GO WEST YOUNG COUPLE: HOW A YOUNG RABBI AND HIS WIFE MIGRATED FROM NEW YORK TO LA, TOOK OVER A PROGRAM FOR ORTHODOX STUDENTS AT UCLA, AND BUILT A THRIVING CAMPUS COMMUNITY

By Rabbi Aryeh and Sharona Kaplan

In recognition that the overwhelming majority of Modern Orthodox college students are being educated at secular universities, the Orthodox Union, in partnership with Hillel and with assistance from the Torah Mitzion institute of Jewish study, administers the Heshe and Harriet Seif Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus (JLIC), a program that helps Orthodox students navigate the college environment and balance their Jewish commitments with their desire to engage the secular world. Through the work of a young rabbi and his wife – known as Torah Educators -- JLIC provides avenues for spiritual development and exploration to Jewish students from varied backgrounds and presents a positive, sophisticated and welcoming face of Orthodox Judaism on campus.
JLIC, now in its tenth year, is found on 15 major campuses, of which one is located west of the Mississippi. That campus is UCLA. Since September 2004, the Torah Educators have been Rabbi Aryeh and Sharona Kaplan, natives of Teaneck, New Jersey.

February 5, 2010
Naomi Kohl
Special to the Jewish Times

A major feature of the Orthodox Union’s Heshe and Harriet Seif Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus program—which is found on 15 major campuses in the United States and Canada, including the University of Maryland in College Park—is Friday night Shabbos dinner, in which the young rabbi and his wife who run the program (the Torah Educators, as they are known), invite students to share their table and Shabbat joy with them. This happens week after week, throughout the academic year. At Maryland, Rabbi Eli and Naomi Kohl open their doors to their students. In the following report, Naomi explains how it is done – and what the benefits are, to the students and to the Kohl family.

To make a great Shabbos meal you need three cups of energy, a spoonful of spirit, and a teaspoon of love. Monday morning in the Hillel dining hall is when we begin our weekly preparations. Between a chavrusa (a one-on-one student session) and a casual shmooze with a student, I keep a watchful eye as I mentally prepare an invitation list. If I don’t strike quickly an upperclassmen may extend an invitation and it may be months before that particular student may grace our Shabbat table. The University of Maryland is home to more than 400 Orthodox students and we try to have them all over for a meal, at some point during their college experience.

January 29, 2010 - 2:27am
By Elizabeth Krevsky

Observant Jews in the Cornell community can finally enjoy extended freedom during the Sabbath, thanks to the official establishment of the Rabbi Morris Goldfarb Memorial Ehruv.

An ehruv — a physical structure enclosing a larger area into a single domain — enables Jews to carry items such as food, books, medicines and coats without violating the Sabbath. According to Aaron Sarna ’11, president of the Center for Jewish Living, it is forbidden in the Jewish tradition to physically carry anything between a public and private domain during the Sabbath, which begins every Friday at sundown and ends after sundown every Sunday.

By SHERI SHEFA, Staff Reporter
Thursday, 10 December 2009
TORONTO — Jewish student group leaders, rabbis and Orthodox Jewish students held a panel discussion last week to let concerned community members know that there are many opportunities available for Orthodox Jewish students on secular campuses.

Toronto’s JLIC director Rabbi Aaron Greenberg, left, and Hillel of Greater Toronto executive director Zac Kaye were two of six panelists talking last week about Orthodox Jewish students attending secular universities.

The Orthodox Union’s Heshe and Harriet Seif Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus (JLIC), a North American program that helps Orthodox students balance their Jewish upbringing with living in a secular world, in conjunction with Hillel of Greater Toronto, invited parents and university-bound students to Bnei Akiva’s Yeshivat Or Chaim for a lecture titled “Observant Jewish Life on the Secular College Campus.”

Jewish Learning Initiative turns 10
By Michael Orbach
Issue of December 4, 2009/ 17 Kislev 5770

To go or not to go is no longer the question.
“75 percent of the graduating population of the Modern Orthodox day-schools are not going to YU or Touro,” asserted Rabbi Ilan Haber, director of the Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus. “The issue is not should or shouldn’t they go to secular university — they are going. The issue for us is how to help them make educated decisions to choose a college environment amenable to their growth and how to best serve their needs once they’re in the college environment.”
The Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus was founded in 2000. Rabbi Menachem Schrader, then a rebbe at Yeshivat Torat Yosef-Hamivtar in Efrat, realized that yeshivas in Israel were helping students in Israel but students in secular universities back in America had only a limited support system.

“It became clear that we were taking students from campuses all over the world, teaching them Torah and then sending them back after a year or two and there was a deep sense I had that we were sending them back to nothing,” said Rabbi Schrader, who is now the director for Nishmat. “Why shouldn’t we try to create a reference of Torah Studies for them to go back to?”

In response, Rabbi Schrader came up an idea that he hoped would allow students to continue their Jewish studies. A partnership between the Orthodox Union and the Hillel campus organization placed Orthodox couples on college campuses to supplement Hillel programming.