Fourth Semikhah Ceremony
On Sunday (10 June/24 Sivan), Yeshivat Chovevei Torah held its fourth annual graduation (Semikhah) ceremony. Nine students graduated, bringing up the number of total graduates of the school to 36.MCed by graduate Rabbi Uri Topolosky (YCT '05) (and with a sign language interpreter all
throughout the ceremony), the ceremony began with Rabbi Samuel Feinsmith (YCT '05) and Rami Strosberg leading off ,with some musical accompaniment, singing the American and Israeli national anthems.
Following this, Rabbi Menachem HaCohen, the Chief Rabbi of Romania gave the invocation. Following him, Dr. Michelle Friedman, the chair of YCT's Department of Pastoral Counseling gave the Devar Torah. Following her, Howard Jonas, the chair of the YCT Board of Trustees spoke some words of greetings.
Following them, graduating students Elliot Kaplowitz and David Kasher spoke. The former spoke on "The Yeshiva Experience", while the latter spoke on "Rabbinic Aspirations," mentioning in the course of his talk two
darknesses against which we are to fight: the first of meaninglessness and the other being religious fundamentalism.
Prior to the conferral of Semikhah, there was a further musical interlude, with some dancing, as well.
Rabbi Dov Linzer, Rosh HaYeshiva, addressed those in attendance prior to moving into giving the young men the
ir respective semikhas. First, Rabbi Linzer spoke individually to/about each of the first three young men before conferring upon them their semikhas, Rabbi Yaacov Love, Associate Chair of the YCT Department of Halakha, then did the same for the next three, with Rabbi Avi Weiss finishing up with the last three students.Following this up was Rabbi Yamin Levy, the Vice-President of Yeshiva Affairs who made the gift presentation of shofars to the graduates.
Finishing up for the ceremony was Rabbi Weiss with some final remarks.-
Students graduating in YCT's class of 2007:
-Yonah Berman
-Avidan Freedman
-Akiva Herzfeld
-Elliot Kaplowitz
-David Kasher
-Jamie Pearlberg
-Sorin Rosen
-Ari Weiss
Seven of these students have already been listed in the booklet as having secured jobs:
Berman "will serve as Assistant Rabbi of Congregation Shaar Hashomayim in Montreal." Freedman will "assume the role of Limudei Kodesh instructor at SAR High School in Riverdale, NY." Kaplowitz "will serve as Rabbi and co-Director ... of the Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus" at Brandeis. Kasher will "serve as a Judaic Studies Teacher and Parent Education Program Coordinator at Oakland Hebrew Day School." Pearlberg will be a "Talmud Instructor at Rae Kushner Yeshiva High School." Rosen will return to Romania to serve as rabbi there. Silton will be "teaching at the Pardes Institute in Jerusalem and working as a pediatrician in Bet Shemesh."
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Labels: graduation, graduation ceremony, Semikhah, Semikhah ceremony, YCT, Yeshivat Chovevei Torah
posted by Drew Kaplan at 7:35 PM
4 Comments:
This comment has been removed by the author.
i was surprised that the majority of the musmakhim are going into hhinukh instead of pulpits. hopefully that's a good sign :-)
I thought YCT intended to train people for pulpits, rather than chinuch? Although it does mean more Mod-O Judaic studies teachers in the market.
More competition for you, Steg!
yeah, unfortunately it means more competition. but what i'm wondering about is, does it mean that YCT is becoming more friendly to the hhinukh angle (i heard a rumor that they're thinking of having some separate classes for pulpit vs. hhinukh tracks), or does it mean that they're going to backlash and start being more insistent that their guys go for shul jobs?
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