Atlanta Scholars Kollel Welcomes New Rabbis

Eight new Atlanta Scholars Kollel rabbis and their families have recently moved to Atlanta. The new group joins in morning Beis Medrash learning with the other 11 ASK rabbis and continues studying there, according to the traditional Kollel academic model of spending the entire day in advanced Talmudic study. In the evenings, this new ASK cadre studies with individuals throughout the community.

Rabbis Josh Wohlfarth, Baruch Rosenstein, Aharon Ribakow, Binyomin Schuck, Moshe Meth, Zecharia Reisch, Meyer Meth, and Aryeh Gold have been officially welcomed into the ASK fold.

Rabbi David Silverman, ASK Dean, sums up the significance of the eight new rabbis: “The Atlanta Scholars Kollel has been in Atlanta for 36 years. In the last 10 years, we have focused on building an environment dedicated to all-day-long Torah learning, much like graduate school for Talmud scholars! Our tradition defines a ‘big city’ as having 10 scholars who are singularly dedicated to learning Torah and Talmud – preserving text and tradition. This year, we expanded the cohort of rabbinic students to eight families.”

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He continued, “Their presence is impactful in many different ways. The sounds of Torah learning emanate from the Beis Medrash (study building) from morning to late at night and help to raise the level of Torah scholarship in Atlanta (like Harvard is to Boston), the wives of these scholars are teaching and working in the larger Atlanta community, bringing a refreshing influx of amazing role models, and their children will grow up in Atlanta, enhancing our schools and community as well! We hope that when their cohort ends these families will integrate into the larger Jewish community.”

A Brief History of the Atlanta Scholars Kollel

Countless members of the Atlanta Jewish community have interacted with the rabbis of the Atlanta Scholars Kollel for almost 40 years. The first five ASK rabbis and their young families arrived in Atlanta in 1987, under the leadership of Rabbi Menachem Deutsch; not surprisingly, all of the original quintet are grandparents today, and many of those who learn with today’s Atlanta Kollel are the children of parents who still study with ASK rabbis from earlier years.

Since 1987, some of the Kollel founding and early years families have moved away, while many new families have arrived to replace them and to expand ASK’s popular classes and community-wide events.

ASK’s women’s division, BENA, which offers formal and informal learning to women of all levels of Jewish observance, began its programming soon after ASK came to Atlanta and is now a go-to Jewish study and practices source, with programs throughout Atlanta.

In 1986, Rabbi Ilan Feldman, at that time assistant rabbi to his father, Rabbi Emanuel Feldman, had the vision to establish a Kollel that spreads Jewish learning into the general community. Guided by the late Rabbi Yaacov Weinberg of Ner Yisroel Rabbinic College, an outreach Kollel was established. A departure from the classic kollels of full-day learning by the Kollel rabbis in other cities, Atlanta’s Kollel — with an outreach goal — was the first of its kind in which the scholars themselves engaged in study and brought Jewish learning into the widely diverse Jewish demographic of Atlanta and surrounding areas.

ASK’s website states its mission is to strengthen Jewish identity by engaging Jews of all backgrounds in meaningful learning and living experiences, drawing from classic Judaic sources “to connect Jews to the timeless yet contemporary messages of Torah.” The website adds, “By uniting Jews through the shared pleasure of Jewish learning, a strong Jewish community will result, and ensure every Jew’s place in Jewish destiny.”

The ASK rabbis have designated dual responsibilities. The group of 11 studies together each morning under the leadership of Rosh Yeshiva (Head of Yeshiva) Rabbi Doniel Pransky. They meet in the Kollel Beis Medrash on LaVista Road, then in the afternoon the rabbis head out to teach in different venues in the Atlanta Jewish community where they lead small and large groups in high schools, universities, professional and business workplaces, Lunch-and Learns, and classes for retirees.

Whether someone is Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, unaffiliated, or questioning, everyone is welcome in their classes. Many ASK rabbis have made Atlanta their permanent home, after fulfilling a four year Kollel commitment. Rabbi Silverman explains that the rabbis have great latitude to pursue post-Kollel positions, and many integrate into the Atlanta community in non-rabbinic professions and businesses.