An excerpt from Rabbi Owen’s remarks at last Sunday night’s Annual Banquet Dinner. One of the most unique and special qualities of our community and school is our strong connection to Eretz Yisrael. Many Memphis expats live in Eretz Yisrael. Annually, 90% of our graduates study in Israel. At MHA, the month of Iyyar is dedicated to programming about Israel. Many of our students study Torah in Ivrit – particularly in the early grades. We further teach Ivrit as a language. We host a Kollel MiTzion in our beit midrash and annually host two young women from the Bat Ami program. These are just some examples of how consciousness about eretz yisrael and about am yisrael is woven into the fabric of our school. Time is precious – particularly in education. For each lesson that we include in our curriculum, another is left out. Why do we dedicate such an investment of resources to connecting our students to Israel? Our parasha – Parashat Bechukotai – outlines the berachot and kelal...
Rabbi Benjy Owen, Dean, Margolin Hebrew Academy-Feinstone Yeshiva of the South, Memphis, TN