Shehebar Sepharadic Center- History

History & Programs

The Shehebar Sephardic Center (SSC) was started in 1980 by Rabbi Sam Kassin and Rabbi Eliahu Shamoula in the old city of Jerusalem.Rabbi Kassin, a former student of Ner Yisrael and Porat Yoseph obtained his Semicha from Hagaon Ovadia Yoseph and was co-founder of the Sephardic High School before he moved to Israel.

The SSC reaches out to neglected Sephardic communities throughout the Diaspora. By sending out dedicated Rabbis and teachers well versed in all aspects of Torah and community relations, we continue to help save communities from assimilation and cultural extinction. Over the last twenty years the SSC has placed more than eighty Rabbis in diverse locations from Kowloon, Hong Kong to Buenos Aires, Argentina, and from Barranquilla, Colombia to Adelaide, Australia. More urgent requests for Rabbinical Leadership pour into the SSC everyday. Today as the world map is shifting before our eyes, now more than ever before, we need your support to expand and maintain our vital projects.

We offer the following programs:

The Abe M. & Geri Cohen Rabbinical Program
The One Year Yeshiva Program
The Leah Ben Dahan Spanish Program
The Russian Program
The Mikdash Shaul Dayanut Program
Schools in Russia
The Max and Shirley Hidary Teacher Training College
The Alia Azancot Stern Scholarship Fund
The Stephen Isaiah Ades Library

THE NINE PROGRAMS OF SSC

1. The Abe M. & Geri Cohen Rabbinical Program. In the twenty years since the program's genesis, over seventy students have passed the examinations administered by the Chief Rabbinate of Israel and been ordained as rabbis after three to tour years of intensive study. More than 120 of our alumni have been placed in congregations around the world including many in our the New York communities. During the course of the coming decade, we hope, with the help of God, to place 100 additional rabbis in communities throughout the world.

2. The One Year Yeshiva Program. To date, more than two hundred students have completed this one-year program, the original undertaking of the Shehebar Sephardic Center. Each year 20-25 students study in this division, whose goal it is to instill a deep sense of communal responsibility into the hearts of the participants, inspiring them to return to their cities of origin, and become an integral part of their communities' future growth. The program's secondary goal is that the participants develop the requisite qualities so that they emerge capable and eager to assume leadership roles within their respective communities.

3. The Leah Ben Dahan Spanish Program. Every year, twenty-five students participate in this, one of the SSC's older programs that caters to Spanish speaking young men from around the world. More than seventy-five alumni have returned to their native countries to fully participate as integral members of their respective communities after immersing themselves for one year in concentrated study and the acquisition of leadership qualities.

4. The Russian Program. Over the past four years more than fifteen students the majority Russian, some Israeli, have been trained to assume positions of leadership in Russia either as rabbis, teachers or by learning the important skills of Milah, Shehita, Safrut and in the performance of all religious ceremonies. To date, fourteen graduate have gone to various Russian communities. They bring to life all they have learned and all that it means to be Jewish. Future plans include training religious leaders for the new Russian speaking communities that have sprouted in the United States, Germany and Austria. It should be noted that as a result of their efforts in strengthening the Jewish communities, the intermarriage rate in those communities has dropped.

5. The Mikdash Shaul Dayanut Program (named after Rabbi Shaul Kassin)-More than 15 students have attended this program, which prepares them to serve as Judges on a Bet Din anywhere in Israel. Since its inception ten years ago eight alumni have successfully completed the official examinations and are qualified to serve. Though many graduated only a few have been placed, the near future may bring the establishment of a private Bet Din in Israel as well as an international Bet Din. The latter has the approval of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel and will be assigned to oversee all divorce (gittin) cases throughout the world, to deal with problems arising from marital difficulties and improper conversions as well as solving some of the complex situations that have developed as a result of countless unknown conversions that took place during the past half century. Our students are poised and ready to serve in these positions.

6. Schools in Russia. About 700 students in the former Soviet Union are now attending classes in the three branches of our schools. The SSC school in Bukhara is the largest and has touched the most lives educating 250 pupils. In Pyategorsk 200 students are enrolled and in Tashkent another 250 students are enrolled in the SSC school. In addition, more than 235 graduates of these Russian schools have been brought to Israel by the SSC and placed in various religious institutions throughout the country. It should be noted that many of the parents of these students have immigrated, or will be immigrating to Israel as a result of the SSC's efforts.

7. The Max and Shirley Hidary Teacher Training College. Many students from the Abe and Geri Cohen Ordination Program and other programs have been studying in this program, broadening their horizons, so they can benefit their communities educationally as well as rabbinically. Since the college began, dozens have graduated and seven are serving as principals of religious schools around the world.

8. The Alia Azancot Stern Scholarship Fund. Created to provide scholarships for those students who can't afford the eight programs listed above, this fund has made it possible for some students, who would otherwise have been lost to the Jewish world, to develop into top leaders serving congregations the world over. Our rabbis taught: "Be careful with the poor, since from their midst will come forth great Torah luminaries." This fund provides those who need it with an equal chance to shine.

9. The Stephen Isaiah Ades Library. Named in memory of a former SSC student and in existence for more than a decade, the library contains many rare books as well as hundreds of other volumes in English, French and Spanish. The library houses more than 5,000 titles, and purchases many books annually. Several works have been published under the SSC label and have been in great demand throughout the Jewish world.