About Us

Ours is a classic BT story. From campus Chabad Houses, we journeyed to Mayanot Yeshiva in Jerusalem. When we returned, our college Chabad emissaries helped make our shidduch. Now we’re building our family in New Haven, Connecticut.

 

Of course, nothing is as simple as it sounds. Along the way, we have struggled to translate the lessons of yeshiva into the key ingredients of our new life: deepening our relationship as a couple, raising spirited Jewish children, building a nurturing home, including extended family in our lives, pursuing meaningful careers and communal involvement, and making joint decisions about money and our future. With time, we have appreciated more and more the essential role of timely, personalized guidance from mentors, rabbis, and friends.

 

As we learned and grew, we saw our BT friends navigating similar journeys and realized that there was no central resource offering BT-specific guidance. So we founded the Baal Teshuva Center to provide guidance and practical tools for BTs integrating into religious community life after their yeshiva years. This website is the launching pad for our vision. With your support, we hope to build a guide for BT integration that will make a real difference in our communities. 

 

Every Jewish journey begins by asking the questions that matter. So that’s what we’ve done on our new podcast “Shuva: Full Circle.” In each episode, we bring on respected rabbis, thought leaders, visionaries, influencers, and BTs themselves, to discuss the do's and don’ts of building an inspired life. We’ll work toward practical answers while living with the hard questions.

 

Join us on our journey!

 

Emmett and Rivka