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THE CAMPUS CONNECTION

The Netzach-Steinhardt Fellowships, a program for overseas students at Yeshivat Hamivtar-Orot Lev, prepares outstanding young men to reach out to Jewish students when they return to their college campuses. It was the Steinhardt experience that gave 20-year-old Morty Rosenbaum, a sophomore at Brandeis University, the know-how and confidence to organize "Study With a Buddy," a program that pairs students without background in textual learning with those who are more experienced.

The main priority that Steinhardt coordinators Rivky and Josh Ross taught the participants was the importance of content in any program they organized, says Rosenbaum, who studied at Hamivtar-Orot Lev for a year before entering Brandeis in 1999. "While we definitely learned a lot about packaging and advertising, we all came away with one main idea: that every program should deal with some textual source - something that a participant could actually take meaning from," he explains. "Another key idea I gained from the year in Steinhardt was that it's not enough to show the participants in your program that Judaism is non-threatening and not un-cool. You have to convey that Judaism is something great and meaningful."

"Steinhardt taught me how to take my personal experience and share it with my fellow Jews," echoes Davi Bernstein, 20, a sophomore at Yale University, who is in the process of transforming Yale's Lindenbaum Kosher Kitchen into a comfortable hangout where Jewish students can socialize, eat, learn Torah informally, and connect with others. "Hamivtar is an institution which teaches its students not only to love the texts of Am Yisrael, but the people of Am Yisrael, too. The idea is that while we're learning all these great skills in yeshiva, which enrich us personally, we should combine them with the marketing skills and speaking skills that enable us to share the beauty of the Jewish religion and Jewish texts with our fellow Jews."

Bernstein, who recently became chairman of Yale's Young Israel House, has concentrated recently on running programs that focus on support for Israel in light of the current conflict. "I'm leading the campaign to educate the Yale campus that Israel is seeking peace, while the Palestinian leadership is dragging Israel into a violent military confrontation," he explains.

At Brandeis, Morty Rosenbaum says, chavruta learning programs over the past years have attracted less-than-hoped-for attendance. "This year, with a Steinhardt-inspired advertising campaign more consciously geared to the program's main audience, we were fortunate enough to have a kickoff program turnout of over 100 students." Weekly meetings of "Study with a Buddy" have remained strong, he continues. "Countless students have told me how terrific this is for them, how empowered they feel by the knowledge they're gaining in an environment that feels really comfortable to them."

When Rosenbaum began his studies at Hamivtar-Orot Lev, he hadn't given much thought to playing an influential role on campus. "My main concern was whether my college's Jewish community and programming would be sufficient to accommodate my own needs," he admits. "Only after talking with Rivky and Josh did it dawn on me that I really had an obligation to share the benefits of my background with people who were looking for more. They not only introduced the idea of actually having a responsibility - they made it genuinely exciting. My year in the Steinhardt program gave me confidence that Jewish life would not only be significant for me personally when I hit campus, but for all the people I'd work with when I got to Brandeis."

"We all want to share the beauty of Judaism with other Jews," concludes Davi Bernstein. "But few of us know exactly how to do this. Steinhardt teaches us how."

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