Meet the Kollel

Rabbi Ari Perl

Dean

Together with a group of visionary lay leaders, Rabbi Ari Perl founded the Community Kollel of Dallas (previously COTEL) in 2003 and served as its first Rosh Kollel. Committed to teaching Torah within the broader Dallas Jewish community, Rabbi Perl serves as Dean of the Community Kollel and Rabbinic Advisor to Yavneh Academy, in addition to his full-time duties as Rabbi of Congregation Shaare Tefilla. Rabbi Perl received his ordination from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (Yeshiva University) and earned a master’s degree in Jewish History. Rabbi Perl and his wife, Meira, are blessed with four children.

Rav Hanan Schlesinger serves as the Kollel’s director of community education. Previously, he served as the organization’s Rosh Kollel (Head Educator) from 2005-7. Rabbi Schlesinger was born in the United States but has spent most of his life in Israel after immigrating there at the age of twenty. He served in the Israeli army while attending the joint military-seminary program at the Har Eztion College of Jewish Studies, where he spent over eight years of study. Rabbi Schlesinger also engaged in master’s level studies in Jewish Philosophy at Hebrew University and briefly served as a junior faculty member there. His other faculty appointments include positions at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, the Yakar Learning Center, the B’aer Miriam College of Judaic Studies for Women, the Elul Center for Jewish Education, the Nishmat College of Advanced Jewish Studies for Women, Midreshet B’erot Bat Ayin, and the Bat Ayin Educational Center. From 1998-2000, Rabbi Schlesinger served as a fellow in the Boca Raton (FL) Judaic Fellows Program. He has also volunteered as a program director for the Christian Friends of Israeli Communities. He and his Israeli-born wife Ayala have four children, all of whom live in Israel. The oldest, 25, recently married and followed his father’s footsteps by studying in a combined military-seminary program at the Har Etzion College of Jewish Studies, where he is pursuing his bachelors'’ degree and teaching certificate. Two other children presently serve in the Israeli army, while another child studies social work at Hebrew University and actively participates in the school’s beit midrash program.

Rav Hanan Schlesinger

Director of Community Education/

Community Rabbinic Scholar

Rabbi Jay Weinstein

Program Coordinator

Congregation Shaare Tefilla

Rabbi Jay Weinstein oversees the Kollel’s educational programming at Congregation Shaare Tefilla, where he also serves as its Assistant Rabbi.

He is a graduate of Yeshiva University’s rabbinical seminary and also received ordination from Rabbi Zalman Nechemiah Goldberg in Jerusalem. Rabbi Jay also studied at YU’s affiliated Gruss Institute and at Yeshivat Har Etzion. He holds B.A. in Accounting from YU’s Sy Syms School of Business.

Rabbi Jay enjoys working with individuals with special needs. While completing a master’s degree in Special Education at Columbia University, Rabbi Jay taught students with disabilities at Yeshiva day schools and public schools in the New York metropolitan area. He is licensed by New York State in both General and Special Education.

Prior to his arrival in Dallas, Rabbi Jay served as the College Rabbi at Stern College and as the NCSY director of Mt. Kisco, NY. He has traveled to places like Belarus, San Francisco and Atlanta as a participant in YU educational programs.

Rabbi Jay lives in Dallas with his wife Sharon, a Judaic Studies and math instructor at Yavneh Academy, and their two year-old daughter Ora, who attends Akiba Academy.

Rabbi Joe Hirsch

Program Coordinator

Schultz Rosenberg Campus

Rabbi Joe Hirsch oversees the Kollel’s educational programming at the Schultz-Rosenberg Campus, home to Akiba Academy and Yavneh Academy. He also serves as a faculty member at Akiba Academy, where he has taught fourth grade students for the past three years. He recently won a prestigious grant to develop a character education curriculum for Akiba and develops innovative programming for the Kollel, including its path-breaking SHABBOX and Family Minyan programs.

Rabbi Hirsch completed his undergraduate (B.A., English Literature), graduate (M.A., Education) and rabbinical studies at Yeshiva University and resides in Dallas with his wife Abby, an occupational therapist, and three sons.

Rabbi Yaakov Tannenbaum oversees the educational planning and implementation of the Kollel’s beit midrash program, which services its Kollel Fellows, the Schultz Rosenberg Campus, and the broader Shaare Tefilla membership.

He received his rabbinical ordination from Mesivta Tiferet Yerushalayim under the guidance of the late Rabbi Moshe Feinstein and also earned a master’s degree in Sociology from Long Island University. Rabbi Tannenbaum blends his worldly Torah knowledge with an equally impressive scope of secular wisdom. For over a decade, Rabbi Tannenbaum infused his former community of Washington Heights, NY with his unique brand of Torah scholarship by delivering several shiurim (classes) on a wide range of topics.

In his professional life, Rabbi Tannenbaum served as the director of technology services for H.W. Wilson, a New York-based software publishing firm.

Rabbi Yaakov Tannenbaum

Senior Scholar

Shirley Rovinsky

Administrator

Shirley Rovinsky joins the Kollel staff with a strong background in communal work both as a professional and as a lay leader. She holds a master’s degree in Administration and Planning (University of Texas at Arlington, School of Social Work) and a bachelor’s degree in Sociology (University of Texas at Dallas, graduating Cum Laude). Her Executive Director positions include Akiba Academy of Dallas and Congregations Tiferet Israel and Temple Shalom. Shirley has served as President of Jewish Family Service, Akiba Academy of Dallas as well as its Parent Teacher Association, and B'nai B'rith Women’s Council of Presidents.

An active volunteer in her community, Shirley has served on the boards of the Jewish Federation, Jewish Community Center, Regional Board of the Anti-Defamation League, District Board of B'nai B'rith Women, Hebrew Free Loan, Israel Bonds, Vaad Hakashruth, Zionist Organization of America, Hillel at the University of Texas and B'nai B'rith Youth Organization.

Shirley and husband Erven have received the Akiba Academy Civic Service Award, the Louis D. Brandeis Award from the Zionist Organization of America and the Pillars of Influence Award from Congregation Tiferet Israel. Their children are Rabbi Michael (Selina) Rovinsky and Robyn (Richard) Mirsky together with six grandchildren.