Antwerp's New Rabbis Tutor Diamond Giants

At a ceremony marking the recent ordination of 10 new rabbis who have studied for the past year at the Chabad-Lubavitch yeshiva in Antwerp, Belgium, the festivities placed a inadvertent spotlight on the city's business leaders.

As a supplement to their studies, the students would go out into the community to learn Torah with Antwerp's Jewish professionals.

Local businessman Ronen Cohen served as the perfect example of that commitment by completing a tractate of the Talmud at the ceremony. "It is amazing what a few students could do during their free time," he said.

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"The students dedicated a year to intensive rabbinical studies and during their free time would go to the Diamond Center, where they would meet up with the business community, study with them and do holiday services with them," reported Richa Slavaticki, co-director of Chabad-Lubavitch of Antwerp.

According to Tamir Ohayan, the injection of Judaism into the business day was a welcome occurrence.

"The students brought a new aspect to our business community," said Ohayan. "It was not like we were just a part of a massive group of people; rather the students had personal relationships with everyone of us."

During the course of the evening, the crowd listened to an in-depth analysis in Jewish law from the Chief Rabbi of Strasbourg, France, Rabbi Shmuel Akivah Jaffe. Rabbi Yirmiyahu Cohen, head of the rabbinical court in Paris, ordained the students following a test from Rabbi Yitzchok Hertz of the Chabad-Lubavitch yeshiva in London.

Said Hertz: "The secret of the students' success lies in their approach to learning of Jewish law and in adding in the learning of Chassidic teachings."