Changing the World Through Education

“The best thing about studying at the SSC, besides the high level of dedication, was the development of a sense of purpose with young rabbis from around the world in teaching and promoting Judaism and Jewish values.”

During its quarter of a century of educating hundreds of students, the Shehebar Sephardic Center has produced over 150 rabbis and communal leaders who accepted positions throughout the world on practically every continent and in the most out-of-the-way cities from Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing, to France, Germany, Italy, Russia and Yugoslavia, to South America, South Africa, Zimbabwe and many others—too numerous to list.

In addition to training and placing competent rabbinical leaders in needy communities, The Shehebar Center, through its leadership program, gives young and upcoming scholars an opportunity to study in the Center under the guidance of Rabbi Sam Kassin, Rabbi Eliyahou Shamula and their professional rabbinical staff. Each student is given the utmost attention and personal care to maximize their potential growth and development.

“The SSC provided me with personalized attention from experts in halacha within an atmosphere of students who are devoted to the study and spreading of Torah throughout the world. This has been, and continues to be, an inspiration to me until today.”

Located in the Old City, the heart of the Jewish people, students are inspired to reach levels which they never thought possible. Three of our rabbinical alumni have become professors in three prestigious American universities.

Rabbi Dr. Joe Angel is a young dynamic professor of Jewish Studies at NYU and Hunter College, specializing in the period of the Second Temple and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Recently, Professor Angel was appointed to the faculty at Yeshiva University in Bible and History.

“My studies at SSC taught me not only how to approach a rabbinic text, but how to give over and inspire my university.”

Rabbi Dr. Richard Hidary studied and was ordained at the SSC. He is credited with establishing several educational institutions in our community, among which are Mercaz for college students, and an accredited program with Brooklyn College. His doctorate was on “Tolerance for Diversity of Halachic Practice.” He is a professor of Judaic Studies at Yeshiva University and Stern College.

Rabbi Dr. Alex Jassen graduated from the SSC in 1996 and today he is serving as professor of Classical and Near Eastern Studies at the University of Minnesota. He is a renowned expert on the Dead Sea Scrolls and Prophecy.

Their semichas were validated by some of the leading rabbinical authorities in Israel, including former chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, former chief Rabbi of Jerusalem Shalom Masas, Chief justice of the Rabbinical high court Zalmen Nehemiah Goldberg and Rabbi Yaacov Peres.