Esther & Adiel’s Blog

17 February 2007

Yeshiva Primary Luncheon

Posted by Adiel under: Shtark .

I was invited to speak at a teacher luncheon for the yeshiva I went to when I was a kid - before I went off to public school. It was a great honor that Rabbi Deutscher asked me to speak to the small group of teachers. When he made his request, he told me that he wanted me to point out something specific I gained during my time in the yeshiva. Here is the speech I gave:

“Thank you Rabbi Deutscher for the opportunity to speak here today at this luncheon. It’s not everyday I get to participate directly in a yeshiva function.

For those of you who don’t know me, I am actually a former student of this yeshiva. My family and used to live here in Queens where my siblings and I were sent to the yeshiva by my parents. I think I started in kindergarten and continued until 5th grade upon which my family moved to Atlanta and all of us were enrolled in public school.

Now, the transition to public school was a little hard - going from the great education that comes from the yeshiva to a cookie-cutter mass production education that comes with a public school. And whatever we did in terms of being Jewish flew out the window. Not that my family and I were ever religious. We were the type of family who would prepare the Friday night Shabbos meal and then go turn on the TV to watch HBO’s Friday night special.

Years past and one summer, Rabbi Deutscher called my parents and asked if he could send me to camp for the summer. I was around 16 – which is the ‘coming of age’ for boys in the South. That’s when I could get my license and get a job. Maybe continue another year of football and even join the wresting team! But my parents were against it and more than happy to get me out of the house. They didn’t know what was in store for them…hee hee.

I eventually became religious after the summer and went to yeshiva where I ‘caught up’ with everything that was missed.

And I used to wonder to myself - what was it that allowed me to feel comfortable in a Jewish setting? Coming back from a public school environment to yeshiva should have been frustrating and unwelcome. If anything, I should have been vehemently opposed to changing my lifestyle and totally rejected the idea of becoming frum!

But I think that there was something in my education that led me to believe that being Jewish is where I was supposed to be.

My teachers in this yeshiva would tell stories of Moshe Rabenu and Rabbi Akiva and of other Jews all the time. They inspired us and turned on the flames of what it means to be a Jew. Being a Jew - religious or not - was like being a superhero. And we all want to be superheroes.

I would like to say that the greatest thing that I got from the yeshiva was a tremendous respect for torah. All the inspirational stories and motivations made us revere Torah.

And when it came time for me to come back, I didn’t reject it or the system because since the respect for the system was there, I was more open-minded to the ideas that were brought to me.

I don’t know how the yeshiva is today with this regard but I hope that all of you motivate and inspire your students with Jewish values and stories and may they grow up to revere Torah – just like it was for me.

Thank you.”

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