September 20, 2005

Young Rabbinical Couples Bring Torah to 12 Secular Campuses:
Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus Program is Endowed in Honor of OU Leaders, Heshe and Harriet Seif;

In an atmosphere of warmth, affection, Hakarat HaTov -- the recognition of good works -- and of the partnership necessary to make these good works happen, one of the Orthodox Union’s most highly admired initiatives received a new name last week, when the Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus (JLIC) program was endowed in honor of OU benefactors Heshe and Harriet Seif.

A reception and buffet dinner in recognition of the Seifs, held at OU national headquarters in Manhattan, featured the dedication of an elegant wall display highlighting their gift and listing the schools in the program. Martin Jacobs, Chairman of the OU’s JLIC Commission, introduced the program.

Herbert (Heshe) Seif has been OU Treasurer for the past six years. The Seifs were also honored at the OU National Dinner in June as recipients of the Keter Shem Tov (Crown of a Good Name) Award, the OU’s highest honor.

The Heshe and Harriet Seif Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus, now in its sixth year, is a partnership between the Orthodox Union, Hillel: The Foundation for Campus Life, and the Kollel Torah Mitzion. In JLIC, a young rabbi and his wife are placed on what has now grown to 12 prestigious secular campuses nationwide. The couples provide an oasis of learning, observance and counseling for Orthodox students who are in an environment vastly different from the yeshiva world in which they were formerly educated, while reaching out to non-Orthodox students with the message of Torah and Sabbath observance.

By doing so, the couples create a Torah community on campus where -- taking refuge from a completely alien culture -- students delve into texts, attend Sabbath, holiday and weekday services, have easy access to kosher food, and in short, experience the atmosphere of the yeshiva or the home, in an otherwise secular, and possibly even anti-religious, setting.

The Seifs did much to make this world of study possible. And every year, the program expands.

Just this month, New York University, Rutgers and the University of Florida joined Princeton, Yale, the University of Pennsylvania, Cornell, Brandeis, Brooklyn College, the University of Maryland, the University of Illinois and UCLA as JLIC schools. “There are 12 JLIC campuses and each program is different, tailor-made for the kind of student found at that campus,” declared OU Executive Vice President Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb during the festivities.

“The Seifs are sensitive to the dangers and risks of today’s post-modern campuses but they are also sensitive to the opportunities for Torah leadership on these campuses,” Rabbi Weinreb added.

In addition to the program itself, there is the opportunity to name each campus program in memory or in honor of a loved one. “It’s a golden opportunity for university alumni to give the next generation an opportunity they might not have had,” declared OU President Stephen J. Savitsky. “Bringing a Jewish environment to campus life is a once in a lifetime opportunity.”

The unique partnership between the OU, Hillel and Torah Mitzion was emphasized during the program, together with the partnership of the local campuses and communities. “Heshe appreciates the importance of partnership in Jewish life,” Rabbi Weinreb said.

“The JLIC program is a great partnership for the future of our people,” affirmed the evening’s keynote speaker, Yeshiva University President Richard Joel. “It is win-win for all concerned.” Mr. Joel was the President of Hillel when it entered into the JLIC partnership with the OU and Torah Mitzion. “The Torah educators are not making a sacrifice, but rather a great investment to be on campus,” Mr. Joel said. He emphasized YU’s role in the program through the university’s graduates serving as rabbinical couples.

Partnership needs direction, however, and this was the role of the Seifs, emphasized Rabbi Menachem Schrader, JLIC’s founder, who had the vision of establishing the program, but couldn’t have brought that vision to fruition without the help of the OU, its organizational partners, and the Seifs.

“JLIC came about from a combined effort, but it requires specific direction at the top,” Rabbi Schrader declared. “Heshe, I want to thank you for grabbing hold of the steering wheel and driving things the right way.”

For grabbing that wheel, YU President Joel declared, the Seifs merit Hakarat Hatov, recognition for all they have done to sustain the program – which includes their son and daughter-in-law, Rabbi Yehuda and Orit Seif, serving as the JLIC couple at the University of Pennsylvania.

Emphasizing the Hakarat Hatov being accorded to the Seifs, Mr. Joel told them, “The campuses of North America are critical flower pots that can nurture the growth of wondrous and wonderful Jewish life. In a very real and tangible way, JLIC is advancing our world and by doing so is advancing the world around us.”

The OU’s National Executive Director, Rabbi Moshe D. Krupka, who supervises all of the OU’s programs -- and who has visited most JLIC campuses, where he was duly impressed by what he saw -- praised the Seifs “for their vision of what the Jewish future needs. You have created a program which will really change the fabric of the American Jewish community,” Rabbi Krupka said.

“You are the couple who pushed us forward,” Mr. Savitsky told the Seifs.

Mrs. Pesha Fischer, one half of the couple at the University of Maryland, described “the buzz of Torah” from 100 students simultaneously taking part in the program.

In his response, Mr. Seif compared JLIC to the National Conference of Synagogue Youth (NCSY), the OU’s celebrated youth program, now in its sixth decade. “Our dream, our vision,” he declared, is for JLIC to become an NCSY-type program,” with an enormous impact on both Orthodox and non-Orthodox youth. In the presence of his wife, mother and children, Mr. Seif declared: “With JLIC, we can affect thousands of young people. That is our future.”

For further information on the naming of a specific JLIC campus, please contact Andrew Goldsmith at (212) 613-8132, or by email at goldsmitha@ou.org.

Honorees Harriet and Heshe Seif are praised by Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, OU Executive Vice President.

Mr. and Mrs. Seif stand before their Wall of Honor.

From Left: OU President Stephen J. Savitsky;
Yeshiva University President Richard Joel; Mr. Seif;
and OU Executive Vice President Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb

More about JLIC

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