Chabad chatter
At Rohr Jewish Learning Institute gathering, supporters discuss — and debate — Jewish unity
Second annual retreat comes as donors putting greater weight on boosting Jewish education post-Oct. 7
COURTESY
PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — As golfers teed up at PGA National Resort on Monday morning, a few dozen select Jewish philanthropists gathered in their resort wear for a conversation about Jewish unity.
One participant described communal unity as akin to when four golfers get in a golf cart together and shake hands after a round, vowing to play together again soon after competing against each other on the links. Another spoke about the Talmudic arguments l’shem shamayaim, for the sake of heaven, between Rabbi Hillel and Rabbi Shammai — articulating that debate is part of the fabric of being Jewish.
It was exactly the kind of conversation that the Rohr Jewish Learning Institute, an organization operated by the Chabad Lubavitch movement, aims to spark among observant and unaffiliated Jews alike, making Jewish text study accessible to Jews of all educational backgrounds. JLI had gathered philanthropists in Florida this week for the second annual JLI leadership retreat, where attendees were urged to increase their support for the educational institute.
“It’s our responsibility to be involved and to help the younger generation,” said Inna Kholodenko, a first-time attendee at the JLI conference and a lawyer in Toronto. She and her husband had created a JLI program called the Omek Institute, which aims to educate Jewish teens to answer the question, Why be Jewish?
“We’re ba’alei teshuva,” Kholodenko said, meaning she grew up less religious and chose to become more observant as an adult, “so we definitely understand that world, when you don’t know what you don’t know, and education is key to that.”
The two-day conference provided attendees opportunities to study together and to learn about JLI’s programming. The organization was created more than two decades ago in partnership with George Rohr, a philanthropist who helped start hundreds of Chabad houses around the world. Now, with its online library and in-person classes, it calls itself the largest provider of Jewish educational content in the world.
JLI’s executive director, Rabbi Efraim Mintz, said many of the philanthropists participating in the gathering told him they were continuing to rethink their charitable giving after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks and deciding to shift their priorities from universal causes to distinctly Jewish organizations.
“In their words, they feel that there’s an urgent need to redirect their giving, and we’re seeing it, and JLI is a clear beneficiary of that,” Mintz told eJewishPhilanthropy.
Speakers at the conference included major Chabad donors, such as Rohr, as well as leaders in other major philanthropic organizations, including the William Davidson Foundation, Jewish Federations of North America and the Paul E. Singer Foundation.
“I was honored to be a part of the JLI Leadership Summit in my capacity as JFNA national campaign chair,” said J. David Heller, who has also been active in the Cleveland federation for decades. “Chabad is a world leader offering a full suite of Jewish educational offerings. The increase of JLI participation since Oct. 7, 2023, by 35% is something we should all applaud and build upon in our local communities.”
In a conversation about education, Heller spoke about the need to change education in Israel so that Arab Israelis learn about their Jewish neighbors and vice versa, in order for diverse communities in Israel to learn to live together peacefully. In response, Terry Kassel, a director of the Singer Foundation, said that she is committed to equal rights for Israel’s Arab citizens but believes her organization’s philanthropy is better mostly focused on helping Israel’s Jewish communities.
It was, to borrow a phrase from the source sheet JLI created for that morning’s discussion, an argument l’shem shamayim.