With No Prison Visits Allowed, Aleph Improvises

The COVID -19 pandemic, which disturbed all of our lives, has been pure torture for our incarcerated Jewish brothers and sisters who are not allowed any visits or services. To fill this void, the Aleph Institution has launched an over-the-phone chavrusa program for inmates.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to disrupt daily life across the globe, it has been pure torture for our incarcerated Jewish Brothers and Sisters. 

Due to COVID-19 spreading rapidly in the prisons, many inmates have been locked down in their individual cells for 22-23 hours per day. Most Jewish inmates have not seen a Rabbi, a Jewish volunteer or for that matter, have not even participated in a Jewish service since March.

No Torah classes from their local Rabbi, no minyanim for Rosh Hashana or Yom Kippur, as well as no family visits for months. 

To supplement this void and provide inmates with the opportunity to study Torah, the Aleph Institute has launched Project “Torah on the Phone”.

The Goal? To enable every inmate to study once a week for 15 minutes with a chavrusa over the phone. 

Many inmates yearn to expand their Torah knowledge, but until now, many have been unable to, due to their limited environment. In the words of one inmate, “With each page read, I found I had more and more questions that only a mentor of considerable knowledge would be able to assist with. It made me realize that WE, within this environment, should be paired up with student rabbis or a source, to question our own interpretation. How great it would be to be able to banter back and forth with another, and have opinions discussed, debated and realized.”

Please partner with us through this amazing initiative and together we can make sure that every Jew wherever they find themselves can study Torah. 

 To sign up please fill out the following google form: https://forms.gle/Ytc2SYsULhvUF4pK6.

If you have any questions, feel free to email: [email protected]