By Simone September 21 2008

 

Elul and the High Holidays can be felt in the air in Jerusalem probably more than anywhere else. How would you characterize what goes on here for those who are not familiar? In Jerusalem, the world operates according to the holidays. It's not as though people run into them. It takes a long time to get to Rosh Hashanah, it takes a long time to get to Yom Kippur, and that process if felt here. Sukkot is sort of like a festival in Jerusalem, everyone has a sukkah. In other places, the ambience isn't there, you have to find a little corner to go do the mitzvot [ritual commandments], but here everyone is doing them and everyone who comes here feels that. Having lived in Jerusalem for a long time, I never cease to wonder how seriously everyone takes these holiday-related mitzvot. Even the act of buying a lulav and etrog [part of the four species used on the Sukkot holiday] has a festival-type atmosphere here. The whole world becomes that world. There is no other world. That's unique to Jerusalem.

Online yeshiva offers free classes to prepare for holidays

The Canadian Jewish News
Friday, 15 August 2008

To make Torah study accessible to everyone - time limitations, geographic restrictions, or financial constraints notwithstanding — WebYeshiva, the world's first on-line yeshiva, is offering a full complement of classes during Elul, the Hebrew month preceding Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, in preparation for the Yamim Nora'im  — the High Holidays.

Elul zman — as the period is traditionally known - "has always been an intense and special time for the Jewish people, a time where we try a little harder to become the type of people that God wants us to be," says noted American - Israeli educator Rabbi Chaim Brovender, who is the driving force behind WebYeshiva.  "In light of the seriousness and importance of Elul zman, WebYeshiva has decided to open its virtual doors to anyone who is interested in seriously studying Torah, no matter what their background.  Because of this we are offering classes tuition free.  All that is required is to come and learn with the seriousness that the month of Elul demands."

Click here for the full article

Cyber Yeshiva

by Stacey Miller, World Jewish Daily
July, 2008

The last time I was chided for being late to a Torah study class by someone called Mrs. Berman, I was 12 years old. So I couldn't help but laugh recently when I found myself signing into a Torah study class at WebYeshiva.org - only to be told by a teacher of the same name that I was already two minutes late!

Launched in November, WebYeshiva utilizes the latest videoconferencing technology and offers fully interactive classes taught by some of the world's leading Torah scholars. Although there are other Yeshiva Web sites - such as Yeshiva.org.il or Chabad.org, which enable users to write questions to a rabbi and wait for a reply - WebYeshiva is the first site to broadcast real-time interactive classes, in English, covering topics such as halacha (Jewish law), Tanach, Jewish business ethics, women's issues and a Hebrew ulpan, among others.

Click here for the full article

… and the online yeshivah

by Marcus Freed, The Jewish Chronicle
May 29, 2008

The Torah is going from out of Zion further and faster than ever via the world’s first fully interactive online yeshivah.

Having just entered its second semester, the Web Yeshiva enables students to join a live online shiur (Torah lesson), interacting with the teacher and fellow pupils through webcams. Advanced conferencing technology allows them to see the study texts on one part of the screen.

“We’re able to reach students all over the world from Alaska to New Zealand,” says Rabbi Chaim Brovender, the Israel-based principal and instigator of the project. “We also have regulars in Santa Fe, New Mexico. We’re getting to people who might otherwise not have access to learning.”

Click here for the full article

Rabbi Brovender Interview on Radio-J.com

by Phil Fink
May 25, 2008

Radio-J.com recently interviewed Rabbi Brovender.

Radio-J.com delivers Jewish-themed programming - streamed live over the Internet - 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The brainchild of veteran broadcaster Phil Fink and seasoned program director Shawn Fink, Radio-J.com provides an inviting, personal and unique connection to Judaism for people around the world.

Listen in MP3 Format at 9.5 MB - http://archives.webyeshiva.org/interviews/Brovender.mp3
Listen in Ogg Vorbis Format at 9.3 MB - http://archives.webyeshiva.org/interviews/Brovender.ogg

Rabbi Brovender Interview on JM in the AM

Find out how to get involved in this amazing new learning opportunity inside.
by Nachum Segal
May 5, 2008

Nachum interviewed Rabbi Chaim Brovender, Rosh Yeshiva of the new http://www.webyeshiva.org/, about this exciting new avenue of Torah study on the internet. Rabbi Brovender explained how Web Yeshiva got started and why this new yeshiva can provide an ideal Torah study opportunity for people with challenging schedules. Nachum and Rabbi Brovender discussed the incredible staff of Torah lecturers on hand at Web Yeshiva to provide the ultimate on-line learning experience for all those who wish to participate.

Listen in MP3 Format at 9.4 MB - http://archives.webyeshiva.org/interviews/jm.mp3
Listen in Ogg Vorbis Format at 7.4 MB - http://archives.webyeshiva.org/interviews/jm.ogg

Halacha is just a click away at online yeshiva

by Amy Klein, Jewish Journal
May 5, 2008

You can buy tickets online, get a college degree online, so why not attend yeshiva online?

