(Courtesy of Torah Umesorah) On Sunday, November 18, Torah Umesorah sponsored a “Conversation with Rabbi Berel Wein” at the Hebrew Academy of Long Beach in Woodmere. The topic of the interactive workshop was “Reaching the Hearts and Minds of Our Students: The Battle Against Today’s Culture and Values.”
This session was the second installment in a series of events scheduled by Torah Umesorah in its focused outreach to Jewish day schools. The initial session in February was a workshop for day school administrators with Harav Reuven Feinstein, followed by sheilot and teshuvot to Harav Feinstein. The session with Rabbi Wein was specifically designed to address some of the challenges facing principals, rebbes and morot working with the day school student population.
Rabbi Wein’s comments centered on the uniqueness of teaching and guiding our young charges to aspire to be a “Yaakov” rather than an “Eisav.” He gave a number of relevant references illustrating this point. The range of his comments on this topic included examples of Jews in the Holocaust to a smart business person in Memphis, Tennessee. He outlined and explained some of the most serious challenges to the mission of mechanchim and mechanchot today, including technology and affluence. His experience and rich store of illustrations kept the participants consistently fascinated and glued to their seats.
After his remarks, the members of the audience were able to ask Rabbi Wein questions that he addressed without any hesitation. Everyone present was so thankful to get an opportunity to hear Rabbi Wein’s wisdom and to share some of their experiences. There were some questions that were submitted anonymously in advance. The bottom line is they were left wanting more—a lot more. Toward that end, Torah Umesorah has announced Part II of this important interchange with Rabbi Wein, on Sunday, December 23, 11:30 a.m., at Yeshiva of Central Queens, 147-37 70th Road, Kew Gardens Hills. Parking will be available.
If you are interested in joining us, please RSVP to Rabbi Mordechai Besser, [email protected], or 212-227-1000 extension 4540.
