New York—Chaim Shapiro, assistant director of career services for the Lander Colleges, and three other career professionals who work with the Orthodox Jewish community, traveled to Washington, D.C. to meet with Matt Nosanchuk, associate director of the White House Office of Public Engagement for Jewish Outreach.

The White House formally invited Shapiro, Duvi Honig, and Dovid Hasenfeld of the Parnassah Network and Elliot Lasson of the Job Link of Baltimore, to discuss the challenges Orthodox communities face in the workplace. Both the Parnassah Network and the Job Link of Baltimore are organizations that assist Orthodox Jews in their job searches.

The primary goal of the meeting was to convey to Nosanchuk the importance of gearing government programs toward the unique needs of the religious communities. They stressed that the White House has the capacity to help by pushing for the job training and development tools the government already provides to other ethnic groups to be made available to the Orthodox Jewish community.

Honig explained to Nosanchuk that many Orthodox Jews have difficulty obtaining gainful employment because they have religious objections to attending college. However, Shapiro noted that Touro College was established explicitly for this purpose: to provide educational opportunities for Orthodox students that are in tune with their religious requirements. Two of Touro’s schools—Machon L’Parnasa and the School for Lifelong Education—were created to serve the academic needs of the hasidic communities, whose unique culture, commitment and lifestyle require bold and innovative approaches to higher learning.

The Lander College of Arts and Sciences in Flatbush, with separate divisions for men and women, is located at Avenue J and East 16th Street in the Midwood section of Brooklyn. The school offers more than 20 majors and pre-professional options, including honors programs in biology, health sciences, psychology and political science. More than 1,000 students are enrolled each semester at the campus. Encompassing more than 90,000 square feet, the campus was inaugurated in the spring of 1995. In September 1997, the New York State Education Department officially designated this site as The Flatbush Branch Campus of Touro College.