Yeshivat Torah v'Avodah Charidy Campaign Featured with Rabbi Dr. Yehuda Seif and Reb Yehoshua Segal

at JM and the AM. Well, there's an important uh charity charity with a D campaign going on and um that is the charity campaign chir.comtva26. TVA is the yeshiva turvod in Jerusalem, the holy city of Jerusalem. Uh I will admit I have a personal connection there and I've seen its growth. I've seen the impact it's made and I've seen how amazing so many of their alumni are. And with us live via telephone is Rabbi Yehuda Scythe who's the Rashiva and executive director of both Midrasha and Yeshiva Torah of Avoda in Jerusalem. Rabbi Scythe, a pleasure to welcome you back to JM in the AM. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> And uh Reosua Seagull, I told you I have a personal connection. He's director of YTVA. He's director of the Yeshiva. He joins us for this conversation as well. Reosa, welcome to JM in the AM. >> Thank you very much. A pleasure to be back here. >> The campaign officially is the 29th and 30th of April. That's today and tomorrow. They are trying to raise $1 and a4 million dollars in these 24 hours to continue the great work of MTVA um the Midrasha YTVA the yeshiva all under the opaces of an organization and a movement that's extremely important and dear to our hearts and that's of course Benaka big shout out to all of the uh different divisions and programs within Benaka they are making a tremendous impact one would think all these years later. Are they still making an impact? And boy oh boy, they are making quite an impact. Rabbi Scythe, let's start with the yeshiva. Uh first of all, how are things going? It's now toward the end of the school year. It's toward the end of the stay uh that the young men are going to be having in their year post high school, the year they're spending at YTVA. How would you evaluate the way things have been going so far this year? >> Like really proud of our guys. They've grown tremendously, meaning it hasn't been a simple year with uh, you know, you know, with missiles flying. And our guys have stepped up in such incredible ways. They've, uh, you know, every time a uh, every time they felt like in any way that uh, you know, that they were in danger, they leaned in to more Torah, more, more connection to AmIRel. And, um, they really they grow grew tremendously, meaning it was amazing to see their growth. um despite and because of everything that was going going on around them. >> You know, it's interesting to us as observers over the last few years. It seems like the yeshiva in general has just grown in so many different areas. I know that the Hezer program continues to expand uh and that's something you're very proud of and I know that the yeshiva in general is getting I I think we would say a record number of applicants and that translates into a record number of participants. I mean what's happening now in 2026 that why TVA is such a school such a yeshiva of choice for parents and students from North America. No, I think we've seen that the the deep connection, the idea that, you know, we are unabashedly in favor of connecting deeply to Erit Israel, ultimatel. And I think that vision has really um inspired our community. And we've had, you know, we we launched our Hezer program October 15, 2023, >> right? >> It was eight days after October 7th. That's when our Hez program launched. It wasn't planned that way but that's when our first uh group of Hezerikim went in which is that they combining 18 years 18 months of learning Torah with 18 months in the IDF and uh we've had um you know since then we've had nearly a hundred has their um who have come through our system we have 70 who are active right now um whether it's in uh in Gaza whether it's in Lebanon whether it's in Judea Judea and Samaria area meaning wherever they are they're having a huge impact and they come back you know they have an offshabas they have you know a couple days off they're back in the yeshiva learning and that inspires the next generation when a shaft guy sees a guy in their uniform who their first stop it's a base medish you know it inspires them to say like wow I could be more I can contribute in a more meaningful way I can live a life that's full of you it's dripping with meaning and cause them to rethink what their future looks like and that's been really inspiring to see >> yeah you've done it really well I can tell you that Uh if you want to affect today, excuse me, if you want to affect in a positive way the future of Amuse, uh this is a good institution to support everybody. It's on our list of recommendations. Uh the charity campaign will be officially live in a couple of hours. It's going to be the full day today and tomorrow as they try to reach one and a4 million. We're announcing this uh link charity.com/tva26. If our guests want to direct people to a different address, they'll feel free to do so in a moment. But at charity.comtva26 and uh we're hoping that they get to the goal. Rabbi Scythe, we should mention just so people realize uh and I know how hard it is to get matchers. It's not an easy thing to do. Uh but because of the worldwide uh impact that your uh your schools, your votes