lubavitchinternational

1WWW.LUBAVITCH.COM

LUBAVITCHINTERNATIONALNEWS FROM THE CHABAD–LUBAVITCH GLOBAL NETWORK | SEPT./OCT. 2011

ב’’ה

iNTerNaTioNalPM netanyahu SalutesChabad of the fSuPG 8

RABBINICAL STUDENTS COMPLETE

COAST-TO-COAST BIkIng STInT

continued on page 7

MaCHNe israel/CHabad lUbaviTCH HeadqUarTers770 eastern Parkwaybrooklyn,NY 11213

Non Profit OrgUS POStAGE

PAIDPermit #1235Brooklyn, NY

NEXT FRONTIER INCHABAD OUTREACH:YOung JeWISh PROfeSSIOnALS

YoUTH aT risKRecovering Lives,And JudaismPG 3

continued on page 6

TravelSun, Surf& ShabbosIn SpainPG 14

The idea of developinga network within thisdemographic, nationallyand internationally isenormously promising.This is a community thatis vital now and to thefuture of Judaism.”

A YeAR of ShAke-UpS inSpiReS RefleCTion, ACTion

“For months we could not start buildingagain because the ground kept shak-

ing,” he said. support for the building proj-ect dried up as donors scattered around theworld and struggled to make up for theirown losses.

“everything is functioning, but the earth-quake changed everyone on a deeper level,”he said.

Now he expects the mikvah, the first onein Tokyo, to be completed and open in timefor rosh Hashanah. Until then, Japan's onlymikvah is in Kobe, a four-hour bullet train

ride away from Tokyo, with a ticket cost of$350.

Chabad centers throughout the world arenot relying on the harrowing momentsthroughout the Jewish year of 5771 to bringin worshippers this High Holiday season.Crowds will be large, record breaking insome areas, but the message is hopeful,urged on by the momentum of new accom-plishments.

in California, an area that had its share ofrichter readout moments, rabbi Moshe

Three rabbinical students rode their bikes to the finish line of a coast-to-coast benefitfor Friendship Circle international this summer.

The cyclists pushed off on the 4,000 mile trek on July 6 from Central Park in NewYork City, accompanied by their support vehicle. They arrived in los angeles on august22. along the way they visited 20 Friendship Circle chapters raising awareness and fundsfor the humanitarian program.

“We did an average of 110 miles a day over the seven weeks. at that rate, you needabout 9,000 calories per day instead of the usual 2,400,” explains 21 year-old Zalmi Perl-man, an avid runner. “We had to develop a special diet so we’d have enough energy.”

continued on page 11

israelIsrael’s President PeresOpens School Year atChabad SchoolPG 8

“W ith a bevy of educational andsocial services dedicated to

nearly every Jewish demographic,from preschoolers to senior citizens,Chabad representatives have in recentyears, independently, and withoutmuch fanfare, cultivated another fastgrowing demographic with astound-ing success.

Japan's 9.0 magnitude earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster six monthsago left Chabad of Tokyo representative Rabbi Mendi Sudakevich with an un-finished building, a half-completed mikvah, and a whole lot of uncertainty.

HOPE BEHIND THE HEADLINES:

2

LUBAVITCHINTERNATIONAL

EDITORIAL

Published by lUbaviTCH NeWs serviCeThe official news network of theChabad-lubavitch movement

since 1958

lUbaviTCHWorld HeadqUarTers

770 eastern Parkwaybrooklyn, NY 11213

email: [email protected]

WWW.lUbaviTCH.CoM

it is around this time of year, when we re-turn to the awful tragedy of 9/11 and un-cover in the embers of debris anddestruction incidents of great courage andgallantry, that our faith in the transcendentcapacity of the human being is newly re-stored.

it is also around this time of year that wepray—among other things—to be blessedwith that capacity. in the rosh Hashanaand Yom Kippur liturgy, following thepriestly blessing, we sing a prayer askingthat on this day, G-d grant us strength andcourage.

