Dear Aish Family,
As we are all finally starting to get past the fog of Covid, it was amazing to get together this past Wednesday night with over fifty Aish friends at the home of Aish Executive Board member, Henry Siegel and his wife, Talia. We hosted Brigadier General Amir Avivi, CEO and Founder of Israel’s Defense and Security Forum. General Avivi spoke brilliantly about Israel’s path forward toward a secure future for all.
Perhaps his most important comment of the night was in relation to Aish’s work. He said that without Jews understanding their history and heritage, we would never be able to achieve peace. General Avivi thanked Aish for advancing the goal of Jewish literacy.
This is indeed our goal, to help Jews look into a mirror and see the beauty of their soul. As Aish has done this for 45 years, there is one major area in which we have stumbled and struggled; that of educating women. Women are so crucial to the betterment and success of the Jewish nation. At one time, Aish operated an amazing program called EYAHT which was run by the indefatigable Rebbetzin Dina Weinberg. Everywhere I travel I meet the most wonderful EYAHT alumni. There was a sense when I came to Aish six and a half years ago that we needed to do much more in terms of women’s education.
We started an amazing mission called Destiny which has become the gold standard of women’s trips to Israel. This experience weaves together a fantastic trip across Israel with an intense educational experience. Seeing Israel is wonderful, but when you view it through the lens of Jewish wisdom, every stone starts to shine.
Under the guidance of our Rosh Yeshiva, Rav Yitzchak Berkovits, and the unstoppable Director of the Aish Yeshiva, Rabbi Dovid Rosman, a decision was made that Aish was ready to create a full-time program for young women. It will mimic the success of our current Yeshiva which has seen its largest enrollment in forty-five years, in spite of covid. We will have multiple programs onsite for post-high school, day school students as well as older, post-university students with a more limited background. We have found that this mix and match helps both populations shine. Please visit our new website at aishgesherwomen.com and watch this new video about the new program.
To learn more, we have open houses at my home in Bergenfield on Sunday, November 14 and at the Eisenberg home on Tuesday, November 16 in North Woodmere.
We must engage Jewish women all around the world. Women are and have always been key to the success of the Jewish nation. They cannot just have a cultural relationship with Judaism. It is beautiful for women to light Shabbat candles. It is infinitely more majestic for women to understand the Jewish Wisdom behind the lighting of Shabbat candles.
As General Avivi said so beautifully, the safety and security of the Jewish nation start with educated Jews. Join us at Aish as we make sure every Jewish woman has the ability to immerse in the sea of Jewish wisdom.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Steven Burg
