Machon Alte’s 33rd Summer

By COLlive reporter

Still going strong after 33 years, Machon Alte’s one-of-a-kind yeshiva experience for women in the mystical and ancient city of Tzfas is still churning out ecstatically happy students.

One participant of the filled-to-the-brim summer learning program is Malka Rice of Boston University, a product of Chabad on Campus’s new push to connect college students to yeshiva experiences worldwide through tuition grants a and free flights.

“Machon Alte has given me the opportunity to explore my Judaism in a whole new way,” said Rice. “I enjoy learning Torah through a deeper perspective, which is a large part of the program here. Tzfas is an amazing place to focus, learn, and internalize.”

Against a backdrop mired in mysticism, sheer mountaintop beauty and world famous Kabbalah artisans, Machon Alte delivers to an international audience a highly personalized, inspiring yet rigorous, academic curriculum year-round, with the summer program featuring returning scholars-in-residence Rabbi Eli Nosson and Mrs. Hindy Silberberg of Chicago.

Coursework for beginner and advanced levels includes: Talmud, Torah and Prophets study, with additional offerings in Jewish Meditation and Prayer, The Role of the Contemporary Jewish Woman, Jewish Philosophy and Hebrew Ulpan.

The famed annual summer program also packs in a schedule that includes tours of Northern Israel, memorable Shabbatons in Jerusalem, other fun, and this year, the able and caring support of Shluchos, Mushy Raichik, Ilana Lackner and Chani Blotner, and interaction with post-seminary students enrolled in Machon Alte’s IsraeLearn program.

The curriculum, delivered with Machon Alte’s trademark warmth and spirituality, is having the desired effect on another of the summer enrollees.

“Machon Alte’s classes have taught me to truly internalize Torah and Chassidus,” said Jessica Shindler of London England. “I will take home the joy of Torah and mitzvos and the spreading of Ahavas Yisrael (Love for a Fellow Jew).”