That we should pray for blessings of life,good health, children, peace and prosperityis plainly obvious. but in asking forcourage, we presume a challenge that willcall on extraordinary resources of strength.apparently, the composers of the roshHashana liturgy dating back many cen-turies had no illusions about the persist-ence of the existential threat to the Jewishpeople, and included a prayer for some-thing we need now as much as ever: thecourage to prevail.

The recent unleashing of unbridled hostil-ity and hatred towards israel and the Jew-ish people, if striking for its savage energy,is nothing new. The hysterical calls con-demning and vilifying israel at every turn,so strident and loud and insane, have madeinaudible the still small voice that speakswith truth.

in this din of madness where the discourseabout israel has been hijacked and scriptedto satisfy a selective audience, we find lead-

ers who are followers, leaders who at theirbest, are resigned to silence. it is times likethese that give new impetus to our prayersin which we ask that along with all theother blessings, G-d bless us with courage,or at least with courageous leaders.

Today there are precious few leaders suchas Canada’s stephen Harper who speak outfearlessly in support of israel when it is sounpopular to do so. Harper proves thatcourage is indeed a rare commodity amongplayers in the theater of internationaldiplomacy, and worthy of our mindfulprayers on rosh Hashana, when so muchhangs in the balance.

but it is not only presidents and primeministers who need to pray for courage. Nomatter our place in life, at home or in theworkplace, as a parent, a college professor,student or neighbor, our actions and reac-tions are often diminished by louder voicesof a muddled morality, and by a smallnessof spirit that cripples our ability to respondwith the courage of our convictions.

i am reminded of the many times, whencovering the story of a community cele-brating a particular milestone, hearing itsmembers tell of how they advised the eager,young Chabad couple not to waste theirtime; that laying down roots in this or thattown would yield no fruits; that they wereperfectly content in a community with noJewish infrastructure, and anyhow, thereweren’t really enough Jews to warrant theinvestment.

i am reminded of the many times thatyoung Chabad shluchim were not even

welcome; of the instances where theyscraped together on their own, livingcourageously, creating communities—oneindividual at a time—despite a completeabsence of local support. and of the flow-ering, vibrant, comprehensive Jewish cen-ters they have cultivated despite these earlycaveats.

before Joshua led the Jewish people intheir historic conquest of israel, G-d gavehim a few succinct words of advice: chazakv’ematz, take strength and courage. Morethan a blessing, it was G-d’s instruction toJoshua for achieving success in the battleshe would have to fight to secure the Jewishpeople in their homeland.

The year draws to an end with Jewish peo-ple feeling besieged on many fronts, but wecannot afford to become discouraged now.Courage is born of challenge and, as thelubavitcher rebbe taught, it is the sine-qua-non of successful leadership at everylevel, in every sphere—on campus or inworld affairs, at home or in the workplace.

rosh Hashana is rich with symbols ofleadership and blessings for a year in whichwe lead (rather than follow) with successin our respective concerns. May we takestrength and courage in the new year, andmay it bring peace, prosperity and life toam Yisrael.

Wishing all of our readers a good, sweetyear.

– Baila Olidort

LIVING COURAGEOUSLY

LU

BAV

ITC

HIN

TE

RN

AT

ION

AL

Chairmanrabbi Yehuda Krinsky

Editor-in-Chiefbaila olidort

Executive Editorrabbi Joseph Friedman

Managing EditorZalman Feldman

Media RelationsYaacov behrman

Staff WriterMordechai lightstone

Contributing Writersr. C. berman

s. FridmanMendy rimler

Designr. Pinson

ב”ה

NEWS FROM THECHABAD–LUBAVITCHGLOBAL NETWORK

WWW.LUBAVITCH.COM

In Jewish law, an event that repeats itself three timesacquires a chazakah — a force or status of permanence andstrength. A year that begins with a consecutive three-dayfestival, when Rosh Hashana falls on a Wednesday eveningand the sanctity of the New Year is uninterrupted through theend of Shabbos [as is the case this year] has a special chazakah.It is a year that is imbued with compounded strength, givinggreater potency and permanence to the blessings we elicit onRosh Hashana, and the achievements of our individual andcollective service of teshuva, tefillah and tzedakah.

