Victor Cohen
Yeshivat Moreshet Yerushalayim is a unique community-friendly post-high school yeshiva in Israel, headed by Rosh Yeshiva Rabbi Harold Sutton. Its mission is to shape future leaders that are bnei Torah, who will carry their experience at the yeshiva throughout their lives. Moreshet offers its students top-notch rabbis, trips to explore the land, and connections to their rabbis and fellow students that will last for the rest of their lives.
The yeshiva opened with a class of only eight students. The incoming class is fifty strong.
The Alumni Event
Once a year, Moreshet invites all alumni to a reunion so they can gather together to celebrate the yeshiva’s accomplishments and to learn about its vision for the future.
Usually, reunions are hosted in an alum’s backyard. However, due to bad weather the event needed to be moved indoors. Thankfully, Congregation Magen David of West Deal graciously offered to host the event.
In past years only former students have been invited. This year the incoming students were invited as well. Newcomers and old-timers got to chat together, with 250 attendees altogether. An added plus was the presence of some of the yeshiva’s rabbis, flown in for the event, including Rabbi Yehoshua Shani and Rabbi Tanchum Gold.
The reunion’s theme was “The Shuk,” and an abundance of shuk-style food was featured, including shawarma, candies, spices, and a variety of nuts. According to Daniel Braha, the chief architect of the event, they wanted to create a warm, familiar environment for alumni, and a welcoming environment for incoming students.
The alumni network of Moreshet is like a family. As Jacob Kassin, who was very involved with fundraising for Moreshet, said, “The importance of the event is to bring all the alumni together and to create a sense of family and unity. It’s also to show the parents and the community as a whole what we have built and will continue to build.”
A Night to Remember
Sammy Saka opened the evening. He spoke about the day Rabbi Sutton pitched Moreshet to Hillel Yeshiva’s board. He noted that Hillel was proud to have such a large percentage of students attending the yeshiva’s first year. Rabbi Saul Kassin expressed gratitude towards the Moreshet leadership for nurturing it into the success it has become. Rabbi Sutton thanked the many people involved in creating and sustaining Moreshet. He marveled at how what started off as only eight has become 250.
Hacham Shimon Alouf detailed the importance that we should place on our tradition and the specific values our community teaches us. He pointed to the depraved, corrupted values of the outside world and cautioned Moreshet’s alumni to adhere to proper values.
Rabbi Gold, a dayan in Israel, led the learning for the night. He described a recent case on which he ruled, then he split the room into groups, and had each group work together to find solutions for the dispute, utilizing sources from the Gemara, the Rishonim, and the Shulchan Aruch.
The evening closed with an emotional presentation by Rabbi Shani, who lost his son Uri, H’yd, on October 7th. A short video that Uri had recorded was shown. Even though Rabbi Shani and his family were struck by a devastating tragedy, the rabbi seemed strong and resolute. He served as an inspiration for everyone in the room.
This reunion was a beautiful and meaningful event. It was appropriately representative of the yeshiva, a place dedicated to teaching skills to produce graduates dedicated to Torah learning, under the tradition of Aram Soba, and dedicated to Sephardic values.