Photo taken in 2014 at STEP, session III

Photo taken in 2013 at STEP, session II

Photo taken in 2013 at STEP, session III

Program Highlights

  • Provided initial seed funding
  • Host the step Shabbaton twice a year

Summer Torah Education Program

The Foundation provided the initial seed funding to help start STEP, the Summer Torah Education Program. The goal of the STEP program is to provide an authentic Yeshiva learning experience for young men that cannot take a full year to come to Yeshiva, or someone who plans to attend Yeshiva in the fall and wants to get a head start. The program is run by Rabbi Yonasan Sigler. In addition, the Foundation hosts the step Shabbaton twice a year in the old city.

Here’s what shabbaton participants are saying:

“

Every fledgling institution needs that visionary patron to nurture it in its delicate, vulnerable infancy. The Summer Torah Education Program – STEP – was fortunate to have, right from the start, the vital support and encouragement of the Wolchok Family Foundation Foundation. STEP, as its name implies, is designed to be a stepping stone between a young man’s first steps toward Torah Judaism and the very big step of coming to yeshiva for a significant amount of time (that was a lot of “step”s in one sentence). The program was started in 2005 and continues to thrive, thanks, in no small part, to the generosity of the Wolchok Family Foundation Foundation.

” —

Rabbi Yonason Sigler
“

Once again the Shabbaton was a smashing success; a powerful way to start off their three weeks of learning and an amazing way to start Chanukah. Thank you and please thank your wife. Berochah v’Hatzlochah.

” —

Rabbi Yonason Sigler
“

I just wanted to say thank you so much for allowing the STEP program to use your apartment for lunch and dinner during Shabbat. It was truly an amazing experience I will never forget! Thank you.

” —

Robert Levy, 2016
“

I could not have even dreamed of having the experience I had Shabbos Parshas Vayeshev. We arrived in the old city and davened mincha, and recited the end of tefilah, “sheyebaneh Beis Hamikdash bimheirah beyameinu”, overlooking the place where we pray this will happen. Thank you for helping me to feel incredibly connected to my people and our struggle to better serve Hashem.

” —

Aaron Rackoff, 2016
“

My name is Jeremy Glassman, and I had the pleasure of staying with Rabbi Sigler and his family, in your Jerusalem residence the Shabbos before last. I have been very much involved with MEOR events, and their affiliated programs since I was a freshman in college at George Washington University in Washington, DC. However, even though I’ve been to Israel a few times before on Birthright, MEOR Israel, and MEOR Vision, for some strange reason I wasn’t that connected with the Holy Land. No matter how I looked at it, I was a Jewish American in a foreign land, with a despairingly different culture. Through MEOR I was able to grow in my Jewish learning, and very soon after I graduated in May, I continued to grow to become shomer Shabbat. That was a big step for me; to take pride in my Jewish heritage and finally identify first as a Jew, and then as an American. The Shabbos before last was my first Shabbat in the land of Israel as a shomer shabbat American Jew. It was such an amazing, and transcendental experience. I am so happy to be in the land of our people, and I want to thank you so much for opening your home to our program. Many Blessings.

” —

Jeremy Glassman, 2017