will be my first time staying for a longer period of time,” she said. Meiri is a senior majoring in psychology at Stern, and hopes to go into the counseling profession in Israel. At Stern, she is involved in the Debate Team, Nonfiction Book Club and TEIQU (Torah Exploration of Ideas Questions and Understanding).
Student Tali Ausubel of Riverdale, N.Y., will lead a women’s shiur titled “Adam and Eve: Digging Deeper” on Aug. 13 at a private home in Brookline. Other students include Rebecca Schenker of Teaneck, N.J.; Nora Ellison of San Diego; Blanche Haddad of Brooklyn; Kimberley Hay of West Hempstead, N.Y.; Rivka Herzfeld of Teaneck; and Hudi Jacobson, who once lived in Brookline and was a member of Young Israel.
“We feel an affinity with the Yeshiva University ideology of ‘Torah and Mada,’ which represents living a Torah and Halachik lifestyle while still being engaged in and contributing to society at large,” said Segal, who said that many of the families in his congregation have children that have attended Yeshiva University and Stern College. “I myself am a proud parent of two alumni of Yeshiva University/ Stern, and another two who are currently attending Yeshiva University and Stern,” he said.
“It is a privilege to again work with Yeshiva to craft what I am confident will be a memorable week for our community,” said Gewirtz.