A concert by well-known entertainer Dudu Fisher in Frankfurt, Germany, celebrated Ohr Torah Stone’s contributions to the German Jewish community. Eight alumni of the Joseph and Gwendolyn Straus Rabbinical Seminary are currently serving communities throughout the country. Pictured, left to right: President of Ohr Torah Stone Germany, Chaim Szeinwald; Dudu Fisher; event sponsor Daniel Jammer; Rabbi Shlomo Riskin and OTS Germany Board Member Nathan Kalmanowicz.

Shoshana and Yisrael Porath have a lot in common. Married for three years and expecting their first child, they were both born in the U.S.A. and made aliyah – he as a child with his family and she as a university student whose family followed her to Israel. Both are experienced teachers, excel in Torah study, and are eager to share their talents and skills as emissaries to a Diaspora community or college campus next year. And both are currently preparing for this challenge with intense study at Ohr Torah Stone.

Shoshana, 24, who has a B.A. in Bible and Education, is one of the first participants in the Educators Fellowships Program, initiated this year at Midreshet Lindenbaum to prepare outstanding teachers for Jewish day schools around the world. Yisrael, 27, a graduate of the Neve Shmuel High School, has a degree in Education and Educational Counseling and is currently completing his studies for rabbinic ordination at the Straus Rabbinical Seminary’s David Falk Kollel. He has already completed the Straus-Amiel Practical Rabbinics Program.

“Thanks to Ohr Torah Stone, both of us are increasing our Jewish knowledge while focusing on the specific concerns of Diaspora communities and the challenges we will face once there,” says Shoshana. “That will help us make a real difference in the community we’ll be serving next year.”

In their first year as Israeli emissaries to the Rutgers University Hillel Association, after meeting tens of Israel-program alumni in the Jewish learning programs they taught on campus, Rabbi Ori Melamed and his wife, Lea, concluded that something was missing from the year of study that many American Jewish teenagers spend in Israel following high school: contact with Israelis. “They can learn Torah and travel without ever speaking a word of Hebrew,” says the Israeli-born rabbi, who prepared for his position in the Straus-Amiel Practical Rabbinics Program. “Many of them have their Israeli experience within an American bubble.”

To foster a connection between the American students and their Israeli counterparts as well as with the land, the Melameds brought a group of 20 Rutgers students to Israel this past June for two weeks of study in Israeli yeshiva programs, with Israeli havruta study partners.

One participant enjoyed the Israeli experience so much that he decided to enroll in OTS’s Yeshivat Torat Yosef (formerly Yeshivat Hamivtar Orot Lev) for the current academic year.

“The trip was my first opportunity to spend real time in a yeshiva, and I really liked it,” explains Ben Druse of West Orange, N.J. “I had just graduated Rutgers and I realized that once I started working, I wouldn’t have much time for learning.” Today, Ben reports that while he plans to stay at the yeshiva until this coming summer, he intends to stay in Israel for a lot longer. “I plan to make aliyah and study for an M.A. in economics here in Israel,” he says.