In apromising new yeshivuh in Lancaster, Pennsylvunia, apioneering group olfbochurim

ure reinforcing their Torah learning, und spending afternoons gaining a vuluable nev F
\.9!
set of skills in the construction business. Vl/elcome to the Lancaster Yeshiva Center, where
yeshiva students are mastering the intricacies of Gemarfl as they master the rudiments
of roofing, anulyzing Tosefos us they unalyze blueprints, und learn in a hands-on way
that you can be a ben Torah snd make an honest living at the same time
-,.
o
Barbara Bensoussan a
tl
e nail1e Lancaster, Pennsylvania, evokes images ofAmish Countr-y for most of us: horse- a
drawn buggies clip-clopping down highways, orange "SLOW'hiangles nailed to the
back frame; women in bonnets, selling hand-strtched quilts and shoo-fly pies; neat
patchwork farms; and perhaps the occasional community bam nising. It's easy lor a Jew to
feei a certain sympathy with the Amish, even if we don't share their views on religion
or technology like us, they've opted to live in a markedly different r,vay than the
-
average American, down to thetr distinctive, modest mode of dress. They even
purport to do so,l'havdil, with the expressed goal of living a more wholesome,
spiritual life.
Lancaster County itself has no lack of Jewish history to boast of; there has
been a Jewish presence there since Revolutionary times, when many members of
the commrmity lent their assistance to General Washington. One of the local Jewish
traders bought guns Aom the British, then hrmed around and sold them to the
Revoiutionary Army. Haym Solomon, known rr the history books as the
banker who financed the Revolution and died penniiess before the loans
could be repaid" came ftom nearby Philadelphia
The actual city of Lancaster has [ttle to do withAmish country;
it's a modem-enough Pennsylvania town. Out among the Amish
farms, however, the Plain Peopie are finding it harder
and harder to keep their young folks tied to the farm.
Apparently no smallnumberofthem eiectto go offthe
Amish derech, as it were, and move into modem
sociefy. konically enough, however, Lancaster
County just might have a solution for
stiving to ensure
certrain Jewish parents
that theryotrng people stay squarely
and happily on the right Jewish
derech. The eight-year-old
Lancaster Yeshiva Center,
the brainchild of Rabbi

uuith tools for life

 word of mouth. There's a network out there
bo-vs who fall into this category ail seem
-to know each other. They teli me who lo
takel" He himseif puts the boys tiuough a
screening process, belng especiaily carefui
to determine there are no serious problems
or subsknce abuse.
Whrie Rabbi Sackett hoPes that the
yeshivah will eventually expand, at present,
it has the advantage of being small and
heimish.The boys ieam in the beis medrash
of the local shul, live in a house nearby,
and are fed by the rebbetzin's nuhitious
fare (which constitutes a substantial
responsibiliry for lhe rebbetzin, as Lancaster
is an hour's drive from the nearest kosher
bakery or pizza shop). &l a regular day,
the boys leam all moming, break for luncll
and then go with their vocational instructor
to the construction site. On Shabbos, locai
families will occasionally offer to host boys
"We don't require a GED, although we do encourage for meals; if not, they eat with the Sacketts.
to
The young men who come the
it. W; want boys who want to be in a yeshivah yeshivah are generally beis medrash age,
seventeen years old or older: "They have to
environment, but don't want to be learning the entire be mature enoughto see ourprogram as life-
preparatory" Rabbi Sackett says. "We don't
day these are boys who need to be active, who require a GED, aithoughwe do encourage it.
- We want boys who want to be in a yeshivah
see their futures in terms of being a balabus" environmenq but don't want to be ieaming
the entire day these are boys who need to
acquiring skills that will aiiow them to
-
be active, who see their futures in terms of
Shaya Sackett, has managed to fill the
,re.ds of both the city's struggling Jewish earn a livrng. The yeshivah thus offers a betngabalabw."
cornmunity and young men-stuggling to combination of moming leaming coupled In a sense, his Yeshivah could be
with aftemoon vocational kaining in all considered part of a larger movement,
findanhonorablenicheas balabafimtnthe
community. facets ofresidential construction' So far, the bom out of a steep dEclure in capital il the
Orthodox
unique classes have remained small, ranging from chareidi world, to provide koshervocationai
The Lancaster Yeshiva Center is
are three to fourteen boys at a time' "Ow boys traiorng fcii Jewish yormg people. Many
inthat it is geared toward boys who
in the kind come &om ail over Brooklyn, Monsey, communitibs have various venions of
not suited for or interested -
qf dawn-to-dusk, intensive leaming that califomia, chicago, canada - we even Machon L Pamassah, and even Towo
College is essential$ a white-col1ar venion
characterizes the typical beis medrash, haveaboyfromZurich,"RabbiSackettsays.
yet ar€ basically good boys who want "We've advertised from time to time, but of the same formula of dayime or part-
to cootinue some iegular ieaming while ovr talmidim are most$ recruited through time leaming coupled with professional

