Jewish Community Partners

Rafael Goldkin, son of Amy Goldkin and Alan Goldkin is a junior at Cooper Yeshiva High School for Boys. Memphis Jewish Federation’s Lemsky Endowment Fund provided him with a Teen Israel Experience grant to offset the costs of his NCSY Kollel Israel program. All rising juniors and seniors are eligible for grants of up to $3,000 to attend a recognized teen summer or semester program in Israel. Teen Israel Experience applications for Summer 2024 are open and can be accessed at Lemsky Endowment Fund | Jewish Community Partners (jcpmemphis.org)

This past summer I visited Eretz Yisrael on an NCSY Kollel led by Rabbi Netanel Leibowitz and Rabbi Moshe Benovitz. This trip was made possible largely to the money granted to my family by Memphis Jewish Federation’s Lemsky Endowment Fund. 

NCSY Kollel is an all-boys program that takes place on Moshav Bet Meir outside of Jerusalem. For six weeks, I focused on learning Jewish topics in depth, traveling Eretz Yisrael, and connecting with other Jewish boys through sports. I was the only boy on the program from Memphis and connected and befriended hundreds of boys from America and Israel. The Kollel schedule was great: It started in the morning with davening and learning, basketball in the afternoon, and concluded with night seder (learning) for a couple of hours. The learning was not only enlightening but also fun and enjoyable. The way everyone learned with enthusiasm and vigor made the time fly and I did not even realize I was learning nearly six hours every day.

The best thing about Kollel was the theory and practice of middot (Jewish principles.)  There was little to no bullying, and everyone was nice to each other. Even the most popular kids were humble and respected every single boy. I was in a night seder shiur (lecture) led by Rabbi Moshe Benovitz which dealt with the topic of Jewish sports. Jews in sports is a largely spoken about topic but not many people touch on how Jews should play sports. I think the hours from 9 to 10 pm every night was the most influential part of the program for me. Rabbi Benovitz dove into Yeshiva League and middot on the court. I don’t want to quote anything incorrectly but what I took away from the shiur is that we Jews are supposed to be different. It says in Parshas (weekly Torah reading) Kedoshim, “I, the Lord, am your God who has set you apart from other people”. Rabbi Benovitz would always say, “If Judaism plus life equals life, then Judaism equals zero”. He would explain that we need to bring the Jewish aspect into every facet in our life. Whatever we are doing, wherever we are, we need to act like Jews. Whether on the ball court, out in public or at shul. We need to act like Jews and uphold ourselves to the standard of Jews. 

NCSY Kollel was the best example of this lesson. When I stepped onto the ball court to play a leagues game, everyone was still friends. Even playing championship games, the teams would compliment each other on good plays. When we traveled, the guys would display the best middot, thanking workers and guides wherever we went. This lesson that we are always Jews was best taught by Rabbi Benovitz but best displayed by the amazing guys that went on NCSY Kollel this summer. I can only thank Kollel for teaching me this lesson and I hope to ingrain it into my life for good.

Thank you to Memphis Jewish Federation’s Lemksy Endowment Fund for making my NCSY Kollel Israel trip possible.

Note: This essay was written before the horrific events of October 7^th.