have, uh it it's obvious that uh there are people, you know, willing to step up. So every single dollar that is donated during this two-day campaign is going to be matched. So you know simply put 180 is 360 500's a,000 a,000 is 2,000 etc. And you must have a really good base of support that you're able to put together that type of campaign. >> Yeah. I think the the idea is that it's much more than a one-year program. It's this is impacting so much beyond you know our our female students they stay to do sher lumi many of our students who go back to the states our ambassadors on campus you know fighting against anti-semitism that we're seeing their leaders in their Jewish community I mean we're trying to really think of this not just as a one-year program that we've impacted them and then we say goodbye but it's something that they're part of our family and they're part of a movement and they're part of a whole cycle and the fact that we're part of Maka and they send their and they have the camps and they have their summer programs and they're part of this year meaning it's part of a a whole outlook of life a whole hashkafa where they see themselves is how do I impact how do I impact the Jewish community how do I impact amra and and medina Israel and and those who support us are able to impact those who impact so they are also making an incredible impact >> maybe that's the maybe that's the secret and I'm sorry for thinking out loud on the air but maybe that's the secret that um you know People like to support institutions that are not just, you know, one and done, so to speak, but institutions that are going to have a lifelong impact on the student, their families, their communities, wherever it is they go. And I think that that's the impression now that people get is when someone's at YTVA or MTVA, they rarely are bringing along with them a lifelong lessons that they're taking with them uh post school uh from your uh from your teachers, your ABM, uh the atmosphere, etc. So maybe that's the uh maybe that's the impact that you're having and maybe that's the reason why you guys are so hot these days because people understand that it's a real commitment, a real investment in the future. >> Yeah, we see this first year as just as just the beginning. Meaning we have eight different campuses where we have representatives including a few in Israel. We have you know we mentioned our our Hezer program. We have a whole Shirut Lumi program for the for the young women. So meaning again we really see this as as the first step in a relationship that's really a lifelong relationship and uh hashem I think our community around us you know even in the community around us in the katamon baka area um in shalai and we have so many families who take part they host lone soldiers they host our binoir they they've taken in and and really been impacted and impact our our community as well and that's a real it's a really beautiful thing to see >> now I'm not going to ask you to analyze the way some of your colleagues in other Yeshivot and seminaries dealt with last week. Let's uh emphasize the positive and the way you guys dealt with it. What was it like? It must have been very inspiring, especially this year. Very inspiring and really heartwarming uh participating in Yoma Zikaron and Yomatsmood with your students last week. Yeah, I mean yumats mood, you know, you know, it's they've had a lot of our students have had a yatsmood in in in the states or, you know, in North America and they've had a party. Um the real difference that you can't ever replicate is a yama zikaron and our students who spend a yumi zikaron at Harertzel or ation cemetery and they and they see that every single Israeli is one step removed from from that loss and the deep deep appreciation of the sacrifice that so many people have made to hand them Israel on a silver platter and that like realization that national realization and standing with Israel in that time and that transition from Yumasikaron to the incredible celebration. We spent that celebration on a rooftop in the old city. We had a beautiful together. Um, and it was just I mean that power is is un is amazing and and I think that transition is so different than everything that they will have and whether they stay in Israel and they're able to experience that again or they have a model for the rest of their lives of what that will look of what that looks like what a yan zikaron in Israel looks like to have a deep appreciation of the process of gula that we're undergoing. I mean that's uh that's unparalleled and it's uh it was very very special for our students. Reminder to parents out there who are looking for yeshivot or seminaries for your children in Israel. That's a good place to start. Ask them head on how they dealt with last week and what it was like for the students uh on your mazikaro Israel Memorial Day and Yamatmood Israel's 78th birthday by Yehuda Scythe or Yeshua Seagull. Both with us live via telephone from Israel from the holy city. I remind you that the charity campaign is live. It's not officially started yet. It starts in a couple of hours, but all through the day today, Wednesday, and through the day tomorrow, they're