II I I I
training later on in the day. Rabbi Sackett
quotes Wiiliam Rapfogel, the execr-rtive
director of the Met Council on Jewish
Povefi who once told the Forward'.
"The Orthodox community often places
so much emphasis on learning that even
young men who are not academically
inclined feel compelled to pursue [1ong-
term] ieaming." Cleariy no "Tewish maie
should ever cease regular Torah study,
but the question of the day is how much
and for how long, given the nature of the
individual and his particular economic
circumstances.
Rabbi Sackeu is able to list several
other yeshivos that have rnitiated simiiar
programs. In Lakewood, the Chevra
HaKollel also combines leaming with
vocationalprograms.YeshivaDarcheiTorah,
in Far Rockaway, also has options for high
schooi age boys to enroil in woodworking
and other skill-oriented classes, although
these classes do not constitute a fuil-fledged
vocationai program.
Landing in Lancaster Rabbi Shaya
SackEtt is not exactly a country boy himsel{
aithough he has now been in Lancaster for
eighteen years. Raised in Queens, he did the
bulk of his yeshivah leaming at Ner Israel
in Baltimore. While at Ner Israel, he eamed
an MS in Education from Johns Hopkins
Uruversity (this is a tbather in his cap that
emerges only reluctantly after an hour of
conversation, as he is self-eftacing about
his accomplishments). Creating a yeshivah
for young men had not particulariy been
on his to-do lisl it was an idea that evoived
nahraliy as he assumed the post ofrabbi for
the Degel Israel shul in Lancaster. "After
the school in Staten Island where I had been
principal fbr eighteen years merged with
another," he explains, "I took thejob as rabbi
in Lancaster. Since Lancaster is about an
hour and a quarter from both Baltimore and
Philadelphia, it's a comfortable commuting
distance from hvo larger
communities." Forhrnately,
his wife, Buci, who is from Frederick,
Maryiand, grew up commuting an hour to
Baltimore every day, so she wasn't shocked
by the idea of having to ferry her own
children an hour and back daily to yeshivah
when they moved to Lancaster. (Today, the
Sackett's chridren are mostiy finished with
school, and Buci's family remains clustered
in Baltimore, where one brother-in-law has
a seforim store and her brother gives a shiur
in Ner Israel)
"The truth is that my wife and I both
felt an attraction to out-ot--town living; it
has a lot of maalos," Rabbi Sackett says.
"Lancaster was the kind of community
where we hoped we could make some kind
of a difference."
But the shul he took over was clearly
on the wane, badly in need of a shot of
adrEnalin. Already ovcr a hundred years
old, its membership was dwindling and
those present not gettiflg any yollnger.
Rabbi Sackett, with the assistance of severai
members of the congregation, managed
to build a miloeh, and heightened the

