[VIDEO IN EXTENDED ARTICLE]

Superstorm Sandy swept through Bayswater, bringing devastating damage to the area. The Agudah of Bayswater was completely flooded, destroying everything inside. For the past five years, Yeshiva Zichron Aryeh has rented the Agudah for use as a beis medrash for the yeshiva’s seventy bochurim and thirty kollel yungeleit. The storm left the Yeshiva without a place to learn and the situation hasn’t improved much since.

Rabbi Shaya Cohen, the yeshiva’s founder and Rosh HaYeshiva, was quickly invited by Co-Directors Rabbi Naftali Portnoy and Rabbi Moshe Turk of the Jewish Heritage Center in Kew Garden Hills to utilize the Center’s facilities, with the Chofetz Chaim Yeshiva and local baal habatim providing housing for those bochurim who had been living in the yeshiva dormitories.

The Yeshiva was fortunate to have close friends eager to come to its aid in the immediate aftermath of the storm; however, presently they find themselves in very challenging circumstances. The Yeshiva lost a dormitory facility and dining room in addition to its beis medrash. Private homes in Bayswater have taken in some bochurim, as only two of the yeshiva’s four dormitories are back in use, even two months after the storm. Two small baatei medrash are filled with the sound of the yeshiva’s talmidim learning Torah, but the ongoing stress of adjusting to temporary facilities has taken a toll on the boys. And yet, Rabbi Cohen is amazed by his talmidim, “The bochurim have shown great resilience,” Rabbi Cohen points out. “Their commitment to learning Torah has not dimmed. We are very proud of them.”

“Them” in this case are the yungeleit of Kollel Ner Yeshua, and the bochurim of Yeshiva Zichron Aryeh. Many of these yungeleit, residents of Bayswater, have struggled to keep up sedarim in the yeshiva, having lost many of their belongings in flooded apartments in Bayswater. “They are doing their best to come to grips with everything,” Rabbi Cohen observes. “The community has been monetarily helpful and the yungeleit leit are appreciative but careful, meticulously careful, only to take what they absolutely need. This tragic event is bringing out the best in us. The resilience of the bochurim and yungeleit shows a deep commitment to learning despite very difficult circumstances.”

Such achievement during challenge is part of the yeshiva’s mission statement. Rabbi Cohen explains, “The yeshiva has always put an emphasis on our human reactions to challenges. There are guiding forces that help us persevere. People who lost so much are not uttering a word of complaint.”

“There are many emotions that have to be addressed in this situation,” Rabbi Cohen continues. “Why do we have to go through such difficulty? Seeing the good deeds of the righteous people soothes the pain. So many rose and still are rising to the occasion.”

“The chinuch we give our talmidim must remain with them for the rest of their lives,” Rabbi Cohen concludes. “A hallmark of the yeshiva is how we tirelessly work to give our students a passion for their work, as future adults of influence, and expose them to many years of training to give them a solid appreciation of Yiddishkeit that can be transmitted.”

Although the yeshiva has suffered a catastrophe from which it is not yet fully recovered, the learning and training continue as the bochurim and yungeleit are prepared to become leaders for the next generation.

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(YWN Desk – NYC)