Yeshivat HaKotel, one of Israel’s most established and well-respected hesder yeshivas, which also fulfills all of the requirements of a traditional yeshiva, will celebrate its Yom Yerushalayim dinner on Monday, May 15 at the Moise Safra Center in Manhattan. The dinner, which will recognize distinguished honorees, is being organized by Rabbi Ari Cutler, head of development at the yeshiva. Honorary guests will include Jason Greenblatt and Ofir Sofer, with a special appearance by Ron Dermer. The dinner, program and dessert reception will be followed by a musical performance featuring Eitan Katz.
Most of the students at HaKotel are in the Israeli Hesder program, which combines at least 15 months of army service with several years of yeshiva study. HaRav Baruch Wieder, the former rosh kollel, is the rosh yeshiva. The previous rosh yeshiva was HaRav Yeshayahu Hadari who served in that capacity for more than 30 years.
HaKotel, which was founded in the summer of 1967, has a program for English-speaking students that offers integration with Israelis, a broad comprehensive curriculum in Talmud, Tanach, Machshava, Halacha, and Mussar. In 2006, Yeshivat HaKotel opened a new program for Portuguese and Spanish-speaking students, headed by Brazilian-born Rabbi Daniel Segal. As of 2011, more than 100 students from Latin American countries, including Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Mexico, Panama, Peru and Colombia, and also from Portugal and Spain, have graduated from this program.
The Yeshiva’s underlying goal is to cultivate talmidim who are intimately connected to Torat Yisrael, am Yisrael and Eretz Yisrael. Yeshivat HaKotel currently has 350 students—50 of whom are from the U.S., Canada and the U.K.—43 students are from abroad and studying in shana bet. Forty-eight students enlisted to the IDF in March, 15 to machal, and 10-15 graduates make aliyah every year.
Since its establishment, Yeshivat HaKotel has had over 3,500 graduates, living as role models in communities around the world. The yeshiva has over 2,000 visitors during Elul and Tishrei and over 7,000 on Yom Yerushalayim. The yeshiva has 50 avreichem in the halacha kollel and 20 rabbanim.
Yeshivat HaKotel CEO Moti Jerbi told the Jewish Link: “Yerushalayim is the city that connects all Jews from around the globe together—today, more than ever, the role of Jerusalem and our yeshiva of creating unity is central. For 56 years, Yeshivat HaKotel has been a platform for religious Zionism and connecting the unique Torah of the Old City with young, inspiring students from Israel and abroad who connect heaven and earth and the Jews of the Land of Israel with the Jews of the Diaspora—we are also so proud of our students from the Diaspora who join the IDF and make aliyah.”
Rabbi Cutler told the Jewish Link: “The founding principle of the yeshiva is achdut. When Ha’Rav Hadari established the yeshiva, he wanted it to be a center where Sephardim and Ashkenazim would live and learn together. Ha’Rav Hadari, who was a master of Tanach, wanted HaKotel to also do what Yerushalayim stands for—to be a medium for connecting all Jews around the world.
“That’s a tradition he internalized from his studying days in Yeshivat Chevron—his vision was one of unity and love of one’s fellow Jew. Ha’Rav Hadari also believed that students should get an exposure to the whole spectrum of Jewish texts, from Tanach and Talmud to machshava and chasidut.”
Rav Wieder was a close talmid of Ha’Rav Hadari and shares his vision of the yeshiva connecting all different types of Jews, “around our joint jewel—the learning of Torah. Ha’Rav Avigdor Nebenzahl is a permanent feature of our yeshiva, and in fact we will be distributing his latest book for free at the dinner.
“On Friday nights every other week, our talmidim sing down to the Kotel and dance by the plaza area with all types of Jews. Last week, Leo Dee, who lost his wife, Lucy, and two daughters in a terror attack, joined our yeshiva in dancing down. Also, our talmidim have a fixed time every month when they go down to the Kotel area and interact with nonreligious tourists and visitors.”
Rabbi Cutler added, “As is well known, the location of Yeshivat Hakotel is absolutely stunning—in the neshama of the Jewish People—overlooking the golden Old City, with a view of the Kotel from our beit midrash.
“Yeshivat HaKotel has strong and inspiring young talmidei chachamim who, by learning at Yeshivat HaKotel, are absorbing both Torah and the unique atmosphere of the Old City—Israel’s neshama. Our talmidim are well-rounded, religious Zionists role models. As well as partnering with the secular school in Haifa, we have two programs, training our talmidim to be able to work in their communities when they return to chutz la’aretz: the leadership (running for 10 years) and mechanchim (running for five years) programs, both of which give invaluable training to our talmidim.”
Rabbi Cutler concluded: “The theme of this year’s dinner on May 15th is ‘Yerushalayim Shechubra La Yachdav,’ because that’s what we have been doing since the yeshiva started. The yeshiva connects Jews from Israel and around the world in a way no other yeshiva does. The yeshiva brings kibbutz galuyot to the middle of the heart of the Jewish Homeland, and brings together Israelis and talmidim from abroad—into one student body. The hanhala of the yeshiva also works as one body.”
The dinner and program will begin at 6 p.m., with the dessert reception at 7:30 p.m., followed by the musical performance with Eitan Katz.
If you would like to attend the dinner, visit www.afoyh.com//annual-dinner. Special student rates are available. For more information about Yeshivat HaKotel, contact Rabbi Ari Cutler at [email protected] or WhatsApp: +972 54-752-2888
By Benjy Singer