Theprojectsgivetheboysachancetoexperienceeverypart
of the construction process' from planning to demolition
framingwalls'thenputtingineverythingfrornflooringto
plumbing and electricity, to tiling and painting
mechitzah in the shul, but this aione was
not enough to revitalize the community'
"Some of the congregants themselves
weren't really looking to grow, and those
who were motivated tended to move to
larger communities. We couldn't attract
new people," Rabbi Sackett says' "It's
hard to build up a community when there
isn'tyeshivah ketanah for young coupies
a
to send their children to." So how does a
well-intentioned rabbi go about creating
Something out of Nextto'Nothing?
I
Rabbi Sackett began to brainstorm
various ways to revive the kehillah' "People
told me, 'Build a kolle1,"' he says' "But a
kollel isn't easy to finance. You have to have
the imding to support at least six families
movingin.
I
"Then we thougirg MaYbe start a
yeshivah? Bring in rebbis?" He had spent
il
many years as a day-school principal ur
Norfoilq Cincinnati, and Staten Island"
il
so he was no sfanger to the practicalities
of school administration. But, as a parent
of five children himself, he knew that no
M*padu extends wannest
Mazel Tov wishes to
Rachel Ginsberg and familY
on &e engagement of their son'
E-' -
: ..1.,,,,;iii13-tr'ffi ffi 'i
in a regular yeshivalr because they're not
academically oriented enough to sit for so
to
many hours rn leaming. So our idea was to
give them some positive aitematives-"
Rabbi Sackett avows that he is very
much a product of the phriosophies of
education that were being taught at the time
he was studying for his master's degree'
"I've always preached that we need to
teach the whole child," he says, an echo
of the Torah's injunction of al pi darko'
"Everybody deserves a Jewish education'
but the education has to be appropnate lbr
each individuai."
ln the end, he decided that he could
offer less-academically oriented boys the
positive altemative of training in a real-life
occupation, one that would ailow them to
eam a respectable living and involve their
minds and hands in constructive projects'
The solution he settled on was to Eain them
in ail aspecm of residential construction'
He would hire an instructor, buy an ot4
dilapidated house for penni"es on the dollar,
and launch a renovation.
parent would send their child to a place
they'd never heard ol much less move This Old House With his guidtng
concept now firmly in place, Rabbi Sackett
theie themselves (by the time he moved
now needed to find himself somebody like
to Lancaster, his own children were
Bob Vrlla, that famous master of all tades
starting to move out of the house)' His
shul couldn't even promise consistent who made a career out of producing books
and instructional DVDs on ail'types of
daily minyanim.
He began to hone in on what he residentiai renovation' Word was put out
through ttre JEwish grapevine, and a man
ca1ls the "mah nishtanah" factor:
what if he made a yeshivah that could who had been in charge of remodelng
the iocal Jewish Commumty Center was
offer something unique? He consulted
wilh gedolim including Rav Shmuei recommended and hired for the job'
Kamenetsky, Rav Mattisyahu Salomon Roy Musiclq who is not Jewistl was
thrilled to come work for the yeshivah' "I
(who gave the original haskamah), Rav
have thrty years ofexperience, and I always
Aharon Feldman, and Rav Yissachar
Frand. SlowlY, an idea took shaPe: he wantedto teach, topass onthe cra-ftsmanship
I've acquued," he told Mishpacha. Miisisk
wouid create a yeshivah for boys and
young men who needed a different type haiis from a famiiy ofmasons, and graduated
with a degee in architecture &om Drexel
tt y"thiuuh, one that could play to their
strengths. University. He aiso gained experience while
"l didn't want to create another serving for eight years in the Navy, which
included stints in the Grenada invasion
yeshivah for 'at-risk' boys," Rabbi
Sackett says. "I wanted to create a and a nine-month construction project in
Lebanon. "I've sailed around the world
yeshivah for boys who stop well short.of
twice," he says.
that status, but may be having difrculties