Enter Web Yeshiva, the first real-time Torah center whose second semester begins May 6 with signups at www.webyeshiva.org. Sure, there are thousands of Web sites devoted to Jewish subjects, and plenty of podcasts that offer lectures on Judaism -the "ShasPod" even offers the entire daf yomi of daily Talmud learning loaded on an iPod - but "The Jewish People's First Online Yeshiva," as the Israel-based online program calls itself, offers real classes through web conferencing for people around the world.

"There are many people who would like to study Torah but aren't doing so on a regular basis - either because no relevant classes are given in their communities, work schedules, or whatever," said founder Rabbi Chaim Brovender. "Then there are people who attend shiurim in a passive way without internalizing the message. But Internet learning provides an option that enables more and more people to involve themselves in committed Torah study."

Click here for the full article

New WebYeshiva Brings the Whole World Into the Study Hall

by Ezra HaLevi, Arutz Sheva - Israel National News
May 4, 2008

A new virtual yeshiva allows Jews worldwide to experience the intensive Torah study of a Talmudic academy from their own video-enabled personal computers.

The Web Yeshiva (WebYeshiva.org) is a fully interactive Torah-study institution available online. Using video-chat and voice-over-IP web conferencing technology, students gather in a virtual classroom – seeing each other and the teachers clearly and even raising their hand with a question at the click of the mouse.

“I’ve been teaching Torah all my life and the audience has always been a live audience,” explained Rabbi Chaim Brovender, the Rosh Yeshiva [yeshiva dean] of WebYeshiva.org. “It occurred to me that there has to be a way to reach people who can't come to the yeshiva, who can’t come to the shiur [class] where it is given. What we have developed is the ability to teach a real class - with preparation, homework and interaction – over the Internet. As you see it is happening. You can ask questions, you see the page of Talmud being studied. And aside from the initial difficulties of launching any web-based project, it is working very well. There are real students all week long, from 5 in the morning onward.”

Click here for the full article

by JJ LEVINE, THE JERUSALEM POST
Apr. 24, 2008

When David Kohn became sick last January, he thought his days of learning in yeshiva were over.
The octogenarian Ma'aleh Adumim resident had been in the habit of traveling into Jerusalem a number of times a week to hear shiurim in a local yeshiva, but realized that the trips were taking a serious toll on his health.

But as he recuperated at home, Kohn came across Web Yeshiva, a new initiative designed to bring the yeshiva experience to every home with computer access. Now, Kohn attends a Gemara shiur three times a week, and is an enthusiastic convert to the concept.

"It's a satisfying, inspiring experience," says Kohn. "You feel like the teacher is right there." There are other on-line venues of Torah study, of course, and millions of megabytes of downloadable shiurim, but the Jerusalem-based Web Yeshiva is offering a different approach to Internet learning - one based primarily on the immediate experience of live Torah classes.

Rabbi Chaim Brovender, who founded local institutions Yeshivat Hamivtar and Midreshet Lindenbaum, is the head and founder of Web Yeshiva: "Most adult education classes available around the world are given for tired people, by tired people," says Brovender. "I wanted to give people the experience of an 'event' of learning."

Click here for the full article

WebYeshiva Partners With Lamdeni

Study Any Subject, Anywhere, Anytime
Want to learn Hebrew or any other subject from Israel?

Seeking to help Olim and prospective Olim educationally, emotionally and culturally in the early stages of transition to Israeli life, WebYeshiva and Lamdeni are offering online, interactive tutoring in Hebrew or school subjects your child will encounter upon aliyah. 1-on-1 tutoring or classes in small groups available.

Click here for details

Free Pesach Shiurim on the Web

by A Mother in Israel blog
Tuesday, April 08, 2008

I hope you are all coping well with your Pesach preparations. But if a spiritual and intellectual interlude sounds good to you, schedule some time on Sunday, April 13th. On that day (and night) Rabbi Brovender's Atid WebYeshiva is sponsoring a special series of Pesach Shiurim. You can even listen while you're cleaning--I won't tell.

Signup and participation is free.

Learning Experience

Though he recently left his position as head of Yeshivat Hamivtar, Rabbi Chaim Brovender says his career is far from over. Now he has set his sights on the Internet.
by AMIHAI ZIPPOR
Friday, July 6, 2007

On the night of October 5, 2000, at the outset of the second intifada, Rabbi Chaim Brovender, the founder of Yeshivat Hamivtar in Efrat, was traveling along the Tunnel Road connecting Gush Etzion with Jerusalem when a crowd of Arabs from Beit Jala stopped him. After being pulled from his car and severely beaten, he was taken to a Palestinian police station in Bethlehem, where he was further harassed before being thankfully transferred to the IDF alive.

During his subsequent hospitalization and recovery, which took several months, many people, his wife Miriam recalls, asked him what he thought of the incident. "'I'm just a part of Jewish history,' he would say."

Brovender's part in that history saw him become one of the most influential rabbis in contemporary Torah education.

Click here for the full article