going to be raising money to impact the future of Amnestrell for these two great institutions and the incredible work that they're doing with Benka. charity.com/tva26. Again, charity with a d.comtva26. All right, Scythe, I don't know if you have the stats in front of you and I know that the campaign officially is not on really until the next couple of hours, although again, people can donate right now at that address. Any idea if we're off to a good start or not? >> I think, thank God, we're up off to a great start. We uh already our students have already been uh you know, sending things out. We've already uh raised about a quarter of a million dollars and uh so that's like a beautiful start before the campaign even starts. And um so yeah, we're we're hitting the ground running. We have a big it makes a big difference. Our students really get involved in the campaign. It's and we really see this as an educational message that our students, you know, they believe in the mission. They feel connected to it. We feel that if they're going to be Jewish leaders in any type of circumstance, whether it's their shul or their school, one of the most important things they're going to have to learn to learn is how to ask and how to ask for partners and ask for those people to share in the mission that they have. So to start now and to have them learn that skill is a invaluable Jewish leadership skill that we uh that we try to train them already know. >> Uh again, charity.com/tva26. I did notice Edoshua Seagull's page. Thank God has some great contributions and some wonderful messages. He must be a very very popular figure over there at TVA. Rabio Seagull, welcome to JM and the AM. Let me ask you this. uh you you do see the students and interact with them obviously on a daily and a regular basis. How has this year changed some of them? They come in, excuse the expression, spoiled American kids. Some people may resent the way I say that. They come in in September and uh they end up participating in a uh in a society that's under fire where they are constantly running to shelter where some of them couldn't go where they wanted to go for the uh for the break during the month of Nissan. We know how flights were very limited out of Israel. I mean some of these are real experiences that make kids grow up really quickly. Did you notice a vast difference in a lot of these young men? >> Uh, for sure. Listen, they uh they grow really nicely over the course of the year and I think at least educationally, you know, one of the really uh one of the really strong messages our staff gives over is all about community, how we take care of each other and what can we do for the person next to us. Um, you know, we say it all the way from, you know, getting each other a cup of coffee in the morning to, uh, you know, when a war breaks out and we set up next door, we set up a carnival for 400 almost 400 families in vodka and they come and it's our boys just stepping up, uh, we try to get them in a way to think about what really they could do for the person next to them. And the truth is, I have to assume that these experiences, and this is across the board for any student, especially the North American student spending this year in Israel, I have to assume it's going to turn a lot of them on to really establishing uh their own roots in Israel to understanding the future of the Jewish people is in the state of Israel. I would have to imagine that the percentages of those who want to serve in the army and those who actually want to stick around the Holy Land is going to be much higher than a regular year. >> Uh it could be again we're we're sorting through those numbers. It's definitely the it's definitely the initial feel um you know that we're feeling towards next year. Um, and what a special thing, you know, even uh, you know, some of us and a lot of our staff maybe came to Israel when they were a little older and already started families and now we're talking about uh, we're talking about boys who in their quote unquote prime years or teenage years as they're exiting their teenage years, they're deciding that this is the most important thing they could do and they're willing to to make that leap. And that's uh, it's a uh, it's a good educational message to to the staff, to everyone, and really uh, to all of Amy Israel for for the incredible things that they're doing. Is there any specific and I'm not asking you to reveal anybody's identity, but I'm just wondering if this uh theory that I have that some of these kids had a serious wakeup call that they were, you know, much different a month after the war started than when they weren't running to shelters. Were there noticeable differences like that or are making too big of a deal of that? Uh I think as I mentioned before like uh you know we they're so dedicated and thinking of each other and dedicated to everything that they do and you have to remember I think we talk sometimes a lot of the things that are highlighted um are some of the amazing things that we do in the bino and everything going on but at the same time we're talking about people who are in the bait midash learning three sadarm a day and then on