Musick points out that most trade schools
tbcus on teaching only one type of skili, but
-
working on a large renovation allows the
bolis to taste all tacets of constnrction and
then decide if they want to speciaiize. The
yeshivah's current project involved buying
a house built somewhere behveen 1875
and 1880, that haci sat tbr five years as a
condemed house. "It took us two weeks just
to clear out the debris," he says. "It's nice to
know that once it's cleaned up, we can sell it
and return it to the town's tax base."
The projects give the boys a chance to
gxperience every part of the construction
process, from planning to demoiition to
framing walls, then putting in everythrng
from flooring to plumbing and electncrfy,
to tiling and painting. When the project is
completed and the house is sold, the money
goes toward purchasing a new house as well
as helping to fund the yeshivah- When Rabbi
Sackett is asked ifhe takes part in any ofthe
vocational haimng, he laughs. "Oh no," he
defers. "You wouldn't wanl me teaching
construction!" On the other hand, he admits,
"I have leamed quite a bit through allthis."
Musick's Nary training has made him
a teacher not oniy of construction but of
middos- "1 believe ur discipiine," he says
plainly. "In the real world, you have to
produce, and I take a hardline approach
to followrng my instuctions to the letter."
While he says most of the boys are very
ll,i:-'
- has been leaming Bcwa ,Mletzia with them"
respectful, he addresses any lapses by asktng
them sternly, "So why are you here?" That
brings them into line right away.
Constructing Self-Esteem The
wonderfui irony of Rabbi Sackett's program
is that, through channeling his boys into a
program that requires less time sitting and
leaming, he has actr:aliy produced higher
levels of motivation and interest n limudei
kodesh. "For these kids, many of whom
had various leaming issues or attention
issues in yeshivah, the Gemara comes alive
'-.i-1.iji,i..ffi
for them," Rabbi Sackett says. "This year,
Rabbi Tzvi Karp, their rosh beis medrash,
They're dealing wrth invanim of contracts,
of business relationships: rvhat if you order
brick from a suppiier and he never comes
tluough rvith them? What if your donkey is
injured during a j ob? Now ttrat they' ve starfed
getting real-world business experience, these
issues acquire a neq real-world relevance
for them." (Many of the boys arrive with
certain gaps in their yeshivah leaming, and
therefore all the leamrng is rebbi-fac'iitated"
until those gaps are addressed and Rabbi
Karp decides they are ready for chavnna
leaming.) Even Roy Musick gets in on the
act ofmaking the Gemara come alive: 'T stay
in touch with Rabbi Kutp; t 1et him know
whenever I come across reallife examples
he can use in his Torah study," he says.
Eli Gilden,who wentthroughLancaster's
two.year program, says that he had lost
confidence in his leaming before he came to
the yeshivah. "I felt like I wasn't successful
'nmy shiur," he
because I wasn't a top guy
says. "But I saw that you canbe a ben Torah
and make an honest living at the same time.
Rabbi Sackett was a role model for me, ihE
way he combines ius ieamrng with rwming a
yeshivah and berng the rcrv ofa shul."
Mr. Musick points ottt that construclion
work not only builds a foundation for
Torah study, but helps sharpen the boys'
 -f-I I r r r r r
- -

*we encourase our bovs :fJi ;#r"f'":hTtr1ffiftHT:Hi

to dress in ayeshivishe ffihfffiHtrTi: ffi,Ttr fr
manner," Rabbi sackett Xff1t::??;i:"T:,H[f:;TJ#;;":i
two
notes,
otalthough not all of you"' says Dov Goldman yho spent

them do. But t' ;;;;, i"*t#"*"JToil;:fr1;1il:*1*:3

set to know everyone in the community
they still lookfrummer thnn iersonalty, Ln a wav.that
doesn't exist in
t'*fi
anyone else, and people ffifffr['ii;* ,"*.*hat removed