– From the Lubavitcher Rebbe,Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of blessed memory

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2011 | WWW.LUBAVITCH.COM

3YOUTH AT RISK

Anew anti-bullying program nameddefeat The label (dTl), recently

announced at the annual Friendship Circleconference in West bloomfield, Mi willempower teens to stand up to bullying andsocial labeling.

The initiative was launched by bassieshemtov, Co-director of the Meer FamilyFriendship Circle. To date, 1,300 teenagersaround the world have signed up at defeatThe label.com where they record the re-sults of weekly missions, to do one specificact of good for a friend.

“We have many volunteers at FriendshipCircle who give special needs kids uncon-ditional love and respect for who they are,not how they look,” says shemtov. but so-cially, things weren’t adding up: “They goto school the next day and the eye-rolling,name-calling and bullying continues.”

shemtov took her idea to fifteen localschools, where she presented a curriculumof classes on anti-bullying themes and an

array of hands-on and interactive activities.students hung up posters that said “Nerd,”and “dork,” under images of kids withglasses followed by the motto, defeat Thelabel, sending a clear message of accept-ance of all people despite outward appear-ances.

Four public schools accepted the pitchfor a pilot program with 100 students (ateach school), who will enroll in an eight-session course over the course of the com-ing school year. bradley scheck, studentactivities director at Walled lake West-ern High school says this program sets it-self apart with a “focus on being proactiveand changing kids’ views of others, unlikereactive programs that deal with bullyingproblems only after the fact.”

“defeat The label is more than justanti-bullying,” explains scheck, who willcoordinate the program. “it’s about gettingkids to understand that people are morealike than unalike, about general accept-

ance of every person.”in Farmington Hills, Mi, twelve year-

old blair bean works to promote defeatThe label at her school. For years, she’sbeen the victim of bullying, but today herleadership role in this program has bright-ened her life considerably, says her mother,stacey.

a social worker who is employed inschools, stacey has found that her daugh-ter’s “involvement in this program hasstrengthened her,” and is grateful, especiallybecause she’s found that children today are“much meaner” than they were when she

was a schooler.“it used to be that generally the person

being bullied was a special-ed child, orsomeone who had an obvious difficulty, buttoday it seems that anyone can be bulliedbecause of appearances or behavior.”

rabbi bentzion Groner, director ofFriendship Circle international is currentlyworking to determine how other Friend-ship Circles could successfully implementthis program. defeat The label will beavailable for adaptation by other Friend-ship Circles around the world by the endof 2012, he says.

“We were past Plan Z.”

That’s how alan rubenstein describes thelead up to his decision to send his son to

discovery academy, a residential treatmentcenter (rTC) for troubled teens in Provo,Utah.

daniel rubenstein had severe behavioralchallenges. His teachers had long despaired ofkeeping him in check, and his parents were atwits’ end. so at age seventeen, daniel was sentoff to a camp in switzerland that catered toother teens like him.

“soon after daniel began camp in switzer-land, we got a message on our phone one sat-urday night that daniel was already on a planeback to america and would be arrivingshortly,” says alan rubenstien, an accountant.

but at discovery academy, a boardingschool that spares no expense for parents whoshell out a small fortune in a last ditch effortto redirect their teens, there was a piece miss-ing from the program. While daniel foundhimself in a setting where love, care, and ther-apeutic rehabilitation were physically manifest,Jewish ideals and faith were nonexistent.

enter rabbi benny Zippel, Chabad repre-sentative in Utah since 1992, together with hiswife, sharonne. For the past nineteen years, hehas reached out to hundreds of teens in variousresidential treatment centers through Project H.e.a.r.T (Hebrew education for at-risk Teens). Zippel hits the road at least four days a week to visit rTC’s across the state,fifty-two weeks a year.

