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Torah Tours Program at Adath Israel

For the past several years, the shul has tried to boost our Shmini Atzeret/Simchat Torah spirit by taking advantage of Yeshiva University’s Torah Tours Program.

The program typically provides four students, two men and two women, who lead classes and provide extra oomph to the services and hakafot. All we have to do is cover the airfare. The results, however, have been a mixed bag. Sometimes they’ve been great and sometimes not so great.

Being that we can truly use the assistance, I wanted to find a way to ensure that we would only get top notch “Torah Tourists”. If only we had an insider at YU who could recruit the right people on our behalf. So, the first thing I did was to approach our very own Joshua Skootsky who was an amazing help in creating ruach last Simchat Torah and who is currently an undergraduate at Yeshiva College studying chemistry and computer science.

I asked Josh (who has participated in many a Torah Tour) if he could put together a group of outstanding Torah Tourists. He said that he’d try and that I should get back to him in a few weeks. Well, try he did and, based on all the information I have received about this year’s participants, we are going to have a wonderful experience. We should all say a special "thank you" to Josh for his efforts to make Torah Tours such a treat as well as for helping with the davening on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur 

Please check the N&S schedule to see the times and topics of our Torah Tourists. Here are some brief bios about our 5775 Shmini Atzeret/Simchat Torah Torah Tourists.

Chaim Metzger, from Teaneck NJ is an aspiring physicist and Rabbi, he is currently enrolled at Yeshiva University studying Torah, Physics and Math.

Davida Kollmar is in her second year of GPATS (Graduate Program in Advanced Talmudic Studies), the Stern College for Women Master’s Program in Biblical and Talmudic Interpretation. Although she originally hails from Edison, NJ, Davida considers Stern's Beit Midrash her second home. She received her Bachelors in Physics from Stern and also studied for a year at Nishmat – The Jeanie Schottenstein Center for Advanced Torah Study for Women in Jerusalem.

Daniel Shlian, from Highland Park New Jersey, is a junior at Yeshiva College majoring in chemistry and Jewish studies. He previously studied at Yeshivat Har Etzion in Gush Etzion.

Zavaha Rothschild, from Teaneck NJ is also in GPATS and is working on a Masters in Jewish Studies at Yeshiva University’s Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education & Administration. She received her Bachelors in English and Jewish Studies from Stern and studied for a year at Midreshet Harova in the old city of Jerusalem.