“Living a life of Torah is not about closing yourself in, but about opening up to new ideas and a new way of looking at the world around you. I want to give people a taste of what Torah can mean to them,” says Rabbi Ari Sherbill, 26, a second-year student at Ohr Torah Stone’s Adolph and Ethel Beren Educators Institute, which is dedicated to preparing committed, motivated and engaging Judaic Studies educators for Diaspora and Israeli schools.

“We are learning a lot about reaching people who are outside the framework of the religious community,” says Rabbi Sherbill, who received semicha last year and hopes to run Jewish educational programming on a North American college campus next year. “Many people are searching for Torah and we are learning how to make it accessible to them.”

Beren Institute graduate Rabbi Aharon Carmel is now teaching Torah to two generations of the Jewish community in Houston, Texas. As educational director of the United Orthodox Synagogue – working in close cooperation with the congregation’s rabbi, Barry Gelman – Rabbi Carmel is responsible for a full schedule of educational activities for the 400-family membership. Amongst other initiatives, he gives a shiur every Shabbat morning on the weekly parsha, teaches a beginner class on Shir Hashirim in Hebrew and a crash course in Hebrew reading, and leads a beginners’ prayer service. “We also have a wonderful chavura of families that eat and learn together one Shabbat each month,” adds the Haifa native.

As a Jewish studies teacher at the Robert E. Beren Academy – another philanthropic endeavor of the Beren family – Rabbi Carmel has daily educational encounters with the children of many of his adult students. He teaches classes on a wide range of subjects to students in grades five through 12 – including a group of girls who arrive in school every day at 7 a.m. for a voluntary Talmud class. Parents and children come together for innovative programs run by Rabbi Carmel, including “Debate Midrash,” an evening of guided Torah study that attracts more than 60 participants each week.

Rabbi Carmel gives OTS’ Beren Institute high marks for preparing him to work in the American Jewish community. “I learned valuable skills in preparing and teaching lessons and shiurim, and gained tremendous insight into the differences between Jewish communities in Israel and overseas,” he says. “Here in Houston, I put my OTS education to good use every single day.”

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