Contact the Darche Noam Office for the name of alumni in your area.

Rabbi Cary and Marsha Friedman
Durham, North Carolina
Cary, originally an engineer now a rabbi, and Marsha, a lawyer, arrived in Durham, NC, in August 1995 with their four children. At that time there was no observant community, no shul, no mikva and no Torah study. They have since created an oasis of Torah in what was a desert - doing outreach at Duke University and University or North Carolina Chapel Hill, forming an Orthodox synagogue, and focusing first and foremost on adult education. "We have found that there is an unquenchable thirst for Torah learning and thousands of Jews who have no access to it."

Dr. Daniel and Dr. Beth Gordon
Berkley, California
Daniel and Beth Gordon met and married at Harvard Medical School during their residencies. Upon completing their medical training, they chose to spend a year learning in Jerusalem. "Darche Noam changed my life in terms of the commitment to Jewish living and learning," said Daniel, "by giving me role models and the skills necessary for a lifetime of learning." In Berkeley, Beth said, "we've ended up being a major resource for a lot of people here in terms of traditional Jewish belief and practice."

Rabbi David and Alit Sedley
Edinburgh, Scotland
A native of Wellington, New Zealand, David Sedley spent three years at Shapell's. He has been Rabbi / chazan / teacher / ba'al koreh and everything else you can think of," in Edinburgh's only shul and today serves as Rabbi in a congregation in Leeds. "Darche Noam gave me a great understanding of Torah," said David, "and the love and excitement to want to continue learning. The rabbis gave me a very balanced outlook which helps me relate better to my community."

Stuart and Phyllis Lippman
Passaic, New Jersey
"My year at Darche Noam taught me to focus my priorities - I am not an accountant, I work in accounting," said Stuart, today Controller of Touro College in New York. "I gained a solid foundation in how to approach learning while at Darche Noam and set aside time every day to learn Torah." His wife, Phyllis, an occupational therapist, attended programs at Midreshet Rachel v'Chaya. With four children, their home is a center for chesed, from hachnasat orchim to leadership roles in the Chevra Kadisha. Stuart has been very involved in his shul and both he and Phyllis are active in their children's dayschools. "The bottom line," the Lippmans say, "is that the concept of Darche Noam, many Torah paths, is the basis for our approach to accepting and reaching out to others. It has also been a source of on-going personal and spiritual growth."

Yonah and Rachel Bookstein
Rychwald, Poland
Living there, day by day they bring Torah into people's lives. Yonah was a Fulbright scholar in Cracow researching contemporary Polish Jewry before he met Rachel at Oxford where both were studying for MA degrees. After they married, Yonah learned at Shapell's with Rachel at Midreshet Rachel v'Chaya. "Our Rebbeim and teachers at Darche Noam helped us prepare programs and activities for spreading Jewish knowledge in Poland," said Rachel. "Despite the hardships, our work in Jewish education here is tremendously gratifying and spiritually rewarding."