Summer School, Yeshiva Style

MORRISTOWN, NJ — Nine weeks ago, Josh Weinstein packed up his blue Corolla for the 284-mile drive from Norfolk, Virginia to Morristown, New Jersey. The semester at Virginia Wesleyan College had just ended, and Weinstein, an English professor at the school, was gearing up for some study of his own: Yeshiva-style.

Yeshiva Tiferes Bachurim, a division of the Rabbinical College of America, is an intensive study program for men interested in advancing their Jewish knowledge. Though the study hall is occupied all year, for one week in the winter and a full month in the summer, its “Taste of Yeshiva” program attracts a broader range of students. Over 100 young men, a record, joined the school’s 50 permanent students for several weeks of intellectual growth and personal challenge.

“People think that a student’s first experience with Jewish study should be super-light and super-fun,” states Rabbi Boruch Hecht, the school’s admissions director. “But our approach is to make it super-real and super-stimulating.” The program’s six levels enable each student to slide into his own niche and the personalized study options are especially appealing.

Weinstein enjoyed being on the other side of the desk this summer, studying Chasidic philosophy, Talmud, and Jewish law. He says the schedule was “pretty demanding,” with studies beginning before prayer at 7:30 in the morning and ending only 14 hours later. The hours, he says, were worth it.

“Through coming and studying here, I was able to reconnect with tradition,” Weinstein explains. “I became part of the chain by talking with rabbis and fellow students.”

Brad Lipitz graduated with a degree in accounting from Binghamton University in May. He will return there in the fall to complete his masters, but in the meantime, Lipitz spent two weeks at Yeshiva. “When I went to college, I had an idea of what it should be like,” he says. “It has taken me four years to find it here, at the yeshiva. People are here because they want to learn. We sit for 12 to 15 hours studying, and then only want to study more.”

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