By Joel Magalnick, Editor, JTNews
When the Seattle Kollel moved into its first building, a Seward Park duplex, its leaders knew that they would outgrow that space quickly. Now, two years later, the Jewish learning organization has launched a capital campaign to expand to fit its burgeoning class load.
The campaign, called "A Structure More Than Temporary," launched in September and hopes to raise $600,000 for the work to be complete. A gift of $100,000 was granted by First Financial to build the beit midrash, and several smaller gifts have jumpstarted the campaign.
"Our plan was to expand," says Rabbi Avrohom David, the head of the school. "We’re excited about the need to expand."
That plan entails moving outer walls close to the sidewalk property lines, demolishing the garage and expanding out from where that structure stood on the building’s side, and in the future expand the other side to include an indoor/outdoor café and terrarium. Inside the Kollel, classroom space will be greatly expanded, as well the library, which Rabbi David hopes to at least triple in size. Currently, many of the books – which include sacred texts, history, and Jewish law in both English and Hebrew – are sitting unused in boxes, waiting to find a home on a shelf.
One of the challenges of the current structure is that the number of people that can attend a class is limited – mainly because of the physical limitations.
Once the rebuild is complete, "we can get rid of all these little rooms," Rabbi David says, which will allow for courses and study sessions to meet as single groups, instead of having to break into smaller ones. Currently, about 150 members of the community are served each week, with the hope that up to as many as 400 will be accommodated when the construction is completed six months from now.
To ensure that they do things right, Rabbi David said he pursued several people in the community for help, including a campaign board that includes David Benoliel, whose efforts were instrumental in the building of the Summit at First Hill, and architect Jeremy Miller, who Rabbi David says studies with the Kollel.
With the groundbreaking to be held in December, the bulk of the work is expected to be finished by May 2005.
Though the Kollel has owned its current home for only two years, the organization has been in Seattle for 14 years. Before moving into its current space, they used area synagogues and even the homes of rabbis and students.
Rabbi David said the principal difference between the Kollel and a synagogue is that the Kollel is not intended to be a house of prayer.
"This place is dedicated for study," he says. "We’re not going to be having Shabbat services."
The rabbi also explained how according to Jewish law, a person who studies full-time is exempt from prayer. "There is a strong element of holiness to study, which is more than prayer," he says.
The growing roster of rabbis have trained in Orthodox institutions and teach according to halachah, but Rabbi David said that only 40 percent of the people they serve are Orthodox. The rest of the students run the gamut of Conservative and Reform to people who are converting or intermarried, or not even Jewish.
"Study is open to everybody," Rabbi David says. "You have a place to connect with."
He added that the Kollel has made those connections throughout the Puget Sound region, with classes in several synagogues as well as its own West Seattle Torah Learning Center. Though the Kollel’s home base will grow, Rabbi David says the organization’s expansive reach will continue.
As part of its overall growth effort, the learning center in West Seattle has recently been introduced a new rabbi, Ephraim Schwartz. Another new rabbi is coming onboard this month to work in outreach at Jewish schools, and the Kollel is in process of hiring two more. These four rabbis are the first staff expansion the Kollel has had in about four years. Much of the Kollel’s operating budget comes from a New York-based organization called Torah Umesorah, which will provide funding for three years. The rest comes from donations and other sources.
The dedication to the Kollel shows in the donations toward the capital campaign, however.
"Most of the people who give are people who benefit from us," said Rabbi David.