YULA Opens the Long-Awaited Sassoon Family Sephardic Beit Midrash

Reuvi Feinstein ('23)

With the start of the new school year, YULA Boys’ Division students arrived on campus to a newly renovated Sephardic Beit Midrash. 

The main reason for the remodel was the growing influx of new Sephardic students each year. The newly configured room added 22 more seats to the previous 60. Upon entering the Beit Midrash, one will notice the brighter lighting, gray wood floors, and refurbished seating and bookcases, in addition to a newly configured washing station, which is used for the daily Sephardic custom of Birkat Kohanim.   

Since the start of COVID, the Sephardic minyan had been davening in the Robin Plaza, so this was a pleasant return to the Beit Midrash. “Last year, it was very difficult to get motivated to daven because of different distractions,” said Ariel Khalil (‘23), “but when we finally got back inside, you felt that there was a lot more kavanah.”

The revamped Beit Midrash follows the renovation of the Levkowitz Leadership Center, both science labs, and most recently, the brand new Sanford & Beverly Deutsch Endowment Society Wall. According to YULA Head of School Rabbi Arye Sufrin, renovation of the Sephardic Beit Midrash was a necessity because “you can’t have the most beautiful campus in the world when your Beit Midrash is outdated.” Most notably he says, “The Beit Midrash is the heart and soul of the yeshiva.”

Rabbi Arye Sufrin also stated that the school plans to renovate the Kestenbaum Beit Midrash in the near future.

For the time being, the Sephardic minyan has split into two minyanim. The upperclassmen continue to daven in the new Sephardic Beit Midrash while the lower classmen have moved to the student lounge.  

The Beit Midrash has been utilized not only for davening purposes. Students have taken advantage of the space for Torah and academic purposes, like Eitan Kavosh (‘22) who delivers daily chaburas during breakfast. The space has also been used by some of the morning shiurim as an alternative to the typical classroom setting.