actuany rook te $hem as };T,i?:ffi:fr::i::X-Tr""ffi:",1fi

rore moders orfrumkeit. so :*-;ru 'i""?'i'j:' ;il::ff,|,.""r*lll
even if they're dressed a
fffgi:::;iti:*.Y"'::ffiffi:*l
little differently by big-city environment, and the bovs end up
becoming more fi1atLlre' with more iife
mathematical and logisticai skills
;t'-
as well'
standards, they're still seen skr'ls."
tyiog to squelch the myth that if you
can't do business, you go into construction"' here as yeshivah bochurim, a;"Yff#T:L:l|off i: H:l#
'"fne truttr is that you need to be able
tre says.
io Oo fairiy high-level caiculations in
to*. own ili?Jlff]*r[|ili:i H;j:;i::
which reinforces their
construction, whether or not
sense of Jewish identitv" il#:::1?fr15:"JJffi;:]tJ#:1i:
order to pian
vou're nanrally math-nclured' You have to
te able to read a btueprint' calculate square if they're dressed a little differently by
can't
tooog", estimate board footage' If you big-city standards' they're stil1 seen here
111ut."it"t" kinds of calculations, you'd
ln addition' condemnedhousetransfomedtluoughas'y"hi'ahbochurim'whichteinforces
better catch on reai quickl" their own sense of Jewish identity"'
the work of their rruno" into ,omethiig puiled
maihematics is involved in keeping
business
payrolls' really nice, they feel a tremendous'
well- "The boys find themseives in
accourrt, and calculating costs and
justified sens€ into helping out in the community
Former talmicl Eli Gilden aclarowledges
job managlng
"f "*"ttpiitft**nr'. ,nurry *uyt," Buci
The wider communlry has also tipped
sackett says' "when
s$efully, "TodaY, in mY
for its hat to their achievements: this
year a congregant is n ave,l' their presence
it's very hard constructlon i, .rrJoti"ut a minvan and
for completing
iropenies, ;;;;;;;;;'i;
the local newspaper,
people to np me off. I leamed to estimate betngmenaclte-m aveJ w1'have boys who
Era, canteda story"t;;*;;dtheir
*tiut *t"tg.-oost and how much work they *.tiriil"drodavsnfromtheamudforlhe
renovation projects in their business
should reqirire." first time, because in their shuls at home
Rabbi Sackett believes that hrs boys
section.Theboorttott"uo!'r-t"1Gi;";
in their they were never given the chance'
benefit psyihologically from the new
carries over into u
""* "o#a*ce i'Th"y fuo:{ h"lprng the
as Rabbi S".tttt puts it, "It's 8trow
,rr.""rr", ih"Y "tjoY in their haining'
leaming
- success."
''i?v""ir-*
a case of success breeding
community' lust recently"' she continues'
*an eiderly lady who lives alone called us
'4h"*" tend io bo kids who are hands- For boys *iro feit
on, aoncrete types"' he says' "and as because a bat had gotten lnto her
house' A
themselves on the fringir*ir *uirrur"u-
tfr& *q"it" ut"fut ,tittt and see an o14 coupleofourboyswentoverwithagarbage
yeshivah life in the ta='g""o**unities
town is bag and wo long sticks' and caught it for her
they hail from. living iT " 'tuff
adecidedplus.Foronething,theysoon_-youcunimaglnehgwga:efirlshewas|''In
to assisting the neighbon' the boys
become aware that their presence
inshul adiit'on
is not only requested, b''it tt""e"ury'"ln get a certau' education tn mentschlichkert'
the schooi, r ,"""i""0 trt" ,aa"a ioough having to help Mrs' sackett clean
starting
benefit of being uuf"lo u""'e myself
a upan-ermeal1-abehaviortheirwiveswill
l-*V"" thebegel israel shul-in the strelyappreciut"T"$Y
mornings,"" R"bbi S;;k;ii grins' The ThewarmthofRabbiandMrs'sackenis
,*"t1"'ri*."*otivut"o itselfalifitotheboys'self'esteem'According
young men ur"
 I

