Ramaz is launching a new Kollel this year, bringing four Yeshiva University semicha students to campus to study Torah in the morning and teach Ramaz students in the afternoons.The program expands a Friday learning initiative piloted last year and is designed to inspire Ramaz students to learn more Torah while giving Kollel members hands-on teaching experience.
Traditionally, a Kollel is an organized way for advanced Talmud students to study together, usually for many hours a day. At Ramaz, the Kollel members will be in school five days a week, including for tefillah. Ramaz students also will have the opportunity to engage with Kollel members beyond the classroom as well.
This past school year, Ramaz hosted both Yeshiva University and Stern College undergraduate students on Fridays. Each week, the students prepared Chaburahs to learn with groups of students during their Judaic Studies classes, often on a topic related to the weekly parsha.
When the announcement of the Ramaz Kollel program came out at Yeshiva University, more than 30 semicha students applied. Rabbi Schiowitz interviewed all of the applicants, and some were selected to give model lessons. Out of those selected, the four who were chosen were selected based on their teaching abilities, as well as their ability to relate to students. One of the members of the inaugural cohort will even be a Ramaz alumnus, Joey Kaplan. After graduating from Ramaz, Kaplan spent a year at Yeshivat Orayta, followed by Columbia University. The other Kollel members include Danny Srulowitz from Long Island, New York, Yitzy Lanner from Florida, and Ari Needle from Passaic, New Jersey. All four Kollel members have prior teaching experience in some form, including on NCSY Kollel, a summer program for high school boys to learn in Israel.
According to Rabbi Kenny Schiowitz, associate principal, one of the main goals of the Kollel is to facilitate informal relationships between students and the Kollel members. Schiowitz said, “I hope that they’re going to interact informally by being at shabbatonim and at lunch”. When asked whether the Kollel members will serve more as teachers or madrichim, Rabbi Zaki Dayan, the new head of the Kollel, said that they will be like “part-time Ramaz teachers.”
One well established program similar to the Ramaz Kollel is the beit midrash fellows program at SAR High School. At SAR, the fellows meet with students during some of their regular Tanach and Gemara classes, but they are not responsible for grading, testing, or designing the curriculum. Unlike at SAR, the Ramaz Kollel members will take full responsibility over a sophomore Judaic Studies class. Another thing that makes the Ramaz Kollel different is the fact that it will allow the members to continue their semicha studies while at Ramaz. All Kollel members are third or fourth year semicha students planning careers in Jewish education.
Rabbi Zaki Dayan, the head of the Kollel, just finished his time studying in the YU Kollel Elyon, where Rabbi Schiowitz also studied. Dayan aims to bring the high level of learning from the Kollel Elyon to the Ramaz Kollel.
Dayan also described the coming year as a trial year. The goal for the Kollel is to benefit both Ramaz students and the Kollel members, with this year serving as the foundation for the future of the program. While the Kollel will be at the school five days a week, last year’s program of having YU and Stern students come on Fridays will continue, maintaining continuity at the same time as the new program starts.
