“We don’t have huge buildings, but we have life! And this is what I want to be a part of!”
PHOTO: ORLANDO TORAH ACADEMY/ ROMERO PHOTOWORKS
While Orlando, Florida is best known for its world-famous theme parks and sprawling developments packed with vacation homes, this past Elul zeman, the city welcomed a different kind of institution — the Orlando Community Kollel. Several yungeleit, led by Rav Yomtov Goldberger, the rosh kollel, relocated from Lakewood to Orlando, and the fledgling community welcomed the kollel with open arms.
This winter, Beth Medrash Govoha Rosh Yeshivah Rav Dovid Schustal shlita visited the community together with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky, the yeshivah’s national director for community development, along with several askanim, spending an entire weekend in Orlando. The Rosh Yeshivah visited the Orlando Torah Academy, presided over a public oneg Shabbos after the Friday night seudah, and gave a derashah Shabbos morning in the local shul.
The celebratory weekend left an indelible impression on the entire community and culminated in a community-wide Melaveh Malkah on Motzaei Shabbos at the Orlando JCC. The Rosh Yeshivah spoke, as did Rabbi Aron Kotler, president emeritus of Beth Medrash Govoha, who invested herculean efforts to develop community kollelim around America, thus furthering the vision of his father, Rav Shneur Kotler ztz”l.
During his speech, Rabbi Kotler noted that the burgeoning community’s lack of infrastructure can be viewed upon advantageously. “I view your lack of resources not as a weakness, but as a strength, because you rely on human devotion,” Rabbi Kotler told those assembled. On Sunday morning, Rabbi Goldberger, the rosh kollel, learned just how prescient those words had been.
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