Just what is the Wisconsin Institute for Torah Study?

At a residential school for Orthodox boys and men, there’s pride in being community centered

On a typical Friday night, a yeshiva student at the local Wisconsin Institute for Torah Study may find himself davening at a local Orthodox synagogue to complete their minyan before heading to Shabbat dinner with his classmates. 

The Wisconsin Institute for Torah Study, an all-boys yeshiva on the East Side of Milwaukee, provides students with a rigorous co-curricular dormitory education. Though this format is common for Orthodox yeshivas, WITS prides itself on being community centered. This is a mission inspired by the school’s roots in Yeshivas Chofetz Chaim in Queens, New York, also known as Rabbinical Seminary of America, which trains rabbis to become community leaders and instill Jewish ethics.  

The school runs seven days a week, 11 months a year. “They’re always here. We’re serving three meals a day… we’re doing everything for the boys here,” said Rabbi Dovid Brafman, director of development at WITS and alumnus of the yeshiva. 

The student body includes around 100 students who mostly come from other cities in America, with about 25% from Milwaukee. More than half the students are in the WITS high school, learning Torah in the morning and into the early afternoon, followed by secular studies into the evening. The rest of the students are post-high school and learn in-depth Torah studies in the Bais Medrash program.  

Rabbi Brafman is one of many other WITS graduates who have returned to Milwaukee to serve the Jewish community. “The director of Yeshiva Elementary School is a WITS boy. There are so many teachers who are WITS graduates,” Brafman said.  

The return of alumni to the Milwaukee community is no coincidence, Brafman said. Three rabbis,  Raphael Wachsman z”l, Moshe Dov Harris and Yehuda Cheplowitz, started WITS in 1980. All three learned in the Haredi Chofetz Chaim yeshiva in Queens, New York, founded by Rabbi Dovid Leibowitz. Rabbi Leibowitz came to America to “build yeshivas across the nation – high schools, day schools, girls’ schools, shuls, outreach centers – and spread Torah,” Brafman said.  

Rabbi Leibowitz was inspired by his rabbi in Europe, the Alter of Slabodka, who was known for helping students build character beyond analytical skills. He taught students the mission of “sanctifying G-d’s name in every action you do,” Brafman said, “and what better way to sanctify God’s name than teaching Torah to the masses?”  

“Today there are over 80 institutions across the country, thousands and thousands of students throughout the network of [institutions inspired by] Yeshivas Chofetz Chaim – from Milwaukee to St. Louis to Cleveland to Los Angeles, to San Diego… Dallas, Miami, Boca, Palm Beach,” Brafman said.  

WITS is one of these institutions, and according to Brafman, its Chofetz Chaim mission to create leaders in the Jewish community “hasn’t changed one iota.”   

When some families in Glendale wanted to start an Orthodox synagogue, WITS sent its students to help make their house minyan until they gathered enough people to make a consistent minyan. Today, that minyan has become the Orthodox synagogue Anshe Sfar Kehillat Torah. WITS students still head to Glendale every Shabbat to join Rabbi Akiva Freilich’s minyan at the synagogue Ohr Torah. “It’s just to be there, for the exposure to the community members,” Brafman said.  

Every Friday, WITS students visit Ovation Communities, a Jewish senior living facility close to Downtown Milwaukee. “I was just talking to the director there,” said Brafman, “and he keeps telling me, ‘I’ve got to figure out a way to get you guys to come on Shabbos. You have no idea how nice it is for the residents to have the boys come by.’” 

Boys from the local Orthodox high school, Bader Hillel High, frequently come to WITS to “hang out with our boys,” Brafman said. “They want to see something different, which is amazing.” 

This time outside of the classroom environment allows the students to be exposed to the local community. Brafman said it’s all part of the larger Chofetz Chaim mission to create alumni who are invested in their community.   

Many of these ideas, such as how to hold yourself beyond the yeshiva environment, are taught in weekly “musar schmoozes,” discussions on ethics and character. “You can be a brilliant guy in Torah, but if you don’t have any middos, you’re out to lunch. It’s not going to make a difference,” Brafman said of the yeshiva’s philosophy. This is inspired by Yeshivas Chofetz Chaim’s focus on character building.  

The yeshiva’s policy has always been to accept students even if they can’t pay tuition, Brafman said. Despite the difficulties this causes, the rabbis are committed to making the yeshiva accessible and continuing the Chofetz Chaim legacy which brought them to Wisconsin.  

“Everything that we’re doing at WITS is all about kindness, all about giving and helping people,” Brafman said. “That’s our mission. That’s what we’re here to do.”