Archive for category Youth
Early Childhood Development
Posted by Moishe Alexander
The Big Picture
Few things in life inspire more awe or hope than the miracle of a newborn child. When well nurtured and cared for in their earliest years, children are more likely to survive, to grow in a healthy way, to have less disease and fewer illnesses, and to fully develop thinking, language, emotional and social skills. In just one generation, these human gains can help break the cycles of poverty, disease and violence that affect so many countries.
Out of 100 children born in a year, 30 will most likely suffer from malnutrition in their first five years of life, 26 will not be immunized against the basic childhood diseases, 19 will lack access to safe drinking water and 40 to adequate sanitation, and 17 will never go to school. In developing countries, every fourth child lives in abject poverty, in families with an income of less than $1 a day.
The most egregious consequence is that nearly 11 million children each year – about 30,000 children a day – die before reaching their fifth birthday, mostly from preventable causes. Of these children, 4 million die in their first month of life.
Even when children do survive, they too often do not thrive, suffering from diminished learning capabilities and other disadvantages that limit their overall prospects for reaching their full potential.
The process of giving children the best start in life begins even before birth. Poor nutrition and ill health on the part of a mother can lead to low birth weight in her children, putting them at much greater risk of developmental delay, malnutrition and death.
Talmudic Scholarship
Posted by Moishe Alexander
Beth Medrash Govoha is an institute for advanced Talmudic scholarship. Its primary objective is to produce Talmudic scholars.In the pursuit of this objective it also will provide a training ground for excellence in dedicated, highly educated, professional and lay community leadership. The growth and diversity of its student body provide Beth Medrash Govoha with the ability to offer the broadest Talmudic curriculum available in any such institute in the world, providing its students with the opportunity to study almost any area in the widest spectrum of Talmudic study. Beth Medrash Govoha is dedicated to helping its students achieve the highest level of scholarship along with intensive commitment to academic excellence in every area of Talmudic Studies. Beth Medrash Govoha carries out its objectives through its graduate and undergraduate divisions and through its community based programs. The Beth Medrash Govoha Undergraduate Division is a preparatory five-year college for the Rabbi Aaron Kotler Institute for Advanced Learning. The undergraduate program is designed to provide the student with a thorough foundation in the basic areas of Talmudic knowledge according to the traditional model of Talmudic scholarship. The program also prepares the student to integrate this scholarly training into his personal and professional life. The Rabbi Aaron Kotler Institute for Advanced Learning, the Graduate Division of Beth Medrash Govoha, aims to promote advanced Jewish scholarship and research in classical Talmudic and cognate studies. In addition, it is concerned with professional orientation by providing programs to prepare these scholars as teachers and administrators in secondary Torah schools and institutions of higher Talmudic studies, as practicing Rabbis and as experts in Rabbinical jurisprudence.
Moishe Alexander Joins Tzivos Hashem
World leader, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, was sought after by top political figures, successful business people and the finest professionals for his sage advice on matters of grave importance. He was mentor and spiritual leader to hundreds of thousands of everyday people in all corners of the globe, no one was turned away. Yet, amidst his awesome schedule, the Rebbe busied himself with the lives of children, and set out to harness their great potential.
With a vision that has been unfolding and mushrooming for twenty years, the Rebbe called for the establishment of Tzivos Hashem in the fall of 1980. Children were a top priority for the Rebbe. Rather, each Jewish child was a top priority for the Rebbe. From his vantage point as world leader and spiritual giant, he understood the intrinsic promise held by children, and he founded Tzivos Hashem to cultivate and nurture them so that they could grow to be strong and healthy in body, mind and soul.
The Rebbe himself would hold communal meetings, which he called rallies, with thousands of children at a time. And it was the Rebbe himself who spoke to the children directly and put great responsibilities on their shoulders. Not only did the Rebbe see children as the promise of a better tomorrow, the Rebbe saw children as the promise for a better today.
Judaism stresses that chinuch, Jewish education, should begin at an early age to prepare for adulthood. The Rebbe emphasized that not only are children’s mitzvos for the sake of practicing for the future, but that their mitzvos, now, while they are young, have significance in and of themselves. Through his confidence in them and his expectations, the Rebbe actually confirmed a child’s self esteem and challenged children to use their inborn strengths and talents for good.
The Tzivos Hashem relationship did not flow in just one direction, of commander to commandee. The soldiers of Tzivos Hashem gave nachas to the Rebbe as he watched them increase their mitzvos and perform them with greater care. And it was the children who were able to identify with and express the Rebbe’s passion to bring the world to peace and goodness, as they would sing for him their theme song:
We Want Moshiach Now.