Jerusalem – “Everything can change at any moment, suddenly and forever” (-Paul Auster). We’ve all heard this saying before, that in a moment everything can change for bad or good. We’ve all hoped at the end of a hard day, in the depths of difficulty that life throws at us, that somehow everything will get better. But what is more difficult than hoping is believing, knowing that something good can happen in a split second, and that one’s life will be changed forever in that instant. For me, that moment was when I was 18 years old, studying during my gap year in Yeshivat Lev Hatorah. I had my future relatively planned out, as much as anyone could at that age- I was going to learn in Lev Hatorah for a year, go back to study at Yeshiva University, and build my life in the tri-state area, or so I thought. However, everything changed that day that I saw a sign advertising the English Speakers’ Program at Machon Lev, the men’s campus of the well-known Jerusalem College of Technology. I didn’t make a decision at that point, I didn’t even really think then about the possibility of going to Machon, but an idea was took root. It’s crazy to think that scarcely two years later, not only did I successfully apply to JCT and finish three semesters there, but that I even have begun to feel more at home here in Jerusalem, on a campus full of Hebrew speakers, than I did during the first eighteen years of my life in Teaneck. Everything can truly change in a moment.
Since starting at JCT, I’ve encountered many challenges. Amongst them, the language barrier was quite possibly the biggest. Being on in a school where very few students speak English, and where classes are in Hebrew, was a very big adjustment. At the beginning, lectures sounded a lot like the parents in Peanuts– unintelligible trombone sounds that I couldn’t turn into words. But, as time went on, and with the help of JCT’s Ulpan, I began to pick out words, keeping a careful log in my notebook of key terms. Now, scarcely four months after I switched out of Machon Lev’s English Speakers’ Program into the regular Israeli classes, I can sit through a three hour lecture and understand almost everything, though I will sometimes need to review the material afterwards in JCT’s extensive English textbook library.
One of my favorite parts of Machon Lev, aside from the classes, is the Judaic Studies program. Coming from a gap-year yeshiva, I had high expectations for Machon’s Bet Midrash, and I was not disappointed. Machon Lev’s Religious studies program is headed by Rabbi Zalman Nechemia Goldberg, the head dayan (Jewish judge) of the Rabbinical High Court in Jerusalem, and a student and son-in-law of Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach zt”l, one of the top contemporary rabbinic authorities in Israel. Aside from Rav Goldberg, JCT’s Bet Midrash features many distinguished rabbis from many different backgrounds and hashkafot (Religious perspectives) to mirror the wide range of students who learn there. Even though I came from an American Modern Orthodox background, it took me less than two days into the semester to find my place in the Bet Midrash. I now study under Rav Menachem Akerman, a French oleh who graduated JCT as an Electronics Engineer before getting semicha, and can still inspire our class with practical examples for our learning in three different languages. Our shiur is mostly made up of olim from North America, France, Switzerland, and even one from Russia, so there is a very strong feeling of kibutz galiyot (ingathering of the exiles) in our classroom.
During my fifteen months as a student in Jerusalem College of Technology, I’ve met a lot of people of very different backgrounds, from the sizable French crowd in Machon Lev, to those of Ethiopian descent, many of Hareidi background, a few other Anglos, and even the token Israeli. Despite everyone’s differences, there is one key factor that unites the thirty five or so students in my second year Electronics Engineering classes, and in the entire JCT as a whole; one of our sages’ favorite sayings, Kol Yisrael Arevim Ze La’zeh (All of Israel is responsible for each other). In a campus full of very different people, the uniting factor is that every student, every faculty member, and even the maintenance staff are all observant Jews- we are all truly together.
Aside from the warm and fuzzy feeling that this usually brings, having a professional and fully religious teaching staff also passes on an important message to us students of JCT; that in Israel, being an observant Jew does not hinder professional progress. As a matter of fact, some of my professors have made some incredible accomplishments in both the academic and wider science worlds. One of my physics professors, Dr. Shimshon Lashansky, an oleh from South Africa, works as a department head in the world-famous Israeli defense firm Elbit Systems. Aside from almost revealing government secrets a few times, he very often impressed on us how it really is possible for observant Jews to succeed in the professional world, as long as they work hard and stick to their principles. In general, a class scarcely goes by without a passuk being quoted to make a point, or a rabbinic teaching being cited in connection to a topic at hand.
Last week, JCT hosted Israel’s President Shimon Peres for a few meetings with the administration, a scientific demonstration, and a question and answer session with a few select students, which I was fortunate to be a part of. In one of his answers, President Peres stressed the following: “There is no contradiction between Torah and science. Maimonides reached levels of greatness in Torah, and was also a well-educated scientist and doctor. It is important to learn Torah, but it is also important to earn a living…” This, Peres concluded, is why JCT is so unique- Judaism for centuries has been about connecting the old and the new, applying halacha in the wider world and seeing science from a religious perspective. At Jerusalem College of Technology, this gap is bridged, and students who can succeed for three to four enriching years here can truly integrate into the world of business, lasers, and circuits, while always keeping connected to the world of the Bet Midrash.
Tzvi Silver is a second year Electronics Engineering student at Jerusalem College of Technology-Machon Lev, and an Israeli correspondent for The Jewish Link of Bergen County.
By Tzvi Silver
