Rohr Jewish Learning Institute

JLI creates centralized Jewish-education curricula for delivery through local learning centers and online. Its stated mission is to make Jewish learning accessible and personally meaningful to every Jew, regardless of background or affiliation, while using interactive dialogue, textbooks, multimedia, and other approaches intended to engage different kinds of learners.[6][7]

The institute's work extends beyond its flagship adult courses to weekly Torah study, university and high-school programs, women's education, Talmud study, online lectures, retreats, and educational travel in Israel.[7]

JLI was established in 1998 to develop adult education for what it described as "today's sophisticated and searching Jew."[1] It is constituted as a branch of Merkos Le'Inyanei Chinuch, the educational arm of Chabad-Lubavitch, and operates as a project of the Rohr family foundation.[1] A 2007 account said rabbis, academics, and laypeople from around the world pooled their efforts to create an educational experience intended both to educate and to inspire greater commitment to Jewish learning and practice.[1]

Rabbi Efraim Mintz has served as the institute's founder and executive director.[2] Chana Silberstein oversaw JLI curriculum development, Chana Lightstone served as a research associate, and Rabbi Aaron Herman authored a Holocaust course produced under JLI's auspices.[2] Mintz described the institute's early growth as deliberately measured: it began with 15 chapters and, for its first seven years, limited expansion to 15 carefully selected affiliates per year while refining standards and instructor training.[5]

A January 2026 article reported that the Marcus Foundation committed $3.8 million to support JLI over three years. Described as the foundation's first major national grant to Chabad, the funding was designated for JLI's expansion, its Center for Universal Values, and efforts to reach teenagers, college students, young professionals, and adults.[4]

JLI's stated mission is to make Jewish learning accessible and personally meaningful to every Jew regardless of background or prior affiliation.[7] Its courses are designed for first-time learners and experienced students alike, using interactive dialogue, textbooks, and audiovisual presentations in an environment intended to welcome participants.[6]

The flagship program, founded in 1998, offers three accredited courses annually on subjects including Jewish ethics, mysticism and philosophy, history and culture, and belief and practice.[6] A 2022 report said that JLI had created hundreds of courses spanning Jewish history, Talmudic law, biblical commentary, Jewish philosophy and mysticism, mental health, and medical and business ethics, with translations into nine languages.[3] A 2018 report said that courses were then offered in more than 1,000 communities in 27 countries and seven languages.[5]

JLI's professional programming includes six-part courses that examine contemporary ethical questions from a halachic perspective and compare original Jewish texts with findings in medicine, psychology, law, business, and personal growth.[5] The courses are designed to qualify for continuing-education units required by some professional bodies; psychologist Heather Ufberg reported receiving 15 continuing-education credits for each series and incorporating course material into her own teaching.[5] JLI states that its flagship courses are accredited for continuing legal and medical education and that all courses offer CEU credits.[6]

Documented courses include "Communication: Its Art and Soul," a planned series titled "What Is?" addressing subjects such as evil, the nature of the self, and free will under divine omniscience, and "Beyond Never Again: The Holocaust Speaks to our Generation," authored by Rabbi Aaron Herman under JLI's auspices.[2][5] A Center for Israel Education listing separately identifies a Jewish Learning Institute series titled "Jewish Literacy," comprising six videos on Tanakh, Midrash, Talmud, Halacha, Musar, and Kabbalah, each seven to twelve minutes long.[8]

Other documented resources address the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Jewish revolt against Rome, and three topics related to Maimonides.[9] The Lookstein Center also lists JLI resources titled "The Evolution of Kabbalah" and "The Road to Hasidic Resistance," the latter concerning the Alter Rebbe's impact on Jewish history and Hasidism.[10]

At its June 2007 annual conference in Newark, attended by more than 300 directors and instructors, JLI reported that it had added 68 centers that year. The expansion brought its total to more than 250 chapters in over 30 U.S. states and more than 15 countries, with more than 30,000 students expected during the coming academic year.[1]

A 2012 analysis described JLI as the largest, though "least acknowledged," national program created specifically for adult Jewish education. It reported approximately 150,000 unduplicated students over the preceding decade, more than 250 sites, and 37 distinct six-week courses offered on a rotating cycle; a footnote also attributed to JLI a claim of nearly 43,000 adult learners in 2008.[11]

