Shakeup at Morristown Yeshiva

By COLlive reporter

A revamping at the Rabbinical College of America, a veteran Chabad educational institute located in Morristown, New Jersey, was announced this week in a letter to parents of students.

“Substantial changes and improvements are already being implemented in the Morristown mosdos,” Rabbi Moshe Herson, Dean of the institutions and the Head Shliach of New Jersey, wrote on Wednesday.

Chief among them is the promotion of Rabbi Chaim Schapiro, who has run its successful smicha ordination program, to “head the entire Tomchei Temimim program for the school year 2015/16.”

Under his new position as Menahel, Rabbi Schapiro will oversee one of Chabad’s oldest Yeshivas for bochurim 18–22, with Rabbi Elimelech Zweibel continuing to serve as Head Mashpia and even undertaking “new needed responsibilities.”

“At a staff meeting on the eve of 27 Adar, every staff member of Tomchei Temimim pledged full compliance and full cooperation to Rabbi Schapiro, the new program Menahel for the sake of the Rebbe’s institution,” Rabbi Herson reported.

He is replacing Rabbi Aharon Gancz, the current Menahel, who will in turn be joining the staff of the smicha program which will still be led by Rabbi Schapiro. Rabbi Gancz joins Rabbi Avrohom Levin to help bochurim through halacha studies.

“We thought a great deal about this,” Rabbi Herson told COLlive.com on Thursday. “There is no point to weaken one mosad to help another, but we made provisions not to minimize the smicha program, which is one of our most successful mosdos.”

Rabbi Herson added that the changes were done “by necessity” and aimed to “strengthen the mosad to be what it was for so many years and was weakening now. We don’t want to wait any longer. Rabbi Schapiro’s appointment is going to be a big difference, and has already made a tremendous positive impact.”

He said that the staff at Yeshiva Tiferes Bachurim, one of the first programs for Ba’alei Teshuva founded in 1973, “will continue its increasingly successful program. Innovations and further improvements… will be announced before or immediately after Pesach,” he said.

In addition, Rabbi Mendy Herson is officially stepping in to assist his father “in the implementation of major programs and staff shifts.” He is currently Executive Director of Chabad of Greater Somerset County in Basking Ridge, NJ.

The senior Rabbi Herson said his son “will substantially focus his daily attention to the personal needs of the students. This will start with Tomchei Temimim and Smicha and later expand to Tiferes Bachurim.”

Rabbi Moshe Herson called on parents to become more involved in the institution and reminded them that “the chinuch of our children must be the priority of the entire Chabad Community.”