Connecticut – Despite Devastation, Waterbury Yeshiva Continues With Its Learning

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    Waterbury Yeshivah relocated some talmidim to FlatbushConnecticut – Despite President Obama’s declaration of a state of emergency in Connecticut, students at Yeshiva Ateres Shmuel of Waterbury located in Central Connecticut have refused to allow power outages, downed wires, fallen trees and crippling conditions to cancel their sedarim, relocating instead to Brooklyn, Far Rockaway and Monsey areas that were less hard hit by Saturday’s early Nor’easter, dubbed Winter Storm Alfred.

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    Both community members and bochurim left Waterbury were bussed to areas that were less stricken by Saturday’s storm and the National Guard has been called in to patrol the streets of Waterbury. Today’s Hamodia reports that over one hundred bochurim and community members attended sedarim yesterday in Brooklyn at the Young Israel of Midwood while Yeshiva Ohr Somayach in Monsey gave the Waterbury guests a room for sedarim in their facility as well.

    Rabbi Moshe Tuvia Lieff of the Agudah of Avenue L gave a special night seder last night at the Young Israel of Midwood and Rabbi Dovid Goldwasser will be tonight’s maggid shiur.

    The one section of the Waterbury kehilla that was spared much of the storm’s devastation is the Blue Ridge development, whose wiring is located underground and therefore was not affected by falling tree limbs. An unnamed source who is a Rebbi in the Yeshiva Ketana told VIN News that many minyanim have been taking place in Blue Ridge and that many families have taken shelter there.

    “The Hachnosos Orchim of the Blue Ridge community has been exemplary,” said one Waterbury resident. “Rabbi Doniel Kalish of the Mesivta has kept many Talmidim in his own home in Blue Ridge and has been feeding them as well. Additionally, Rabbeim and Moros from the Yeshiva Ketana have been running conference calls with their talmidim and talmidos to ensure that their Limud HaTorah continues without interruption.”

    Many Rabbeim who have chosen to relocate until conditions become livable have chosen to take advantage of visiting schools in the tri-state area for professional development.

    While Connecticut Power and Light has 770 crews attacking power outages, they do not expect many areas to have service restored before the weekend and there is currently no projected time for when power will be restored to the town of Waterbury, although unconfirmed reports say that power might be restored as early as tomorrow or Shabbos. As of noon today Connecticut Power and Light was reporting 666,771 outages in the state and only 48% of Waterbury’s almost 51,000 residents remain in the dark. AT&T is also reporting one hundred and fifty two cell phone towers that are currently without power, resulting in scattered coverage throughout the state.

    Four fatalities in the state of Connecticut have been attributed to Saturday’s storm.

    National guard patrolling the streets of Waterbury


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    16 Comments
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    12 years ago

    This is a nice story and the hospitality shown by the NYC and LI communities is exemplary but enough already with the “blizzard” stories. The storm-related loss of power is an inconvenience but not armageddon.

    Shaul in Monsey
    Shaul in Monsey
    12 years ago

    The tzaddikim in Waterbury will lead IYH lead all of Klal Yisroel to be mekabel moshiach bizmaneinu. There is no one greater in chinuch today than Rav Kalish Shlita. There is no doubt this is an easy one for this true Makom Torah to overcome, they won’t miss a minute of learning over something so rooted in gashmius as electricity.

    12 years ago

    According to you, though, it takes a gadol to be able to tell you who your gadol is, doesn’t it?
    So all of you are being mevatel the doraisa of daas Torah.
    Lol.

    12 years ago

    thanks shaul for saying the truth!

    you are not 100% right you are 1,000,000% right

    for those of you who don’t know about rabbi kalish or the yeshiva go check it out.. not only are the boys learning 10-12 hours a day but their love of torah and mitzvos and amongst themselves is unparalleled!

    I would def say its one of the top yeshivos in America and rabbi kalish is one of the special gedolim of the next generation

    12 years ago

    i think its an amazing chesed that the Brooklyn community is doing for the yeshiva.
    from hosting well over 150 people, an if you choose to say its not azah choshuva matziv going on here in our kehilla you clearly have issues farshtaying emesdikeh yidden.

    unnamed
    unnamed
    12 years ago

    I don’t know where the future gedolei hador will be from but know much less about where they won’t be from. Stereotyping a person’s potential based on their geographic location is ridiculous. Even guessing someone’s potential based on prior actions can not be (fully) accurate. See the story of Rabbi Akiva. Publicly ranking a person or place as “the best” at something or “the leaders” even if the person is infinitely talented and the place is a most wonderful place, is likely Avak Lashon Hora as it invites everyone’s opinion on the matter. Stating however, that the next Gadol Hador is not coming from a state or a city or a yeshiva, is both foolish and offensive. Additionally, implying that there could be a next (fill-in-the-blank) is an affront to the Gadol intended, and a misunderstanding of how unique every Gadol truly is. Again, one of the greatest gedolim in the entire history of Yiddishkeit, was anything but, until the age of 40.