Spotlight on Yehuda Meyers (FYHS '08)

Graduating Year: 2008

Current Location: Lincolnwood 

Profession: Rabbi of Lincolnwood Jewish Congregation and a Therapist

Tell us a little bit about your family: Married with children. 

What is your favorite memory/(memories) from FYHS/HTC/Kayitz:

When I was a Freshman and in Rabbi Cardash’s math class, we heard Jason Ashman, who was a senior, scream that Michael Jordan was at Hillel Torah. Everyone thought he was joking (it was a common prank to get naive and gullible kids to run across to Hillel Torah). But something in my gut said it was real this time. I waited for Rabbi Cardash to leave the class to make a copy, and I ran across the field with a friend (Binyamin Dauber) to the Hillel Torah gym. We pried open the gym door and sure enough, sitting there in a baby blue Jordan tracksuit was Michael Jordan. I’m pretty sure he had a halo around him. I introduced myself, he shook my hand and I ran back to class. We immediately received detentions from Rabbi Wender. Mr. Pesce was the teacher who proctored our detention and the first thing he told us that he as an adult would have done the same thing and it was totally to worth to get a detention to meet MJ

In general, I had a lot of fun in the Yeshiva and made life long friends to this day. 

One of the reasons that I am a rabbi is Rabbi Polstein. I was a bit of a clown in High School but then got serious at Shaalvim. Rabbi Polstein had come for a visit and offered me to be a rebbe at Kayitz. It was the first time someone believed in me to be in a “rabbi” role. I was there for 5 summers and then got semicha from YU.

Please share a lesson/takeaway from your time at FYHS/HTC/Kayitz:

Rabbi Polstein was honored and spoke at the dinner last year. Something that he shared that really resonated with me was how there are alumni from the yeshiva learning in kollels in Jerusalem and serving in the IDF. The Yeshiva is equally proud of them. The beauty of the Yeshiva is that it really created a space for different types of expressions of being an Oved Hashem. 

Advice for current students:

 Find someone in your life that you can be fully open and honest with.