A School Where Everyone Can Thrive

Every student starts off his Shaarei Adirim experience by building his own desk by hand, which serves as a daily reminder of his ability to accomplish great things. Photo credit: Mesivta Shaarei Adirim

New Chicago yeshiva caters to needs of diverse learners

In recent decades, Chicago’s Orthodox Jewish community has made great strides to improve services for diverse learners. Across the Chicago area, academic and social programs now abound for young Orthodox children living with challenges like ADHD, anxiety, depression, or dyslexia. And yet, until 2018, boys from Orthodox families who struggled with these issues still faced a dilemma once 9th grade arrived: could they thrive in a mainstream yeshiva?

“Studying talmud and gemara in the traditional yeshiva environment is very intense. It’s a very rigorous academic environment, and can put students with challenges at a tremendous disadvantage,” said Rabbi Mordechai Elbaum, Rosh HaMesivta (Head of School) at Mesivta Shaarei Adirim, Chicago’s first yeshiva program geared toward supporting boys with additional learning needs. “There just aren’t a lot of resources for them in traditional programs, and they end up falling behind or getting in trouble.”

Thankfully, with support from Walder Foundation, Shaarei Adirim has emerged as a special place where these boys can thrive. “These are students from Orthodox families who grew up in yeshiva environments and want to attend yeshiva,” said Elbaum. “At Shaarei Adirim, we’ve created a yeshiva environment that caters to their unique needs.”

According to the school’s website, the program offers “a warm, Torah-true atmosphere” and a dynamic, multi-faceted approach to learning that encourages students to “surprise themselves with their own successes.”

This is accomplished in five key ways:

Building self-esteem

“By the time these boys reach high school, they know the score,” said Elbaum. “They know they’ve been receiving modified versions of tests, and aren’t keeping up with their peers. This often leads to not feeling so great about themselves.”

To combat this, every student starts off his Shaarei Adirim experience by building his own desk–from scratch, in a woodshop, with no power tools. Just old fashioned elbow grease and hours of work sawing, sanding, hammering, and painting. The result? “Every day after that desk is built, when these boys sit down for class, their achievement is staring them in the face. It’s a reminder that ‘I can do this’.”

In addition to their general studies, students are also encouraged to get involved with music, art, or athletics programs that allow them to truly shine. From photography classes, to krav maga, to acrobatics, to culinary workshops, every student can discover talents they didn’t previously know they had–and then enjoy the glow of personal accomplishment that comes from knowing they did something well. “Everyone can accomplish great things when they are given real opportunities to shine,” said Elbaum.

A classroom environment where everyone can thrive

From a smaller student-teacher ratio to the way the furniture is arranged in a classroom, to the amount of learning time before a break, “everything about how our school is structured is built for the kid that’s struggling,” said Elbaum.

“Before I came to Shaarei Adirim, the idea of learning 30 minutes straight, with no breaks, seemed impossible to me,” said student Simcha Spil. “Now, after three years in Shaarei Adirim, I can learn without interruption for well over an hour. It’s a big accomplishment!”

Highly trained teachers also offer customized learning approaches to meet individual student needs, with a focus on applying learning to real-world projects and hands-on tasks that make the curriculum come alive. For instance, to enhance their Torah study, the students work with a scribe who teaches them to write in the traditional calligraphy used in Jewish texts. Then they put their skills to work writing an actual megillah (traditional text read during the Jewish holiday of Purim). Once they’ve mastered that, the boys have the opportunity to participate in writing a new Sefer Torah together with their peers. “Our message to these boys is crystal clear: You have a real part in the continuity of the Jewish nation. You have a place, you can succeed, and you, too, can be part of our heritage and our legacy,” said Elbaum.

One-on-one counseling

Two full-time Licensed Clinical Social Workers (LCSWs) serve on the Shaarei Adirim staff, and every student receives–at a minimum–a 15-minute weekly check-in on how they are doing emotionally. Some students benefit from additional weekly therapy as well, through custom one-on-one services provided around their school schedule.

Medication management

Though LCSWs cannot prescribe medication, these professionals have the advantage of being able to observe the students in the school setting and through weekly therapy, and then communicate their observations with the students’ individual psychiatrists. This allows a much more comprehensive picture of how the medications are working, and helps the boys’ care teams develop a stronger ongoing plan for medication management that best sets them up for long-term success.

Extensive teacher training

In partnership with Torah U’Mesorah, the Shaarei Adirim staff is being trained in their Differentiated Learners Initiative (DLI). In this 20-session course, teachers at Shaarei Adirim (and other schools across the country) learn to empower resource classrooms to not only adjust curriculums for students with different learning needs, but go a step further, answering student-specific questions: Where is the breakdown? What is causing this student to struggle? How can we address the root cause?

From humble beginnings with just 10 students in 2019, the student body at Shaarei Adirim has more than tripled, with 35 students now enrolled for the 2022-23 school year. Classes currently take place in a synagogue basement, but the program is growing so quickly that the school anticipates needing its own home soon.

“My rebbeim at Shaarei Adirim have taught me that there is no such thing as ‘I can’t,’” said alum Yehuda Heisler, who was part of the school’s first graduating class. “They truly believe in each and every one of us and empower us to succeed.”