“Wilkes” Celebrates 25 Years With Gala Dinner

By Yakir Havin

As I arrived at the sprawling campus of Bais Menachem Youth Development Program in the Pocono Mountains on Sunday, June 8, the skies were beginning to gather grey and ominous. Opening the car doors, I felt a faint tingling of electricity in the air, but I sensed that it wasn’t just the oncoming rain. I was an hour early for the 25th anniversary gala dinner, and while it was still relatively quiet around the grounds, there was an unmistakable hum of activity.

Rounding a hill and walking up the gravel steps, I set my eyes for the first time on the “new” Wilkes-Barre. When I was a shliach back in 2017-18, the yeshivah was located in the actual town of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. A few years ago, however, a move to the Poconos was made, transforming the facilities from a single semi-detached house to an expansive campus, complete with over 25 dormitory room, two zals, several classrooms, an eating hall, indoor gym, outdoor pool, sports fields, music center and recording studio, animal farm, workshop, and most recently, a brand-new beautiful mikvah. And all of this set on a 53 acres of lush mountain scenery.

This move came off the back of years of tremendous effort from all the Wilkes-Barre staff, headed up by Rabbi Uri Perlman, as well as overwhelming financial support from alumni, parents, and the community at large. My face was plastered with a broad grin as Uri took my friends (former shluchim and bochurim) and me on a tour of the facilities; don’t ask me how he had the headspace to do that while making last-minute preparations for a 300 person gala dinner. It’s true what they say about Wilkes-Barre and personal attention.

All around the campus, students were rushing about, each taking care of a different part of the event, from setting up the cocktail bar, to setting tables for the carving stations, arranging the main marquee decorations, testing out the sound system, and greeting the new faces that were beginning to arrive. I was amazed at the level of coordination that was going on between the staff and students, under the energetic supervision of staff member Mendy Peer.

Before too long, cocktail hour was in full swing, and everyone attending had a plate of food in one hand, and conversations, catch ups, and hellos were taking place in front of the main building. I bumped into many staff members and alumni that I hadn’t seen for a few years and exchanged warm hugs and smiles. The unshakeable Wilkes-Barre bond was still alive and well.

Sure enough, the heavens soon opened, and the rain came in healthy waves. But no one was deterred, gathering under the covered entrances and walkways surrounding the building. Walking past the delicious arrays of meat and sushi, I arrived at a few stalls set up by the students to showcase some of their wares. Menachem Helfen (@craftedbyhelfen) displayed his beautiful wooden challah boards, hand made in the workshop only a few hundred feet away. Another student sold GoatKippas, a brand of knitted yarmulkes that have become quite popular of late, and I snapped one up without a second thought.

At some point, the announcement was made to wash for bread, and then make our way down the hill to the marquee where the dinner would take place. And what a spectacle it was. There were beautifully decorated tables, a stage with sound and light system, and two large screens, one on either end of the tall white tent. I sat down with a few friends, and then the opening act began with alumnus Yosef David regaling the audience with a song, as well as an introductory video made by Yehuda Katz, also an alumnus.

The formal part of the evening then took place, hosted by well-loved former staff member Levi Blizinsky. And trust me, it was no boring set of self-congratulating speeches, like you may find at other gala events or celebrations. Uri spoke first with his characteristically subtle but charismatic charm, thanking everyone for the last 25 years of education, and weaving the story from its humble beginnings to its present day progress. True to form, Uri was barely able to get through a sentence before the crowd of current students and alumni burst into applause and cheering. Such is the love of Wilkes-Barre bochurim for their teacher and director.

