As some of you may remember, I have issues with an NCSY trip called “Kollel.” The name strikes me as suggestively encouraging a haredi lifestyle far outside the paradigm of Modern Orthodoxy, and not one that liberal Jewish parents should be comfortable with even though their teens are absolutely PERFECT for this trip.

And I couldn’t help but suspect…this trip and this insidious name…it sure sounds suspiciously like the kind of thing only a malevolent sleazebag would come up with.

So I did a little digging. Who, I wondered, would possibly have decided to start a “Kollel” program for a Modern Orthodox youth group? It sure sounds like something you-know-who would have done. Could it be?

And sure enough, it was.

NCSY Director of Regions Rabbi Baruch Lanner modeled the college program after NCSY’s high school level summer “kollel”program, which he founded and developed.

I knew I smelled something funky.

The Rosh Kollel

Here’s some possible suggestions — cause I try to be a creative problem solver. 1) Change the name, or ideally, 2) Jettison this particular trip, or at the very least, 3) Stop sending public school kids on this trip.

Or, we can have post after post over the next few years referencing “Lanner’s Kollel.” You have to admit, for an organization attempting to further inroads with “the unaffiliated,” “Kollel” is a particularly ill-suited name to have on your roster of programming, and Lanner a most unfortunate founder.