Tiferet Torah Institute Campaign To Bring More Light For The Community

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Look at all the beautiful growth in our community over the past few years. Today, our children have many options of a good Jewish education and a solid support system from many different organizations. We at Tiferet Torah Institute wanted to contribute to our community, and established a boys high school to meet the demands of a higher level of education. With the help of Heaven, we have been successful in our mission and today we provide excellent education for many boys from all around the Queens community.

However, we are not complacent. We want to continue and expand, to provide not only excellent centers of education for our youth, but also true community centers for all our children. We are today closer than ever to reaching this goal, but we need the community’s support to proceed.

We have acquired land that has the zoning potential to house a 75-80,000 square foot structure; we want to fill that space with a bona fide community youth center. Wherever you turn, our youth have unprecedented challenges. There is a fierce struggle for the minds and hearts of our children and many of them have nowhere healthy to turn for “kosher” entertainment and positive recreation. We want to turn that on its head and have our community center become the framework and model for all different Jewish communities by successfully servicing our youth.

Just imagine the possibilities of your child coming home from school and having the option to attend a variety of programs and classes, from sports to music, dance, and art. Children want to be active but just don’t always have the opportunity to partake in the exciting activities we hope to offer. We also hope and plan to create a different culture and replace the toxic atmosphere of drugs, clubbing, and smoking with a wholesome and productive alternative. If children can socialize in healthy settings during fun activities, they may not feel the same urge to associate with an unfortunately all-too-familiar crowd.

Currently, our facility houses a boys high school with over fifty students; a full time kollel with Ashkenazi and Bukharian men, and a shul with over two-hundred congregants who come to pray every Shabbat. We offer shiurim nearly every single night, with kollel men and rabbis making themselves available to the public.

With such success, thank G-d, we can only look towards the future and continue to redefine our community landscape. On December 20, during the last day of Hanukah, we will be holding a fundraising campaign. We hope to raise $750 thousand, which will be matched by private sponsors for a total of $3 million. This money will be used to pay off 75 percent of the building we currently own, and place us a significant step closer to the overall goal of raising $20 million for a total overhaul of the community. We plan to eventually open up an elementary school in addition to the community center for the benefit of our entire community.

The final point to be made is the most telling. Our focus has always been on creating leaders, people who would be able to spread our success to other communities and keep the fire of Torah burning. By giving to us, our contributors are actually empowering their own families as well. Our students take charge of their environment when the need arises. For example, one of our students has already become a rav of a shul in Hillcrest and also runs a major kiruv organization. Another student is heavily involved with the EMET organization in their efforts to enrich the Jewish community. Another student is involved in the administrative function of our synagogue as assistant rabbi and also is the designated chazan. We also have a dozen students studying in Israel in preparation for their role of leading and positively impacting their communities when they return.

Please join us in December 20 for our TTY fundraiser and help make the future of our youth much brighter. May G-d give us the strength and energy to make the right choices and lead our families in the path of the Torah.