M
ore than two decades ago I had a good friend who was running an institution for teenage boys who were ill suited to the mainstream yeshivos ketanos and required a very different curriculum. Providing what they needed was expensive and usually beyond the capacity of the parents to cover. As a consequence the institution always teetered on the brink of closing.
Yet for years he kept it going more often than not with amazing siyata d’Shmaya arriving at five minutes to midnight. Every leil Shabbos I would inquire after davening about his miracle story of the week. He rarely disappointed. It was a great deal for both of us: I entered Shabbos uplifted and with a good story to tell at the Shabbos table and he had someone with whom to share his weekly adventures.
My friend long ago entered the more staid world of running an American seminary and I’ve been on the lookout for another ready source of feel-good stories. Of late a young avreich who lives nearby has stepped into the breach. Rabbi Moshe Shachor directs the men’s side of Kesher Yehudi’s program for pre-army academies and is a veritable font of my favorite kind of story — those of Jews being changed by exposure to Torah.
The program which will include 12 mechinot with approximately 600 members this coming year consists of monthly meetings at the mechinah with lectures and discussion sessions special gatherings throughout the year connected to the Jewish holidays and at least one shabbaton in a chareidi neighborhood. Each mechinah participant has a chareidi partner with whom they learn in person at the monthly meetings and are in regular contact by phone. In most cases that relationship continues throughout the mechinah participant’s army service.