“rabbi Zippel reminded me that i’m a Jew, which is easy to forget, living with non-Jews,” says daniel who went on to study in Yeshiva in israel for six years. Today, he’s aproud husband and father.

For teens on the road to recovery, rabbi Zippel offers something different. after meet-ing with them at rTCs, the rabbi invites them to spend shabbos and Jewish holidays atChabad. and when students’ parents come to visit Utah and join them at Chabad, saysZippel, “their biggest joy is to share what they’ve learned with their parents.”

The only Chabad representative in Utah, rabbi Zippel balances a tight schedule, pro-

viding the area’s Jewish population a host of Jew-ish educational and social programs at theChabad center, including Hebrew school, weeklyclasses and holiday programming. There are ap-proximately 5,000 Jewish people in Utah.

Jason Peloso, 23, met rabbi Zippel at hisalma mater -- Telos rTC in orem UT. rabbiZippel became integral to his success in the pro-gram. He began wrapping tefillin every day, “be-cause it became a therapeutic ritual.”

“There were many therapists at the school, butrabbi was different,” says Peloso, a businessmajor living in Fairlawn, NJ. “He brought somuch meaning into my life without forcing any-thing on me, so that motivated me to look for-ward to his visits and get through the semester.”

increasingly, disconnected Jewish studentswho have encountered rabbi Zippel are discern-ing a winning combination: Jewish involvementas a significant component of their rehabilitationat rTC. at times, even this rigorous program“feels like a temporary fix. There’s no guaranteethat you won’t relapse somewhere down thetrack,” explains adam Finkel, whose parent’ssent him from home in New York to islandview rTC in syracuse, UT when he was fifteen.

To reach their goals, it is essential for students“to know that they aren’t in this alone, that G-dhas not forgotten about them,” says Tami Harris,

a chaplain at Heritage schools. in 2010, Harris assisted Zippel in his efforts to kosherthe kitchens at her school, creating more Jewish infrastructure at rTCs in Utah.

rabbi Zippel dreams of the ultimate care for these teens: he hopes to found a resi-dential treatment center that would rival other rTCs in quality standards geared specifi-cally to Jewish teenagers. With today’s challenges for Jewish youth, “such a center,” hebelieves, “is desperately needed.”

When lynn rubenstein recalls the turbulence of her son’s formative years, she wishesthat this had been an option.

“There is definitely a need for this. Parents who are going through what i went throughwould feel so much better about sending their child to a school with other Jewish chil-dren,” she says.

*Several names have been changed upon request

RECOVERING LIVES, AND JUDAISM:CHABAD IN UTAH REACHES OUT TO TROUBLED TEENS

There were many therapists at theschool, but Rabbi was different. hebrought so much meaning into my lifewithout forcing anything on me, so thatmotivated me to look forward to hisvisits and get through the semester.”

NEW ANTI-BULLYING PROGRAM ANNOUNCEDAT fRIendShIP CIRCLe COnfeRenCe

“

QA

4


Chana Silberstein has been the Chabad representative to Cornell University, Ithaca College, andsurrounding areas since 1984. She has created and implemented Jewish educationalprograms in a variety of formal and informal settings. She is currently dean of curriculum for theRohr Jewish Learning Institute. A graduate of Gateshead Jewish Teachers TrainingCollege, Chana holds a PhD from Cornell in Experimental psychology. Chana is also a proudmother and grandmother.

You've been with the community and on campus in ithaca for many years, and have,in a way, watched the community grow up. how has Jewish identity there evolvedover these two decades?

one of the shocking moments came for me over 25 years ago when we werenew here, in a conversation with a Jewish student. He identified as Jewish buthe didn’t observe or engage in any Jewish religious practices. in the course ofconversation, my husband said to him “but of course you will marry Jewish.”

His response was, “Well, with only a 5-20% Jewish student body on campus,what are the chances that i’m going to meet and fall in love with someonewho happens to be Jewish?”

