Jewish Learning Institute

Chabad-Lubavitch adult education organisation in Brooklyn, also called the Rohr Jewish Learning Institute (JLI), which writes courses taught at Chabad centres worldwide

Rohr Jewish Learning Institute
Type	Tax-exempt religious organisation (classified by the IRS as a church)
Headquarters	832 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, New York
Key people	Efraim Mintz (executive director); Moshe Kotlarsky (chairman, died 2024); George Rohr (principal benefactor)
Website	myjli.com

The Jewish Learning Institute (JLI), also known as the Rohr Jewish Learning Institute, is the adult education arm of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement. It writes courses that local Chabad emissaries teach in their own communities under the JLI name. It describes itself as "the world's preeminent provider of Jewish learning", serving "learning centers in over 1,800 communities and on the internet". Its flagship programme began in 1998. The organisation is named after the New York investor George Rohr, its principal benefactor.

History and leadership

In a 2024 interview with Ami magazine, Rohr said he was "a founding partner", together with Moshe Kotlarsky of Merkos and Rabbi Efraim Mintz, "whose brilliant brainchild JLI was". He said Mintz had been "incubating a concept for a cutting-edge, high-quality, pedagogically sophisticated adult Jewish education" programme, and that "I took the risk and invested quite significantly in the startup of JLI". JLI, he said, quickly went from "an extremely high-risk investment to a philanthropic sure bet". JLI's website lists Kotlarsky, who died in June 2024, as chairman. It names Rohr as principal benefactor and Mintz as executive director. Its executive committee is made up of emissaries from San Antonio, Columbia (South Carolina), Montreal, Toronto, Potomac (Maryland), San Rafael (California) and New London (Connecticut). Its academic advisory board includes the historian Jonathan Sarna and the linguist Lewis Glinert. An advisory board of governors, with Rohr listed first, includes donors from Potomac, Aspen, San Diego, Tenafly, Columbia and Miami Beach. Lubavitch.com describes Rohr, president of NCH Capital, as chairman of both the Rohr Jewish Learning Institute and the Chabad on Campus International Foundation.

Programmes

According to JLI, its flagship programme offers "three accredited courses per year" in "over 600 locations worldwide", accredited "for continuing legal and medical education". In 2026 COLlive reported that the courses would run at "over 500 Chabad Houses". JLI also runs:

• Torah Studies, a weekly class on the Torah portion, founded in 2004 and offered "in 275 cities on six continents";
• the Rosh Chodesh Society for women;
• JLI Teens;
• MyShiur, for Talmud study;
• TorahCafé, an online library of "over 5,000 video lectures";
• the National Jewish Retreat, held each year since 2006, which JLI describes as "five days of luxury and learning" with "over 150 sessions".

For 2026–27, COLlive reported that JLI had for the first time hired "three leading marketing agencies" for its course campaigns, and was building tools to give emissaries "greater control over their recruitment". The year's three flagship courses were on kabbalah, on the Land of Israel and on Jewish food.

On campuses JLI's material is used in the Sinai Scholars Society, run with Chabad on Campus International. Students attend eight two-hour classes and at least three events, including "a Shabbat experience, a class retreat and a closing gala". They write a reaction paper and "a five-page (minimum) research paper", and those who complete the course receive a stipend. Course options include "The Land and the Spirit: Why We All Care About Israel".

Israel

Israel has been a recurring subject of JLI courses and trips. Since 2008 JLI has run "The Land & The Spirit", a "luxurious biennial Israel experience". Its website says participants "encounter Israel's modern heroes, soldiers, prominent politicians, newsmakers, and some of the greatest kabalists and Torah giants of our time".

In June 2024, during the war on Gaza, JLI and Jewish Educational Media launched "How Israel Wins", a ninety-minute video seminar written by Rabbi Naftali Silberberg of JLI and Rabbi Elkanah Shmotkin of JEM. It presents Menachem Mendel Schneerson's views on Israel's security, under the headings "Responding to international criticism", "Sustaining the Israel-USA partnership", "Evaluating security risks", "Measuring military success" and "Perspectives on 'land for peace'". The announcement quoted the Israeli diplomat Yehuda Avner on the Rebbe's "grasp of our geopolitical strategic situation". It said that "As the war in Israel drags on and antisemitism roars louder than ever", the seminar would give Jewish communities "some much-needed answers". Schneerson opposed giving up any of the territory Israel had occupied in the 1967 war. Joseph Telushkin writes that "The Rebbe always held that his opposition to returning even one inch of land was based on his belief that no reliable peace agreements could be established with any of Israel's Arab neighbors".

JLI's winter course for 2026–27, The Missing Piece, also by Silberberg, is a six-lesson course on "why does a patch of land matter to Judaism?". COLlive says it covers "what the Torah says about preemptive strikes, ceasefires, and trading land for peace". Silberberg told COLlive: "Without Eretz Yisroel, the Torah's ideas remain abstract."

Finances

The organisation is registered with the Internal Revenue Service as Jewish Learning Institute Inc (EIN 43-2090061), in care of Efraim Mintz at 832 Eastern Parkway, under the sort name "The Rohr Jewish Learning Institute". Its exemption ruling dates from August 2006. The IRS record gives it foundation code 10 and filing requirement code 06. In the IRS key these mean a "Church 170(b)(1)(A)(i)" that is "Not required to file" a Form 990. As a result no public returns exist showing its income, spending or pay.

See also

• George Rohr
• Moshe Kotlarsky
• Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch
• Chabad on Campus International Inc.
• Kinus Hashluchim