Recently, a longtime friend of mine, Rabbi Sholom Avtzon, invited me to see the yeshiva where he teaches: the United Lubavitch Yeshiva. The rabbi and I have been friends for over 20 years; we met while he was a shaliah, and he visited my retail store every Friday with his Torah messages.

Upon my arrival to the yeshiva, I was pleased to see hundreds of children thriving in their Jewish education. I must admit though, walking into the school, I had the predetermined misconception that the students were going to be of Ashkenazi descent. I certainly didn't expect to see our very own Sephardic community members' children studying at this warm, wonderful place.

To my amazement, Rabbi Sholom Avtzon then began naming children from our Sephardic community who were in his class and graduated from the elementary division. He named Nachun Ishak (a nephew of Rabbi Farhi), Rachamim Dweck and Aharon Khaski (a nephew to Mr. A. Bawabeh), and many others. In fact, there were over 60 students who were of Syrian and Sephardic descent.
Trying to pin him down, I asked, “Who from the Syrian community is in your class this year?” He replied, “Aryeh Mahana (son of Dr. Shlomo Seth Mahana, a contributing writer to IMAGE Magazine) and David Fiena.”

He then explained that many of the students come to the United Lubavitch Yeshiva because of their high standards of education and warm environment; after all, this is what the yeshiva and the Lubavitch are known for. “And some come because of the fairly priced tuition of our yeshiva. Not all parents are able to pay the recent skyrocketing prices of other yeshivas—Sephardic institutions included. Its understandable if a parent cannot afford the tuition. In fact, last year we took a Syrian child out of public school and granted him a full scholarship,” he concluded.

The Lubavitch Yeshiva continues to follow the Lubavitcher Rebbe's ZT"L policy that no Jewish child be denied an education, even if it's because of a parent's difficult financial situation. Because of their compassionate guiding principles, the yeshiva needs the support of our community in order to help them meet their financial budget.
We are indeed fortunate to have the United Lubavitch Yeshiva as a neighbor and partner in our children’s education. They are right here in our own neighborhood, on 841 Ocean Parkway (between H and I). And yes, they definitely deserve our support.

Written by: Ben-Gurion Matsas