For the past eight years, Shoshan, a Touro grad who took a number of courses at Touro College in Israel (TCI), has served as the deputy managing director for North America and the U.K. at Olami, a global organization offering programs to Jewish students and Jewish young professionals including trips, mentorship, networking, learning and more. Since 2020, he has made the time to return as a teacher at TCI’s Department of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem. Before Olami, Shoshan’s career included 12 years as a rebbe, or teacher, at Shapell’s/Darche Noam, the premier institution in Jerusalem dedicated to helping college graduates and young professionals grow in their Jewish life and learning.

During his time at Shapell’s, Shoshan also managed with aplomb to earn a master’s degree in education from Harvard University. To Shoshan, the best teacher is the student, and at the moment, he is both. Along with a full-time career, as well as a wife and five children, he is studying remotely for a master’s degree at Touro’s Graduate School of Jewish Studies. “When I was young, Touro in Israel gave me the amazing opportunity to study at night while I was studying at yeshiva during the day, thereby providing me the means to realize my rabbinical dreams,” he says. “In my current experience as a 47-year-old student, I’ve been really, really impressed by the professors, who are warm and wise and knowledgeable, and there’s an environment of curious and intelligent students.”

At Touro, Shoshan is studying Jewish history, with a special interest in the last three centuries. “The lessons of history and of Jewish societies teach us a great deal not only about yesterday, but about today,” says Shoshan, explaining how his classroom education translates into the work he does today. “I am dealing with people and with communities every day. Learning, especially about humanity and society, creates perspectives that help us understand life and the world around us.”

At Shapell’s, for example, Shoshan created a new form of student recruitment. “I focused less on international speaking tours to create broad awareness and spent more time on developing personal relationships with educators in North America, who sent their students to study with us on account of the connections they felt with the yeshiva, and the trust they had in me and my colleagues.”

Shoshan’s commitment to his students shows up even when he’s on the road, including recently when he set his alarm for 2:45 am in an Austin, Texas hotel room to teach his students in Israel.

Even COVID didn’t slow down Shoshan, who grew up in Chicago. Long before the pandemic, Shoshan and his Olami colleagues had discovered the world of remote meetings. When the virus struck, his group was Zoom-savvy; they pivoted seamlessly to conducting professional education programs to students full time online.

“Today, our educators and our administrators from around the world are even more integrated than they were a few years back,” he says. “A rabbi in Palo Alto who has colleagues with whom he works, and on whom he depends, in Orlando and Tel Aviv interacts with them whenever he wants.”

Shoshan is particularly proud of a program in the U.S. and Israel called Olami Scholars, which brought some 20 organizations to Jerusalem in 2022 for a first-ever job fair. Another tradition born: The second job fair was held on February 14, 2023.

It’s no small achievement either, that since becoming part of Touro’s faculty in 2020, enrollment in his class has grown each of the three years so far. “None of what I’ve done would have been possible without Touro,” he says. “Touro has been a key part of my professional and personal life for more than 25 years. I am now a Touro student, an alumnus and a faculty member. I am very fortunate and proud.”