The Rav Teitz Mesivta Academy welcomed back a minyan of alumni this week for its Alumni Bein HaZmanim Yeshiva. The program runs for two weeks, until erev Pesach, and begins with Shacharit and breakfast every morning together with the students and rebbeim of RTMA. A rotating roster of rebbeim deliver a daily shmuz afterwards, followed by seder and shiur by another rebbe.
“It was exciting to return, and catch up with my rebbeim who I have grown so close with over the course of my four years at RTMA, and even better to listen to the thought-provoking shiurum given by them,” said Calev Glick, RTMA graduate in 2015 from West Orange, who spent the past two years as Yeshivat Netiv Aryeh and is planning to attend YU next. “It’s awesome that RTMA offers this program to help us stay on track and offer a positive atmosphere for religious growth, even after we have graduated. I can’t wait for the other shiurim offered throughout the week.”
The response to the program, which was promoted through word of mouth, has been excellent. “For a lot of us,” said Azriel Kimmel of Hillside, who spent the past two years at Mevaseret and plans to return after Pesach, “when we come back from Israel we are on this ‘spiritual high.’ However, since it is vacation, without structure it is very hard to actualize it. I think what the program at RTMA is doing for all of us who have come back from Israel is a tremendous chesed, which is helping us keep the growth alive. It is really nice to know that even after we are one, two or even three years out of RTMA, that all the rebbeim still care about our personal development and religious growth.”
RTMA Principal Rabbi Ami Neuman was enthusiastic about the response. “I am so happy to see the boys want to return to their alma mater to continue the growth experience this year and last,” he said. “It’s a win-win all around. The alumni can reconnect with their school and rebbeim, the rebbeim get nachas from their growth and, most importantly, our talmidim can see the growth and development first-hand.”
