Yeshivat Nesher Hagadol

An Audience of One // Rabbi David Refson, the pioneering founder of Neve Yerushalayim, ponders the past 50 years of Torah education for baalos teshuvah by Sarah Shapiro By   Ami Magazine  - December 11, 2019 Share on Facebook   Tweet on Twitter     A few days before this interview took place, its two participants—interviewer and interviewee—agreed that the better part of wisdom would probably be to cancel. For in response to an email from me asking if there were aspects of his life and work on which he would particularly like to focus during our upcoming discussion, Rabbi David Refson, much to my chagrin, had replied: “I have zero interest or even willingness to talk about any aspect of my work and life. My teacher, Reb Elya Lopian, zt”l, taught us that the kavod from any publicity that we seek out is taken from our reward in Olam Haba. At my advanced age, a self-serving ‘advertorial’ about myself is the last thing my neshamah needs! ...

A SEMINARY OF HIS OWN By Yisroel Besser NOVEMBER 11, 2014 Email Print T he  lobby of Manhattan’s United Nations Hotel is a flurry of ambassadors and bureaucrats, neckties knotted tightly, briefcases clasped close as they whisper to each other in a babble of languages. Rabbi Dovid Refson strides across the lobby in marked contrast to the bevy of officialdom: Tieless, he appears very British in a wool sweater, his imposing frame, cheerful smile, and exuberant greeting so different from the hushed, polite tones all around us. It’s been a year spent in transit for the dean of the Orthodox world’s largest all-women’s college. Unprecedented financial challenges have forced him out of his beloved classroom and on to the fundraising trail. If he appears a bit weary, he compensates with humor, candor, and insight. The builder of one of the kiruv world’s flagship institutions has been called farsighted, even visionary, but as he eases into a red-and-gray...

Skip to content All Credit To THe MIShpacha and  Aharon Kliger   and   Aryeh Ehrlich   | PROFILES | PERFECT HARMONY  By  Aharon Kliger  and  Aryeh Ehrlich   | MAY 26, 2020 Email Print A compelling conversation with Rav Shlomo Yehudah, a gift to the generation Photos: Shlomi Treichter, Ezra Trabelsi W e’re outside, waiting for the Yanuka. It’s silent in the deserted courtyard of the little shul, for even though coronavirus restrictions have been eased and the streets have again come to life, most people are in bed at this hour. But we’re waiting — and then we see him. Soon we’re face to face with this bashful young man who’s taken the Torah world by storm — self-effacing, unremarkable in appearance, but so remarkable in the impact he’s had on the lives of the thousands who flock to him, hanging on his every word. He’s really just a young  avreich , yet his  shiurim  are an at...