On Sunday, October 17, Yeshivas Beis Hillel of Passaic unfurled the white banner hanging above the front of the building to reveal the dedication of the state-of-the-art campus as the “Shirley E. and Avrom R. Vann Campus.” To the delight of all assembled, including the children, grandchildren and young great-grandchildren of the Vanns, the newly revealed letters reflect the long and focused journey of the Vanns in their philanthropic pursuits.
How patron Moshe Tussie transformed his hometown into a Torah citadel
Back in 1975, a visionary named Moshe Tussie realized that the only way for a yeshivah day school to succeed in Mexico would be to import a kollel along with it. That first endeavor turned into an unquenchable drive for the communal askan, who today has dozens of kollelim under his umbrella in a country few imagined as a Torah citadel
The main boulevard of Mexico City’s upscale Polanco neighborhood feels almost like Thirteenth Avenue in Boro Park, but in a Spanish version. Mothers push strollers along its leafy sidewalk strips while kollel yungeleit, seforim tucked under their arms, hurry past the high-rise office buildings and gleaming storefront showcases.