Ralph Rieder

Ralph Rieder -
Torah Outreach Chesed Programs

Kesher Yehudi
In a country where religious and secular Jews often live parallel lives with little genuine contact, Kesher Yehudi set out to change the conversation — one friendship at a time. Founded in 2012 by Tzili Schneider, a Charedi mother of eleven from Meah Shearim, the organization is built on a deceptively simple premise: that when two Jews from opposite ends of the spectrum sit down together to study Torah, stereotypes dissolve and real relationships take root. The model is personal and unhurried — pairs are matched based on shared interests and curiosity, given guided materials and topics, and asked to follow one essential rule: listen before you speak. Over more than a decade, Kesher Yehudi has facilitated over 17,000 such chavruta partnerships, with thousands of pairs remaining in active contact long after their formal participation ends.
The organization's reach extends well beyond one-on-one learning. Kesher Yehudi operates in more than 32 secular mechinot — pre-military academies where Israeli young adults spend a year before IDF service — representing over half of all secular mechinot nationwide. It runs university campus programs, holiday events, and some 75 Shabbatonim annually. In 2016, then-President Reuven Rivlin recognized this work with the Jerusalem Unity Prize. Since October 7, 2023, the mission has taken on new urgency: Kesher Yehudi extended its programming to hostage families and Nova festival survivors, hosting Shabbatonim for those processing unimaginable trauma. Several formerly secular hostage families and dozens of Nova survivors have since taken on Shabbat observance — a quiet but powerful testament to what genuine human connection can awaken.Siyum HaShas
The Siyum HaShas is one of the most remarkable recurring events in modern Jewish life — a global celebration marking the completion of the entire Babylonian Talmud through the Daf Yomi program. The idea was born in August 1923, when Rabbi Meir Shapiro of Sanok, Poland, rose before nearly 600 delegates at the First World Congress of Agudath Israel in Vienna and proposed something unprecedented: that Jews everywhere would study the same single page of Talmud each day, finishing all 2,711 pages together over a cycle of approximately seven and a half years. His vision was equal parts educational and unifying — a way to make the full breadth of the Oral Torah accessible to ordinary Jews while binding communities across geography and background through shared daily learning.
The first Siyum HaShas was held in 1931, and the celebrations have grown with every subsequent cycle. What began in the study halls of Lublin now fills stadiums. The 12th Siyum in 2012 sold out MetLife Stadium — home of the New York Giants — with over 90,000 in attendance, while hundreds of thousands more gathered at simultaneous events across the United States, Israel, Europe, and beyond. The 13th Siyum on January 1, 2020, returned to MetLife with a capacity crowd. The 14th Global Siyum HaShas is already scheduled for June 6, 2027, at MetLife Stadium — a date that learners currently midway through the cycle are working toward, one daf at a time.Orthodox Union's All Mishnah Jr. (AMJ)
There is no shortage of after-school programs competing for the attention of today's middle schoolers, which makes the explosive growth of the Orthodox Union's All Mishnah Jr. (AMJ) all the more striking. Launched in 2021 with just eight participating day schools, AMJ challenges students in grades six through eight to learn two Mishnayot per day during their free time — a voluntary commitment squeezed in between homework, sports, and everything else that fills a twelve-year-old's life. Within four years, the program had quadrupled to over 32 schools across 12 states, with more than 2,100 students enrolled in its most recent season, and the latest figures approaching 3,000 participants across North America.
AMJ is an offshoot of the OU's broader All Mishnah platform, adapted specifically for younger learners with a three-year cycle that runs five days a week from Sukkot through Pesach. The program is deliberately designed to meet students where they are: participants receive their own ArtScroll pocket-edition Mishnayot, log their learning online, and are entered into weekly drawings for prizes like AirPods, gift cards, and drones. Student ambassadors within each school drive peer enthusiasm from the inside. Since October 7, AMJ added a deeply meaningful layer — each participant is paired with an IDF soldier through the Chayal of the Day organization, learning in that soldier's merit and encouraged to send them a personal note. For many students, it is the first masechet they have ever completed — a milestone that carries far beyond the prize drawing.