Something is shifting in the kiruv world, and it’s not happening where you’d expect it

J

acob had his life mapped out perfectly. The Columbia University senior from Princeton Junction, NJ, had been accepted to grad school and had a Department of Defense job waiting for him in August 2024. He had reached his goals and should have been content, but something was missing. He craved entrepreneurship over bureaucracy. And, as it turns out, a relationship with his Creator.

When his campus rabbi asked if Torah Links could find him an internship opportunity, we connected Jacob with a six-week position at a fast-growing Lakewood e-commerce company.

By summer’s end, Jacob told us: “If this place makes me a legitimate offer, I’ll drop grad school and the DoD job.”

They did.

He did.

A year later, Jacob has multiple weekly chavrusas and a Toraso B’umnaso learning seder at his office. He is considering enrolling in a yeshivah for baalei teshuvah and has become more engaged with the details of leading a Torah-true lifestyle.

That’s workplace kiruv in action: not teaching, just practicing.

Something is shifting in the kiruv world, and it’s not happening where you’d expect it.

I have been involved in kiruv for the past twelve years, including seven years in California. For the last two years, I have served as director of kiruv at Torah Links while also being actively involved with JX, a college kiruv organization run by my brother Aharon together with Rabbi Meir Goldberg. JX operates across multiple campuses throughout the Tristate area, including Princeton, Rutgers, and Columbia. Through this combination of roles, I have had a front-row seat to observe and engage with this phenomenon firsthand.

As Rabbi Meir Goldberg of JX so eloquently put it back in Issue 922, there are many people — particularly after October 7 — who are still coming back through traditional routes. Traditional kiruv still works beautifully for many students, in particular those who are already connected to their Jewish identity. The Shabbos meals, philosophy shiurim, Israel trips — all of that remains powerful for seekers.

But what about the “fifth son” at the Pesach Seder — the one who doesn’t even show up? Not the rasha who challenges or the tam who asks simple questions, but the Jewish students so disconnected they wouldn’t even know there’s a Seder happening. For these completely alienated Jews — and unfortunately, there more and more Jews raised in America completely unaffiliated — traditional kiruv doesn’t just fall flat. They won’t even walk through the door.

But here’s the thing: The door they are willing to walk through is the one that will advance their careers, and it turns out that that’s where they are finding Yiddishkeit.

Young Jews who couldn’t care less about finding themselves are somehow discovering Yiddishkeit in the most ordinary places — their summer internships.

Imagine this: A college student needs an internship for his business major. He applies to some firm in Lakewood because, hey, it’s close to campus and the pay is decent. Six weeks later — and I’m not making this up — he’s got a chavrusa. Not because anyone pushed him to it, but because he kept hearing his boss mention his learning seder the way other people talk about their gym routine. Just part of life.

We’re really trying to solve two challenges here: How do we get these disconnected students in the door in the first place, and then how do we deliver the message that Judaism is actually important and integral to the overall success of so many people who have accomplished what these students are looking for in their own lives. It’s not just about religion — it’s about seeing a whole way of living that actually works.

Torah Links, founded by Rabbi Ezriel Munk and Rabbi Aaron Gruman in 1995, started the Lakewood Fellowship program in 2012 under the auspices of Rabbi Yehuda Farber and Rabbi Moshe Katz. The first-of-its-kind kiruv internship program was based on this simple concept: Bring students into frum workplaces, expose them to living Jewish values in action, and watch what happens.

Since then, 500 total participants in the Lakewood Fellowship have had meaningful Jewish experiences, and approximately 150 have become fully shomer mitzvos. A very important component of the success of the Lakewood Fellowship is the exposure to frum family living over each weekend shabbaton.

Take Sam, a Binghamton student who joined the Fellowship after his freshman year. He came back for a second summer and something just “clicked.” Today he’s fully observant and working full-time in Lakewood. His whole transformation happened because of real-world exposure to frum professionals living integrated Torah lives.

This model has been replicated successfully. Notably, the Shaar in Far Rockaway, as recently featured in Mishpacha, also has a stellar summer internship program with terrific results, with solid numbers of students staying in The Shaar full-time after the summer. Since 2023, out of nearly 60 interns who attended the summer program at the Shaar, 15 have gone on to full-time yeshivah after the summer.

I recently bumped into a colleague who’s been in campus kiruv for decades. He told me something that really stuck with me: “When I give my most inspiring shiur about purpose and meaning, the disconnected students often can’t connect. But when their supervisor casually mentions that he davens Minchah before his two-thirty meeting, suddenly they’re curious. When a successful businessman shares the same Torah values I was teaching, but in the context of quarterly reports, it lands completely differently.”

And you know what? He’s absolutely right. I used to think I needed the perfect speech, the most compelling arguments. Turns out, watching a frum CFO navigate a tough negotiation with integrity hits harder than any drashah I could give.

This model is really evolving into year-round opportunities now, with multiple entry points.

Inspired by a group of JX students who had an incredible experience at H3, last year Torah Links launched our inaugural J3 networking conference at Bell Works, bringing together 100 business leaders and 100 not-yet-frum college students and young professionals. The low-commitment format proved perfect for initial engagement, which was exactly what we were hoping for.

