Voices singing in Hebrew rise in lovely harmony — until one voice breaks into a caterwaul, followed by laughter.

The singers, a group of young men in black suits and open-necked white shirts and black hats, smiling and chatting, came sauntering through the lobby of the Adas Israel Shul on North Avenue in Elizabeth, heading out for their lunch break on a recent Wednesday afternoon.

That light-hearted atmosphere is something those in charge of Yeshivas Be’er Yitzchok, housed at the synagogue, say they deliberately cultivate. Rabbi Avrohom Schulman, who heads up the seven-year-old yeshiva, and his administrator, Dovid Zweig, attribute its growing popularity to the fact that studying there is so evidently enjoyable.

“We’re very easy-going here,” Schulman said, talking during lunch break. “When people come here, they’re welcomed with a smile.”

Started in 2000 with around 15 students, the post-high school men’s yeshiva now has an enrollment of 50 full-time students and a staff of four rabbis in addition to Schulman.

Last November, after a strenuous process of application and assessment, the yeshiva won college accreditation from the State of New Jersey for its four-year bachelor of Talmud studies. Yeshiva board member Gregg Rothstein, who organized an NJJN interview before taking part in the afternoon minyan, pointed out that it is the only state-accredited yeshiva in Union County, and one of only three in New Jersey. The others are in Morristown, Lakeside, and Edison.

Schulman emphasized the difference between his yeshiva and other academic institutions. “There is an underlying factor that this is not just about the classes; this is about doing what God wants us to do,” he said. “The students don’t just learn their academic subjects; they study how to be a good Jew, how one should live one’s life.”

That learning goes on from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. five days a week, interrupted by “three square meals,” according to Zweig. And once every three weeks the students also spend Shabbat there.

The impetus to start the yeshiva came from Rabbi Elazar Teitz, head of the Jewish Educational Center, Elizabeth’s interlocking network of Orthodox institutions. According to Schulman, Teitz wanted a focal point for adult Torah study in the community and a place that would show JEC students that learning continues throughout life. Before its founding, those wanting to study further attended yeshivas elsewhere in the country or in Israel.

Other attempts to establish an institution for higher learning offered only a part-time schedule and foundered for lack of support.

Primary funding for Yeshivas Be’er Yitzchok came from local philanthropist Danny Kahane and his wife, Claire. The yeshiva is named in memory of their fathers and an uncle.

While the students pay tuition, Rothstein and Schulman said, raising the necessary finances for the center is an ongoing challenge. “Fortunately, we’re blessed with very nice people on the board,” Schulman said with a smile.

Various fund-raising options are being used. One is the Parnas Hayom program, through which family members or friends of those studying at the yeshiva are invited — for $1,000 — to sponsor a day of Torah study in their honor or in tribute to a loved one.

As Teitz envisaged, the yeshiva has become a gathering place for those in the community eager to revive their religious studies — or to begin them (see sidebar). The kollel, or community of learners, is led by Schulman together with Rabbi Rephael Rubin, who works with different people all through the day, and Rabbi Mayer Glustein, Rabbi Kalman Rosenberg, and Rabbi Yitzchok Boylan, who all lead classes.

Among the regulars in the study hall and at services is Rothstein. He became involved with the yeshiva, he said, when his mother died in 2002, and he was looking for a morning minyan.

Now the Hillside architect is a member of the board of the yeshiva, in addition to serving as a vice president of the Jewish Federation of Central New Jersey and on the board of directors of the YM-YWHA of Union County.

Rothstein’s 14-year-old son has attended programs too, and his daughter sometimes joins the women behind the temporary mehitza at the yeshiva’s Saturday morning services. “It’s become a wonderful experience for my whole family,” he said.

The students themselves also teach, working one-on-one or with lay people, tutoring students at the JEC’s Rav Teitz Mesivta Academy Boys High School.

Teitz himself comes each morning for an hour of study. Another regular is philanthropist Sam Halpern, who also lent his voice to the effort to gain official recognition, attending a number of the accreditation meetings.

Rothstein explained that the yeshiva had to demonstrate the caliber of its teaching and that it had an appropriately organized library, and it does: the Bier and Herschfus Library, financed with a donation from Bryan and Andrea Bier. In another room is housed the personal collection of books gathered by Teitz’s revered father, Rabbi Pinchas Teitz.

Around 15 of the yeshiva students are married men who live in community; the others are single, most aged around 22. Some live in the community, a few come each day from Lakewood and Passaic, and the others live next door in an apartment building. A number of them are graduates of the JEC, and many have spent time studying in Israel.

At the conclusion of their time at the yeshiva, some of the students go on to study for the rabbinate. Others head off to study business or law or to start work in other fields. Zweig, who said that he would probably go into business when he leaves the yeshiva himself, said, “We’ve got a total cross-section of people here, with all kinds of different backgrounds and different interests.”

The one thing they have in common, he and Schulman said, is an ability to get on with other people. Schulman said that is a quality he seeks — in addition to intellectual ability and devotion to Torah — when he recruits students in Israel and elsewhere.

As they filtered back into the room, ready to take up their places at the tables and return to their books for another long afternoon of study, the students, their faces bright and smiles at the ready, illustrated his point. “We have a very warm atmosphere here,” he said.

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