The Moshava Wild Rose Kollel

The Moshava Wild Rose Kollel was started in 1991 by then camp director Rabbi Moshe Kushner who was looking to raise the level of Torah and ruach at camp. The Kollel consisted of five members, each with a minimum of two years post high school learning and Rabbi Ari Katz from Yeshivat Kerem B’Yavneh as its first Rosh Kollel. The goal was to provide the chanichim with a higher level of shiurim than was previously possible and create an opportunity for tzevet to learn directly with Kollel members.

Over the last twenty years the Moshava Kollel has met and exceeded those initial goals and expectations. Many distinguished Rabbis have served as Roshei Kollel, who in addition to teaching and learning with the members is the coordinator of all educational shiurim and activities involving the Kollel. Past Roshei Kollel have included Rabbi Dovid Hirsch, currently Rosh Yeshiva at Yeshiva University and Rabbi Harvey Well, the past Superintendent of Schools for the Associated Talmud Torahs of Chicago and former Rabbi of Congregation Or Torah, in Skokie. Rabbi Menachem Linzer, the current principal of Hillel Torah North Suburban Day School of Skokie, was himself a young member of the Kollel.

Kollel participants are involved in virtually every aspect of machaneh. In addition to their three sedarim a day, they give shiurim to the chanichim, including those “on the hill”(high school program,) tzevet and mishpachot, learn in small groups with Avodah and give divrei Torah at daily minyanim. The Kollel runs a lively Friday Night Tish for all tzevet, which is a true highlight of the Moshava Shabbat experience. Members help prepare chanichim for their Bar Mitzvot, are available for chavrutot and even (occasionally) get on the basketball court with the chanichim. When the machaneh goes on the chutz, the Kollel goes along bringing Torah and ruach to the camp site.

The summer Kollel has become an integral part of Camp Moshava and is key to fostering an environment in which “Jewish observance, Zionism, and Israel leap out of the classroom and into campers’ lives.” For more information or to help support the Moshava Kollel please contact the office at (847) 674-9733 or email us at moshava@moshavawildrose.org.