VISIT TO THE SCHECHTER INSTITUTE

MY VISIT TO THE SCHECHTER INSTITUTE AND MEETING WITH RABBI DAVID GOLINKIN on November 12, 2019

By DEENA GOLDENBERG GORDON, ADMINISTRATIVE VP, PSW WLCJ

When the members of the board of Women’s League for Conservative Judaism Pacific Southwest Region heard that I was going to vacation in Israel, spending a week in Tel Aviv, visiting Sfat, Tiberias, the Dead Sea, and lastly a week in Jerusalem, they asked me to visit the Schechter Institute to see with my own eyes what it was like.  Schechter Institutes (SI) is one of five Conservative Seminaries including Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) in New York, Zeigler School of Rabbinic Studies (ZSRS) in Los Angeles, Seminario Rabinico in Argentina, and the Frankel School in Pottsdam, Germany.

I have been a part of Women’s League’s Torah Fund since 1982, a graduate of University of Judaism (now called American Jewish University/AJU) in 2002 with a degree in American Jewish History and Culture, and thought I knew all about Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, located at AJU.  I had also visited the Jewish Theological Seminary several times with Women’s League for Conservative Judaism and upon my husband, Rabbi Bill Gordon’s 25 years as a Conservative rabbi. But this was the first time I was actually getting to see the Schechter Institutes (named for Solomon Schechter).

I had spent Shabbat in the home of Diane Friedgut, my good friend and WLCJ Israeli Liaison and her husband Jac Friedgut in East Talpiot (a section of Jerusalem), and we davened at their synagogue, Moreshet Avraham, where she introduced me to Rabbi David Golinkin and his beautiful wife. At that time, I requested a meeting with him at his office during the week.  He, Diane and I set it up for Tuesday morning, November 12, 2019.

I was brought to the meeting with the President of the Schechter Institutes, Inc. Rabbi David Golinkin by Diane.  From the outside, the white buildings were modern and beautiful.  Their older building now houses offices and the library. The new building contains 15 classrooms and a beautiful Bet Midrash. Rabbi Golinkin is the counterpart to our Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson and is certainly as personable, knowledgeable, and wonderful as is our Brad.

I had come prepared with questions, all of which Rabbi Golinkin answered. The first thing I learned was that while the Seminario and JTS sent students during their second year to Schechter, ZSRS and Frankel sent their third year students to the Fuchsberg Center (Conservative Yeshiva), but had some joint programs together with the other Rabbinical Seminaries at Schechter. 

Schechter was founded in September 1984 by Rabbis Gershon Cohen and Reuven Hammer z”l (whom I had met several times before).  Rabbi Golinkin began teaching Schechter students in 1987 and later became the Dean, the President of SI in 2000 and the President of the Schechter Institutes, Inc. in 2015. The Schechter Rabbinical Seminary has 279 students this year in various programs.

Other questions asked and answered: SI rabbinical students do not go to the other seminaries, although several students, if they wish, do go for a time to JTS.  Spouses of overseas students are not permitted to work in Israel while their spouses learn, due to visa restrictions. This year, rabbinical students come from ZSRS while 15 are from JTS, 4 from the Seminario, 2 from Frankel, and 20 are from Schechter itself.  This year on 12/12/2019, three Israeli rabbinical students will be ordained, including the 100th graduate of the Schechter Rabbinical Seminary.

The SCHECHTER INSTITUTE graduate school of Advanced Jewish Studies has 400 students and 1750 graduates. It is the largest MA program in Jewish Studies in Israel. The Masters Program is aimed at  teachers, principals and communal workers. All MA students receive scholarships. 

I had heard about the TALI Schools, but didn’t really understand what it meant until today. TALI started in 1976 as a sub-category of the secular public schools. In the secular public schools, children only learn Tanach, but in the TALI schools, the children learn all the major aspects of Judaism.  The first year there were 35 students, the second 135 students, and by the 10th year there were 10 schools.  Currently there are 65,000 pupils in 80 TALI schools; and 100 non-TALI schools use TALI textbooks. The TALI Books for non-TALI schools are called GATES TO JEWISH-ISRAELI CULTURE. There is also a new TALI tenth grade curriculum being piloted in 12 Israeli high schools. 

NEVE SCHECHTER is a center for Jewish Culture in Tel Aviv in a beautiful, restored building built in 1886. Last year, 19,000 people attended the many programs there, including: 

1. 80 Bar/Bat Mitzvahs in the beautiful sanctuary
2. a Jewish/Israeli Art Gallery curated by Shira Freedman
3. “70 Voices”, which provides Jewish Music concerts all year long sponsored by the Braun Family in honor of Dr. Richard Braun of LA

Schechter Institute has also been running a network of shuls and schools in Ukraine called MIDRESHET YERUSHALAYIM since 1991. 

All of these many programs, which serve 85,000 people every year, are funded by The Schechter Institutes, Inc. in the USA. 

 

And now my hour with Rabbi Golinkin was up and he had another meeting to attend.  As a parting gift, because he knew that it had been my 77^th birthday on November 11th, he bestowed several of his own books on me to be read on my return to America.  These books included: Responsa In A Moment (Halakhic Responses To Contemporary Issues Volume IV);  The Status of Women In Jewish Law: Responsa; and Schechter@35: Living Judaism (annual report for 2018-19).

This meeting was enjoyable, educational, interesting, and hopefully one I can duplicate sometime in the future.

Thank you Rabbi David Golinkin.