Your donation will be tax deductible in the US to the extent allowed by the IRS.
To make a tax-deductible donation by wire transfer in the US, please contact:
Avrum Lapin, North American Representative
Toll-free: 1-866-830-3321
Email: [email protected]
To make a tax-deductible donation in Israel, please contact:
Dina Gudai, Israeli Representative
Phone: 074-7800643
Email: [email protected]
Please mail your check to:
The Schechter Institutes, Inc. (a 501(c) 3 tax exempt organization)
Box #3566
PO Box 8500
Philadelphia, PA 19178-3566
Attn: Mr. Avrum Lapin, North American Representative
Toll-free: 1-866-830-3321
Email: [email protected]
Please indicate the donation is "for your joint Schechter Institutes program."
Checks should be made payable to the Jewish Theological Society of Canada and mailed to:
Jewish Theological Society of Canada
c/o Camp Ramah in Canada
3845 Bathhurst St., Suite 310
Toronto, ON, M3H 3N2
Phone: 416-789-2193, ext. 2139
E-mail: [email protected]
Please mail a check to:
The Schechter Institutes
Attn: Dina Gudai, Finance Department
PO Box 16080,
Jerusalem, 9116002
Israel
For assistance, please call Dina Gudai at 074-780-0643 (8:00 AM – 3:00 Israel time Sunday through Thursday).
Your donation will be tax deductible in the US to the extent allowed by the IRS.
To make a tax-deductible donation by wire transfer in the US, please contact:
Avrum Lapin, North American Representative
Toll-free: 1-866-830-3321
Email: [email protected]
To make a tax-deductible donation in Israel, please contact:
Dina Gudai, Israeli Representative
Phone: 074-7800643
Email: [email protected]
Please mail your check to:
The Schechter Institutes, Inc. (a 501(c) 3 tax exempt organization)
Box #3566
PO Box 8500
Philadelphia, PA 19178-3566
Attn: Mr. Avrum Lapin, North American Representative
Toll-free: 1-866-830-3321
Email: [email protected]
Please indicate the donation is "for your joint Schechter Institutes program."
Checks should be made payable to the Jewish Theological Society of Canada and mailed to:
Jewish Theological Society of Canada
c/o Camp Ramah in Canada
3845 Bathhurst St., Suite 310
Toronto, ON, M3H 3N2
Phone: 416-789-2193, ext. 2139
E-mail: [email protected]
Please mail a check to:
The Schechter Institutes
Attn: Dina Gudai, Finance Department
PO Box 16080,
Jerusalem, 9116002
Israel
For assistance, please call Dina Gudai at 074-780-0643 (8:00 AM – 3:00 Israel time Sunday through Thursday).
Dear Friends,
As Israel moves from the solemn stillness of Yom HaZikaron into the fragile joy of Yom HaAtzma’ut, we find ourselves once again holding grief and gratitude in the very same breath. This passage between days asks something profound of us: to remember, to honor, and yet still to lift our eyes toward hope.
The prophet Isaiah’s words, in which he foresees the ingathering of the exiles in Israel, feel especially resonant in this moment:
שְׂאִי סָבִיב עֵינַיִךְ וּרְאִי—“Lift up your eyes all around and see” (Isaiah 60:4).
He calls upon us not to avert our gaze, but to widen it—to take in both loss and possibility, fear and promise.
This year, that tension is especially acute. As Israel continues to confront the ongoing threats of war—from Iran and Hezbollah—and as uncertainty shadows daily life, the cost of our sovereignty is neither abstract nor distant. It is lived, deeply and personally, by so many.
And yet, our tradition insists that even in such moments, we do not relinquish vision. The Torah even mirrors this notion in this sacred week as we see the juxtaposition of loss and life, Parashat Aharei Mot (the death of the sons of Aaron) and Parashat Kedoshim (the charge to build a life of holiness). We are indeed reminded that sanctity (kedusha) is not found in retreat from reality, but specifically in how we respond to it.
At the Schechter Institutes, we see this lived out every day: in the training of leaders, in the deepening of Jewish learning, and in the unwavering commitment to a pluralistic and vibrant Israeli society. Your support makes this sacred work possible—especially now, when resilience and spirit are so urgently needed.
On this Yom HaZikaron and Yom HaAtzma’ut, we honor those we have lost and all who have paid dearly to help sustain the miracle of modern Israel. May the future of the Jewish state be worthy of their sacrifice, and may we have the courage to lift our eyes, to see clearly, and still believe in the promise of tomorrow.
With gratitude and eternal hope,
Rabbi Matthew Berkowitz, President of The Schechter Institutes, Inc., is an accomplished educator and artist, brings decades of experience in development to his position. From 1999 to 2008, he served as JTS’s Senior Rabbinic Fellow based in NY and Florida, responsible for cultivating and expanding the donor base and teaching adult learning study groups throughout the United States. From 2009, he served as Director of Israel Programs for JTS working closely with rabbinical and cantorial students to significantly enrich their Israel experience. He is on the board of the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture and serves as a faculty member in their Nahum Goldmann Fellowship Program.
He is a founding partner of Kol HaOt studio project in Jerusalem’s Artist Lane — which weaves the arts deeply into Jewish learning.
Rabbi Berkowitz is the author and illuminator of the widely used The Lovell Haggadah published by Schechter in 2008.
Matt is a Wexner Graduate fellow alumnus and serves on the faculty of The Wexner Heritage Program.
He is married to Nadia Levene and the proud father of three children.
