As soon as chag ended, and American Jews were faced with the full scope of the tragedy in Israel, the TABC community mobilized to do what it could on behalf of the chayalim and brothers and sisters in Israel. While students were off for Isru Chag on Monday, Rabbi Joshua Kahn led a schoolwide Zoom with divrei chizuk and Tehillim. On Tuesday, right after davening, Rabbi Shlomo Stochel addressed the student body about the harrowing events of the past few days and then introduced Rabbi Dr. Benji Levy, co-founder of numerous innovative startups and a renowned educator in Australia’s Jewish community and now Katamon in Yerushalayim. Rabbi

Dr. Levy shared stories of his family members and friends who have been called up and charged students with supporting Israel through Torah, avodah and gemilut chasadim. He concluded his presentation with a moving musical rendition of “Acheinu” in which the whole yeshiva joined in.

Following his speech, senior Benny Zelig spoke about a new school-wide initiative of writing and sending letters to chayalim as well as TABC’s participation in two of NCSY’s initiatives, Pray for IDF Soldiers and the Shmirah Project, in which students will daven for a specific soldier in Tzahal and learn or say Tehillim for a 15-minute slot each day. Additionally, sophomore Daniel Kurz, one of the student leaders of TABC’s Israel Advocacy Club, spoke about the club’s latest advocacy campaign which will focus on writing letters to politicians to ensure their continued support for Israel in Congress. Finally, Rabbi Kahn formally launched TABC’s Siyum HaShas program. TABC will be completing Shas Mishnayot in one week. Each student, along with their rebbeim, teachers and many recent alumni, has committed to learning at least one perek in memory of the more than a thousand Israelis who were slaughtered and l’zchut Medinat Yisrael and Klal Yisrael.