When Cleveland educator Rabbi Rick Schindelheim made aliyah in 2024 with his wife and four children, he wasn’t sure what the next chapter of his career would look like. He had taught Judaic studies in Cleveland and worked at Camp Stone as a school psychologist, where he met his wife. Rick credits his upbringing for instilling a deep connection to aliyah and Zionism.
As their children grew older, he and his wife began to consider moving to Israel more seriously. Realizing they should move sooner rather than later, they decided to go for it.
His wife, a dentist, found the transition relatively straightforward. “Teeth in Israel are also teeth in America, the same kind of thing, right? So root canals are root canals,” says Rick. While she had to improve her Hebrew, she is thriving with more work than she can handle.
For Rick, the transition was more complex. Though passionate about Jewish education, he wasn’t sure how this would translate in Israel. Many people advised him to pivot to hi-tech, the yeshiva/seminary world, or teaching American students. Although he considered these options, Rick ultimately chose to immerse himself fully in Israeli education, teaching English at Neve Shmuel Yeshiva High School for Boys in Efrat under Ohr Torah Stone.
He quickly discovered he could connect with Israeli students and navigate their high school system. Though teaching English in the evenings wasn’t ideal, it gave him a foothold in Israeli education.
<br><strong>The birth of Nelech</strong>
At the beginning of the academic year, American philanthropist David Magerman approached Ohr Torah Stone with the idea of launching Nelech, a transformative program that immerses Modern Orthodox high school students from North America in Israeli schools for a semester. Six months later, Rabbi Dr. Kenneth Brander, President and Rosh HaYeshiva of Ohr Torah Stone and Rick's former boss at Yeshiva University, and the Ohr Torah Stone team asked him to lead the project. Today, he heads Nelech, a new initiative under the Ohr Torah Stone umbrella funded by Magerman through the Tzemach David Foundation, which offers students a unique opportunity to deepen their connection to Israel and Judaism while developing leadership skills to bring home.
Next year, in January 2026, Nelech will launch its pilot program with a cohort of 25 students from across the US, slightly exceeding its original goal of 24. Demand was so high that some applicants had to be turned away. Participants come from cities including New York, New Jersey, Phoenix, Dallas, Atlanta, and Philadelphia and spend a semester living and studying in Israel.
Nelech is unique, as it is the only Orthodox full-semester program that almost fully integrates students into Israeli schools, offering an authentic experience of Israeli society; no other program does this.
Magerman’s vision is to encourage more young people to consider aliyah and attend college in Israel. Most modern Orthodox American students spend a year or two in Israel but then return to the US. The theory behind Nelech is simple: if students spend a meaningful time integrated in the Israeli education system, it becomes a real option when they begin planning their futures.
<br><strong>Goals and vision</strong>
Rick explains that Nelech is designed to make students fall in love with Israel while also showing them the country’s day-to-day reality. The program aims to strengthen the students' Jewish identity and to inspire them to be shlichim tzi’irim (young emissaries). By spending a semester of 10th grade in Israel, these students return to their North American schools equipped with the right tools to make an impact in their communities.
“We want them to think of Israel really as their home for the long term,” he said. “It’s a miracle…This is the most unbelievable story that's ever been told…A nation that was exiled from its land and never gave up. Read Israel's Declaration of Independence. We want them to come and just feel the magic… and then go and bring that fire back.”
At the same time, students experience Israel as a normal country. “It is a regular place where people get up and go to work in the morning and where people buy groceries and get cavities and go to the dentist. It's not just this magical place where we visit sometimes on vacation… or where we'll send our donations to this organization or that organization. It’s both magical and normal. We want them to have that experience.”
Rick wants the participants to see that making aliyah is realistic. “The goal is for students to say, ‘I really can do this. I can actually live here.’”
<br><strong>The concept behind the name</strong>
Nelech means “let’s go.” The name comes from the first chapter of Yehoshua, when the halutzim (pioneers) asked Moses if they could stay on the other side of the Jordan. Moses said they must first go and be the halutzim, and only after the rest of the nation settled in Israel could they go back. After Moses died, Yehoshua worried whether they would keep their promise. But the pioneers told him, “Everywhere you send us, Nelech, we will go.”
“That’s our inspiration,” Rick says. The program aims to inspire students to become pioneers in their communities and potentially influence their families to deepen their connection with Israel or even make aliyah themselves.
Next steps and future goals
Looking ahead, Rick and his team hope to grow the program, expand its reach across the US, and potentially even globally.
The ultimate goal is to empower the participants to be pioneers in their communities and for Nelech to become a well-known program in all schools. Over time, Nelech alumni may lead religious Zionist programming, organize rallies, and initiate Jewish and Israeli clubs. “Their impact in their communities is going to be felt, and it is going to be palpable,” Rick says.
He draws a parallel between visiting Israel and dating: “On the first couple of dates, you're doing fun stuff, you're getting ice cream, but you don’t really have a sense, can I spend the rest of my life with this person?”
Unlike a short trip, Nelech provides students the chance to truly experience Israel in a deeper, more meaningful way.
Reflecting on his own aliyah, Rick shared that he didn’t move to Israel because of a ready-made opportunity to run a program. “I didn't wake up one morning and say, 'I got to get high school kids to come here,'” he says. Instead, the project came to him, and he embraced it.
He emphasizes that making aliyah doesn’t mean abandoning one’s roots: “We did not run away from Cleveland. We love Cleveland…but it is in fact possible to live in Israel and for your kids to go to an Israeli school.”
Through his work with Nelech, Rick hopes to encourage others to consider aliyah and to make the transition easier and more fulfilling.