Community Magazine April 2014

36 COMMUNITY MAGAZINE Congregation Yad Yosef, commonly known as The Ave J Torah Center, led by Rabbi David Ozeirey and Rabbi David Sutton, is a longstanding community shul with a range of programs catering to every genre of our community – a successful ladies program, a flourishing night program, a vibrant kollel, and its most recent addition, a yeshivah program for working and college attending young men. An Exciting and Inspiring Yeshivah Program for Young Adults in College and in the Workplace A.D. COHEN YESHIVAT YAD YOSEF Yeshivat Yad Yosef Community boys who return from the sublime spiritual environment of learning and living in Israel are in for the “big jump” upon returning to America and entering the workforce or attending college. Yeshivat Yad Yosef is a yeshivah program that allows boys to maintain the intense, inspirational Torah learning they love and to advance their scholarship to the next level. Boys who have learned in Yeshivot Lev Aharon, Mikdash Melech, Netiv Aryeh or others gather in Yad Yosef’s beautiful, spacious building for a rigorous three-hour morning seder to enjoy an opportunity they may never get again. Yeshivat Yad Yosef, named after Yosef Ozeirey a”h , the father of Rabbi David Ozeirey, rabbi of Congregation Yad Yosef, holds a special place in Rabbi Ozeirey’s heart, despite the many Torah institutions, both here and abroad, with which he is intimately involved. Occasionally, Rabbi Ozeirey stops in to observe the boys and enjoy the heartfelt melody of their Torah learning. Rabbi David Sutton, rabbi of Congregation Yad Yosef and an outstanding Torah visionary, began the successful YadYosefKollel in2000, and is constantly inquiringhowtheyeshivah boys are learning and growing. His enthusiasm for the program is magnified by the sight of students of theYadYosef Kollel teaching the next generation. The Yeshivah “One should make his work temporary and his learning permanent” ( Pirke Avot ). The ideal working person is one who is connected to a yeshivah framework and bound to Torah. Yeshivat Yad Yosef’s goal is to produce generations of professionals and businessmen who are Torah educated and lead Torah lives. “Up until the opening of Yeshivat Yad Yosef, a boy who finished his yeshivah education hurdles headfirst into the secular world,” explains Rabbi David Sutton. “Often it is challenging to stay linked to Torah values, to grow in Torah knowledge and to grow as a person. Within the Ashkenazi communities, there are institutions that allow boys to pursue Torah and a career simultaneously. We want this to be the norm for all our community boys, whether they are pursuing a college degree or entering the work force.” Yeshivat Yad Yosef was founded in 2007 by three graduates of the Yad Yosef Kollel: Rabbi Leon Hazan, Rabbi Moshe Arking and Rabbi David Ashear. They received their semichah from Rabbi Asher Hatchuel, Av Bet Din of the Sephardic Bet Din and Rosh Kollel of Kollel Harabanim Aram Soba. Rabbi Hatchuel, who often speaks about Torah matters with the Yad Yosef’s students, comments affectionately that he feels as if these boys are his grandchildren, as they are studying under his own students. Rabbi Leon Hazan, who invested immense efforts into building the yeshivah, succinctly expressed the new institution’s ambitious goal: “We are looking to mold community boys who excel in Torah and middot [character] as well as school and work, to lead their community and be active in Torah.” YESHIVAH YAD YOSEF OF Photos by Vicki Ades