Now, sad as it is to see Jews who were not necessarily planning on marryingJewish, this wasn’t news to us. but to this student—representative of manyJewish students on campus—marrying Jewish was something to be left tochance. That was hard to assimilate, though in retrospect, not so surprisingfor someone whose Jewish education had been left to chance.

More recently, however, i have spoken to parents of college-age children whohave taken great pains over the years to educate their children Jewishly, nur-turing a love of Torah and israel. Yet they seem to have resigned themselvesas well to the possibility that once their children go off to college, there’s agood chance they’ll intermarry. and though they do hope that their childrenwill marry Jewish, they have also braced themselves to support their children’schoices, to accept and love whoever they bring home as a prospective spouse.

These are parents who have been grooming their children since early child-hood to get into an ivy league school. and while they know it is possiblethat their child may disappoint them, get into trouble or just drop out, theyare not preparing themselves to accept this. of course it’s a possibility, but nota possibility they would accept with equanimity. They are prepared to pushhard to make sure their children make the right educational decisions.

and yet, for some reason, when it comes to Judaism, even the most Jewishly-identified parents have given up on expecting that the next generation willshare their Jewish values. There is a way in which Jewish parents today havethrown in the towel. They don’t believe they can influence their child’s Jewishfuture—and maybe they don’t believe they have a right to.

Some of us yet remember a time when intermarriage, even among non-observantJews, was indeed considered a tragedy, a loss. What do you attribute this change in at-titude to?

it is perhaps part of a larger societal phenomenon, where so often parents say,“all i want is for my child to be happy.” so they’ve thrown away the possibility

that there’s something more important, or perhaps something that precedeshappiness. Happiness is not a cause, it’s an effect.

We haven’t necessarily brought the good life any closer by placing happinessas the first thing on the list. if the goal of everything is happiness, if we canbe anything we choose to be, but our happiness depends on our making theright choice, well, we’ve only complicated life because there are way too manypossibilities that we have to choose from. With so much to choose from,choosing becomes difficult. decision fatigue sets in, and people are left withvery little energy for pursuing the important things in life. or they walk awaywithout having made a choice.

What we have is a surfeit of possibilities today, but a deficit of commitment.We are more educated today—we have more information, more Jewish edu-cation available to us at our fingertips than at any other time in history. andyet that doesn’t necessarily foster commitment.

Speaking of the great variety of choices, it seems to me that Jewish people today canlocate themselves in so many different places—places that were never on the radar ofJewish identity—and still feel that they are legitimately within the parameters of Ju-daism. What are the dangers in this kind of fluidity?

The phenomenon of divergence from tradition is not new to Judaism. butwhat’s interesting is the notion that you can take the tradition and not justcreate an emphasis of your choosing, but feel that you can both break the rulesand keep the rules.

Choice is an implication—it represents a commitment to a particular pathway.Jews always struggled with tradition, indeed Jews were the first to promulgatenew “isms” of every kind. but when someone chose to reject some aspect ofJewish life, they generally did so fully aware of the consequences. There was atime when people often chose to convert out of Judaism—but they made thatdecision and committed to its consequences. down the line they may havedecided that it was worth it, or not, but at least they had some kind of clarityas a result of a choice that they made. Today, there’s a notion that we canchoose anything and everything. We want to enjoy the benefit of choice butwe are not prepared to make the commitment. We don’t want to shut downany of the possibilities.

When elijah stood before the Jews on Har Carmel and asked them, “Howlong will you jump back and forth?” and believe in both G-d and the baal, hewas telling them that what they were doing was worse than choosing the baal.because as long as they hadn’t made a commitment, they could not even seethe consequences—they had no insight. as long as you straddle both sides ofthe fence, there’s no opportunity for epiphany.

