Letter: Years Later My Seminary Experience Still Resonates

Devorah Kaplan graduated Beth Rivkah Seminary in France over 15 years ago, yet her time there still resonates with her and guides her on her Shlichus. She recently wrote a letter to the school’s dean and shared some of her memories from her time there.

Dear Rav Uzan

I hope it is ok if I write to you in English – I am much more comfortable and honestly, I have forgotten so much French.

Thank you for responding to my email – I feel very emotional and teary eyed just reading a short note from you. It has been many years and so much has happened in my life, yet Beth Rivkah is always near my heart and mind.

The passing of Rav Schonthal was a very sad moment in my life!

For many years I had wanted to write to Rav Schonthal and all the staff – updating you on where my life has taken me and how much gratitude and thanks I feel towards Beth Rivkah France for having such an immense influence on me and my future years.

Tears roll down my cheeks as I write this letter – for I know how proud of me Rav Schonthal would have been, and I feel such regret not having given him this nachas in his lifetime. He had the unbelievable talent of making each student feel like they were the only one he was concerned with and they were so important. Even when we were giving him a hard time :) and the Americans had a special way of giving him a hard time.

Rav Schonthal in particular and the staff at Beth RIvkah in general, will never truly know the tremendous impact you have had on my life.

The devotion and personal attention given to each student was exemplary and by far, more than I would have received anywhere else.

Being in a foreign country, learning a new culture and new language was not easy, let alone being able to be such an influential force for the positive in my life!

Three years after I left Seminary, I married my husband Schneur Zalman Kaplan – also a proud graduate of Brunoy Yeshiva in France, however not the same years that I was there :) we now Ka”H have 7 children – 5 boys and 2 girls BH – they range in age from 16 to 2 weeks old.

We live in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and have been on Shlichus for the past 15 years.

We have our own Chabad house which runs the usual ongoing chabad outreach activities for men women and children. We also have a school building that houses our Hebrew school and many educational programs for children and beezrat hashem we will be opening a pre-school soon.

The years have not all been glorious – the trials and tribulations of Shlichus and life are all too real for all of us, but Boruch Hashem – Hashem has been good to us and we have a wonderful community and have seem much success and growth in our time here – our work is tough but we are happy.

I must give credit to Beth Rivkah for helping mold me into the woman I have become today. With strong Hashkafas – hiskashrus to the Rebbe and devotion to our shlichus, as well as a tremendous love of learning and teaching. Over the years, I have many times looked back at my notes from school to teach a class. (Though there are times that I can no longer translate my own notes that I had written in French)

I can proudly say that during my years in Beth Rivkah not only did I accumulate a tremendous amount of knowledge; I was also imbued with a passion to discover and delve into Torah and Chassidus on my own. I filled many notebooks with words of wisdom from our diverse classes and when I am in need of personal inspiration I refer back to the deep and meaningful lessons and conversations with Rav Schonthal (as he bounced on his feet) sharing his soft reprimand or sincere thoughts of inspiration. I find myself often reminiscing of the amazing lessons learned both in the classroom and out of the classroom.

Rav Uzan, You were a fantastic teacher – skilled and direct – I still use the small book on Kashrus that we used in your class and have fond memories of the hands on lessons such as dissecting a fish to find the bugs :) Thank you for your time devotion and sincere energy you gave to each of us!

I am most grateful and appreciative of my years in France.

Please send everyone my regards, and if you would like to have nachas and take some credit for what my family has accomplished on Shlichus – go to our website DowntownJewish.com. I wish you well and look forward to hearing good news

Sincerely,

Devorah Kaplan
Ft. Lauderdale, FL

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