A Word from the Director: 5/13/2011

This week at Aish Tamid we resumed our GED/CSHPE tutoring program with Eli Korobkin. We have a few new students who just started, in addition to those who have been here all year – all of whom are working diligently to further their education. Many of them will be taking their tests in June, b’ezrat Hashem. We wish them much success! If you know of anybody who needs assistance in preparing to take their high school equivalency exams, please have them call us.

We currently have about thirty to forty boys who frequent our center on a daily basis. They come to study, socialize, work out in the gym, speak to me, or just hang out. They also come to eat! We would like to thank Jeff of Jeff’s Gourmet for sponsoring a wonderful dinner this week. The boys loved it! As you can imagine, feeding so many boys throughout the week can be rather costly. Please call us if you would like to sponsor a dinner.

I sometimes feel like a shadchan – but not for marriages! This week I was involved with local teens currently unhappy in New York, looking for new yeshivas to attend. I spent many hours speaking with them and their parents to discuss their needs. I was also in constant contact with parents with teens with special needs looking for support groups and new yeshivas for their sons. We are constantly updating our resources for the variety of needs of our community, providing assistance and counseling for teens and offering support systems for their parents.

One of our latest projects has been constructing a gym for the boys to use, morning, day and night. The gym provides a healthy outlet for them and can help to boost their self-confidence. This week we even had a trainer volunteer some hours to explain to the boys some techniques. Some of the boys recently discussed purchasing a new water cooler for the gym. I would like to thank Yehuda Gamzo for contributing to this goal. It is great to see our youth taking proactive steps to help out. On this topic, I’d also like to thank Yehuda Rosen and Avi Adler who volunteered a day in court this week in support of a friend who had a case which, baruch Hashem, was successful. Though I could not attend, I was able to monitor what was happening because they were there to keep me updated. We try to encourage our students to be supportive and empathetic towards others. We find in this parsha there are many situations that discuss helping other people. Even when people make mistakes, they still deserve the support and help from others to enable them to get back on their feet.

Have a good Shabbos,

Rabbi Gavriel Hershoff