INTER


5

You are on the board of your local Jewish federation. You know of course that althoughproportionally, Jews donate the most dollars to charitable causes, only a tiny percentof their giving goes to Jewish causes. in fact something like a mere six percent of thetotal dollar figure they give goes to specifically Jewish programs and causes.

donations are down in Federations all over. People are much less likely togive to an umbrella organization, instead choosing the boutique needs of themonth, and it’s usually not a Jewish need.

it is tempting to try to woo these donors back by broadening our mission, bygiving to causes that are not necessarily Jewish but which are attractive to po-tential donors.

Yet as one of a small number of exclusively Jewish charities, we must be proudof our commitment to funding Jewish causes, and we must be prepared tospeak cogently and convincingly about the importance of Jews supportingthese causes.

This does not preclude Jews giving directly to humanitarian causes. but whena small town Federation is pulling in fifty or a hundred thousand dollars ayear, and Jewish communities that are crying for education, for rejuvenation,for resources to help them inspire their youth in Jewish involvement, why arewe afraid to say that we see our first mission as building and forging the Jewishfuture? Why are we afraid to make this commitment?

i’m not arguing against being aware of what’s going on next door. i’m not ar-guing against supporting your local disaster relief effort. but we need to bewilling to make the argument for Jewish living, and to stand up for its inherentvalue.

how does your Chabad worldview inform the positions you take whether on the boardof your federation, or with students on campus where standing up for israel has be-come so unpopular and politically incorrect?

one of the things the rebbe highlighted more than anything is having aglobal view that engenders feelings of responsibility, connection, commitmentto the world at large. being Jewish is not about being partisan and ignoringeveryone else. The rebbe gave us a broad vision of life; he was concerned notjust with the inclusion of the entire Jewish people, but of our mandate to in-spire all people to observe the Noahide laws.

He shared with us an image of integration— of all people, all generations—from the beginning of time to the end of time: a responsibility to all existence.He taught us that we are working for something larger than ourselves, largerthan community, larger than humanity and the world as we know it.

and yet, the rebbe also taught us that that we can only bring this kind ofchange if we never lose sight of our personal commitment which is made onestep at a time. it starts with personal integrity, an inner wholeness, a clarityabout our fundamental values.

rather than pursuing happiness, we have to know ourselves, make peace withourselves and pursue integrity. if you love israel, but you love israel’s enemiesequally, you don’t really love anyone. People who are ready to help the wholeworld but don’t have time for their own, for their children, have not figuredout their values. and if you don’t know what your first values are, you can’tfigure out your basic responsibilities and you’re not going to be there for yourfamily. if you haven’t figured out how to be there to your family, you’re givingis skewed.

You are a mother of a large family. how have these thoughts translated into your ownparenting?

as parents we are afraid to demand of our children, we are afraid of riskingdisappointment: theirs and our own. We need to trust in their resilience, in

their ability to figure it out, to do amazing things, though sometimes it takesmore than one attempt to succeed.

We also need to have to have the confidence in our own parenting to knowthat we have made mistakes—and we can survive them and our children cansurvive them. Part of life is dealing with imperfections. if you cushion thesurface, a child will never learn to walk, because they have to feel resistanceto learn to walk. i waste very little time on guilt over my parenting. if there’s love, caring andinvestment, then the other stuff works itself out. Part of our children’s livesis working out the challenges of an imperfect childhood, and we must trustthat they are up to it.

i believe in the value of discipline. i think it proves a greater commitmentthan love. as parents we are afraid to ask, afraid of being turned down. Weare afraid to test the relationship. but if you never expect anything of yourchildren—they’ll never dissapoint you and you’ll never risk seeing them fail.but the point is that it is okay for the to fail, we need to trust that they canpick themselves up and continue.

My father died when we were very young, but my mother raised us never tomake excuses for ourselves, never to ask for any special accommodation. Wewere taught there was nothing more demeaning than self-pity, and never touse our circumstances as an excuse for the inability to move forward. andwhat we learned is that we were capable . . .that we could draw upon ourinner strength.

