Monsey Cheder Will Start Preparing Boys for Mesivta

By COLlive staff

Cheder Lubavitch of Monsey has announced the launch of a new program for students in grades 6 through 8, the “Mechina L’Mesivta” program to prepare the boys for becoming Chasidishe Bochurim as they graduate elementary school and move on to Mesivta.

The new program was developed and planned over the past school year by the Yeshiva’s Menahel Rabbi Levi Kaplan. It will be led by Rabbi Shaya Itkin, a Chassidisher yungerman brimming with positive energy and innovation.

“An 8th grade graduate entering mesivta is going through a very important transition,” Rabbi Kaplan said. “The schedule is more rigorous, with longer hours and much greater expectations and demands placed on the student. There are new friends to be made, an unfamiliar setting and staff, and of course, for many, there is adjusting to living away from home.

“The Cheder feels the need and responsibility to adequately prepare our boys for this very important stage in their lives,” he said.

The goal of this program is to raise the bar and standard of learning, as well as help the students transition from boys into Chassidishe Bachurim.

Rabbi Shaya Itkin will be running the program, as it requires “a full-time, talented, and energetic leader that can bring new and exciting ideas into these grades and also have the ability to understand and relate to the students of this age group,” Rabbi Kaplan said.

Rabbi Itkin has successfully directed MyShliach, a program for children of Shluchim, led various learning camps for this age group, and has implemented curricula and programming in other schools and yeshivos.

Rabbi Itkin’s lessons and programs will reflect new and intriguing methods of connecting with boys of this age, and he will set out to develop a personal relationship with each talmid to ensure that every boy receives positive reinforcement and finds a listening ear. He will also infuse the program with Chassidisher farbrengens, extra learning programs, and mivtzoim, the school said.