A few days before the end of the Pesach bein hazmanim,
I decided to recharge my spiritual batteries by visiting a
cheder and interviewing its staff. What could be more
inspiring than the sight of tinokos shel beis rabbon
cheerfully studying Torah? (Chadorim resume their
studies right after Pesach. Kollelim begin only on
Rosh Chodesh Iyar.)
Friends recommended that I visit the Knesset Yehuda Talmud
Torah, known for its excellence. As I neared the cheder's
spacious and airy building, groups of laughing children
streamed out of its doors. One particularly robust fourth-
grader, whom I later learned was named Michael, gleefully
shouted: "First in line for the swings." His pal, Yossi, who
had arrived in the playground at nearly the same time, also
expressed his rights.
Laughingly, the rebbe I had come to interview told me,
"Actually they're all first. Michael's first; Yossi's first;
Shimmie's first."
"Go tell them that!" I replied, picturing the mini- brawl
that might ensue after such a declaration.
"What I mean is that this is a school where every child
comes first," he emphatically explained.
The happy students, the satisfied parents and the excellent
rebbe-talmid rapport in the cheder all indicate
that this is definitely true.
In the yard, all of the children spoke Hebrew. Nonetheless, I
detected some American, French and Russian accents here and
there.
"To what type of student body does the cheder cater?"
I asked.
"We have children from all backgrounds -- Ashkenazim,
Sephardim, children from English and from French- speaking
homes, and children of Russian descent."
"How does this affect your curriculum and the programs you
offer?" I continued.
"Since you're American-born, I'll begin by describing the
programs for English speakers. Twenty percent of Knesset
Yehuda's students come from English-speaking homes. For many
of these children, adjusting to a Hebrew-language cheder
is difficult. But we have many programs which help them
acclimate.
"The first is an after-school tutoring program for students
who require additional assistance. The second is a special
parsha project, which provides English speakers with
parsha sheets in both English and Hebrew to ensure
that they understand the material being studied in class.
"We also have a reading specialist on the staff who works on
a one-to-one basis with children with reading difficulties,
particularly those from English-speaking homes. Russian
children receive similar attention and assistance.
"Another very unique program is a Yiddish language one in
which children are taught to speak and read basic Yiddish.
This skill is especially important for students who might
later wish to attend Yiddish- speaking yeshivos. Offering
them such language skills broadens the range of their future
options."
From the playground, we walked back into the building and I
was particularly impressed by its spacious classrooms, broad
hallways and brightly decorated bulletin boards. I was then
ushered into the office, where I was shown albums with
pictures of the Talmud Torah's extracurricular activities.
Some of these pictures were taken on trips to matzo bakeries
and mekomos kedoshim where subject matter studied in
the classrooms comes to life.
Then I leafed through an album on the history of the Talmud
Torah, which was founded by the Malin brothers, Rav Meir
zt"l and Rav Nechemia shlita, who were
miraculously spared from the Holocaust by fleeing to Shanghai
with the Mirrer Yeshiva.
Their father, HaRav Isser Yehuda Malin, dayan and
rosh yeshiva of Ohr Torah in Brisk, was murdered by
the Nazis in Vilna, in 1942. When, in 1946, the Malin
brothers reached the shores of the United States, they
rebuilt the Ohr Torah yeshiva in Washington D.C. in his
memory.
Arriving in Eretz Yisroel before the Six Day War, Rav
Nechemia and Rav Meir purchased a barren plot of land in an
area which was then at the outskirts of Yerushalayim. On my
way to the Talmud Torah, the sight of the relatively new
Ramat Shlomo neighborhood, directly behind Sanhedria, jutted
before my eyes, as did the older Ramot neighborhood at
Sanhedria's left. Although I see this sight many times a
week, it never ceases to inspire and excite me. Viewing the
picture of Knesset Yehuda in its early days, with its rocky
landscape, I couldn't help thinking that today's burgeoning
neighborhoods are veritable embodiments of the prophecies of
the nevi'im regarding Yerushalayim's growth and
expansion.
The album also has a picture from 1978, of the Talmud Torah's
first student body, which consisted of twenty children. Today
it serves over 500 children from the ages of three through
fourteen.
Today, Knesset Yehuda is renowned for the well-rounded Torah-
true chinuch it offers its children, and for its
excellence. It is indeed the pride and the flagship of the
entire neighborhood.
