SARINA ROFFÉ
HARRY ADJMI IS KNOWN IN THE COMMUNITY FOR HIS PHILANTHROPY AND MANY ACTS OF HESED. RARELY DOES A COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION HAVE A FUNDRAISING EVENT WITHOUT HARRY’S INVOLVEMENT AS A LEADER, WHO HELPS THE CHARITIES OBTAIN MUCH-NEEDED PLEDGES.
Last month, Harry and his wife Alice visited Israel for the bar mitzvah of a dear friend’s son. During this trip, he took Israel by surprise, visiting the sites of the very Sephardic institutions he helps raise money for. Harry saw with his own eyes the operations of the organizations, and how Sephardic Jews are enhancing the lives of Jewish people.
The yeshivah that made the biggest impression was Ohel HaTora, the second yeshivah started by Shehebar Sephardic Center (SSC), Rabbi Sammy Kassin and his son Rabbi Ezra Kassin, as well as Rabbi Shimon Moalem, three years ago.
Ohel Hatora began with 12 students and now has 170. In September 2023, enrollment will reach 220 students. Many of the students then move on to the SSC to learn, obtain their semichot and go into the Diaspora. As a result, the SSC is on the road to becoming the number 1 yeshivah in Israel over the next few years.
While visiting Ohel Hatora, Harry was pleasantly surprised by the level of Torah learning and the fervor with which study took place. Harry is one of the people working towards the Sephardim becoming the number one leader of religious Judaism in Israel.
He told Rabbi Sammy Kassin that the SSC is the up-and-coming leader on the road to surpass the Ashkenazim at inspiring the Jews of Israel to become more observant.
The Jewish people are all one nation, and there needs to be acceptance and love — not separation — so we all live together in peace and harmony. Sephardim provide the model of acceptance, bringing people together and uniting them with our culture and traditions. Shehebar Sephardic Center assures that its students are responsible for bringing the Jewish people together.
Since its inception in 1980, the SSC has grown into a world-renowned institution with an outstanding reputation for high-quality programs, as well as a resource for Sephardic communities worldwide to identify rabbis, teachers, mohels, shochets and spiritual leadership.
The SSC also operates synagogues in the Far East and helps struggling Jewish communities around the globe. Each project is designed to help Sephardic communities combat assimilation and intermarriage with spiritual leadership.
Vital in its approach and vibrant in its tradition, the SSC is the leading Sephardic Center for Torah learning and training for the rabbinate. SSC rabbis are trained in Sephardic tradition and Jewish law. Embodying Sephardic tradition and our rich heritage, the three-to-four-year accredited rabbinical training program is responsive to community needs and provides a preeminent source of rabbinic leadership for the next generation and beyond. With their rich grounding of Jewish law, SSC rabbis assume a broad range of leadership roles in the community while ensuring the perpetuation of Jewish scholarship.
Harry said that every time he visits Israel, he leaves more inspired than the last time.
A genealogist and historian, Sarina Roffé is the author of Branching Out from Sepharad (Sephardic Heritage Project, 2017), Sarina holds a BA in Journalism, and MA in Jewish Studies and an MBA.
