Mechon Hadar Guest

 Mechon Hadar’s Summer Pre-Collegiate Track

1. Overview
Mechon Hadar is opening its doors to high school students! In this new 6-week program, a select group of high school students will join the larger Yeshivat Hadar beit midrash in creating passionate and meaningful Jewish community during our summer session. Over the course of six weeks, students will learn, sing, daven, and spend Shabbat together. They will form close relationships based on openness and give-and-take with Jewish texts, their teachers, and each other. Students will emerge having formed a network of peers engaged in a quest for a Jewish life centered around Torah and mitzvot and having experienced a powerful example of a community living it.

a) Talmud Torah
Yeshivat Hadar creates a community of learning which includes seminars, havruta (paired learning), and individualized learning. Students are given the opportunity to use both traditional and modern academic methods to translate their learning into contemporary religious meaning and obligation.

High School students will join the rest of the Yeshiva in studying a perek of gemara in depth, with a focus on building gemara skills, while not losing sight of the values that undergird the text and how these values can inform our religious sensibilities. In addition to gemara, students will be encouraged to improve their skills in Tanakh, mahshavah, halakhah, and other texts through a combination of shiurim and supported independent learning.

b) Hesed
In order to plant the seeds for a culture of communal service, students will make regular visits to the Jewish Home Lifecare on the Upper West Side.  They will appreciate that an integral aspect of community is to look beyond oneself and one’s immediate surrounding to care for and offer of themselves to those most in need of compassion and dignity.

c) Tefilah
Yeshivat Hadar’s schedule features davening three times a day in our Beit Midrash. Tefilot are egalitarian and employ the traditional liturgy. Students will have the opportunity to join this vibrant prayer community.

d) Sihot
Students will participate in group religious conversations (Sihot), where faculty members will lead discussions of relevant questions of the day. Students will also have the opportunity to process their experience through small reflection groups, led by the program coordinators.

e) Informal Programming
During the program, students will be able to experience what makes New York City great in the summer.  Each week, the group will have a chance to participate in outdoor activities, musical and theatre performances, tour some of the city’s famous neighborhoods, and more!


2.Program Details

a) Dates and Schedule

The 2012 Summer High School Track will run from June 24-August 4. The schedule will be all-encompassing, running from morning until 7 or 9PM.

b) Shabbatot

The high school program will have 2-3 Shabbatonim over the course of the summer, including one Shabbat Yeshiva with the rest of the Yeshiva.  Other Shabbatot are free, though high school students will have the option of being set up with families in the New York area to experience the wide array of Jewish life New York City has to offer.

c) Housing
Local students will live at home and will be encouraged to host a student from out of town.  Students from elsewhere will be set up with local host families who will serve as their home base throughout the summer.

d) Cost
Tuition for the Yeshivat Hadar Summer High School program is $4400. This rate covers tuition for all classes, extra-curricular programming and three meals a day during the week. Tuition for students from host families is $3000. Host families will be expected to provide dinner twice a week.  Financial aid is available.


3. Student Qualifications and Application Process

a) Type of Student
Yeshivat Hadar is looking for students completing junior and senior years (graduating 2012-2013) who are mature and highly motivated, who are excited to immerse themselves intensively in Jewish text in an environment devoted to shemirat mitzvot, Tefillah and Talmud Torah, both with other high school students and with students who are at different stages of life. Students should also be able to reflect thoughtfully about their Jewish lives.

b) Application Process
Admission to the high school program is made on a rolling basis, with priority given to application received before February 15th, 2012. Interested students should fill in the application form here as soon as possible. Students will then be asked to participate in an interview with the directors of the program.
4. Tentative Schedule

5. Questions
We are happy to answer any questions.  Please contact Miriam-Simma Walfish, director of the Summer High School Program, at walfish@mechonhadar.org.