“I feel privileged to be a part of the Denver Community Kollel and the Denver Jewish Community,” says Rabbi Dovid Schwartzberg. Rabbi Schwartzberg, along with his family, relocated to Denver from Lakewood, New Jersey at the end of August to become the newest member of the Kollel.
The Schwartzbergs are the first of a group of young families who are moving to Denver this fall to join the Kollel. Their arrival marks the start of a new era, as they will inject energy and vibrancy into the Denver Jewish Community.
Rabbi Schwartzberg joins the Kollel’s Beis Medrash for full-day study sessions, and has also begun giving classes to the broader community. Kerry Berman attends the Kollel’s Learn-to-Learn program, held twice weekly at Aish Denver, and enjoys Rabbi Schwartzberg’s method of teaching Talmud. “His style is really geared toward enabling us to learn how to read and understand the Gemara,” he says. “He has a unique, intense approach to Talmud study, and I think it’ll lend itself to learning the material well.”
Rabbi Schwartzberg was born and raised in the Boro Park section of Brooklyn. He studied in the yeshiva of Rabbi Tzvi Kaplan in Jerusalem, and then joined Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood, NJ. He and his wife, Batsheva, married in 2008.
The Schwartzbergs participated in the Ner L’elef Jewish Outreach Training Course. They completed the two-year course in 2010.
For the past four summers, Rabbi Schwartzberg directed a camp for high-school age boys in Lakewood, where he also gave a daily Talmud lecture to the campers. Mrs. Schwartzberg, too, has extensive experience with summer camps, having directed a large day camp for a number of years.
Mrs. Schwartzberg has a number of years of experience as a classroom teacher. Since her arrival in Denver, she has assumed the fifth-grade teaching position in Hillel Academy.
The Schwartzbergs are quite impressed with the Denver Jewish Community. “Everyone has been so gracious to us since our arrival,” says Mrs. Schwartzberg. “We have received enough food to last us for a whole month!”
“Rabbi Schwartzberg has brought a great deal of talent and vigor to Denver,” says Kollel Dean Rabbi Shachne Sommers. “The Kollel welcomes and looks forward to great things from the Schwartzbergs.”