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Machon L'Torah
is rolling out
its highest honor
for one of
Detroit Jewry's most
respected sages.
SUSAN TAWIL
Special to the Jewish News
E
e's a walking talmudic encyclopedia.
" So says Rabbi Avraham Jacobovitz, direc-
tor of Machon L'Torah, the Oak Park-based
Jewish Learning Network of Michigan, about
Rabbi Shmuel Irons. Rabbi Jacobovitz' friend and col-
league, Rabbi Irons, is a Talmud chacham (Torah sage)
and co-founder with Rabbi Moshe Schwab of the Kollel
Institute of Greater Detroit, located in Oak Park.
Rabbi Irons will receive the Crown of Torah award at
Machon L'Torah's 20th anniversary banquet on Tuesday,
June 27, at the Ramada Hotel in Southfield. Rabbi
Scholarly
pp
Rabbi Irons, a
"hidden treasure,"
earns Jewish
Learning Network
of Michigan's
Crown of Torah.
P ho to by B i ll Hansen
Spirituality
Jacobovitz calls Rabbi Irons "a central figure, in the com-
munity who represents the growth of Torah."
Rabbi Irons, who heads the Kollel Institute as Rosh
Kollel, lectures throughout the community in both
Orthodox and non-Orthodox venues. He recently spoke
on hospice issues for the Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit. Rabbi' Irons serves as halachic
(Jewish law) adviser to Mikvah Israel in Oak Park and
chairs the Yeshiva Beth Yehudah and Bais Yaakov Vaad
HaChinuch (Education Council).
"He's like a hidden treasure," says Rabbi Jacobovitz.
"His breadth of knowledge is amazing. There's not more
than a handful of people in America that come close to
his level. And yet, he's very approachable."
Family Ties
Rabbi Irons, born in Los Angeles in 1946, attended
Yeshivat Ner Yisroel in Baltimore, then continued his
studies at the talmudic academy, Bais Medresh
Gevoliah, in Lakewood, N.J. He lives in Oak Park,
where he and his wife, Leah, have raised a family of
seven sons and a daughter, ages 16-31.
"Her dedication and self-sacrifice enabled me to
become what I am," Rabbi Irons says appreciatively of
his wife, a woman of intellect and insight in her own
right.
In 1974, together with Rabbi Schwab, Rabbi Irons
recruited 10 rabbis to launch the Kollel Institute of
Greater Detroit, America's first community kollel.
Kollels, now found in many large Jewish communities
throughout the world, are combination graduate schools
Rabbi Shinuel
Irons, co :founder
of the Kollel
Institute of
Greater Detroit.
for rabbis and community-based Torah centers.
The rabbinic "fellows" learn among themselves
(Talmud and other tracts of study) and give of their
time to teach members of the community, either one-
on-one (traditional Chavrusa style) or in classes. "It is a
very high level of learning," says Rabbi Irons.
The Kollel fellows are supported by stipends raised
from within the Jewish community. They often go on to
assume positions of religious leadership.
Many of the rabbis who teach in Yeshiva Beth
Yehudah/Bais Yaakov and Yeshivas Darchei Torah were
fellows in Detroit's Kollel. In addition to Rabbi
Jacobovitz, past Kollel fellows include Rabbi Beryl
Broyde, head of the merkaz kashrut supervision at the
Vaad Harabonim (Council of Orthodox Rabbis of
Greater Detroit), and pulpit Rabbis Yoel Sperka of B'nai
Israel, Eli Meyer Jundef of Ohel Moed, Elimelech
Goldberg of Young Israel of Southfield and Eli Yelen of
Yagdil Torahin Southfield.
"The biggest accomplishment of the Kollel is to
advance a heightened appreciation of the value of Torah
within the community," Rabbi Irons says. "The chal-
lenge is to bring more people in. Many more could avail
themselves of what the Kollel has to offer."
Approximately 100 community members learn at the
Kollel each week. It is housed in a building undergoing
expansion and renovation to accommodate a swelling
population.
"The Kollel is 100 percent community-funded by
those who appreciate it," Rabbi Irons says. He notes
that obtaining funds is "a constant struggle."