“Lama Nigara – Why not us?!” That was the message to Dirshu earlier this year from the Torah community of Panama! The thriving Torah community in Panama is home to wonderful mosdos of Torah, schools, yeshivos, kolelim and shuls. Yes, the Torah community and the shuls in this South American haven for Yiddishkeit are thriving, but prominent community members felt that something was missing.

Members of the Panama community therefore reached out to Dirshu’s Nasi, Rav Dovid Hofstedter and other senior members of hanhalas Dirshu, asking, “Why not us?”

Now their question is being answered in the form of the upcoming “Maamad Ahavas HaTorah” that will be held this coming 8 Adar/February 25 at the large About Attie Auditorium in Panama City.

The massive maamad of chizuk will feature a siyum on Masechta Pesachim that is being learned in the Dirshu Amud HaYomi program, but it will be much more than a siyum. It will be a kinnus of chizuk, a kinus of ahavas haTorah and a kinus of kabbolas haTorah!

Members of the Panama community led by their Rabbanim that represent the entire cross-section of the Torah observant population in Panama, will come and show their desire to join one of Dirshu’s popular programs followed by what promises to be an explosion of new Dirshu shiurim in shuls and mekomos haTorah throughout the community. Shiurim on Amud HaYomi, Daf HaYomi B’Halacha, Kinyan HaTorah and Kinyan Chochma will be started and new testing sites opened.

The event will feature special international guests including Rav Eli Mansour, shlita, Rav of the Edmond J. Safra Synagogue in Brooklyn, Rav Dovid Hofstedter, shlita, Nasi of Dirshu and many local Rabbanim.

A highlight of the event will be the singular video messages recorded especially for the event by leading Gedolei Torah from Eretz Yisrael. Special messages tailormade for the Panama community will be given over by HaGaon HaRav Moshe Hillel Hirsch, shlita, Rosh Yeshiva of the Slabodka Yeshiva, HaGaon HaRav Avraham Salim, shlita, Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva Me’or HaTorah, HaGaon HaRav Dovid Cohen, shlita, Rosh Yeshiva of the Chevron Yeshiva, and HaGaon HaRav Shlomo Yedidya Zafrani, shlita, Av Beis Din, Kesser Torah and Rosh Yeshivas Sifsei Chaim.

Indeed, the impact of Dirshu on the communities of South America has been colossal!

In the past two years alone, thousands of Yidden throughout South America have joined Dirshu programs. Whether in Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo, or Mexico City, hundreds of Dirshu shiurim have opened. The shiurim on Masechta Pesachim have caught on like wild fire. The slower pace of the Amud HaYomi has empowered so many community members to truly be koveia ittim l’Torah in a way that they walk away with true Torah knowledge. The Dirshu testing centers have been full. 

Perhaps the words said by one of the senior Gedolei Hador, Rav Moshe Hillel Hirsch, best encapsulates what this event will accomplish for Panama Jewry. When Rav Moshe Hillel heard about Dirshu’s plan for a major chizuk event in Panama, he exclaimed, “I have seen what Dirshu’s program to strengthen the learning of Torah, whether it is Gemara or halacha, has done for the Jews of Eretz Yisrael and America. They have added so much to the spiritual lives of those who are part of Dirshu and who have upgraded their Torah learning in a profound way. I am certain that joining Dirshu’s programs will likewise tremendously elevate the level of Torah learning in Panama.”