During a philanthropy panel, a major real estate developer mentioned offhandedly that “our purpose is to give.” Three days later, I get a text from a participant who was already somewhat committed: “Rabbi, I set up a monthly donation to my local synagogue. That guy on the panel... when he said that about giving, I realized he actually meant it. This wasn’t some rich guy virtue signaling. He really believes that’s why he’s here.”

Even though he had some connection already, seeing someone live their values authentically moved him to take deeper action.

From J3, 20 participants signed up for summer programs, several chavrusas began right there at the event, and businessmen hosted spontaneous shabbatons. Two participants landed full-time jobs in frum workplaces.

We have more than 200 students scheduled to join J3 this year and are looking forward to having even more connections come from it.

This concept of initiating involvement via career development has multiple origination points. Tremendous credit goes to the legendary innovator and director of JX NYU, Rabbi E., who really initiated the whole mehalech of recruiting kids for Jewish networking that can be utilized to build deeper connections.

The hook is professional development; the result is Jewish growth.

Under the visionary leadership of Rabbi Shlomo Landau, the Olami Mentorship Program has become a powerful channel for building genuine, relatable connections between students, young professionals, and accomplished frum business leaders.

The model is simple yet transformative: Each student or young professional is paired with a successful man or woman in a similar career track. What begins as professional guidance often grows into a meaningful relationship that touches every area of life. Conversations flow naturally, spanning the full spectrum — the professional and the personal, the social and the spiritual.

For the mentee, the impact is profound. They receive objective, real-world advice from someone who has already navigated the path they aspire to follow. At the same time, they gain a rare window into the world of a frum professional — the complexity, depth, balance, and meaning that characterize a Torah way of life. For many, it opens up a completely new realm of possibility.

Since its inception in 2021, the program has engaged close to 3,000 dedicated mentors across the globe. Week after week, these men and women devote their time to making a difference in the life of one precious Jewish neshamah. The result is nothing short of transformative: a network of relationships that not only guide careers, but also nurture souls and strengthen Jewish identity.

At Princeton, we have the Aleph Investment Club that attracts students for résumé-building, but soon they’re analyzing investments through halachic lenses and meeting frum finance professionals. They enter for careers and stay for connection. One recent graduate took a position at a Passaic-based finance company after he drove home one of the executives who had come to lecture at Princeton.

Recently we have discovered the power of the full-time job opportunity to help us create a more universal appeal. Remember Jacob? With a full-time job already lined up? He would never have given us a shot if it had been just a six-week internship without the possibility of continuing full-time.

Over the summer of 2025, Torah Links placed over 60 interns in frum workplaces across medical research, engineering, real estate, computer science, and more. In the past year, six participants transitioned to full-time roles. Two Summer 2024 interns now learn regularly and own tefillin. Another one placed in June learns with his CEO and is heading on a Heritage Retreats trip. Rabbi Naftali Hanfling of Olami New York City has also been an early adopter and has three non-frum students working at frum companies.

The trend is accelerating, and it’s pretty wild to watch. I recently received six résumés from nonreligious students seeking full-time opportunities, while three Lakewood companies reached out asking for talent, from CMO positions to full-stack developers. The whole ecosystem is starting to click into place.

Here’s the kicker though: It’s not just the students who benefit. These college-educated young professionals bring skills that many frum companies desperately need. That traditional manufacturing business? They now have a Rutgers comp-sci grad building their e-commerce platform. The heimish accounting firm? Their new hire streamlined their entire digital workflow.

I’m getting calls from business owners asking, “Rabbi, do you have any more students like that last one you sent?” They’re not calling because they want to do kiruv — they’re calling because these kids know Python, Excel modeling, social media marketing. Skills that, let’s be honest, aren’t exactly part of the yeshivah curriculum.

One CEO told me: “I used to hire these interns as chesed. Now? I’m fighting other companies to get them. When they connect to Yiddishkeit through our workplace, they become our most loyal employees.”

In many cases, the employers don’t even realize they’re doing kiruv. They’re just trying to run Torah-true businesses. But when your corporate culture naturally reflects Jewish values, spiritual growth happens organically.

Here’s what I learned that excites me most: Every frum business owner can do this. You don’t need a kiruv budget or special training — just be yourself, authentically and naturally.

The young Jews walking into these offices aren’t looking for G-d, they’re looking for internships, jobs, mentorship. But when they meet people who can close million-dollar deals and also close their eyes with kavanah during bentshing, something just clicks.

“Nobody tried to be mekarev me,” one of our participants told me recently. “I just saw people living lives that made sense. They had careers, families, ambitions — all the stuff I want. But they also had this structure, I guess? This bigger picture that tied it all together.”

Look, there are definitely pitfalls here. Nobody wants their workplace to feel like some undercover kiruv operation. The successful examples I’ve seen maintain clear professional boundaries. Values are lived, not preached. Shabbos invitations are genuine friendship, not recruitment tactics.

Maybe that’s what modern kiruv really looks like: not convincing people to be religious, but simply showing them what a religious life actually looks like up close. No filters, no sales pitch. Just life.

The best argument for Torah isn’t an argument at all, it’s a life well lived, witnessed from the next cubicle over.

We’re at a pivotal moment here. The infrastructure is in place, the model has been tried and proven, and the demand exists on both sides. Now we just need you to open your doors. It’s really that simple.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 1096)