300 Shluchim at JLI Meeting

This past week over three hundred shluchim gathered in New York for JLI’s 12th annual conference.

Held at the Polytechnic University in downtown Brooklyn, the conference marked the staggering successes and accomplishments of the past eleven years and was a springboard to set up the goals and plans for the coming years.

Marking 250 years since the birth of the Baal Shem Tov, the participants of the conference heard how over 180,000 students have attended and participated in JLI courses since JLI was established 11 years ago to this day, with the intended goal being to double that over the course of the next year.

The first day of the conference saw the 35 shluchim who have opened new chapters of JLI together with Kollel yungeleit who will be giving courses at select locations gather in Crown Heights to discuss the great benefits of the academic courses and how to best deliver them.

Day two saw all the JLI chapters converge together for a 10 hour session which included lectures and classes in a wide variety of topics. From successful marketing and advertising to methods of delivery and development, the shluchim also heard about the unveiling of several new and exciting educational initiatives for JLI chapters worldwide.

“We are currently working on the development of the enterprise level that has not been recognized in terms of Jewish studies,” said Rabbi Efraim Mintz, Executive Director of the organization. “What JLI has produced to date is only a preview of what is going to be in the future.”

Among the speakers were JLI’s chairman Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, JLI’s Executive Director Rabbi Efraim Mintz and philanthropist Mr. George Rohr. Other noted speakers where Rabbi Simon Jacobson, Rabbi Moshe Feller, Rabbi Shrage Sherman, Rabbi Dubi Rabinowitz, Rabbi Zalman Abraham, Rabbi Shlomo Yaffe, Rabbi Shmuel Gancz, Rabbi Yechiel Baitelman, Dr. David Pelcovitz, Dr. Steven Serbin, Dr. Moshe Akerman and Mr. David Magerman.