Beltz reunion celebrates returnees to faith and 50 years of outreach

Leading ultra-Orthodox rabbis, public figures, and politicians gathered Monday night at Torah Ve’Emunah Yeshiva in Jerusalem for a festive event marking 50 years since the Beltz Hasidic outreach and baal teshuva institutions were founded in cooperation with Tzohar.

The evening combined a show of support for hundreds of students and young adults studying there with a sheva brachot celebration for the wedding of the son of the institutions’ CEO and Tzohar, Rabbi Menachem Hillel Klein. Prominent figures from across the Haredi spectrum, including Hasidic, Lithuanian, and Sephardi streams, attended to back the outreach effort.

Among the main participants were Rabbi Reuven Elbaz, a member of Shas’s Council of Torah Sages and head of Or HaChaim Yeshiva, Rabbi Yitzchak Azriakhi, head of the Mir Yeshiva, and Rabbi Moshe Brandsdorfer. During the evening, Elbaz and Azriakhi joined the students in energetic dancing, in a striking scene of unity with hundreds of learners, many of whom came from secular or traditional backgrounds and are undergoing a return to observance.

Also present were senior figures from Beltz, led by Rabbi Pinchas Friedman of Mekabkhei Hashem Yeshiva, and the grandchildren of the Beltz Rebbe, Rabbi Shalom Rokeach and Rabbi Avraham Shmuel Tzvi Rokeach. They said their grandfather personally follows and cares about the welfare and integration of the returnees despite the social challenges involved. Deputy Minister and MK Yisrael Eichler of United Torah Judaism also spoke, calling the students “the apple of the eye of the Rebbe and the great sages of the generation” and saying their choice to study Torah brings great joy to the whole community. The event ended late at night with communal singing.