Snippets from an incredible Winter 25 mission!
Meet a Mentee
Every Ohr Somayach mentee has a story – and we’ll be sharing a different one with you, in every issue.
Join us as we interview a participant in Mentors’ Mission. Learn what led him to Ohr Somayach, discover highlights of his journey, share the joy and inspiration!
Introducing:
Eli Reiman
Livingston, NJ
Ohio State University
What led you to Ohr Somayach?
Up until now, I was an atheist. Today, I believe. The truth is, I may be the most changed guy on the trip.
Just to give you an idea of where I was at: When I arrived at the airport heading to Israel and had to answer the security questions, the agent asked me, “What do you eat on Chanukah?”
I looked straight at him and answered, “Um… challah?”
So yeah, it was quite a journey.
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Chicago
Brrrr…ing on the warmth!
Chicago in January is frigid. So when college students from all over the US converge on the Windy City in the middle of a cold snap, you have to wonder what makes them come.
It’s not like they’re getting a chance to hit the beach or soak up the sunshine.
The answer sounds counter-intuitive. They’re coming for the warmth!
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Boca
Bottom Line (success) vs. Bottom Line (Torah priority)
Can success co-exist with Torah?
For the twenty secular college students gathered at a Mentors Mission panel in Boca this past winter, this wasn’t just a question. It was fundamental. They’d experienced a magnificent Shabbos together,
and had been ignited by the fire of Judaism. Their hearts were aflame – but one question niggled in their minds.
Can success and Yiddishkeit coexist? Could they lead Jewish lives yet still be “normal?”
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East Boca Kehilla
Light Reflects Light
It takes a special light to kindle Jewish hearts – and the East Boca Kehilla, led by Rabbi Noah Light, has what it takes: it’s a very warm, friendly,
and growth-oriented kehillah, and the Carlebach-style tefillos and weekly musical Havdalah are a boon to their mispallelim, including a large number of baalei teshuvah.
Our mentees felt right at home!
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Cross-section of a Nation
Toronto, Together
It looked like a kibbutz galuyos – an ingathering of every segment of the Jewish People:Ashkenazim and Sefardim; Chassidim and college students; businessmen and balebatim.
They gathered for an Ohr Somayach Shabbaton, and imbibed the Torah and achdus. The students were local college students who’d, for the most part, already been touched by Ohr Somayach.
The mentors were Toronto locals who were mostly discovering Ohr Somayach for the first time.
It was amazement at first sight. Incredibly, the son of a Chassidic rebbe was so enamored; he insisted that we do a Shabbaton in his Upstate New York community!
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Beautiful Shabbos at Ohr Somayach
Lakewood Shabbaton Comes Full Circle
Toronto, Together
If there’s anyone who ‘gets’ the college students at Ohr Somayach events, it’s our very own alumni. They've walked in their shoes – strangers in a new world – and come out on the other side, frum, integrated,
and often, the heads of their own beautiful families.
So it came as no surprise when alumnus Yaakov Cruz wanted to give back – not only by participating with his wife and baby in the very same program, with the very same host family who transformed his life and adopted him
as their own; but also by easing the journey for newcomers.
He wanted to provide them with the Artscroll transliterated, translated siddur.
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Shema Yisrael in Hamas Captivity
Summer 2025 highlights - Former Hostage Almog Jan at Ohr Somayach Mentors Mission
Summer 2025 highlights - Visit Your Mother First! - HaRav Lipa Geldwerth
Kever Rochel
Anachnu Echod – We Are One
A Wife’s Journal of Ohr Somayach’s Summer Mentors Mission
It happens twice each year: a group of frum businessmen drops everything to join Ohr Somayach’s Mentors Mission in Eretz Yisroel,
where they spend 5 days learning with and mentoring secular American college students.
Mrs. Malka Leah Josephs, wife of a mentor, shares her journal of the trip with Sparks readers.
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To’ameha: A Taste of Shabbos, a Taste of Yiddishkeit
Rabbi Yitzchok Greenblatt and Danny Lemberg at Toameha
It's the air.
Not just the crisp mountain air of the Catskill mountains, where tens of thousands of Jewish families spend the summer, but also the air of adventure and anticipation.
The place? Tamarack - An Upstate New York bungalow colony
The event? A Mentors Mission Shabbaton, hosted by super-hosts Mr. and Mrs. Aaron Wolfson, and co-host Rabbi and Mrs. Meir Kaplowitz.
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Go West, my son!
Los Angeles Hosts Magnificent Mentors Mission Shabbaton
Rabbi Chanan Gordon and Rabbi Zecharia Fruchthandler with mentees
In 1854, at the height of the California Gold Rush, Horace Greeley, founder and editor of the NY Tribune, wrote, “Go West, young man, and grow up with the country”,
this spurred on the great gold rush of the century. 170 years later, twenty young men indeed went west – and “struck gold.”
