WebYeshiva

URL	www.webyeshiva.org
Rosh Yeshiva	Rabbi Chaim Brovender
Director	Rabbi Yedidya Rausman

WebYeshiva.org is the first^[1][2] online yeshiva and midrasha and was founded in November 2007 by Rabbi Chaim Brovender.^[3] WebYeshiva offers live courses for students who want to study Torah, including classes in Gemara, Tanach, Halacha, Chassidut, and Machshava. Classes are permanently archived for later review^[4] and students have the ability to download them. WebYeshiva has over 6,700 students located in more than 50 countries. The organization had 100 students its first semester^[4] and has taught approximately 7,000 students since its founding.^[5] WebYeshiva.org is a project of the Academy for Torah Initiatives and Directions (ATID)^[6] and is headquartered on HaNassi St., in Jerusalem, near the President's House.^[7]

Philosophy

WebYeshiva.org states that it wants “to make Torah accessible to Jews all over the world and to help them improve their learning skills in an interactive classroom environment, using the latest Internet technology.”^[8] WebYeshiva aims to create a virtual yeshiva community where students can learn Torah on their own time and at their own pace.

Programs

In addition to the regular group classes, WebYeshiva offers a “Matmidim” track for those who want to take multiple courses each week combined with private tutorials. WebYeshiva.org also offers private sessions and chavruta (partner) study. The yeshiva often offers free classes and programs around the Jewish holidays including the current month of Elul 2011. WebYeshiva has a Russian-language program, with a corresponding website, that has more than 275 students.^[9] The yeshiva has a Spanish-language program run in partnership with Soul Train.^[10][11] WebYeshiva also has a Sunday program, "Weekends at WebYeshiva," for students who are unable to attend during the week.^[12]

Partnerships

WebYeshiva.org offers Torah classes in conjunction with the London School of Jewish Studies^[13][14] as well as Hebrew ulpan courses in a partnership with Ulpan-Or in Israel.^[15] TorahTutors.org^[16] is an affiliate of WebYeshiva and offers one-on-one study opportunities. The yeshiva also works with Soul Train, an organization and website founded in 1999 to help Spanish-speaking students to learn. Certain classes are made available through the Council of Young Israel Rabbis and the Jewish Agency for Israel to hearing-impaired students^[17][18] through the use of American Sign Language.^[19] The yeshiva partners with the S.Y. Agnon House in Jerusalem by offering courses on the writer’s works that are broadcast directly from his residence.^[20] Another WebYeshiva.org class on Agnon’s writings on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is co-sponsored by the Lincoln Square Synagogue in New York.^[21] The yeshiva also gives Talmud lessons online to students at the Maimonides School in Massachusetts.^[22] On the holiday of Tisha B’Av, WebYeshiva broadcasts lessons worldwide from the Shir Hadash Synagogue in Jerusalem.^[23] The yeshiva also gives Chanukah lectures to the Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel (AACI).^[24]

Technology

WebYeshiva.org uses Webex Meeting Center to have interactive, real-time classes where students are able to see and hear each other and participate fully in a virtual classroom. Students who study at WebYeshiva need a computer with broadband Internet-access along with speakers or headphones. Microphones and web cameras are recommended but not required. Classes are recorded and archived for later review by students, and students have the ability to download the classes to their MP3, MP4, and mobile devices. WebYeshiva has a Facebook page, a Twitter account, and a YouTube channel.

Blog

On March 9, 2009, WebYeshiva.org started the WebYeshiva Blog.^[25] The WebYeshiva Blog presents a variety of posts daily in audio, video, and text format, and features regular posts on such topics as the weekly Parsha and Haftora, Nach, Business Ethics, Aggada, and Jewish Philosophy. Both WebYeshiva students and teachers make regular contributions. Podcasts on the coming week’s Torah portion are published every week.

Trip to Poland

In January 2011, Rabbi Brovender and Rabbi Jeffrey Saks, founding Director of the Academy for Torah Initiatives and Directions (ATID), flew to Poland to meet Joel Nowicki, a Polish Jew living in Świecie who studies online with WebYeshiva.org daily and is suffering from lung cancer. “Sometimes a rebbe must travel to his students, bring some light, hold his hand and raise him up,” Brovender told The Jerusalem Post afterwards. Rabbi Brovender and Rabbi Saks met with Rabbi Michael Schudrich, Poland’s chief rabbi, who accompanied them on their trip to visit Joel.^[26][1]

Educators

Rabbi Chaim Brovender is the Rosh Yeshiva of WebYeshiva.org and President of The Academy for Torah Initiatives and Directions (ATID) in Jerusalem. He is the founding Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Hamivtar and Michlelet Bruria (today, Midreshet Lindenbaum).^[27] Rabbi Brovender was one of the first Orthodox Jewish rabbis to teach Talmud to women,^[28] and most WebYeshiva classes have both male and female students.

Rabbi Jeffrey Saks is the founding Director of The Academy for Torah Initiatives and Directions (ATID) in Jewish Education in Jerusalem and editorial-board member of the journal “Tradition.” He received his bachelor’s degree, master’s degree, and rabbinical ordination from Yeshiva University.^[29]

Rabbi Yedidya Rausman is the founding director of WebYeshiva. He has a bachelor’s degree from CUNY Queens College and a rabbinical ordination from Yeshivat Hamivtar and Rabbi Zalman Nechamia Goldberg. He is a former director of Yeshivat Hamivtar.^[27]

Rabbi Yitzchak Blau is the Rosh Kollel at Yeshivat Shvilei Hatorah and previously taught at Yeshivat Hamivtar and at the Yeshivah of Flatbush High School.^[30][31]

Rabbi Dr. Gidon Rothstein has a rabbinical ordination from Yeshiva University and a Ph. D. from Harvard University.^[32]

Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir is the research director of the Business Ethics Center of Jerusalem. He is the author of the weekly syndicated-column Jewish Ethicist.^[33][34][35]

Rabbi Yitzchak Twersky has taught at institutions including Yeshiva University, Columbia, and Princeton. He was also a Senior Rabbi and chairman of the Tanach department at The Frisch School.^[36][37]

Rabbi Shlomo Katz is a former chaplain of Cedars Sinai Hospital. He received his rabbinical ordination from Rav Zalman Nechemia Goldberg and Rabbi Chaim Brovender.

Past Guest Lecturers

Dore Gold, former Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations and current President of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, instructed a three-part mini-series with Rabbi Chaim Brovender on the commandments regarding the “redemption of captives” and its implications for the Middle East and captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.^[38]

Rabbi Michael Schudrich, the chief rabbi of Poland, has a bachelor’s degree in religious studies from Stony Brook University and a master’s degree in history from Columbia University. He received his rabbinical ordination from Yeshiva University and served as rabbi of the Jewish community of Japan from 1983 to 1989. He taught a three-part course on who the Jewish people are and how Judaism survived.^[39]

Allison Josephs is the founder of the website Jew in the City,^[40] which states that it aims to break down stereotypes and misconceptions about Orthodox Jews and Judaism. Ms. Josephs taught a mini-series on her experience of becoming more observant and how she has maintained her observant lifestyle.^[41]

References

External links

• WebYeshiva.org Website (English)
• WebYeshiva.ru Website (Russian)
• WebYeshiva Blog
• TorahTutors.org
• The Academy for Torah Initiatives and Directions