Before the usual Hillel Thursday night learning program last week, the Hillel dedicated its new beit midrash.
As students ate Dunkin’ Donuts to celebrate the occasion, Hillel Director Andrew Getraer explained that a few years ago the Beit Midrash was situated on the 3rd floor of the Hillel, and a mere unfinished attic. However, Kesharim, an organization run by graduates of RIETS, offered to help build a Beit Midrash and establish a learning program. Kesharim also runs programs at Queens College, Barnard, NYU, and Brooklyn College. Rabbi Shalom Axelrod, the founder of Kesharim, helped purchase books, Bookshelves, food, and paid for teachers to come to Rutgers such as Karen Hochhauser, who currently teaches there. After Getraer’s speech, there was a brief speech by Rabbi Abraham Mykoff of Poile Tzedek, about the man whose donations help run Jewish learning at Rutgers and at other institutions in the area and abroad.