Rosh Yeshiva from Israel Visits YU as Scholar-in-Residence

Rabbi Dov Zinger, the Rosh Yeshiva of Makor Chaim and the Jewish Renewal Center in Israel, is visiting Yeshiva University until February 22 as a scholar-in-residence. Zinger, who is currently on sabbatical this year, arrived at YU on February 5 accompanied by the Makor Chaim program director of development, Yossi Baumol.

“Rabbi Zinger will spend two weeks on campus meeting with students, teaching Torah and bringing the ruach of Eretz Yisrael to @YUNews,” tweeted President Ari Berman on February 5.  

Zinger runs the 10th grade exchange program between students at the Marsha Stern Talmudical Academy (MTA) and students at Makor Chaim, a program that is now in its 10th year. The program allows students from MTA to have an opportunity to connect with students in Israel for a few weeks by spending an academic quarter learning and living with the students at Makor Chaim.

Makor Chaim is located on Kibbutz Kfar Etzion in the Gush Etzion region of Israel and is a religious Zionist high school for boys. Two of the three boys kidnapped in 2014, Gilad Shaar and Naftali Frenkel, had been attending Makor Chaim at the time of their abduction.

“Rabbi Zinger has fascinating approaches to ruchniyut and chinuch,” said Rabbi Menachem Penner, The Max and Marion Grill Dean of Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS) and Undergraduate Torah Studies. “He is an inspiring, yet very relatable person.”

Penner added that Zinger’s visit is not related to the exchange program with MTA, but is solely to learn with and teach students at Yeshiva University.

World Mizrachi, a Torah-based educational organization that is affiliated with the Religious Zionist Organization, worked with RIETS to bring Rabbi Zinger to YU. In an article written in the Jewish Link of New Jersey, Rabbi Doron Perez, the head of World Mizrachi, stated that bringing Rabbi Zinger is an attempt to push connections between Jews in the diaspora and those living in Israel.

Throughout the course of his stay, Zinger will be giving numerous classes on topics such as Chassidut and Chassidut psychology in the classroom. He will also be discussing his new book “The Prayer Cookbook: Recipes for Devotion.” He spent the Shabbat of February 7 on the Wilf campus alongside Rabbi Mordechai Willig, a senior Rosh Yeshiva at YU.

Many people are excited about having Rabbi Zinger on campus. “Rav Zinger brings the Israeli religious perspective that is lacking at YU,” said Yeshiva College junior Ilan Lavian.

According to Rabbi Ozer Glickman, a Rosh Yeshiva of RIETS, Rabbi Zinger “offers a more spiritual approach that may not be sufficiently emphasized in the Yeshiva.”

He added that people who know Rabbi Zinger have spoken very highly of him.

Rabbi Zinger’s wife, Rabbanit Iris Zinger, is also accompanying him on his trip and has been visiting the Stern campus Beit Midrash regularly. She has been available to meet with students and has been conducting numerous chaburot during her stay. She and her husband spent the Shabbat of February 17 on the Beren campus.

Since his investiture, President Ari Berman has been working to increase connections between Israel and Yeshiva University. As he stated in his investiture address, “We will continue to leverage our close ties with Israel to create these kinds of pipelines so that our students will receive the best training in the skill sets necessary to succeed in the marketplace of the future, and the world of tomorrow.”