By Sarah Mero
Dean Shoshana Schechter, originally from Englewood, New Jersey, is the Dean of Torah Studies and Spiritual Life on the Beren Campus. After graduating from The Frisch School, she did a year of seminary in Michlalah and then graduated from Yeshiva University’s Stern College for Women with a B.S. in both Judaic Studies and English Literature. She continued her education at the Drisha Institute for Jewish Education and received master’s degrees from the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies and Columbia University School of Journalism. While teaching in Monsey, she accepted an offer from Rabbi Ephraim Karnofogel to teach an advanced Tanach (Hebrew Bible) class at Stern. From there, she taught a beginner’s Tanach class and eventually started the Mechina program.
What inspired you to pursue a career in Jewish Education?
In eleventh grade, Dean Schechter went with Frisch to the former Soviet Union, where Torah was forbidden, and saw real mesirat nefesh (total selflessness) for Torah. “You see the value of what people are willing to do for Torah,” Dean Schechter told the YU Observer, which taught her not to take Torah for granted in her own life.
During her years in Stern, she did a great deal of informal Jewish educational programming and carved out time for her passion for learning Torah. Dean Schechter had planned to pursue a career in journalism but, after substituting for a Judaic Studies class in Frisch, she realized: “You want to be passionate about what you do. So I ended up becoming a teacher.”
What Jewish educational initiatives were you involved in?
Dean Schechter did several kiruv (religious outreach to less observant Jews) programs, including Counterpoint, where she taught Torah in Australia to people who had less exposure to Torah. She also ran Shabbat programming on college campuses in Winnipeg. When the Iron Curtain fell, she founded an organization called YUSSR, where she raised money and sent YU students to different communities across the former Soviet Union to teach Torah. Yet, as incredible as that initiative was, Dean Schechter said she “always felt terrible leaving because we were getting them inspired but there was no one there who could pick up and continue what we were doing.”
From there, she started a summer program called Teivat Tikva, in which a boat was rented to bring 25 to 35 Jews from Odessa to Haifa, Israel for a leadership training program so that they could teach in their own communities.
What sparked the creation of the Mechina Pathways program?
In 2004, Dean Schechter established the Mechina Program, a two-year pathways program designed for Stern students who come from little to no formal Jewish educational backgrounds. The program offers its students beginner- and intermediate-level Judaic classes as well as a warm community.
At the time, Dean Schechter saw there was a program called JSS for Wilf students with little Jewish educational background and there was growth in its beginner-level classes, but there was no similar program on the Beren campus. Seeing how inspiring and incredible the stories of the students in her beginner’s Judaic class were, she got approval from Rabbi Karnofogel to start up the Mechina Program, which Dean Schechter is now the full-time Director of.
What’s your advice for Stern College students?
Each girl has so much potential to grow during her time in Stern and should take advantage of it. “It’s three years post-seminary of growth and Torah, that’s huge,” Dean Schechter said, arguing that one’s spiritual and personal growth does not and should not peak in seminary.
As future mothers who will set the tone in the home, “the stronger they are in their own Torah growth,” the better, Dean Schechter said. She added that beyond maximizing one’s own personal spiritual and religious growth, every individual has a responsibility to take what they learn and give back to the community.
What does a day-in-your-life at Stern look like?
On Tuesdays and Thursdays, Dean Schechter teaches a few Judaic classes. She also has a lot of meetings throughout the week. “One of my favorite things to do, besides teaching, is to sit in the beit midrash,” Dean Schechter said. In the beit midrash, Dean Schechter can often be found learning, schmoozing with people or preparing her classes.
How has the Torah learning environment in Stern transformed in recent years?
“The beit midrash culture that has been developed at Stern over the past six years is really incredible,” Dean Schechter said. She is amazed to see that so many Stern students don’t limit their Torah learning and they actively choose to make Stern “a place that is infused with Torah” outside of the required Judaic courses. The expansion of the beit midrash and the nightly Torah programming testify to this.
“I would love to see more students utilize that and connect to that culture,” Dean Schechter said.
She added that the beit midrash is a place where everyone should feel comfortable. One of her most recent initiatives to make the beit midrash and Torah learning feel more accessible to all Stern students is a chavrusa program that pairs up Mechina and non-Mechina students to learn together on a weekly basis.
Photo Credit: Shoshana Schechter