The Homework Kollel has spread all the way from Lakewood to Florida

Does this sound like it could be your house?

“Baruch, it’s time to start your homework!” It was like a broken record every single night.

“Not now, Ma! I’m right in the middle of a game with my friend! Besides, I hate doing homework…”

“Baruch, your rebbi said you need extra Gemara review and—” Mrs. Katzenstein’s reply was cut short as Baruch stomped up the steps from the playroom grumbling loudly, dumping the contents of his backpack onto the kitchen table. “I hate Gemara review! I’m not good at it, and I never get what goes on in class!”

Mrs. Katzenstein sighed as she resigned herself to yet another nightly homework battle. No matter how much extra tutoring she had signed him up for, Baruch didn’t seem to be making any progress in his Gemara learning. But later that night, after more fighting and tears, Mrs. Katzenstein sat down with the local community magazine and suddenly stopped in her tracks:

Does your son struggle with nightly Gemara review? Is homework a constant struggle? Then sign up for the Homework Kollel and see the transformation!

A “Homework Kollel?” But only a few short weeks later, a different scene played out in the Katzenstein home: “Bye, Ma! My ride is here for the Homework Kollel! See you later!”

In 2013, Rabbi Yitzchok Hertz of Lakewood, New Jersey started the first Homework Kollel, in memory of his deceased brother. Rabbi Hertz remembered his own frustrations when it came to doing homework with his children, and knew there had to be a better way, where kids would actually enjoy doing their Gemara review.

For a half hour every night, boys in fifth through eighth grades, from varied backgrounds and yeshivos, join together with their personal chavrusas. There are no prizes or games that other after-school programs have, though. Here, the incentive is the boys’ own desire to grow in their learning, and like in kollel, they too get a small “stipend” — a five dollar gift card to a local shop.

According to Rabbi Hertz, this “kollel” is not about boys checking off a box that they did their homework; they engage their brains without the classroom pressure, changing their mindset about Gemara learning and enjoying a happier and more fulfilled school experience. And according to reports from their Gemara rebbis, while these boys had needed heavy tutoring to keep up, the nightly half-hour of the Homework Kollel has transformed them into dynamic students with more confidence and participation.

The Homework Kollel has spread all the way from Lakewood to Florida, and Rabbi Hertz hopes to expand it to as many cities as possible, so even more boys can gain what Baruch has, changing the view of Gemara study from a painful, hopeless maze to a challenge they know they can not only meet, but enjoy and thrive from.

—Tamar Farajian

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 892)