top of that are tremendously dedicated to each other to their to all the different things that they're doing um you know that that I would say is special and I would also credit I think over the last couple years you mentioned mentioned it before the North American high schools have done a wonderful job where I think even you know even to where they've come in they're coming in in a different place over the last couple years in a different mindset in terms of what eritis means and what am means to them and then specifically at the worshore I think anytime you go through an experience like that you know it increases uh it increases maybe the feelings that we're talking about but uh you know there's definitely been a shift recently where they they know the importance and they uh have just continued to step up in a tremendous way >> the North America what you just did crediting the North American yeshiva high schools as I call it the yeshiva league um you know for for really stepping up so to speak in the last couple this is a this is a post October 7th thing or you think it was heading in that direction even without the war >> uh I mean I was actually in an a quote unquote yes league high school around October 7th and I do think October 7th was a big was a big switch and as Rabbi mentioned before I think it was a big switch for us at YTVA internally too or eight days Later is when our Hezda program was born. So I think it was almost across the world that was a big switch to this to this sort of mindset. >> Yeah, I hear that. Also, what happened with Pesak? Was everybody I mean I know that obviously some of the students did not get to where they either wanted to be or were expected to be because of the whole flight situation etc. But I I would have to imagine that some of them again despite the fact that they may have been you know displaced from family and friends and and and didn't follow through on their original plan. I have to assume that if they ended up spending Pesak in Israel, I it was only a positive experience for them. Did you get that feeling after speaking to them after Yantiff? >> Yeah, I definitely I I heard wonderful things. I think a lot of them pushed them out of their comfort zone a little bit. Even if it was spending family by cousins that they haven't, you know, spent two weeks at um you know, they go there for the for the for the Pesak vacation break for Bayman. Even that is pushing them out and forcing them at least pushing them to go on tim and different things. But I would say maybe even the more impressive part is that by almost a week later, every single student was back in yeshiva. So even the ones who were gone had made that effort to really get back um as quickly as they could. >> Very interesting. Rabbi Scythe, are all your staff and administration members as popular as Rabosha? >> You know, he's definitely number one. And you know, everybody else falls uh falls after >> Rabbi Scythe knows his audience, folks. I can tell you that much. Yehuda is Rashiva and executive director of Midashraan Yeshiva Tara Vavoda YTVA and MTAVA. Yoshua is the director of YTVA and they are asking me to remind everybody and I proudly do so that they're in day one of this two-day campaign to raise $1.25 million as Rabbi Snip emphasized with me earlier. You not you don't have to do the whole 1.25. You can give anything because anything you give is going to be doubled. So, even quicker, a um faster way to get to the 1.25 million and keep these amazing Yeshivot and seminaries and programs going, go to charity.com. That's ch h a r i dy. charity.com/tva26 at charity.comtva26. And hopefully it'll be a very very successful campaign. Uh, Rabbi, when does uh when do I mean is it around Shuis time that things basically start slowing down and uh and people head back for the summer break? >> This year it's an early year. So ear is early. We'll have a couple of weeks really to process the year and then usually the beginning of June we really we really focus on our students having a soft soft landing you know going to a meaningful summer experience working in a banana summer camp or other types of you know uh important ways to impact so that the year is not just one and done also >> yeah good point you guys are associated with with programs that you know are really effective 12 months out of the year and obviously we're emphasizing the yeshiva V seminary this morning, but we can go through an entire list and maybe we will one day. Maybe when we when we broadcast from your campus in Jerusalem, we'll have an opportunity to go through all the programs year round uh that are under the Baka umbrella and have such a major impact on students around the world, but especially those that are coming from North America and um that would be that would be I think a very revealing piece of information for this audience. Also, Rabbi Scythe, I said it earlier and people obviously think I'm, you know, just uh hyping things up, especially since Yoshua is one of the people that are responsible for it. But I I have to assume based on what I'm hearing that in fact for next year 5787 uh YTVA, for example, had does in fact have a record number of applicants and