The event highlighted three honorees, one from each group of the extended Wilkes-Barre family, each of whom were presented with a custom-engraved wooden challah board as a token of appreciation. First were Rabbi Avrohom Meir and Chaya Shuman, parents and large benefactors of the yeshivah. Rabbi Shuman spoke unprepared, and told straight from the heart how much it meant to him to be involved with the yeshivah, and of the unrivalled excitement he and his wife feel every time they get to host bochurim for Shabbos. Rabbi Mendel Pil, an alumnus from the early 2000s, and now a successful businessman and entrepreneur, shared his journey through struggle and self-discovery, highlighting how Wilkes-Barre gave him “the space to be confused”. And the last honoree was Rabbi Mendel Zirkind — soon to become rabbi of the Melbourne Lubavitch community, and warmly known by his former students as Master Z — who spoke about Wilkes-Barre’s focus on distilling knowledge into practical life lessons and applications, in contrast to the sea of scattered information in which many of us flounder today.

All the while, waiters served a steak dinner, l’chaims were made around the tables, and the mood in the tent rippled with a sense of warmth and nostalgia. I remarked to the friends I was sitting with how humble everyone at Wilkes-Barre is, a far cry from today’s world where much of the news and media is dominated by ego and self-aggrandizement. As I listened to the speakers, my mind replayed memories of my Wilkes-Barre year: late-night conversations, boisterous farbrengens in the zal, laugh-out-loud open mic nights, countless hours of chavrusas, joyous Friday night davenings, spirited soccer matches, the blur of the trees racing by the car windows on roadtrips or Shabbatons… And I’m sure I wasn’t the only one in the crowd experiencing such a reverie, surrounded by familiar faces young and old, all grateful and content to be together on this special night of celebration.

As the rain continued to pelt the roof of the marquee, there was one more address to be had. The keynote speech was delivered by Rabbi YY Jacobson, who is not only a world-renowned speaker and educator, but also a Wilkes-Barre parent. In his distinctive spellbinding way, he spoke about how he met a young Uri, only 21 at the time, who stuck out by not just kvetching about the state of Jewish education and “the system”, but actually stepping up and doing something about it, founding the yeshivah that has now welcomed over 1000 students through its doors. Departing from the norm of keynote speakers, Rabbi Jacobson stuck exactly to his promise of a 20-minute speech, and all gathered hung on every last word, right up to the empowered ending where he exhorted the crowd to “leave your money here”, to thunderous applause. Perhaps the most powerful line that stuck with me from his speech was when he quoted his son who said that “Wilkes-Barre taught me to love myself”.

And for the pièce de résistance, Yosef David concluded the formal part of the evening, singing a few soulful melodies alongside alumnus Zalmy Yanover; their voices and harmonies had the crowd swaying on their feet, eyes closed and hearts open.

It wouldn’t be fitting to have a gala event without “spontaneous dancing”, and right on cue, Wilkes-Barre bochur Srulik Sherman (@djsrul_official) took to the DJ decks and set the place alight. The muddy grounds were of no consequence as students, staff, and alumni danced the night away. Uri was raised up on a chair to the cheers of all around, and the energy was high, every face smiling ear-to-ear, hairlines shvitzing, and not a thought in the world other than to dance and sing with friends new and old.

At about 9:30pm, I departed back to Crown Heights, my heart rate still pumping well over 100 bpm, gleefully exchanging stories and memories with my friends in the car with whom I had been at Wilkes-Barre seven years prior. We laughed till our ribs hurt and our cheeks ached, and as I’m writing this the next day, I am still on a high. When I got home, I saw that the Wilkes alumni WhatsApp chat was flooded with pictures and videos, and some laments by those who weren’t able to make it for the event.

Wilkes-Barre is a truly special place, a gem of Chabad education, whose mantra always has been and always will be “The right to know and the freedom to grow”. This slogan embodies the Wilkes-Barre spirit which fills every student with a yearning to discover themselves, finding out who they truly are, and exercising their talents in Torah learning and other vocational pursuits as they mature into young adults. Two strangers who meet and discover that they both attended Wilkes-Barre are instantly no longer strangers, regardless of their distance in age or stage.

I am and will be forever grateful to be a small part of this 25 year history. In an era where so many are lost and wandering, a well-rounded Jewish education filled with love and warmth is the cornerstone of a life lived with purpose and fulfillment. And I am excited to see what comes next.

To learn more about this incredible institution, visit https://baismenachem.com