Ohr Somayach, Monsey

Source: The unreliable Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ohr_Somayach%2C_Monsey&diff=118089553&oldid=118087722

Ohr Somayach, Monsey, also known as The Ohr Somayach Tanenbaum Educational Center, is a "spin-off" of the original Ohr Somayach founded in Jerusalem in the early 1970s. In 1979 the Jerusalem campus sent several rabbis to establish an American campus. They chose Monsey, New York, because it was about thirty five miles north-west of New York City. Because it was the home of Bais Midrash Elyon, kosher food supplies and such were already available, easing the relocation.

Purpose

Since 1979, Ohr Somayach, Monsey has served as an Orthodox yeshiva with a student population that is about half baal teshuva. Their cirriculum is designed to provide Jewish male college-age students with Orthodox ideology and integration while they study the textual sources of classical Judaism, such as the Torah, Tanakh, Talmud, and Shulkhan Arukh. While much talk is given to intellectual rigor, study is mostly confined to rote memorization.

History

Their original relocation was paid for by the Jerusalem campus, but the rabbis in New York soon proved themselves so proficient at fundraising they began to stand on their own financially. Using their carefully selected student body as the bait, they convinced Joe Tannanbaum to give theim $12 million to build the most wonderful study hall with Italian marble floors, oak accents and a bais midrash with 40 foot ceilings. All the rabbis live in huge homes that are paid for and don't work. Instead their lives are devoted to "Torah" and "Mitzvot".

Since 1979, Ohr Somayach, Monsey has provided a variety of Jewish learning opportunities to young adults from across the globe. For many students, Ohr Somayach is their first exposure to full-time Jewish and Torah study. They acquire the foundations of Torah study within the framework of Orthodox Judaism, with close contact with the surrounding Haredi and Hasidic communities that live in the Monsey area. For more advanced students who are already well-acquainted with the rudiments of Talmud learning Ohr Somayach affords the opportunity to acquire the tools and skills for independent self-study.

Ohr Somayach is built on a 14 acre (57,000 m²) campus with a residence facility.

Student enrollment policies have varied over time, vacillating between carefully chosen students and trying to flow as many people through as possible with the hopes of finding more donors. They are currently more in favor of having working people use their vacation time in Monsey and then go back to work the rest of the year wherever they came from, unless a younger student has parents supporting him. For those adults out of college, they suggest having a years worth of savings and a professional career than can be easily transplanted.

Faculty

• Rabbi Yisroel Rokowsky is co-Rosh Yeshiva of Ohr Somayach Monsey. A native New Yorker, Rabbi Rokowsky developed his analytical approach to Talmudic scholarship under the tutelage of Rabbi Yosef Dov Soloveitchik of Jerusalem. He served as Educational Director of Ohr Somayach, Jerusalem. He returned to the United States in 1980 to head Ohr Somayach, Monsey.


• Rabbi Yisroel Simcha Schorr is co-Rosh Yeshiva of Ohr Somayach Monsey. Rabbi Schorr is an alumnus of Yeshiva Torah Vodaas and Bais Medrash Elyon. Currently the senior editor of the English Artscroll Talmud, Rabbi Schorr joined the Ohr Somayach staff in his present capacity in 1980. Rabbi Schorr’s teaches the high level courses in the Bais Medrash Program. His weekly presentation on the Parsha Hashavua is a significant feature of the Yeshiva, and is well attended.


• Rabbi Avraham Braun, Menahel ("Prinicipal") of Ohr Somayach, received his ordination at the Yeshiva Torah Vodaas. Having previously served as the Director of the Beer HaGolah Institute of New York, he became the Director of Admissions and the Educational Director of Ohr Somayach in 1982. Since his arrival at Ohr Somayach, Rabbi Braun has guided thousands of students through their educational decisions and offered advice on careers and marriage.


• Rabbi Naftali Reich is the Executive Director of the Yeshiva. He graduated from Gateshead Talmudic College in 1983, and completed his rabbinic studies at Beth Medrash Gevoha in Lakewood, NJ. He joined Ohr Somayach’s staff in 1991 to further develop the Yeshiva’s introductory programs and became Director of Development in 1996. Rabbi Reich runs the Yeshiva's outreach division, “Legacy,” and gives lectures in hashkafa and Hasidic thought.

Is Ohr Somayach Harmful?

To remain within the strict mental and social confines of Ohr Somayach for even a short time can have the following disastrous effects:

Loss of choice and free will. Diminished intellectual ability, vocabulary and sense of humour. Reduced use of irony, abstractions and metaphors. Reduced capacity to form flexible and intimate relationships. Poor judgement. Physical deterioration. Malnutrition. Hallucinations, panic, dissociation, guilt, identity diffusion and paranoia. Neurotic, psychotic or suicidal tendencies.

The two basic principles of psychological coercion are:

If you can make a person BEHAVE the way you want, you can make that person BELIEVE the way you want. Sudden, drastic changes in environment lead to heightened suggestibility and to drastic changes in attitudes and beliefs.

Who Does Ohr Somayach Recruit?

Ohr Somayach wants people who are:

• Intelligent


• Idealistic


• Well educated


• Economically advantaged


• Intellectually or Spiritually curious


• Any age

BEWARE!

Protect yourself! Why go away for a weekend or longer with a stranger or a strange group unless:

You know the name of the sponsoring group. You know its ideas, beliefs and affiliations. You know what is going to happen at the gathering. You know what will be expected of you. You know that you will be free and able to leave at any time.

Every cult can be defined as a group having all of the following five characteristics:

1. It uses psychological coercion to recruit, indoctrinate and retain its members

2. It forms an elitist totalitarian society.

3. Its founder leader is self-appointed, dogmatic, messianic, not accountable and has charisma.

4. It believes 'the end justifies the means' in order to solicit funds recruit people.

5. Its wealth does not benefit its members or society.

Basic Characteristics of Ohr Somayach:

Communal living.

Members may leave or not join society's workforce.

Members usually report on each others private lives to the Rabbis.

Average age at the point of recruitment is in the 20's.

Registered as a religious group.

Appears to offer association with a group interested in making the world a better place via political, spiritual or other means.