By Libby Herz
Laibel Shemtov was 12 years old, wondering why the words from Chumash just wouldn’t stick in his mind. Other kids seemed to just catch on in class. Why was it so hard for him? Laibel went through tutor after tutor, trying to keep up, but nothing worked.
Finally, his mother found an excellent tutor, but there was one problem. The tutor was based in New York, and Laibel lived in Detroit. This was years before Covid, and the idea of online teaching was unconventional at best. But Laibel was desperate for help, so the tutor figured out a way to teach via Skype. He used a tried and true system with the goal of teaching Laibel 500 words of Chumash. Once Laibel knew those important words by heart, he would have the tools necessary to learn independently.
“We got together three times a week, thirty minutes per session,” Laibel recalls. Within one year, the boy who had been scoring at the bottom of the class was receiving 80s and 90s on his Chumash tests.
“Each day, I learned five to ten new words and reviewed old ones,” he says. “It worked because once I was able to retrieve the words without thinking, the learning part of my brain was freed up to focus on content.”
Years passed, and thanks to those sessions, Laibel excelled in yeshiva. He attended Mesivta and all but forgot about the days of struggling until one day; a rebbi asked him to tutor a young boy who was falling behind. Laibel remembered his tutor and the cards that turned his life around. He said yes.
By 2019, Rabbi Laibel was on Yeshiva Shlichus in Postville, Iowa, while also taking training in the system that taught him Chumash all those years ago. Once his training was complete, he began tutoring boys between the ages of 13 and 15. “Within two days, I was filled up, teaching nine students daily, back-to-back.”
Two months later, Covid hit. “I lost all my students,” the rabbi recalls. But like teachers all over the world, Laibel quickly became an expert on Zoom. “The first thing I did,” he says, “took all my flashcards and converted them into a PowerPoint.”
Just one month after Pesach, the educator was back to teaching nine to ten students every day. “I was teaching students in all time zones,” he says.
But each day, more parents would reach out, and it hurt to turn them down; but there were just not enough hours in the day to fit them into the schedule. So Laibel reached out to a friend and trained him in the Chumash program. Then, the rabbi contacted a developer and created the YTT website. The website was created to be personalized for each talmid, each of whom has their own account with a built-in prize system where prizes are delivered straight to their door.
Parents realized that YTT was the perfect solution for children ages eight and beyond. Students were signing up fast, and by Pesach of 2021, fifteen students were enrolled. Today, 100 students are enrolled in YTT, with a total of 300 graduating or in the system. YTT’s team of fifteen teachers includes a boy’s and girl’s cohort, with the students and tutors meeting three to four times a week.
Parents are thrilled with the change in their children. Thanks to YTT, they are learning and gaining confidence.
“Last year,” explains one delighted mother, “my third-grade son was out of school because he didn’t have the classroom support that he needed. I was at a complete loss as to how to help him. Boruch Hashem, I saw an article for Your Torah Tutors on COLlive.com and felt like this could be the solution! The signup process was smooth, and my son was paired with a caring tutor in a time slot that worked for our family. Now, just a few months later, my son has mastered over 230 words! He is so proud of himself and was able to join his class B”H, and even moved up a grade level!”
YTT has changed the lives of so many grateful students, and you can read more stories here and here.
During the sign-up process, Rabbi Laibel personally welcomes and evaluates each student and then matches them up with a tutor who is a good fit for their personality and who has a coinciding time zone. Classes run all day, from 8 AM through 10 PM.
“Our goal is to help as many people as possible,” Rabbi Shemtov says. With the Rebbe’s brochos, the struggling twelve-year-old boy from Detroit continues to teach Torah to children all over the world. “Beyond the learning,” he says, “the quickest thing you see is the confidence shoot up. That’s my favorite part of it.” YTT tutors share the rabbi’s enthusiasm for personalizing and bringing out the best in each student.
For more information, visit https://yourtorahtutors.org, or reach out to Laibel Shemtov on Whatsapp or email: [email protected]
Inspirational! YTT has changed my life. Thank you!