Real Life Rabbinics Podcast

RIETS Israel Kollel Celebrating 50 Years: Part 2– The Early Years (Featuring R' Ari Kahn, R' Moshe Lichtman & R' Daniel Yolkut)

Featuring: R' Ari Kahn, R' Moshe Lichtman & R' Daniel YolkutR’ Ari Khan is Director of Foreign Student Programs at Bar-Ilan University in Israel. He also serves as Rav of the Mishkan Etrog community in Givat Ze’ev.Contact: adk1010@gmail.comR’ Moshe Lichtman teaches in several yeshivas and seminaries in Israel. He has also written several seforim focusing on Eretz Yisrael, including a translation of "Eim HaBanim Semeichah" and "Eretz Yisrael on the Parsha" among others.Contact: rebmosh@012.net.ilR’ Daniel Yolkut is Rabbi of Congregation Poale Zedeck in Pittsburgh, PA.Contact: daniel.yolkut@gmail.comOVERVIEW:What did the RIETS Israel Kollel feel like in its early decades on the Gruss Campus? In this second episode of our series celebrating 50 years of the Israel Kollel, we spoke with three alumni from the first 25 years — R’ Moshe Lichtman, R’ Ari Kahn, and R’ Daniel Yolkut. How did they end up in the Kollel, and what drew them there at that stage of life? What was unique about the learning, the chavrusa culture, and the sense of community on the Gruss Campus? Who were their chavrusas and other memorable chaverim learning with them in the Beis Medrish? We also reflect on the influence of Rav Dovid Miller and the presence of Rav Aharon Lichtenstein zt"l in the Beis Medrish, and how those years shaped their relationship with Torah, Eretz Yisrael, and the paths they eventually took in rabbanus and chinuch.Guest Host: R’ Aryeh LebowitzRav Miller and the alumni of the RIETS Israel Kollel will be honored at the upcoming RIETS Dinner on Monday, March 16, 2026 (27th of Adar) in celebrating 50 years of Harbatzas Torah in Israel. For more information about the dinner and scroll of honor, visit https://www.yu.edu/yeshivadinnerTo sign up for the siyum hashas celebrating Rav Miller and the RIETS Israel Kollel’s 50 years : https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1m3K2S3mWi8GHdUNndrOP5e3Ghvp4XGUM/edit?gid=1259069286#gid=1259069286

RIETS Israel Kollel Celebrating 50 Years: Part 1 – Rav Dovid Miller

Rabbi Dovid Miller, Rosh Yeshiva and Rosh Kollel, RIETS Israel Kollel and the Benjamin and Charlotte Gottesfeld Chair in TalmudContact: dmiller@yu.eduOVERVIEW:In this first episode of our three-part series celebrating 50 years of the RIETS Israel Kollel on the Gruss Campus, we hear from Rav Dovid Miller, who has served as Rosh Kollel for all fifty years. How did the Kollel begin, and how did it grow over time? Who were some of the teachers and Rabbeim when the Kollel first started? How did living and learning in Eretz Yisrael shape the Kollel and the families who built their lives there? Rav Miller also reflects on his own Torah journey, the rebbeim who influenced him, and what it was like to learn together with his Rebbe, Rav Aharon Lichtenstein zt"l, for so many years in the Kollel.Guest Host: R’ Aryeh LebowitzRav Miller and the alumni of the RIETS Israel Kollel will be honored at the upcoming RIETS Dinner on Monday, March 16, 2026 (27th of Adar) in celebrating 50 years of Harbatzas Torah in Israel. For more information about the dinner and scroll of honor, visit https://www.yu.edu/yeshivadinner

Gambling in the Jewish Community: Part 2 — A Personal Story and the Work of Recovery - Ike Dweck

Ike Dweck, Founder and CEO of the SAFE FoundationContact Ike - ike@thesafefoundation.orgOVERVIEW:In Part 2 of Gambling in the Jewish Community, we continue the conversation by shifting from a clinical lens to someone with personal experience with gambling addiction. Ike Dweck speaks with remarkable honesty about his own struggle with gambling as a teenager and the journey that ultimately led him to spend more than two decades helping others find recovery. What does gambling actually feel like from the inside? Why is it so hard to stop, even when the consequences are obvious? How has the rise of apps, advertising, and normalization changed the stakes for today’s teens and young adults? And what do parents, rabbis, and educators need to notice, and say, before someone reaches rock bottom? Ike also shares how his faith and connection to God became an essential part of his recovery, and continues to ground him today, and how falling in life ultimately became the source of growth, purpose, and a deep commitment to helping others. Guest Host: R’ Larry Rothwachs

Gambling in the Jewish Community: Part 1 - Shimmy Feintuch

Rav Mordechai Willig - Public Policy for a Mikvah