Marc Merrill is the director of Torah Letzion an organization that provides scholarships to financially strapped students who want to learn in Israel post-high school.
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hat’s the largest scholarship you’ve awarded?
Five thousand dollars. The applicant came from a totally broken family: his dad was being investigated for fraud and his mother had nothing to do with him. In fact she’d told him shortly before the end of high school that he was the source of the family’s troubles and she wished she’d never had him which has to be the hardest thing for a child to hear. With no money to his name this boy had to work during his school’s lunch break in a local pizza shop just to be able to afford to eat. Our entire team was so moved by his pain he was awarded the largest Torah Letzion scholarship ever and he ended up going to Israel for two years. He made great strides there and he’s now learning in Yeshiva University while pursuing a degree in business.
How would you define your mission?
To enable motivated students to attend yeshivos and seminaries — students who otherwise wouldn’t be able to attend because of financial difficulties. One reason learning in Israel is so important to me is because the two years I spent in Lev HaTorah in Beit Shemesh were the most impactful years of my life really shaping the person I am now. That year in Israelhas incredible potential and it’s evident from our scholarship recipients — how different they are because they had the opportunity of a year fully devoted to growth and to improving their avodas Hashem.