Published reach figures vary by date and scope. A 2018 report gave more than 1,000 communities in 27 countries and seven languages; a 2022 article reported more than 2,000 communities and nine languages; and a January 2026 article reported close to 2,000 communities and 11 languages.[5][3][4] These snapshots may refer to different programs or measures and are not necessarily directly comparable. The 2018 report also said that more than 12,000 psychologists, doctors, and lawyers had enrolled in a JLI professional course during the preceding decade and that approximately 397,000 people had participated in JLI courses since its inception.[5]

JLI also published The Book of Jewish Knowledge: A Multifaceted Exploration of the Teachings, Observances, and History of Judaism, a multi-year project drawing on its course material. The work includes texts from 225 authors and works by more than 100 artists and photographers, presenting what it describes as "1,200 answers in 1,200 voices." Rabbi Shmuel Kaplan conceived the book, Rabbi Yanki Tauber developed its structure and content, and Baruch Gorkin designed it and curated its art and photography.[3]

A 2009 article by Chana Silberstein, Chana Lightstone, Rabbi Efraim Mintz, and Rabbi Aaron Herman described JLI's approach to Holocaust education; Herman authored the associated course, "Beyond Never Again: The Holocaust Speaks to our Generation."[2] Rather than merely cataloguing historical atrocities, the curriculum situates the Holocaust within Jewish life and Judaism, treating its study as "a living memorial to what it means to live as a Jew today."[2]

The curriculum organizes material around themes including altruism, antisemitism, evil, suffering, meaning, faith, sacrifice, Kiddush Hashem, moral action, and social responsibility.[2] Educators are encouraged to select themes suited to their school's philosophy — for example, classic texts about suffering in a philosophically oriented setting, stories of faith and sacrifice in an emotionally oriented setting, or activism and current socio-moral initiatives in a social-action context.[2]

A central pedagogical commitment is to present Holocaust victims as individuals rather than as an aggregate statistic. The article summarizes this approach with the statement: "The Holocaust is not just the murder of six million. It is the act of one individual being murdered — repeated six million times."[2] It also recounts a story from Yaffa Eliach's Hasidic Tales of the Holocaust in which a boy's earlier skin graft left hair on his palm, enabling him to meet a Gestapo officer's seemingly impossible condition for releasing his sister; the officer released both children.[2]

The curriculum addresses theodicy through careful classroom discussion rather than simple explanations. It cites Abraham's appeal concerning Sodom, Moses's questioning of God over Jewish suffering, and Job's anguish as models for holding profound questions alongside faith.[2] Materials on Jewish continuity under persecution include Rabbi Ephraim Oshry's responsa and Shem Olam's Netsach, Eternity project, which sought to make tens of thousands of Holocaust-era books, manuscripts, documents, and photographs accessible online.[2]

The curriculum's treatment of rescuers draws on Samuel and Pearl Oliner's research, which found that rescuers were not significantly distinguished from the general population by education or political views. The article instead highlights close family and community relationships, clear moral formation, empathy, and a sense of personal agency as significant factors.[2]

Beyond its flagship course series, JLI operates programs serving a range of audiences.[7] Torah Studies, founded in 2004, is a weekly text-based program offered in 275 cities on six continents, providing instructors with researched, in-depth classes on the weekly Torah portion. The Rosh Chodesh Society offers adult education alongside monthly cultural and social programs through an international network of women scholars, leaders, and educators.[7]

For younger audiences, Sinai Scholars combines classic Jewish text study, social programming, and national networking for university students, while JLI Teens offers high-school programming covering ethics, philosophy, faith, history, service, current events, and textual study. MyShiur provides Talmud study using JLI's teaching methodology.[7] The institute's online division, Torah Café, offers more than 5,000 video lectures by Jewish scholars, academics, political figures, authors, and other speakers.[7]

JLI established its annual National Jewish Retreat in 2006, offering five days of learning with more than 150 sessions led by 40 Jewish personalities.[7] In 2008 it established The Land & The Spirit, a biennial Israel experience combining visits and historical learning with meetings involving soldiers, politicians, and religious scholars.[7] The Wellness Institute, a JLI branch, supports youth resilience and has developed behavioral-health and suicide-prevention education.[12]

In 2024, JLI partnered with the World Zionist Organization to create educational programming for college students and educators. Student courses began in January 2024 on 28 campuses in the United States and Ontario, addressing Jewish values and ethics, Jewish roots in the Land of Israel, historical resilience, and the continuing significance of Holocaust memory.[12]