When One Is Too Little, But Two Is No Good:

Talmidim Explain Why They Returned

I couldn't stand Israel any longer, says Eli Scheiman, a student who has just returned from Neve Tzion, explaining why he left after a year-and-a-half in the yeshiva. "I wanted to get an education, and there I could not. I just wanted to be com fortable, drink a Snapple, and learn while getting an education."

About sixty new students have arrived on the YU campus for this second semester of Spring 1998. Many of these students, like Eli Scheiman, have returned from Israel after a year-and-a-half. Therefore, they are neither in the shana aleph class (one year) or shana bet (two year) class. What compelled these students to separate themselves from their fellow peers, and leave Israel smack in the middle of the year? Why would a student not wait till the following fall?

According to the Yeshiva University undergraduate catalog, the S. Daniel Abraham Joint Israel Program’s objectives include among its goals, "to expose students to intense, concentrated study of Bible, Talmud, Jewish Philosophy" and, "to enable students to learn firsthand about Israel: the land, people, history, and culture."

Though for some motivated students one year is not enough, and they decide to devote at least another year to intense Talmud study, the year-and-a-half class of young scholars are separate from this breed. They are of the Goldilocks philosophy. They believe that one year is too little, two years is too much, but a year-and-a-half is just right.

The students interviewed for this article represent the gamut of reasons for why a student would leave Israel without completing the second year. There is the, "I’ve had enough of Israel group," "the year- and-a-half was just the right amount of time group," and the "my parents forced me to come home group." Although each student has his own reason for coming back at this strange time of year, they all collectively feel the pains of adjusting to a new environment.

In December, Ari Rascus was in Jerusalem, attending Yeshivat Hakotel. Now he is attending YU. But Ari says that he left Israel with no hard feelings. For him the year and a half was just what he was looking for. "I wanted to learn more in Yeshiva, but not for a full intense year," he explained.

Moreover, as for the adjustment to coming to a new school in the middle of the year Rascus added, "I knew how it worked here, and that if you had friends it's ok to come back in the middle."

There are new students, however, such as Charles Wizenfeld, who attended Mevaseret Zion, who would much rather be in the Holy Land than in Washington Heights. "I can’t deal with it here," he cried. Wizenfeld did not opt to leave Israel for YU: his parents made the decision for him. He explained, "My parents made me come home because they didn’t believe I was doing anything in Israel." Yet, Wizenfeld is defiant: "I’ll show them," he said, "I’ll become a Rabbi!&quo t;

The decision of when to come home is often a source of conflict between many children and their parents. Often the child wants to stay in Israel to learn, while his or her parent wants him or her to come home. In Mr. Wizenfeld’s case, he was allowed to stay in Israel only for another semester, not another whole year.

Ultimately it is the student with his or her parents that makes the decision concerning how long to stay in Israel, but the rabbis in Israel do their utmost to try to persuade the students to stay a full second year. These students are the rabbis’ bes t and brightest and are just beginning the process of being molded into b’nei Torah, so it is easy to see why the rabbis do not want these students to leave. Rascas and Scheiman both were told of their bleak futures if they were to leave in the mi ddle of the year.

"All the Rabbis thought that if I didn’t stay a full year my religious level would go down. So far that’s not the case, at least for the next few weeks," said Raskas.

Scheiman told a much harsher story, "My yeshiva is very anti this place," he said. "They told me that if I went here it would be spiritual death. But they don’t know anything about this place."

Now that the new students have begun to settle in, they are beginning to take advantage of what YU and New York have to offer. Rascas commented on his new cosmopolitan way of life, saying, "There are much better facilities here than in yeshiva, f or example the swimming pool. Also, the pizza is much better here."

Scheiman spoke further about how comforts are greater here, in America, than they were in Israel. "I’m comfortable here," he said. "In yeshiva there was no heat, here there is heat,"

Even Wizenfeld felt that there were certain benefits that YU is offering him in the dormitories, which he certainly did not experience in Israel. Speaking about his eclectic new bunch of friends he has made on the seventh floor of Rubin, he said, " ;Here, I feel like I’m the US ambassador on my floor."

It is always difficult to adjust to a new environment. For the students who return from Israel after a year-and-a-half, this is especially true, since they have to deal with the trauma of registering and reacquainting themselves to life in America at the same time. Phillip Whitner, now a junior/senior at YU, who similar to Rascas, Scheiman, and Wizenfeld, left Israel to come to YU in the middle of the semester, remembered how difficult it was coming to YU in the middle of the year. He said, "I was so scared when I first came, but due to the guys in my shiur, who kept me on my toes, I have been very successful ever since." The one-and-a-half year students, even if they would rather be in Israel, hope that they will be as fortunate as Whitner.