A lift for the unemployed

Darchei Torah vocational program expands to train adult men and women in new careers

By Michael Orbach

Issue of Jan. 23, 2009 / Teves 27 5769

A local institution hopes to pick up some of the slack in the faltering economy. Yeshiva Darchei Torah will expand its one-of-a-kind yeshiva high school vocational program to offer courses and workshops for adults seeking training or retraining for employment.

“It’s something we wanted to do for a number of years,” Ronald Lowinger, the yeshiva’s president, told the Jewish Star Monday. “We felt that now was the right time.”

The Weiss Adult Vocational Program will use the preexisting facilities of the high school program, currently in its 14th year. Courses and workshops will be offered in trades including computers, culinary, health, plumbing and real estate. The program has been in development for several months. Organizers selected courses that enjoy high rates of success at other New York-based vocational programs.

The expansion was unveiled at the Yeshiva Darchei Torah annual dinner on Jan. 4 where Lowinger explained that the vocational program was a continuation of the work of his maternal grandparents, Mor and Deborah Weiss. They offered professional training to young men in pre-war Hungary in order to enable them to remain Shomer Shabbat.

The high school program offers vocational coursework alongside Limudei Kodesh (Judaic) and secular subjects to high school students at Darchei Torah’s Mesivta Chaim Shlomo.

“Over the years this program has saved the lives of young men who otherwise could not have survived the yeshiva high school rigors,” Lowinger said, describing the high school vocational courses.

“Many of our graduates have gone ahead to prosperous parnasahs (livelihoods) and are successful and happy baalei batim (heads of household).”

The expansion from high school students to adults was a natural one in a troubling time.

“Can we stand by and watch families fall apart and livelihoods disappear?” Lowinger asked the dinner attendees.

The unemployment rate rose to 6.4% in 2008, the highest it’s been since 1994. According to Department of Labor statistics, 1.2 million jobs were cut in 2008.

“Ronald Lowinger has a heart of gold,” Said Rabbi Shimon Dachs, principal of the high school and director of The Weiss Vocational Program. “And he’s thinking about everybody else.”

The program for adults is set to begin in February and will be open to both men and women.