Tonight: Yeshiva Darchei Torah Dinner to Honor Leading Benefactors and Mark Completion of New Complex

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darchei-torahYeshiva Darchei Torah, located in Far Rockaway, New York, needs no introduction. Led by its renowned and dedicated rosh hayeshiva, Rav Yaakov Bender, Darchei is home to over 1500 students – from preschool to kollel. Although most of the talmidim are from local families, a significant number of mesivta and beis medrash talmidim hail from out-of-town. The yeshiva has gained a reputation as a mosad of excellence in chinuch and individualized attention.

Tonight, the yeshiva will hold its 38th annual dinner honoring Mr. and Mrs. Yitzchok Ganger; Mr. and Mrs. Motty Klein; Mr. and Mrs. Elly Kleinman; Mr. and Mrs. Berish Fuchs; Mr. and Mrs. Nechemia Rabenstein; and Jason Cury and Joel Beritz. The dinner chairman will be the yeshiva‘s president, Mr. Ronald Lowinger.

The dinner will take place at Terrace On the Park in Flushing Meadows Park, NY.

The reception will begin at 5 p.m. (The men’s smorgasbord is on the lobby level; the women’s is upstairs.) The dinner will begin at 6 p.m.

The street address of Terrace on the Park is 52-11 111th Street, Flushing Meadows Park, NY, 11368. For directions, click here.

ELLY AND BROCHIE KLEINMAN

Elly and Brochie Kleinman are active and committed supporters of Torah and chesed institutions in America, Eretz Yisroel, and around the world. In dedicating Yeshiva Darchei Torah’s new preschool building, the Kleinmans are investing in the chinuch of thousands of talmidim who will learn and grow between its walls for decades to come.

The Kleinmans have a close relationship with Darchei Torah, as Elly’s brother, Rabbi Yisroel Kleinman, is a veteran and beloved fifth grade rebbi in its elementary school. They are also the proud grandparents of five talmidim in the yeshiva: Menachem Dovid Kleinman, and Mendy, Avi, Shmuli and Naftali Schuss.

The Kleinmans’ affinity for Yeshiva Darchei Torah goes beyond family ties, as they identify strongly with its mission.

“Darchei is a phenomenal yeshiva, providing superior chinuch,” Mr. Kleinman declares. “It has always been visionary and on the cutting-edge of Torah education, especially in dealing with special-needs situations, opening the doors of the yeshiva to not only a typical talmid, but to more difficult situations as well. The yeshiva effectively combines chinuch with chesed, and Darchei boys learn lessons about life that are formative for their development in Torah, avodah and gemillus chassodim.”

Elly, a son of Reb Avrohom Isaac z”l and, tbl”c, Ethel Kleinman, was born and raised in Boro Park. His wife, Brochie, a daughter of Reb Mendel z”l and, tbl”c, and, Rose Indig, is from Bensonhurst. Both of Elly’s parents, as well as Brochie’s father, survived the Holocaust and rebuilt their lives on American shores.

Elly is the president and CEO of The Americare Companies, a leader in the home health care industry. He spends much of his time advising and assisting various Torah and chesed institutions, and has developed a close relationship with many senior roshei yeshiva and admorim.

Elly expresses his profound admiration for Darchei’s rosh hayeshiva. “Rabbi Yaakov Bender is one of the key mechanchim in the Olam HaTorah. He is a true trendsetter in the world of chinuch, and he often presciently addresses critical issues before they become widespread.”

As the yeshiva celebrates the completion of its new complex, Mr. Kleinman expresses his hopes for its future: “I hope that the yeshiva continues to grow while retaining the personalized kesher that it has with each of its talmidim. That is the key to its hatzlachah as a large institution, one which is nonetheless like a close-knit family.”

JASON CURY AND JOEL BERITZ

In their respective roles as president and vice president of the Gruss Life Monument Funds, Jason Cury and Joel Beritz are invaluable supporters not only of Yeshiva Darchei Torah, where they have graciously contributed a significant share of the cost of constructing the new yeshiva complex, but of Jewish education in general.

The Funds were established by Joseph Gruss, a native of Lvov, Poland, who, together with his wife, Caroline, was spared from the fires of the Holocaust. Much of their family, including their first-born child, perished. The Grusses later had two children and six grandchildren.

In 1968, Mr. Gruss became aware of the particular problems in Jewish education – insufficient salaries for teachers and unsafe, unsanitary conditions in schools, among other concerns. Thus began one philanthropist’s unique vision. From that time on, Caroline and Joseph Gruss became the foremost benefactors of Jewish education in the world. During their lifetimes, they supported hundreds of Jewish schools and thousands of students and educators. In Israel, schools, child-care centers and medical units bear the Gruss name as well. The Gruss Life Monument Funds was established in 1990 to perpetuate their philanthropic endeavors.

