By Janis Siegel, JTNews Correspondent
For the past 10 years, the Seattle Kollel, or universal community, has been offering Jewish learning for every level with a focus on starting where the students are.
The eight current rabbis and teachers of the Seattle Kollel bring their own sense of humor, compassion and commitment to Torah study in the Northwest. The non-profit organization founded in 1991 has provided rabbis to congregations and teaching sessions in Eugene, Portland, Olympia, Bellingham, Victoria, B.C., Port Angeles and Yakima.
Their mission, Jewish learning for every level, has not changed in 10 years, but the numbers of students they serve has increased. It’s a style that seems to work, according to Rabbi Avrohom David, who has been the Rosh Kollel, or head of the community, for the last four years.
“We avoid the 12th-century approach to study,” said David. “Everything we study is about how Judaism applies to our lives. Yes, we keep the rules and regulations, but just about everyone we’ve met or has come to a class has not felt that we’ve imposed our rules on them. We try to teach people how to think and ask more questions.”
The rabbis hail from various places around the globe, including England, South Africa, Jerusalem, San Diego, the Midwest, Vancouver, B.C., and from New York,
They are typically Conservative and Orthodox rabbis, but they stress their independence. The group does not have an agenda to proselytize or convert any unsuspecting Jew who happens to come to a class.
Instead, they take the lead from those who approach them for learning and respond to a person’s questions and concerns in an effort to help them make their lives more rich and full through Jewish texts and information.
The six full-time rabbis and two half time rabbis teach nearly 300 people a week in 30 different classes offered four days a week.
Rabbi Mordechai Farkash, who is also the Chabad representative in Bellevue, has been teaching at the Eastside Torah Center for seven years, and Rabbi Michael Cohen has been teaching at the Northwest Yeshiva High School for six years.
Five more rabbis are newer to the community and have been teaching since last September. Rabbi Yitzchak Goldman holds weekly classes in Tacoma, Rabbi Richard Tobin oversees the West Seattle Kollel, Rabbi Usher Werner is the contact for the Capitol Hill Kollel, Rabbi Shragie Gestetner is available for advanced studies and Rabbi Yehoshua Pinkus works in the Sephardic Jewish community.
The rabbis were hired with the funds from a Torah Umesorrah grant the Kollel received in July 2000. They share office space with the Va’ad HaRabanim of greater Seattle, located in the Seward Park neighborhood in Seattle.
“We tend to have a preschool perception of Judaism,” said Rabbi Richard Tobin, who has recently organized a very well attended and successful Kollel group in West Seattle. “Jews are rejecting Judaism because of what they don’t know, not because of what they know. Our challenge is presenting deep concepts to people who are very successful in their lives but still want to increase their lives.”
Anyone who wants to arrange a personal study can call the office. The rabbis will even arrange phone time, if necessary. Often, a group of five or more can call and arrange a particular teaching for the specific needs of that group. Their goal is to get you interested in study and to study more.
“We provide an opportunity for Jews to meet other Jews with an emphasis on learning,” said Toban. “We don’t have an expectation for what people will do with the learning. We’re trying to get people over that. Classical Judaism is very dynamic. We’re offering something people don’t think exists. We just open the texts. It’s not rigid.”
“Between 80 and 90 percent of Jewish people in Seattle have an interest about Jewish things,” said David. “I think they are more interested in study on the West Coast because they are further removed from the bad experience.”
“Seattle has a strong desire for learning Torah and they are especially interested in spirituality, ” said Farkash. “Many people are successful and they want to take it further. A Jew usually goes back to Torah to study and grow.”
“I find people have a strong identity here and have positive feelings about their Judaism,” said Gestetner. “They want to change their outlook and their attitudes. They want to give it context and apply it.”
“A lot of parents like what they see their kids learning in school and they want to keep up with them,” said Cohen. “They can create community separate from the synagogue where they don’t have to be affiliated.”
All the rabbis are optimistic about the future of Jewish learning in Seattle, and the Kollel sees itself expanding and serving more people.
“We’re very pleased,” said David. “We have about 1,800 people on our newsletter mailing list and about 800 on our e-mail list. Currently, we see about 2,000 people a year coming through the doors. It’s about 50-50 male to female, about 10 percent seniors and 10 percent kids. Our goal for next year will be 500 people a week attending classes. We would like to create a drop-in learning center and a Yeshiva- or Beit Midrash—type environment where you could come and study for a week or a month. We would also like to increase staff and contract with local teachers to teach classes.”
This spring, the Kollel will honor its founders with a reunion dinner on April 21, 2001, at Congregation Ezra Bessaroth.