Welcome to the New Tampa by Avi Waldman

The Jewish Home | JULY 21, 2022

Tampa's new school

Avi Waldman Welcome to the New Tampa

By Avi WAldmAn

New York has a lot of amenities for the frum family: Minyanim are every 15 minutes, kosher food delivery to your dining room table is a touch away, and there are an overwhelming amount of kosher products. What would motivate eight young, dynamic kollel families to leave it all behind to go to…Tampa? There are many reasons that have led to an unprecedented surge of Jews to South Florida such as tuition vouchers, low taxes, and a more conservative government. But why Tampa? The city of Tampa was founded in 1887, but in the last five years has seen an unprecedented population growth like South Florida. With a population of 3.1 million, it is the second largest city in Florida – second only to the city of Miami, that boasts 4 million people. It is an economic hub, with the Tampa port being one of the busiest in North America. It has also found itself as a destination for corporate headquarters, with over 20 located in Tampa. Tampa has also attracted many startups as well. According to a recent Tampa Bay Times article, it is one of the biggest entrepreneur destinations outside of Silicon Valley with three recent tech unicorn startups in Tampa valued at over 3 billion. In fact, the Jewish federation of Tampa has partnered with the State of Israel to form an organization called FIBA (Florida Israel Business Accelerator) which is designed to establish and grow successful, high-growth Israeli tech ventures in the Tampa Bay area. One of their success stories is Stemrad, which is an Israeli-American company that designed a radiation-proof vest that was used on Space X. The vest in space featured an American flag, an Israeli flag, and the local Tampa Bay lightning sports team logo.

Overall, Tampa is an excellent place to find a job. According to the real estate website Motovo, it is the number one place for employment in the state of Florida. pa enjoys having one of the top beaches in the entire country. Located just off the Gulf of Mexico, nearby Clearwater and St Petersburg have picturesque white sandy beaches that attract nearly 6.5 million overnight visitors yearly.

Tampa itself is a beautiful city filled with greenery and lakes at every turn. There are many parks and hiking trails for adults and children to enjoy. Tampa is also home to the world-famous amusement park Busch Gardens, and it’s also between an hour-and-a-half to a 2-hour drive to the theme parks in Orlando.

Although Tampa is a beautiful city with a plethora of economic amenities, Tampa hasn’t seen an influx of Jews moving to town. There are many businessmen from New York, some from the Five Towns, that have either nursing homes, real estate, insurance, or other types of businesses in Tampa, but in general, Tampa has never really seen growth as a community. The chassidish community 40 minutes south is still in its early years of growth and growing its infrastructure.

Earlier this year, a parent in a local Tampa school called Rabbi Bentzion Chait, Director of National Torah Institute (NTI), part of Chofetz Chaim in Queens, to request that the yeshiva help the barely-existent Torah infrastructure of Tampa. Knowing that Chofetz Chaim has helped start communities across the United States such as in Las Vegas and Orlando, she was hoping they could do the same for Tampa. She asked the yeshiva to start building the community with the opening of an Orthodox yeshiva day school.

With a little research, Rabbi Chait found that Tampa has over 70,000 Jews living in the greater Tampa area, with nearly 8,000 Jewish children without access to true Torah. Such a large robust city with no Torah came as a shock. Rabbi Chait soon found the perfect team to spearhead the new project: Rabbi Yirmiyahu Rubenstein, Rabbi Yossef Stulberger, and Rabbi Ariel Wohlfarth.

As Rabbi Rubenstein notes, “When Rabbi Chait told me the numbers of Jewish people living in Tampa and I realized the potential of the city for a community, it was a no-brainer.”

After a few initial trips down to Tampa, the Tampa Torah Center was born.

The idea of the Torah Center is to help launch the Tampa community. There is so much potential and amenities in Tampa for a Jewish community. The Tampa Torah Center will be the infrastructure to make it easy for Jews to move in.

The Tampa Torah Center will also address the lack of Yiddishkeit with a two-pronged approach. The tremendous need for Jewish education will come from the first yeshiva day school in Tampa called Tampa Torah Academy. Tampa Torah Academy will be run by Rabbi Rubenstein and Rabbi Wohlfarth, who both have experience in education, along with a passion to teach and help children reach their potential. The school features an early childhood center starting at nursery along with middle school grades.

According to Rabbi Wohlfarth, interest in the school is unprecedented. “We have between 30 and 35 children enrolled so far for next year already, with many more parents waiting to sign up once they see us open.”

