Highlights of ’21-’22: A Year of Fresh Energy and Increased Momentum

Building on last year’s momentum and unparalleled success, we have brought vigor and unwavering commitment to this current year, 2021-2022, to fully actualize our new vision, which we have concretized in a fresh, dynamic logo and look, soon-to-be released website, and a clearly articulated statement:

YCT seeks to create a spiritually vibrant and intellectually open
Orthodox community whose Torah radiates outwards
to help transform the entire Jewish world.

You, our cherished partners, have provided the fuel for our success and we are so grateful. We are excited to share with you some highlights from the year:

Institutional Expansion and New Initiatives

• YCT Israel. We are now on 2 continents! RIKMAH, our oversubscribed program for Israeli rabbinic leadership training, has completed its 3^rd year, claiming 36 highly sought-after rabbanim and rabbaniyot in key leadership positions in Israel.
• Led by Rabbi Mike Schultz (’08), Livyat Chen, YCT’s Israel Center for Pastoral Counseling trained its inaugural cohort of fellows, men and women serving in clergy positions in Israel.
• Our Kollel for Contemporary Halakhic Studies is training the next generation of poskim and poskot (halakhic decisors). Last summer’s learning was devoted to disabilities and this summer’s topic is aging and elder adults.
• YCT and Eshel have embarked on an exciting partnership to launch communal initiatives to help create Orthodox communities which are maximally welcoming to LGBTQ+ individuals and their families.
• New board chair, Steven Laufer, has brought real wisdom and professionalism to our governance. We have welcomed 5 new and diverse board members hailing from New York, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, and Montreal.
• Our new initiatives have translated into a healthy increase in our budget, and fundraising continues to be strong.
• We received a new $1,000,000 grant as an investment in our expansion, our new initiatives, and our continued impact on the Jewish community.

Our Rabbis: Making Headlines and Making History

• Rabbi Chai Posner (’10) was unanimously chosen as Senior Rabbi of Congregation Beth Tfiloh, the largest Modern Orthodox synagogue in the nation, with a membership of more than 1,200 families and individuals.
• UCLA Hillel Director Rabbi Aaron Lerner (’13) fights anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism through groundbreaking Fact Finders mission to Israel for Jewish and non-Jewish student leaders on 80 campuses nationwide.
• Through Skokie Valley Agudath Jacobs’s special initiative, Solu, a community outreach partnership between his synagogue and the Bright Star Church in Chicago, Rabbi Ari Hart (‘12) builds bridges and fights anti-Semitism.
• Rabbi Noah Aronin (’19), following our program on the first-ever English-language Megilah, commissioned an English-language megillah, which benefited hundreds of members of his Hebrew Home at Riverdale community.

Thank you for supporting and partnering with us. Together, we are having a transformative impact on the Orthodox community and on Klal Yisrael.

With God’s help – and yours! – we will continue to go from strength to strength. And don’t forget to stay tuned for the launch of our new website this fall.