New Shluchim to Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh, PA – Chabad of Pittsburgh plans to begin a new informal education program for high school students this winter.

Rabbi Shmuly Rothman, who has run Jewish youth programming in Toledo for the last six years, recently returned to Pittsburgh, where he grew up, to run the program.

Rothman, 30, who has been named youth director for Chabad of Pittsburgh, will also run other youth-oriented programs. He and his wife Chani will co-direct Camp Gan Israel at the Lubavitch Center. The high school program, which would have sessions once a week on an evening in the middle of the week, with supper provided, is intended to be both intense and fun for its participants.

“It’s not a traditional classroom,” Rothman said. “We’re going to give [the students] a fun time.”

Teenagers of all backgrounds and levels of Jewish education may participate in the program. The curriculum will include text study and group discussions and some field trips.

Rothman made clear that the Chabad program is not intended as competition for the School of Advanced Jewish Studies – a supplemental high school run by the Agency for Jewish Learning.

“It’s not a replica of SAJS,” Rothman said. “We are complementing each other.” The new school is intended to draw in students who do not currently attend SAJS or any other Jewish school, he noted.

“There are thousands of kids who never touch a Jewish school,” he said. “There is a whole community of children who need this type of education.”

Ed Frim, the director of the AJL, agreed.

“There’s plenty to go around,” he said. “I’m not afraid it’s competing for kids. If anything, we’ll strengthen each other.”

The Chabad program, to be called Gesher L’Chaim – meaning “bridge to life,” would meet on a different night of the week than SAJS, though a schedule has not yet been determined. The location for the program is also still being arranged.

Until Gesher L’Chaim opens, as it is scheduled to do in January, Rothman will be working on another program that reaches throughout the community.

He will offer programs of Living Legacy, a hands-on Chabad program that teaches children about Jewish rituals and ritual objects. Activities include shofar-making workshops, baking matzah and learning about the skills required to write a Torah scroll.

Rothman would visit religious schools and Jewish organizations, at their request, to conduct the workshops.

“It’s a beautiful program,” he said. Bringing someone new to town to work with Jewish youth is a positive thing, said Frim, whose agency is working with congregations and organizations to develop new teen programs.

“There are so many Jewish teens not engaged, we need to have a big variety of opportunities,” he said.

Rothman, said Frim, wants to collaborate with the AJL.

“He wants to work with us. I think it’s great.”