therefore that'll translate into a record number of students at the yeshiva. And I mean the the the numbers don't lie. It's obviously an indication and testimony that that things are going really well. Barak Hashem. >> Yeah. And I'll say also what's very cool about next year is that we have for the first time we're going to have a shaalled program. So this is a transition program for our students who have just finished the army and they're going to be coming back and you know we'll have between 10 and 15 guys who have just finished the army. They're going to be coming back learning um and transitioning out to you know back into the post army world you know within the ospices of our yeshiva which is also going to be a beautiful way. >> So the majority of their third year is in army service. Yeah, they're in basically 18 months is in yeshiva, then 18 months in the army and then we have a whole group and these are alone soldiers so they they have no obligation to come back to the yeshiva but um you know they want to spend another year you know trying to you know help their transition back. >> You must you must be bursting at the seams. >> Hashem hashem we'll be we'll be back on when we have to you know do a capital campaign. >> How about the women? Is the midrasha also bursting at the seams? How are they doing? >> Thank thank god record enrollment. We had uh you know this year we had you know 70 you know 70 plus first year students. We had 20 plus uh second year students who are doing we're staying and doing lumi or they're learning um so we had about you know almost 100 students here and that's basic we're we're as maxed out as we can be and next year is looking like we're busting the seams again. So, >> and the same theme I mean the the same reasons that we outlined in this conversation about the yeshiva that's why it's it's basically the same elements that are also uh seeping into the uh into the uh midrash and having the same effect on the young women over there. >> Yes. a deep connection to Torah and also a really deep connection to and and Israel and Israel of deep connection to the land really thinking about how they how they're going to make an impact how they're passing on you know to the next generation the you know toat Israel and also a deep love at Israel you know a huge percentage of our students you know end up making their home here whether it's right after their year or after they go back to college and they come back or or in the future and and that's uh you know that we're unabashed ly uh you know um you know religious in that way meaning you know every single one of our staff members has either served in the IDF or sends their children to the IDF. This is there's not like a you know we're we're very clear in what the ideal looks like and you know and that clarity I think is appreciated by a lot a lot of people in our community. >> Oh and I'm so glad you mentioned that. I said earlier that parents should uh include on their list how, you know, as they investigate different yeshivots in Israel, how the yeshiva, whichever it might be, dealt with last week. Uh but what you just brought up is also important. People should ask what type of background the staff has. Are there those who, as Rabbi Scythe just said, who have served, who have had roles that are, you know, uh deeply rooted um in both Erit Israel and Medinatel. Those are really important questions and again not not trying to start up with anybody else in any other institution. They're all wonderful. Uh but there are uh advantages when you um when you make sure that your uh your child uh attends uh one with that type of staff and that type of programming. And I'll leave it at that. charity.comtva26. So, we're highly recommending it if you are a uh if you are a uh a friend or an acquaintance or a stranger to TVA and to Rabbi Scythe and Treb Yeshua Seagull. Uh no matter what category you're in, uh do what you can to help them get to their goal of $1.25 million in the next 24 hours starting today and going until tomorrow. charity.com SL with a D. Charity with a D. charity.com/tva26 charity.com/tva26 Rabbi Yehuda Scythe is Rashiva and executive director of Midashra and yeshiva Torah Voda Raboshua Seagull is director of YTVA Rabbi Scythe I thank you very much for joining us good luck with the campaign I look forward to reuniting with you in Jerusalem >> mean thank you for having us on really appreciate it >> and Rabbi Yeshua Seagull I look forward to reuniting with you as well in Jerusalem >> same here. I'm looking forward. >> All righty. There you go. Uh, make this a success, folks. Do what you can. JMn audience. Let's do our little part to boost them and to keep them going. They're doing a lot of really good work. I'm really, really proud. I mean, in general, Ben, as I said earlier, gives you so much to be proud of, especially if you are, you know, if these things that we just discussed are important to you. Um, but what they're doing with the yeshiva and the seminary and the summer programs and everything else just fantastic. charity.comtva26 charity with a d.comtva26. More coming up. You're listening to a What are we up to? Wednesday morning edition of JM in the A.M.