Mrs. Gruss passed away in 1987 and Mr. Gruss in 1993, but their legacy lives on in the countless lives that they enhanced, and continue to enhance, thanks to the leaders of the Gruss Life Monument Funds, Messrs. Cury and Beritz. Today, the Funds provides annual funding of $15 million to over 400 educational and philanthropic institutions. In addition, it has made more than 14,000 interest-free mortgages to Former Soviet emigrants to Israel, and over 100 interest-free loans of $500,000 each to Jewish educational institutions throughout the world. 

In addition, the Funds, in partnership with the Fund for Jewish Education, established an Educator Benefits Program in order to bring added security to career educators through a broad insurance program in the Jewish school system which provides cost-free life insurance, reimbursements to help schools and career educators pay for the cost of medical insurance and reimbursements to help schools pay for the cost of pension plans for career educators.

The latest offshoot of the Gruss Life Monument Funds is the Center for Initiatives in Jewish Education (CIJE), founded in 2008 to enhance and enrich the quality of Jewish education throughout the United States. CIJE seeks to upgrade the technology and programs available to yeshivos and day schools. Besides funding, CIJE provides extensive teacher training and support, and its liaisons, mentors and other personnel regularly visit and communicate with its beneficiary schools to make sure that the programs and technology it provides are fully realized, enabling the students to acquire the skills they will need to excel throughout their years in yeshiva.

Jason Cury and Joel Beritz have played key roles in the success of Yeshiva Darchei Torah. Over the years, they have offered their keen advice and assisted the yeshiva at many critical junctures. They have enabled a large part of the yeshiva‘s accomplishments in chinuch and in the construction of its new complex. CIJE has graciously sponsored two computer laboratories, two state-of-the-art science laboratories and classroom SmartBoard equipment. The Gruss Life Monument Funds has underwritten two large, modern outdoor playgrounds, in addition to providing construction grants and loans.

MR. AND MRS. BERISH FUCHS

When talmidim, staff, parents and visitors step through the Berish and Hannah Fuchs Entranceway of Yeshiva Darchei Torah’s new complex, they’ll be entering a vastly larger edifice than the one in which Berish Fuchs studied as a child at Yeshiva Torah Vodaas. But it was there that Berish developed a close relationship with a mechanech named Rav Dovid Bender zt”l, father of Darchei Torah’s rosh hayeshiva, Rav Yaakov Bender.

“I had the zchus to know [Rav Dovid] for three years,” Berish related in an interview for the previous issue of Bedarchei HaTorah. “Rabbi Bender was the principal of the sixth, seventh and eighth grades, which were then located in a separate building called ‘the Old Mesivta.’ I developed a very strong kesher with him. As a matter of fact, when he was niftar, I was one of the shomrim who stayed in the house. There were shifts of talmidim throughout the night and I was [in] one of them, saying Tehillim over his body.

“Then, when I heard about the yeshiva and how the rosh hayeshiva is taking in excellent children as well as children who need help, I felt that I want to be mishtatef in his wonderful work and have a cheilek in the yeshiva.”

Berish and his wife have a personal stake in Yeshiva Darchei Torah, as the grandparents of six talmidim: Aryeh and Shmuli Edelstein; Shmuel Fuchs; Yehuda Fuchs; and Shabsi and Shmuel Ostreicher.

Berish is married to the former Hannah Reinberg, of Baltimore. They reside in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn and daven at the Stretiner Beis Medrash (under the leadership of Rav Moshe Flam), where Berish delivers a daily Daf Yomi shiur. Berish’s occupation for the last 32 years has been the import of electronics from the Far East, and he and his wife have been involved in numerous causes of Torah and chesed, especially his alma mater, Torah Vodaas.

Mr. Fuchs refers to the Yeshiva Darchei Torah philosophy as “kol dichfin yeisei veyeichol.

“Whoever wants to learn, Darchei has a place for him,” says Berish. “I think that Rabbi Bender got this chinuch from his father. We saw the way his father was moser nefesh for the bochurim [in Torah Vodaas].”

As for the new complex, Berish is enthusiastic. “I’m in love with the building,” he remarked. “I think it’s a tremendous kiddush Hashem. It’s a beautiful building which will give everybody the chance to learn, to see what learning is all about, and how sweet it is. In yeshiva, they learn the way you’re supposed to learn, to horeveh in learning, and I think the yeshiva is set up properly to teach the kids to learn and oistzuvaksen talmidei chachomim.”

{Yossi Schneider-Matzav.com Newscenter}


4 COMMENTS

  1. Mazal Tov it’s a big simcha. Sorry I won’t make it. I learnt there it’s a great place to learn. Mazal Tov to all the honorees.

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