The best place in the world


As many on the site have noticed, Janglo has had a long relationship with Machon Meir, where I spend every morning learning. Following a meeting this morning in which the administration called on all the students to help alleviate the yeshiva's deep financial debts, its a good time to write about why I think Machon Meir is the best place in Israel.

Machon Meir is one of Israel's oldest, largest, and influential Zionist yeshivot, with some 350 students currently learning in their Hebrew, English, Russian, French, Spanish, and conversion departments. Tens of thousands of students have come through its doors in the past 35 years, and most changed dramatically for the better.

machon meir


Perhaps more than any other institution in the country, Machon Meir is helping young men (and women, at their Machon Ora sister school) to love their fellow Jews and the land of Israel, and to contribute to society with all of their talents.

If you have negative stereotypes of yeshiva students absorbed in minutia avoiding the responsibilities of life, its important to understand that Machon Meir is most definitely not that kind of place. Its not about training people to be rabbis, its about teaching people to love their fellow Jews and the land of Israel, and to contribute to society with all of their talents.

You see all types in the beit midrash: young spiritual seekers who had to spend time in India to discover the richness of their Jewish heritage; young men learning to build their home with sanctity and love in their first years of marriage; elite soldiers from some of the IDF's best units; accomplished lawyers who manage to fit in a few hours of learning in the morning before work; and kids from broken homes who, after a good spiritual scrubbing, start to smile for the first time in life.


Part of what I've taken from Machon Meir in my six years studying there has been an understanding of Israel's destiny that transcends the heaviness of the daily news. Especially in our day, when our nation faces so many problems, its crucial to our sanity that we internalize what the Jewish people are doing back in Israel after 2000 years, what our purpose and destiny is as a nation.A Machon Meir student learns that he isn't a singular being created to receive, but that he has a responsibility as part of a unified national unit.

bigonRav Dov Begun, the rosh yeshiva whose entire essense radiates love, likes to say he runs a "spiritual hospital." And not just for the private benefit of his students. Machon Meir is a national treasure, a beacon of love and truth to the entire nation.

There's a quote in the Machon Meir brochure from former Israeli president Chaim Herzog that for me sums things up: "If I had to offer an example of Judaism at its best in the state of Israel, as I imagine the the vast majority of the nation wish it would appear, I think I should select Machon Meir."

In addition to the classes in its Kiryat Moshe campuses, Machon Meir runs many other operations to spread its light throughout the country. Satellite branches in Tel Aviv and other cities offer a variety of classes to whoever wants to come. Their Arutz Meir online 24-hour Internet television station is watched every day by thousands of Jews around the country and the world. And their weekly parsha sheet is read in hundreds of shuls around the country.

Machon Meir, like all yeshivot, is supported primarily by donors, and some of its biggest donors recently said they could not continue to provide support in light of the financial crisis in the US. The yeshiva is now looking for new donors to help keep its operations going.

You can set up a donation directly online through their Hebrew site at https://www.arutzmeir.org.il/secure/hakdasha.asp , or contact them via their English web site, https://www.machonmeir.net.

U.S. dollar donations can be made out to American Friends of Machon Meir and mailed to Machon Meir, 2 Hameiri av. Jerusalem, 91340, Israel.

You may also phone in your contribution directly to 02-646-1313.

Note that all contributions are tax deductible.