Yisroel Ragosin is a true Shapell’s success story. He grew up in Vancouver, Canada in what he describes as, “A traditional but not particularly religious family. Growing up we always had Friday night dinners as a family and I attended a non-denominational Jewish Day School. Though I was always aware of being Jewish, it was in high school when I started attending NCSY and making friends with others who were raised more religiously than I was that I began to relate more to Judaism as a comprehensive way of living.”
Yisroel attended Carleton University in Ottawa, majoring in political science. During his time there, he spent a lot of time around the Kollel and experienced first-hand the power and importance of serious Torah study. He came to Shapell’s for three months in the summer, and decided that he wanted to return for a longer period to further develop his learning skills. Upon graduation, he returned to Shapell’s. He has been learning with us for a year and a half and has become a leader among his peers.
To say Yisroel is enthusiastic about his Shapell’s experience would be an understatement! He shared, “Both in Vancouver and in Ottawa I was part of small but tight communities. Being in Israel is a whole different world but being at Shapell’s gives me a continued sense of closeness with the people around me. In addition to developing my learning skills in ways that I would have never thought possible, I owe an immense amount of thanks to Hashem for providing me with an environment that cultures growth and self worth for every one of the talmidim here. The warm, encouraging environment and the focus on developing skills gives me confidence that I will be able to flourish wherever I go next in the Jewish world.”