{"id":32674,"date":"2019-05-31T03:53:03","date_gmt":"2019-05-31T10:53:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=32674"},"modified":"2019-05-30T22:40:19","modified_gmt":"2019-05-31T05:40:19","slug":"pti-yeshivah-to-close","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2019\/05\/31\/pti-yeshivah-to-close\/","title":{"rendered":"PTI yeshivah to close"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rabbis Noam Abramchik, left, and Aaron Kamin. (photo from Pacific Torah Institute)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

After 16 years in Vancouver, the Pacific Torah Institute yeshivah is closing. The school, which operates out of the Lubavitch Centre at Oak and 41st Avenue, was established by Rabbi Noam Abramchik and Rabbi Dovid Davidowitz in 2003.<\/p>\n

Over the years, the program \u2013 which offers an education based on the Chofetz Chaim Yeshivah in Queens, N.Y. \u2013 has graduated more than 100 students from the high school and more than 200 in the beis midrash program. It is currently led by Abramchik, who is originally from Chicago, and Rabbi Aaron Kamin, who joined the yeshivah from New York in 2005.<\/p>\n

Abramchik spoke of the dwindling number of students. \u201cThe high cost of living has driven most of the shomer Shabbos community out of Vancouver to other cities,\u201d he said, estimating that 45 Orthodox families have left Vancouver in the last three years. Schara Tzedeck\u2019s Rabbi Andrew Rosenblatt calls it, \u201cthe frum flight,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Families from all over North America have sought out PTI for their sons, he said, \u201cBut now, the community essentially felt that we were a luxury that could no longer be afforded, since the actual number of local \u2018customers\u2019 was slim to none.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abramchik spoke of the yeshivah students as \u201cthe most visible sign of Orthodox life in Vancouver.\u201d PTI\u2019s biggest contribution to Jewish life in Vancouver, he said, was \u201cits adherence to Torah, studied at the highest level.\u201d<\/p>\n

The impact on religious Jewish life will be \u201cimmeasurable,\u201d he said. \u201cWe offer university-level Judaic studies.\u201d Few communities offer a post-high school program, he said, so the closure of PTI will mark a dramatic change for Jewish life in Vancouver.<\/p>\n

Michael Sachs joined the board of PTI a year ago, when a secondary board was established by local professionals, with the purpose of keeping the yeshivah in Vancouver. Sachs, who is president of the board of the Bayit shul in Richmond, began his connection to PTI in its early years, with a stint as the coach of the school\u2019s basketball team.<\/p>\n

Sachs said there was a need for a yeshivah in Vancouver, even if most of the students came from elsewhere. \u201cThere\u2019s a lack of understanding in the community about the extent of the yeshivah\u2019s contribution to local Orthodox families,\u201d he said, adding, \u201cPTI is not the only institution affected by the yeshivah\u2019s closure.\u201d Other schools \u2013 Shalhevet Girls High School and Vancouver Hebrew Academy \u2013 shared resources with PTI, he said, \u201cwhich allowed them to benefit from more staff and lower expenses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sachs said he is heartbroken about the closure. \u201cThis is a loss that ripples across the whole Jewish community,\u201d he said. \u201cAny loss to a Jewish community is a big loss. The impact will be economic, social, educational and personal. People are losing their friends to other cities.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said, \u201cThe students ate at Caf\u00e9 FortyOne, at Omnitsky; the yeshivah rented space at Lubavitch Centre; these students volunteered in our community.\u201d He described the \u201cimpossible task\u201d of saving the yeshivah, despite the rabbis and staff having made personal sacrifices to try and keep it afloat.<\/p>\n

July 18 will be the last day of classes for PTI students. After that, the school will be packed up and moved to Las Vegas, where it will merge with another yeshivah there. The boys will continue with their program while living in dormitories. While yeshivot have moved in the past \u2013 especially after the Second World War \u2013 the merger is a new concept.<\/p>\n

The future is still uncertain for some PTI students, who have been interviewed for yeshivot in Toronto, Milwaukee and Denver, among other places. Some families are considering yeshivot in Israel. The PTI program is highly regarded, Abramchik explained, \u201ccities have been vying for the boys. Fifteen cities have asked PTI students to move to them, and 10 boys are coming this week to be interviewed for the new [merged] program in Las Vegas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abramchik and Kamin spoke with regret of the move.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe feel very rooted in this community,\u201d said Kamin. \u201cThree of our kids were born here, we\u2019ve made brises, bar mitzvahs here. My married kids are very emotional, they feel as though their home is being uprooted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abramchik agreed. \u201cKids are part of the mission,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re invested in the yeshivah and it\u2019s been an anchor in their childhood. It\u2019s very painful.\u201d However, he said, \u201cYou have to be adaptable as educators, trends are changing all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shula Klinger<\/strong> is an author and journalist living in North Vancouver. Find out more at shulaklinger.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rabbis Noam Abramchik, left, and Aaron Kamin. (photo from Pacific Torah Institute) After 16 years in Vancouver, the Pacific Torah Institute yeshivah is closing. The school, which operates out of the Lubavitch Centre at Oak and 41st Avenue, was established by Rabbi Noam Abramchik and Rabbi Dovid Davidowitz in 2003. Over the years, the program […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32675,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[8213,3076,7673,8212,3330,3333,8211],"class_list":["post-32674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","tag-aaron-kamin","tag-education","tag-michael-sachs","tag-noam-abramchik","tag-pacific-torah-institute","tag-pti","tag-yeshivah"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32674\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}