By Gabriella Gomperts, Features Editor
One of the many reasons students decide to enroll at Yeshiva University is the Judaic studies courses. For students coming into YU without a background in textual learning or the Hebrew language, the Mechina Pathways Program on the Beren campus is supposed to provide them with opportunities to begin their Torah learning with a built-in community for support.
However, according to students interviewed by the YU Observer, the program is not without its flaws. “Mechina is great obviously, but it definitely needs to be improved,” Eshrat Botach (SCW ‘26), a Mechina student, told the YU Observer.
Students on the Beren campus are required to take two to three Judaic classes a semester, depending on whether they spent a year studying in Israel. The classes are wide-ranging in subject matter and are offered at different levels, ranging from introductory to advanced and Honors.
The Need for the Mechina Program
The Mechina program is a two year program designed to integrate girls who come from a non-traditional background in Torah education, allowing them to adjust to the challenging Judaic studies classes at YU and integrate into a religious environment. Girls placed in the program typically take introductory Judaic classes and attend a variety of events throughout the year, including panels and Shabbatons.
“We want them to have an environment where they feel they’re part of this community because they’re an important part of this community,” Dean Shoshana Schechter, Associate Dean of Torah Studies and Spiritual Life and Director of the Mechina Program, told the YU Observer. She noted that the goal of the program is to make students feel “comfortable” in an environment with “classes that are the right level for them” while learning alongside “like minded students who are growth oriented.”
Dean Schechter started the Mechina program twenty years ago for students who come from different religious backgrounds to feel like they have a place at YU. While the Wilf campus had established the James Striar School of General Jewish Studies in 1956 for students less familiar with Hebrew language and textual study, the Beren campus didn’t have any equivalent.
Students who spent a year studying in Israel are still allowed to be in the Mechina program if their educational or religious background before their gap year permits them. “Even one year of seminary doesn’t make up for twelve years of Jewish education,” Dean Schechter said.
Mechina: A “Refuge”
Students in the Mechina program come from a variety of backgrounds – religiously, culturally, and geographically. For many who come to YU with few friends and a cursory understanding of Jewish education, the program is their safety net. For Yaira Katz (SCW ‘26), who grew up in a conservative Jewish community in New York, Mechina was her “refuge.”
“We’re all different together and we can see that and understand that,” she said. “You can explain where you were last year, and the answer isn’t a nice, clean name of a seminary.”
Katz attended multiple different seminaries over the years and although she comes from a strong Jewish background, she stated that the Mechina Program was vital for her success at YU.
The Mechina Shabbatons in particular were a “game changer” for her. “I could go and feel comfortable and be around girls like me, in that they aren’t exactly the same as me, but they’re not exactly the same as everyone else.”
Sara Lesczynski (SCW ‘25), former Mechina Representative on the Beren Campus Student Government, also told the YU Observer that the Mechina program was an important part of her first years at YU. “Mechina saved my social life at Stern,” she said, “and is the reason I was able to successfully integrate into the Yeshiva University community.”
Mechina Leadership
Izzy Adler (SCW ‘25), the current president of the Mechina program, went to Dean Schechter at the beginning of this academic year with a plan to help reinvigorate the Mechina program. “I want to make Mechina a place where girls can come anytime and just love it the way I did,” she told the YU Observer in an interview.
For example, many of the shiurim on the Beren campus cover advanced topics that students in Mechina may not be familiar with and are generally harder to follow. “My first idea was to have events that are a little more condensed, like learning a perek of Tehillim with Rebbetzin Ellie Fine, or learning the after brachot with Rabbi Fine,” Adler said. “Something very simple that girls will want in their daily lives. And something that won’t scare them.”
Katz, however, believes that the leadership structure of the Mechina program is disorganized. “Last year, I was appointed to the Mechina board by Dean Schechter, which was a great honor,” Katz said. “But I never understood what my job was, and it was never clarified to me.”
“It felt strange to represent my Mechina peers without having actually been appointed by them.”
Mechina Classes
This brings to light the fact that, according to many students, some aspects of the Mechina program need immense improvement.
Dana Levy (SCW ‘25), an international student from Venezuela who attended a private Jewish high school, was critical of the available classes. She told the YU Observer that Mechina offered interesting classes, but they were not very challenging. She emphasized that regular Judaic classes were too difficult because the teachers primarily teach in Hebrew or frequently use Hebrew terminology in their lectures, which she struggles with.
“Even though, material wise, I, a lot of the time, know the material,” Levy said, “every single time I try to get outside of the Mechina classes, it’s pretty much all Hebrew.”
For some Mechina participants, the classroom environment is not what they expected, mainly due to what they claim is an unregulated class placement process utilized by the university. “There are only a handful of Mechina classes and chances are they will not fit in your schedule,” Botach said. “I feel like half the girls are genuinely passionate about the learning and want to improve in Judaic studies while the other half sit through ‘easy’ classes for the A.”
Requirements to be in Mechina are Undefined
Botach, who comes from an Orthodox Jewish background but attended a unique Jewish high school that non-Jewish and secular students attended, also expressed concern over how students are placed into the Mechina program to begin with. She noted that sometimes the parameters as to who should participate are undefined, creating a large diversity and learning level gap that can affect the program.
“The biggest issue is that as a university run program, it has no structure with any concrete requirements,” she said. “My first academic meeting with a Judaic studies advisor, she looked at me and told me I was going to be in Mechina and would be placed on a provisional students list.”
According to a YU Admissions catalog, students who are accepted to YU through provisional admissions are accepted without regular status and must meet specific requirements in order to be reclassified as a regular student after attending YU for two full-time semesters. Botach told the YU Observer that being classified as such a student, especially without any prior warning, was demeaning.
“Going into school, you want to feel good about yourself, you want to feel confident academically and socially,” she said. “Instead, I went into school defeated, isolated, and belittled. I was put into this little box of Mechina which has a bunch of implications that go along with it, and I didn’t understand what that meant.”
Botach also told the YU Observer that she felt judged by YU because she went to a non-traditional high school. “Being in the provisional students list was so belittling and inaccurate because I was a stellar student in high school,” Botach said. “I should be in Mechina, not for the reasons why they put me in, but because socially it makes sense for me.”
Who is a Mechina Student?
Botach’s main point of contention is that the definition of a Mechina student is undefined, and that certain girls feel irreligious compared to others. “When people ask me how Stern is, I always think about the fact that someone told me that Mechina will be the place where I will find people like me, and will experience Shabbat for the first time,” she said.
“I have kept Shabbat for my whole life. Who says that to someone?”
Levy noted that international students also feel that they are placed in Mechina purely because they aren’t from the U.S., not based on their previous education.
Dean Schechter clarified that girls are placed in Mechina based on their educational background and whether they went to seminary, but that doesn’t necessarily take into account students who may come from a strong Jewish background and were educated at home.
There’s Still Room to Grow
While students have expressed gratitude for the Mechina Program, noting that their experience at YU was vastly improved because of the opportunity to be a part of it, many also noted that numerous factors of the program need improvement.
“All in all, I’m so happy to be in Mechina. I like being in classes with peers that are on my level and that I can relate to.” Botach concluded. “I’m just really excited to see how it can grow and where it can grow.”
Photo Caption: Mechina students before the Purim dinner last year
Photo Credit: Izzy Adler