The Ivy League Torah Study Experience

“Amazing, rejuvenating, intellectually stimulating, challenging, refreshingly honest…” That’s how a group of female college students described the five inspirational weeks they spent getting in touch with their spiritual roots and owning up to a heritage that is inherently theirs. At the Ivy League Torah Study Experience (ILTSE), a division of National Committee for Furtherance of Jewish Education (NCFJE), effectively coordinated by Mrs. Baila Hecht and ably assisted by Mrs. Cipi Junik, to meet the students’ individual needs, young women spanning the globe came together in a quest for learning about their Jewish identity.

A Scottish law student, a Parisian economics major, and a psychology fellow from the Upper West Side, all shared a common goal, discovering what it means to be truly Jewish.

Classes given by world renowned Torah scholars were the lively stage for animated discussion, seriously challenging and heated debate, all the while infused with warmth and humor. Rabbi Dr. Emanuel Shochat, Ph.D., world class author and lecturer, took the students on mind boggling intellectual journeys to places they never knew existed. Rabbi Chaim Miller, an Oxford graduate and editor of the Gutnick Chumash and other scholarly works, spoke to his students about having discovered his own Jewish roots with his humble beginnings as a student at the Ivy League Men’s program over a decade ago.

Chabad Chassidic philosophy was explored in the classroom in depth. A visit to the Ohel (the Rebbe’s gravesite) as well as a tour of Crown Heights’ points of interest, gave the students an understanding and appreciation of the uniqueness and depth of the Chabad way of life.

An integral aspect of the ILTSE program was the live and learn component which turns studies into action. This includes hands-on demos, experiential field trips, and good old fashioned living of the Torah principles introduced in the classroom. From participating in a Chassidic wedding, and a scribal arts demonstration, to Kosher consumer education, all facets of Judaism were duly studied and then experienced.

Enrichment activities such as Judaica art and Kosher gourmet were favorites of many, providing recreation as well as spiritual enhancement.

A special evening of entertainment, a one-man show entitled “Gathering the Sparks” starring Reuven Russel, a professional actor turned Chosid and a graduate of the Ivy League Torah Study Experience.

The highlight of the program was the Tour of Jewish Living, a week spent in Monsey, NY, experiencing being part of a vibrant Jewish community. The students visited points of interest including a Mikveh and the Holocaust Museum as well as being hosted by many different families, across the Orthodox spectrum. Most noteworthy was a tour of the New Square Hasidic community. The students got an insider’s view into the distinctive customs of the people as well as the progressive institutions they established.

The Ivy League Torah Study Experience is the only one of its kind in the world. The NCFJE, offers religiously unaffiliated college students the unique opportunity to explore their Torah heritage without financial pressure, by sponsoring fellowships for the five week summer program of intensive Torah study.

Men’s and women’s programs run concurrently at separate camp sites. Registration for next summer’s program is already underway. Rabbi Levi Kaplan is the director of the program.