Happening now
Teaching and supporting three families
Rav Weinreb learns with them and works with them, alongside food, second-hand clothing and whatever else is needed.
The Need
They are told they are doing beautifully. Then they are told to go to work.
In the yeshiva world there are young men who are carried through their learning for years. Each is told he is growing, that he is becoming a talmid chacham. Then he reaches the age of marriage and he is told to go out and earn a living.
Nobody has taught him how. He has no trade and no training. So he sits in a study hall where he cannot follow what is being said, and he spends most of the day outside it. He is not lazy and he is not failing. He was simply never given the second half of what he needed.
Ohel Gershon exists to give him that second half.
For those who can learn
They learn, properly and with support, at a pace built around them.
For those who cannot
They learn a trade. Working the land, growing under glass, fine work in wood. Skilled instructors, real craft, real wages at the end of it.
Where things stand today
Right now this is small, and we would rather say so.
Ohel Gershon is at its beginning. What follows is exactly what exists this month. Everything further down this page is clearly marked as a plan.
Happening now
Regular shiurim
Rav Weinreb teaches a daily shiur, at present carried over WhatsApp to those who join.
Happening now
Learning dedicated for others
Torah learned, Tehillim said, prayer at the kevarim of tzaddikim, and forty days at the Kotel, in memory of or in merit of those whose families ask for it.
Not yet
A building of our own
There is no premises and no land yet. That is what this appeal is for.
The Founder
Rav Reuven Weinreb
Rav Weinreb has taught in Tzfat for many years. Ohel Gershon grew out of what he kept meeting: capable men who had been carried through their learning and then left without any way to stand on their own.
He is supported in this by rabbanim who know him and know the work.
The Plan
Two stages, and we are at the start of the first.
Stage one · what we are raising for
A walled courtyard in Jerusalem
One or two buildings inside a secure wall. A beit midrash on the ground floor, simple rooms above, a home for a rav who lives on site, and a courtyard safe enough for children to play in.
A learning program for the men the yeshiva world never made a place for.
Stage two · long term
A working campus
Land enough for greenhouses, workshops, animal care and residential buildings, so that training and living sit in one place.
Widening to adults with learning and physical disabilities.
Neither stage has been built. There is no land and no building yet. Any image on this site showing a courtyard or campus is an illustration of what is intended, not a photograph of something that exists.
Support
Two ways to give, kept separate.
Become a partner in the learning
Every gift goes to the learning program through the yeshiva, and is tax deductible in the United States.
Donate now
Any amount. Every gift must carry the reference Weinreb Collection.
Give to Ohel Gershon
Tax deductible in the United States.
Ohel Gershon does not yet have its own charitable registration. Donations are received for it by an established American yeshiva, which holds the funds on its behalf.
Every donation must carry the reference Weinreb Collection, otherwise it cannot be directed here.
Donate onlineGive by cheque instead
Payable to: Congregation Gur Aryeh Institute (or TAT Gur Aryeh)1585 Coney Island Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11230
Tax ID 52-2338851
Reference: Weinreb Collection
Dedicate learning or prayer
Arranged directly with Rav Weinreb. Not tax deductible.
Torah learned, Tehillim said, or prayer at the Kotel and other holy places, in memory of someone, for a refuah sheleimah, or in honour of an occasion.
Arrangements are made personally, so that the dedication is exactly as the family wants it.
Arrange a dedicationContact
Speak to Rav Weinreb
For dedications, for questions about the work, or if you would like to be involved in establishing it.
The film
Walk through the campus.
The same walkthrough as a film you can watch, share, or send to someone. Everything in it is a concept of what Ohel Gershon intends to build.
Dedicate learning and prayer
Ask Rav Weinreb to learn or to daven for you.
Arranged personally with him, so the dedication is exactly as your family wants it.
Dedicate the merit of Torah study
Sponsor the learning, a page at a time.
Rav Weinreb and the men of the kollel are learning Kiddushin at four pages a day, 82 pages in all. A page can be dedicated in memory of someone, for a refuah sheleimah, for success and blessing, or in honour of an occasion.
“Talmud Torah k’neged kulam.” The study of Torah is equal to all the mitzvos.
Sponsorships are received for Ohel Gershon by the yeshiva, with the reference Weinreb Collection. Tell Rav Weinreb the name and what it is for, and he will confirm the dedication to you. Because a dedication is made in return, it should not be treated as an ordinary charitable gift; ask your own accountant where it matters to you.
Learning
A tractate of Gemara
Tractate Kiddushin, 82 pages, learned at four pages a day. A full tractate, a single page, or a half page may be dedicated.
Tehillim
Tehillim said for you
For a refuah sheleimah, in memory of someone, or for a yeshuah. Said by Rav Weinreb and by the men of the kollel.
The Kotel
Forty days at the Kotel
Rav Weinreb goes to the Kotel for forty consecutive days to daven for the person or the matter you name.
Meron
At the kever of Rashbi
Prayer at the resting place of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai in Meron, and at the kevarim of tzaddikim throughout the Galilee.
Amuka
At Amuka, for a shidduch
Prayer at Amuka, the kever of Rabbi Yonatan ben Uziel, for those waiting to find their zivug.
In your name
Something else
A siyum, a yahrzeit, a kaddish said in Eretz Yisrael for someone who cannot say it themselves. Ask him.
These are arranged directly with Rav Weinreb and are personal, not tax deductible. Tax deductible gifts to the learning program itself go through the yeshiva, on the Support section above.
Learn and daven
Tehillim, Chumash and the sources, free to everyone.
Open the text and say it yourself, wherever you are. These open on Sefaria, the free library of Jewish texts, in Hebrew with English side by side.
Tehillim
The whole book of Tehillim, Hebrew and English together. For a refuah, for a yeshuah, or for the day.
Chumash
The five books of the Torah, with the weekly parsha and commentaries.
Tractate Kiddushin
The tractate being learned now, so you can follow the same daf.
Mishnah and more
The full library, Mishnah, Gemara, Halacha and Kabbalah.
Segulot, tefillot for particular needs, and Rav Weinreb's own shiurim on these texts are being prepared and will be added here in his own words.
Torah & Talks
Learn with Rav Weinreb.
Rav Weinreb teaches a daily shiur. Recordings, the weekly parsha, and conversations for B'nai Noach and those exploring Judaism are being brought together here so anyone, anywhere, can learn with him.
The first recordings are being prepared now. Leave your details below and you will be told the moment they are online.
Ask the Rav
Ask Rav Weinreb a question.
About learning, about a difficulty, about becoming closer. He answers, and there is no charge for asking. If your question would help others he may answer it publicly, always without your name.
Stay with us
Follow what is being built.
The weekly Torah from Rav Weinreb, the progress of the campus in Jerusalem, and the times of year worth knowing about. No noise, and you can stop whenever you like.