il
to Eli Gilden, "Rabbi Sackett has patience
beyondanything I've ever seenl" Both rabbi
and rebbetzin admit that they become very
attached to the bochztrim hnd I reaily
-"I Buci says.
miss them when they leave,"
The graduates apparently miss thern too;
they often come back to visit. One talmid,
Chaim Meister, has returned as a dorm
corinselor. Dov Goldman avers that he
"goes back to Lancaster on Rosh HaShanah
every year to help boost the minyan, and
sometimes for ShavLros as well."
The Price of Success? The Lancaster
Yeshiva was designed as a two-year
program, but Rabbi Sackett says they are
so successful in one year that he often loses
talmidim after they go home for the summer
and find summerjobs. "It can be a challenge
to get them back after the first year," he
says. He sighs. "You know seventeen-year-
olds," he says. "They tend to think they
know everlthing, so once they've dabbled
in a few areas, they think they know them.
They find a surnmer iob with a contractot
and ifthe boss sees the boy does good work,
of course he offers to take him on full time.
That makes the second year a hard seil."
And yet there is still pienty to leam on
the professional front. Rabbi Sackett tick
off roofing, plumbing, and mounting walls
that curve as just a few examples of areas
a boy may not touch on in only one year.
Through trying out many dillbrent
types of conshuction, boys often
find they have an affinlty lbr one
particLriar line of work, and pursue
it in more detail later. "One of my
students for.md he really liked
electrical work," Mr. Musick
relates. "Another decided he
liked plumbing." Rabbi Sackett says thar
one of the boys is now working as a
inspector in New York, giving out violations.
Dov Goidman is busy with his new concrete
and masonry business in Baltimore.
As with any yeshivah, funding is aiways
an issue. "That's the downside oflancaster,"
Rabbi Sackett lnoums. "It's a
communiry so the base of support is sma1l"
aithough he says that the non-Orthodox
-communify of Lancaster has been quite
supportive (a phenomenon of iine-crossing
rare in larger Jewish areas). There is one
local person who helps Rabbi Sackett with
frrndraising, and the yeshivah has put up a
website and promotional DVD.
But when economic times are tough,
it's hard to make ends meet. Last year, for
example, the yeshivah was unable to sell
the house they hadrenovated- for the fust
time in eight years. Mishpacha suggests,
oniy partly in jest, that perhaps Rabbi
Sackett should sell his houses to a group
of youngfium couples and try to start the
next Waterbury-styie community. "Housing
is certarnly cheap here," he says
encouragtngly, "and we're practicaily a
building suburb of Baltimore and Phiily."
Actually, there are moments when the
Lancaster mrnyan swells to many times its
usuai size: Chol HaMoed Succos and Chol
HaMoed Pesach. Jewish tourists coming
in to spend a day in nearby Hershey Park
small and tour around Amish Counfy often find
Degel Israel a convenient place to stop for a
minyan. "Some of the local hotels have even
learned it's worth ther while tor them to put
up a succah," Rabbi Sackett says. Ar any
rate, being located near a popuiar vacation
spot helps to put his shui and his yeshivah on
themap.
"We started the yeshivah sftelo lishmah,"
Rabbi Sackett says, "as a means to a different
end, as a means to buildtng up the Lancaster
communiry. But before we knew it, we were
doing it lishmah. The yeshivah took on a life
and a reason for beng all its own."
In oiher words, in teaching boys how
to build, the Lancaster Yeshiva Center
accomplishes an even bigger objective ii
builds up the boys therriselves. r -

Keep your ustgmerg 'in

theloon
Distribute your call to the right departrnent with
Automated Call Distribution from Centraloffice.
The chief priority of your phone system is to get the
customer in touch with the right person. Optimizing
how quickly this <onnection is made will signifi-
ffi : cAlts cAt{ EF qUR ED if E CAII' are EVENLY qISIRISIJTED
everyone is on a call until there so rhat employees are given a
cantly in(rease your customel iafisfa(tion.
is an available representative fair work load
Instead of getting busy signals, being put on hold or I Cailers can hear your CUSTOM I Manag€rs canSEEWHIC}I
into Voice Mail, ACD wiil queue your incoming calls utjslcoRcusroi*oN HotD PLOYEES ARE t.O(fi E9
ETI I}*
until someone takes them. Your customer will now be MESSASES whflewaitinq At{D OUTAT A!'lY GIVEN
greeted by professional messages such as your compa- I Custom Messages/Music On POINT IN TIME FROTT AI{Y.
ny name or a message such as "please hold - your cali Hold CAll EE EASILY IYTIERE IN THE WORI.D
will be handled by the next available representative". UPLOADED Via the I Cross Skilled employees can
Centraloffice Commportai be logged into MORE THA!{
And by the way - yout employees can conveniently OHE qUEUE AT A TTME
tak€ the call from anywhere - in the office, the home
il MULTIPIE ACD QIJEUE5 for
sale5,customer service, etc...
office, around the corner or around the world.

I1D'iOUT MORE CALL:

,\,\&ffiffiHsffiffi
UU 'ffxcHANGE