A Year for High School Seniors to Plan Ahead:
OU’s JLIC Program, Bringing Yeshiva Atmosphere to College Campus, Will Expand to Johns Hopkins in September of 2007.
The Orthodox Union announced today that in its highly successful effort to duplicate the atmosphere of the yeshiva on secular college campuses nationwide, the Heshe and Harriet Seif Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus program will expand to the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, beginning in September, 2007. A young rabbinical couple will move to campus to conduct the program, which is intended primarily for undergraduates but is open to interested graduate students as well at the research-oriented university.
The OU announced the program a year ahead of its arrival to give highly qualified students across the United States who will be seniors this fall an opportunity to consider applying to Johns Hopkins when they plan their college applications.
Johns Hopkins will become the 14th campus to receive the program, which originated in 2000, and the second in Maryland along with the University of Maryland at College Park. This coming fall the program expands to the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The other participating schools include Yale, Princeton, Cornell, the University of Pennsylvania, Brandeis, New York University, Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, Rutgers, the University of Maryland, the University of Florida, the University of Illinois and UCLA.
JLIC is a cooperative effort of the Orthodox Union; Hillel: The Foundation for Campus Jewish Life; and the Torah Mitzion organization. It has been given major financial support from an endowment provided by Orthodox Union leaders Herbert (Heshe) Seif and his wife, Harriet, whose names adorn the program.
The program — featuring intensive study of Jewish texts, Sabbath and holiday observance, daily synagogue services, mentoring and good companionship — is dedicated to the enhancement of Orthodox communities (kehilot) on campus by promoting positive growth and identity among Jewish students, therefore serving as one of the incubators of the future of Orthodoxy. The program is open to all Jewish students, regardless of level of observance.
JLIC is built around a young rabbi and his wife, who provide the educational and spiritual component as well as serving as role models for the students. During the coming year, Rabbi Menachem Schrader, the founder of JLIC, will be interviewing potential rabbinical couples in Israel and the United States to determine whom to hire for the prestigious Johns Hopkins position. JLIC couples are typically graduates of secular American colleges, thus assuring that they will understand the circumstances of yeshiva graduates on a non-Jewish campus.