Adar 5766
Purim is a time for Jews to get together to celebrate the Heavenly miracle, which saved our ancestors from Haman’s “final solution”. You undoubtedly have special memories of the Purim you spent at Ohr Somayach with rabbeim and friends.
What better time is there for renewing your connection with the Yeshiva and your fellow alumni than these days.
The time that has elapsed since our last newsletter has in no way diminished our interest in maintaining contact with you in order to know how you are doing and to keep you informed on what is doing at Ohr Somayach.
After working out the technical details that were responsible for the break in this contact, we are launching a major effort to connect former talmidim to one another and to the yeshiva.
With Hashem’s help we hope to achieve this goal through a multifaceted effort:
1) An Alumni Reunion is being planned. Details of time and place will be forthcoming. Please contact our new alumni coordinator Yitzchak Friedman.
(Tel. 917-687-6319)
2) Reinstating our on-line ALUMNI DIRECTORY, which will provide all former talmidim with their fellow alumni’s personal information including e-mail addresses. The information on line will only be made available on the request of the alumnus.
3) Reviving the regular publication of the B’YACHAD ALUMNI NEWSLETTER.
In order to achieve these goals we must have your cooperation. Please send us as soon as possible the details of your address, phone numbers and e-mail address. (Don’t forget to inform us any time about a simcha in your family.)
Once again, this information will be made available only at the request of the alumnus.
The technical problem, which has sometimes prevented your information from being updated on line, has been overcome and we look forward to an efficient connection.
NEWS FROM OHR SOMAYACH
New Board of Governors
The Rosh Hayeshiva, Rabbi Nota Schiller, has succeeded, with the help of some of our outstanding former talmidim, in creating a Board of Governors of the Friends of Ohr Somayach with headquarters in New York. Its members, a majority of whom are alumni, are (in alphabetical order): Neil Auerbach, Sid Borenstein, Avrohom Chaim Grossman, Yaakov Kaplan, Jake Koval, Danny Lemberg, Boruch Mytelka, Yosef Neumann, Shmuel Rothman and Shmuel Dov Vogel.
This new Board is dedicated to providing the support for maintaining and expanding Ohr Somayach activities in Eretz Yisrael and throughout the world.
Campus Facelift
Thanks to a generous gift from Mrs. Gloria Martin of Miami Beach, in whose name the central campus of Ohr Somayach Jerusalem has been dedicated, we have been able to give our thirty-year old yeshiva buildings and the surrounding area a major facelift.
It is certainly an expression of kavod haTorah to ensure that the esthetics of the exterior of our yeshiva buildings match the spiritual glory of their interior.
Fourth Annual Yom Iyun in Chicago
The overflow crowd in the auditorium of the North Shore (Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie, Illinois on Monday, September 26 was testimony to the ongoing popularity of the Annual Yom Iyun sponsored by Ohr Somayach. This year the featured lecturers were Rabbi Dr. Akiva Tatz, Rabbi Dr. Yitzchak Breitowitz and Rabbi Dr. Dovid Gottlieb. They addressed the topic “The Value of Living and Living Together – Relevant issues in life and relationships”.
New York Lecture with Rabbi Akiva Tatz
Over 1,000 People came to hear Rabbi Tatz speak on “Teshuva- Recreating the Personality” on Sunday, September 18 at the Young Israel of Queens Valley in Kew Garden Hills, NY. After the lecture, people were able to meet Rabbi Tatz personally and speak with him at a reception. The chairman of the evening was Mr. Eli Glaser.
Third Ohr Somayach Pesach Mission – SOLD OUT
Ohr Somayach has reserved the entire Jerusalem Pearl Hotel, just minutes away from the Kotel and all the major attractions of Jerusalem.
Rabbi Nota Schiller; Rabbi Mendel Weinbach; Rabbi Dovid Orlofsky and other distinguished faculty members of Ohr Somayach.
Response was so enthusiastic that all the places in the hotel were sold out months in advance.
Jewish Learning Library
Ohr Somayach is currently servicing the largest number of English-speaking talmidim in its history. In order to reach those who have not yet come to us we continue to provide hundreds of thousands with weekly Torah material in our Ohrnet Magazine on the Ohr Somayach Website.
The newest effort of outreach is the launching of the JEWISH LEARNING LIBRARY. An exciting series of books are currently in various stages of preparation and publication, all of them authored by Ohr Somayach rabbeim and alumni. People, including some alumni, who are taking advantage of this opportunity to simultaneously provide much-needed financial aid for the yeshiva and valuable reading material for the general public, are sponsoring these books.Following is a partial list of the books, which will be published by the Jewish Learning Library:
LOVE OF THE LAND- A two-volume presentation of what our sacred sources say about the Land we all love, complete with some of the most beautiful photographs of Eretz Yisrael ever collected in one book.
TALMUDIGEST- A six-volume work based on the Weekly Daf, which the Rosh Hayeshiva, Rav Mendel Weinbach, has been offering for the past decade on the Ohrnet Website. On each seven pages of the Talmud there are features which give the reader on any level of familiarity with Jewish learning a feel of what the gemara is about in a user-friendly manner.
SEASONS OF THE MOON- Profound insights on the months of the year accompanied by original, beautiful black and white photographs – all the work of alumnus Rabbi Yaakov Asher Sinclair, today a maggid shiur in the yeshiva.
QUESTION MARKET- A multi-volume collection of the questions about Judaism which have been answered by our OHRNET staff.
SHABBAT KODESH SHELF- A companion for the Shabbat table which offers a shelf-full of material - parsha insights, zemirot, explanations and Pirkei Avot selections – for enriching the Holy Day in one book.
If you, or anyone you know, have an interest in sponsoring any of these books, you can request and receive all details by contacting Rabbi Eliezer Shapiro es@ohr.edu at Ohr Somayach in Jerusalem.
We look forward to hearing from you and getting together with you and wish you a very Happy Purim.
