Family Opens Learning Spot

By COLlive reporter

Learning on demand.

In response to a growing demand for proper places to learn Torah in the Crown Heights neighborhood, one family has decided to transform the basement of their home into a venue for learning.

“There’s a nice amount of families and bochurim living here,” says R’ Menachem Mendel Yusewitz about the recent migration of Lubavitchers to the “other side” of Eastern Parkway, between Schenectady and Utica Avenues.

A 8 minute walk to Lubavitch Headquarters at 770 Eastern Parkway and a 25 minute walk to the Heichal Halimud Tiferes Yitzchok at 574 Empire Boulevard, both regularly full to capacity, Yusewitz wanted to offer a closer option.

So he and his wife Faigy opted to convert the ground level of their home at 1334 Lincoln Place to a 50 feet Beis Medrash with bookshelves, chairs and tables, a restroom, coffee, tea, washing station.

Officially opening this week, Heichal Limud Anshei Moshe is named after his grandfather, Rabbi Moshe Rubin OBM, who served for over 40 years as a shochet and a beloved mashpia in Montreal and was known for his hearty farbrengens and niggunim.

“It will be a geshmake, quiet place to learn,” says Yusewitz who works for Beis Midrash L’Shluchim of Merkos Suite 302. “By demand, we’ll daven Mincha and Maariv and working people can stay to learn alone or with a chavrusa, near their home in a fitting environment.”

His parents R’ Yaakov and Sarah Yusewitz strongly encouraged and helped this initiative become a reality.

In addition, his friends R’ Shlomi Frishman, R’ Menachem Engel and R’ Saadia Engel and neighbors pitched in to furnish the room. The bookshelves are mostly filled and there will be a computer installed with the Otzar Hachachma seforim library. 

Yusewitz thanked to R’ Levi Browd of Yagdil Torah “which is an ongoing inspiration to us, and is helping us along the way,” as well as R’ Yehuda Zaltzman “who put in time and resources to bring the Heichal Halimud to what it is now.”

In the future, there will be shiurim given by guests, as well as occasional farbrengens. “Everyone is very supportive,” says Yusewitz. “Learning is clearly on the rise in Crown heights and we feel it is a zchus for us to help.”