Both administrators remarked how the excitement of the school thus far is attributed to their excellent staff. Most of the teachers for next year are wives of the Kollel members that are coming down from New York with many years of teaching experience.

One of the most amazing things about the school is their gorgeous campus and the hashgacha in getting it.

“Getting this campus was truly a gift from Hashem that enabled us to really attract and continue to attract so many students in our inaugural year,” says Rabbi Rubenstein.

Located in the beautiful Tampa Palms area of Tampa, the school boasts over 10,000-square-feet of building space including a wrap-around porch for the children to play and enjoy the beautiful Florida outdoors. There is also space for three playgrounds and sport fields. With an amazing staff, an excellent administration, a gorgeous building, and Florida tuition vouchers, Tampa Torah Academy can easily continue to flourish.

Every Jewish community needs to have a place where people can come and learn and be comfortable to grow. That’s where the Tampa Kollel comes in. With five dedicated kollel members and a rosh kollel, the Kollel brings the fire of Torah to the Tampa bay region. With a morning seder that mimics that of any other major yeshiva, anyone can walk in and feel the energy of the Torah being learned.

“To think that my Torah learning is adding to the limited amount of Torah learning in an entire city is a big zechus, but it is a tremendous responsibility,” said one of the kollel members. From youth, teens, and adults, the kollel outreach division will bring the truth and excitement of Torah to anyone they can.

“There is no greater fulfillment than to spread the Torah to my brothers and sisters who are not as fortunate as I am, who never learned in yeshiva or even opened up a Chumash,” says Rabbi Stulberger, the Rosh Kollel.

The kollel members Rabbis Benji Ehrenkranz, Moshe Lieter, Yaakov Rabinowitz, Aryeh Clyde and Yerachmiel Botnick all share in one unified vision: to

make a Kiddush Hashem wherever they go and to bring awareness of Hashem into people’s lives. The Rosh Kollel, Rabbi Yossef Stulberger, is someone with unique abilities to lead this group of passionate young men on their mission. His father, Rabbi Avraham Stulberger, was and still is the Rosh Hayeshiva of Valley Torah High School, a high school for boys and girls (separate divisions) in California. “There is no greater lesson for a young child than to watch your father day-in and day-out teach Torah to these high school age kids and give it his all for every member of Klal Yisrael,” Rabbi Stulberger says. The kollel also offers a night seder which is geared to the members of the Jewish Rabbi Ariel Wohlfarth, Rabbi Yirmiyahu Rubenstein, and Rabbi Yossef Stulberger community to learn with a chavrusa,or to join one of the meaningful and interesting shiurim that the kollel will be providing. There is another element of the kollel, which is the resource it can be to visiting businessmen. With many businessmen flying from all over the tristate area to Tampa for work, there is a very big void when they arrive in Tampa with no place to learn and to be connected while away on business. “The kollel will be a place where no matter what time of day one can come in and feel welcome, sit and learn and have a fresh cup of coffee.” The ripple effect of this project is already being felt with Olami and Yehudi sponsoring Rabbi Flom from Israel to come and partake in college campus kiruv. Another family is coming up from Miami to join the new community as well. Tampa has already, thanks The Tampa Torah Center to the local Chabad houses, a kosher section in two grocery stores that has kosher meats, chickens, and Cholov Yisroel dairy products. There is also a kosher will be the infrastructure grocery delivery service called Kosher Kaddy, as well as restaurants beginning to open. Finding the ingredients to launch a Jewish comto make it easy for munity is not an easy task. There are many factors involved. Tampa checks the boxes. Housing in Tampa is affordable – around half the price of the popular Boca Jews to move in. Raton community in Florida. Tuition vouchers are available to help cover the costs of tuition, and Tampa’s economic growth can lead to job placement. There are already 10 young, growth oriented kollel families moving in, a dynamic young core. Jews currently living in Tampa are waiting to help grow the community locally. A Torah day school set on providing unmatched yeshiva style education with a focus on middos and emotional growth. A Kollel to come learn and grow. A beautiful city. Welcome to the new Tampa. To hear more about this new exciting project or to donate, please visit tampatorah.com or TampaTorahacademy.org. For more information on kosher food, minyanim and other information about Tampa please WhatsApp or call (813) 485 5817. You can also WhatsApp “join” to the number above to join our Kosher Tampa WhatsApp group.