The Mayanot Blog

#WhatsWithTheBuilding?! Remember that catchphrase we unleashed last year during our $2,000,000 campaign? We remember it well and we thank you for participating in that campaign. Over the last three years, more than 4,600 donors came together to help us reach this moment. And we can't thank you enough.  It was just a few years ago, in December, 2015 when you helped us raise more than  $2.3 million to  make the Mayanot World Center a reality. But you didn't stop there! A year later, you helped us raise just over $3,000,000. Thanks to you, today, we are on the brink of making history.  (Rabbi Kasriel Shemtov, Executive Director, outside the Mayanot World Center) So, here's where were holding. Thank G-d, we've been able to purchase the building for $9 million, located in a prime location in the center of Jerusalem. Our new property boasts well over double the space Mayanot currently occupies.  With our building committee, made up of donors and board memb

May we only continue to celebrate simchas together. Babies: Chana and Ahron Tzvi Altman had a baby boy  Danielle a nd  Boruch  Conboy had a baby boy Tammy and Issac Freidland had a baby boy Rivka and Emmet Gilles had a baby girl Marilia  and David Gross had a baby boy Jen and Moshe Hillel had a baby boy Moriah and Shmulik Israel had a baby girl  Rivka and Zalman Kogan had a baby boy Chaya and Yosef Kurtz had a baby boy Diklah and Yedidyah Lison had a baby boy  Davida a nd Benyamin Murray had a baby boy Rika and Erez Nagar had a baby boy Illana and Ariel Nishli had a baby boy Allison and Gabriel Sarbin had a baby girl Erica and Zev Saunders had a baby boy Devorah Malka and Yossi Tayer had a baby boy Batya Liba and Shmuel Weiss had a baby boy Joelle and Mordecai Wilshinsky had a baby girl Yosefa  and Benyamin   Wood-Isenberg  had a baby girl Weddings: Shoshie Glass and Chanan Baer  Mushkie Shemtov and Tzemach Chazzan Rebecca Tabibi and Andrew Franco  Cheli

"As a woman in my late 20s who wanted to study Torah, I was hoping to find a safe & welcoming space where my age and life experiences were not only accepted, but celebrated. At Mayanot, I found that and so much more. The more I learned about Judaism, the more I learned about myself,  who I was, who I wanted to be, and how to get there" When did you attend Mayanot and what are you up to now? I initially attended Mayanot for the summer of 2016 and returned almost immediately in October 2016 for the full year program, until June 2017. I am currently working in Business Development at a Software company in Queens, NY. What were the most valuable tools you took away from the program, academically and otherwise?    My favorite part of the Mayanot program was living & learning with like minded women. Learning how to learn- which means acquiring the skills and confidence to open up a traditional Jewish book with no English and feel that I can tackle it, w

Written by: Yaakov Greentblatt, current Mayanot student The Mayanot Institute of Jewish Studies , created a special trip for the Post High School Program, this year. As part of the month of Elul, a group of students, myself included, went to Ukraine to visit the Kaverim (grave sites) of great luminaries and sages that have made a immense impact on Jewish history, including: the Bal Shem Tov, the Alter Rebbe, the Berditchever Rebbe and others. The trip took place in the second week of the program and many of us saw it as an integral way to get to know each other and bond as a group, before the year began. We were set to learn about the many Chasidic masters whilst travelling around Ukraine. By gaining a deeper knowledge about these individuals great deeds and spiritual contributions, over the course of the trip, we would come to understand the history and evolution of Chassidism, the its connection to our own practices and textual learning. We began after an ear

During the Summer season our Birthright Israel: Mayanot team was approached by Bring Israel Home, an organisation associated with OU, who had the idea of introducing  The 100 day challenge, as a way of getting participants more involved in Jewish activities, carried by the momentum and inspiration of their trips. Assisting them in taking on daily Jewish practices - anywhere from learning more about the holocaust, to putting on tefillin. The completion of the challenge (the whole bus completing it together) would be rewarded with a reunion organized by Bring Israel Home.  Three Mayanot buses have successfully completed the  100 Day challenge  and will be attending the 'Bring Israel Home' reunion in Southbury, CT this November.  Read some of the amazing testimonials below: Mayanot Bus 354  Sofie Jacobson Last night, I decided to watch Paper Clips. I chose this film because it was recommended to me by a friend and also it seemed like something that I could relate to.

We are very proud of Rabbi Wagner and all of his accomplishment on behalf of the Jewish community in Germany and worldwide, and we are happy to share this article via Chabad.orgNews   Rabbi Yitzchak Mendel Wagner is one of the first German-born rabbis  to be serving in Germany since the Holocaust. 80 Years Since Kristallnacht, Young Rabbi a Leader in German Jewish Rebirth Rabbi to speak on Nov. 5 at Chabad in Hackensack, N.J. Written by Yehuda Sugar for Chabad.org Many  rabbis  have graced German soil through the ages—some famous, even luminous, like the great  Rashi . Today, though, there is one who has the distinction of being one of the first German-born rabbis to be ordained in that nation after the Holocaust, with the added acclaim of helping in the revival of German Jewry. With a stirring in his soul for  Torah  learning beginning in his teen years in his hometown of Krefeld, near Germany’s western border, the young man who would become Rabbi  Yitzchak  Mende

Written by: Chaim Yochanan Cohen, Jerusalem For: Kfar Chabad English Magazine How did a German ger (convert)  become the youngest Rav in his home city? Where does a bachur (young student)  get the strength to walk overnight from his home in Teaneck NJ to Crown Heights? Why would a rapper decide to become a shaliach (Chabad emissary)  in Delaware? What happens when an unaffiliated Jew discovers he is a descendant of the Alter Rebbe while spending a Shabbat in Hevron? These are just a few of the stories I was privileged to hear while conversing with Rabbi Kasriel Shemtov , executive director of Mayanot Yeshiva in Jerusalem, along with Rabbi Yisroel Noach Wichnin , Rosh Yeshiva, and other senior staff. Founded in 1997 by Rabbi Shlomo Gestetner and Rabbi Kasriel Shemtov, the Yeshiva encourages its students, ranging in age from 20-29, to acquire the tools needed to learn on their own in such areas as Jewish mysticism, philosophy, Talmud, halacha, Torah, Chassidut, and the