The young men were secular Jewish college graduates and professionals, and their destination was the Mentors Mission in California,
where they discovered the treasure of their Jewish heritage.
They also discovered a gold mine of a community, in the Hancock Park area of Los Angeles, where local Jewish families opened their homes,
and hosted the young men with unbelievable grace and warmth. Esteemed rabbonim and educators, too, welcomed the group, offering inspiration and Torah knowledge.
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Yarchei Kallah brings Ohr Somayach online fans to our famous Beis Medrash
R to L: Harav Rockmill, z”l, and ybl”ch, Harav Nota Schiller and Harav Nachshon Schiller, shlita.
Thousands of viewers visit Ohr Somayach’s famous website each day,
where they watch, hear and read shiurim from some of the world’s greatest Torah lecturers and kiruv professionals.
But nothing can compare to the experience of learning Torah live, in the Ohr Somayach Yerushalayim campus.
This summer, the yeshiva held its first Yarchei Kallah, where forty American businessmen became Ohr Somayach talmidim for a week.
The experience was exhilarating – and eye-opening.
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Houston, we have a solution
On April 14, 1970, the crew of Apollo 13 radioed mission control with a now-famous message:
“Houston - we have a problem." On Nov 12, 2023, there was a different message resonating from a mission in Houston.
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Toronto to Miami
A Tale of Two Cities
What do frigid Toronto and sun-drenched Miami have in common?
The Ohr Somayach Mentors Mission!
This winter, college students gathered for two separate weekends of Torah study and camaraderie, coordinated by Ohr Somayach’s indefatigable Rabbi Bentzy Shechter.
Regardless of the weather, both events were filled with light and warmth.
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Knotting tzitzis to knotty Gemaras
Ohr Somayach’s Wartime Mentor Mission:
More essential than ever
Travis, a student at the University of Wisconsin, is in Israel for the first time.
He’s learning how to don tefillin – in Tel Hashomer hospital, where he’s visiting wounded soldiers. He wraps the straps around his arms and makes the brachah – and the soldiers answer "Amen"
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Just One Shabbos
It Started with a Car Ride
Bennet, a student at Texas A & M University, heard that his Lakewood host was traveling in to Brooklyn on Sunday morning to visit his parents.
“My friend Simon would love to visit Yeshiva Shor Yoshuv,” he said. “That’s not far from Brooklyn. Can he get a ride with you?”
His host, Mr. Lercher, was eager to help.
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Delighting in Donuts
“I hear Lakewood has a kosher Dunkin Donuts,”
one college student, a self-proclaimed “donut addict,”
said to his Ohr Somayach host.
“That’s on my list of things to do in Lakewood.”
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Who gained more? It’s hard to tell.
The P. family had never hosted before –
and as a Chassidishe family, with no experience in kiruv,
they were a bit ambivalent.
But the timing was providential.
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The price of Shabbos
“I’m not giving up the zechus!”
Daniel, from Boca Raton,
ate the Shabbos seudah with his host, Akiva Gontar.
They were discussing the beauty of Shabbos,
and Daniel said that he would start keeping Shabbos –
after he figured out his finances.
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Jewish Professionals and Secular College Students Unite
Ohr Somayach’s Mentors Mission
What happens when a group of secular Jewish college students spends a week in Israel, together with Orthodox lawyers, financial officers and other professionals?
What happens when every moment of that week is filled with meaning and adventure?
What happens when a college student discovers the beauty of Gemarah - and gets hooked?
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On this Side of the Atlantic…
The Ohr Somayach Summer Retreat
The Ohr Somayach experience came to the US, with a five-day Summer Retreat in Upstate New York
that mirrored the Mentors’ Mission in Israel.
Twenty-eight college students from across the country
joined Ohr Somayach rabbis, staff and mentors for a heady mix of Torah study, adventure, business, and
camaraderie.
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Torah Meets Law School
Columbia University Mentor Mates Program
Mr. Shimon Falik has long been connected to Mentors Mission.
So it is not surprising that he passed his passion and sense of responsibility for Klal Yisroel to his children.
When his son Zevi joined Columbia Law School last year, he realized that he had the ability to engage with his peers, and inspire them.
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Bonding in Boston
Boston Jewish Community hosts Mentor Mission
When mentor Sammy Simnegar and his wife Reyna returned from this summer’s Mentors Mission, they wanted to recreate the experience on a local level.
Mr. Simnegar’s mission was twofold.
First, he wanted to strengthen the connections made on the Mentors Mission, so that students would be able to continue learning.
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