After so many years on campus, you seem to have sustained your enthusiasm for yourwork with students.

it’s always been exciting for me to work with students on campus becausethey are at the cusp of life. They are passionate and idealistic, so it’s very ex-citing to engage with them. They have the freedom to explore. They are opento change and have the flexibility to follow through on what they believe in.

i often tell them: Think about how you want to make a mark. if you knowwhat your primary values are, then you’ll find a way to bring unity into thedifferent parts of your life and weave these strands together. and that is deeplysatisfying.

The high holidays are a busy time of year for campus shluchim. What are your thoughtsas you prepare to bring the in the new Year?

in some ways, it is easier to capture the essence of the season while one is in-volved in community work. We often summarize the theme of the JewishHigh Holidays as one of repentance, soul-searching, self-analysis. and thatis certainly a part of it, though i have always felt that when we focus exclu-sively inward, it can be a somewhat depressing time of year. Too much focuson the self can be isolating, and it can be disheartening to realize how littlewe have really changed over the past twelve months.

but in fact, a major theme of rosh Hashanah is focused outward. it is a timeto reflect on the world around us, and to see how it calls to us to respond.according to Jewish tradition, rosh Hashanah coincides with the day thathumans were created—the day in which adam and eve looked around themand saw a world with purpose and meaning—and sought a relationship withthe Creator. it is not so much that on rosh Hashanah we are granted life asthat we choose life. We make the decision to pursue that which is right andgood.

i am always moved by how we come together on rosh Hashanah and YomKippur as a community. The very fact of our gathering together speaks tostrong sense of shared mission. The sound of the shofar is one that cuts toour essence, a pure and simple sound that reminds us that sometimes, doingwhat we need to do does not have to be complicated.

CHANASILBERSTEINBAILA OLIdORT

WITHVIEW

6


FUTURE

Now gaining the attention of many Jew-ish organizations for their attractive, vi-brant profile, young Jewish professionals intheir 20s and 30s, out of university but notquite settled, have long had to find theirfooting in communities oriented towardsfamilies, university students, or not at all.

This past July, the Machne israel devel-opment Fund facilitated and sponsored thefirst conference with a dozen Chabadshluchim, each a leader of a community ofyoung Jewish professionals. Hosted at theoffices of roger Hertog, Chairman of theTikva Fund, the conference was ground-breaking, giving leaders the opportunity toshare their best practices, map out prioritiesand streamline their programs and servicestowards the development of an interna-

tional program, the Chabad YJi. it also gave them an opportunity to

compare notes with Michael steinhardt.Well known for his philanthropy and spon-sorship of programs that promote Jewisheducation, like the popular birthright is-rael, steinhardt engaged the shluchim overlunch in a lively discussion exploring corevalues and outreach methods.

“What i care about,” he said, “is making[this population] Jewishly educated. Weneed a common noble vision of what itmeans to be Jewish.”

at the end of two hours, any differencesbetween steinhardt and the shluchim wereeclipsed by their mutual passion for Jewisheducation, and a set of shared values driv-ing them to engage young Jewish profes-

sionals through suitable opportunities forJewish education.

in Chicago, boston, Miami, dallas, NewYork, and Montreal—among many othercities,, these shluchim have been workingto fill the gap. it is, says rabbi avrahamberkowitz of Chabad-lubavitch Head-quarters and co-director of the MidF, “thenew frontier of Chabad’s outreach.”berkowitz credits its growth to the successof Chabad on campus.

“so many young Jews benefited from aChabad-on-Campus experience and wantto follow it up after they graduate.”

rabbi Mayshe schwartz who leads theChabad Chai Center near boston with hiswife shifra, says this development is notthe result of formal study and strategy.rather, he explains, it emerged as a resultof Chabad shluchim being out in the field,and discerning a population that did nothave opportunities for engagement withlike-minded peers.

Chabad Chai Center which is located inbrookline, located in Coolidge Corner—aone-stop go-to source for young Jewishprofessionals, has been sought out by about2500 such individuals in the greater bostonarea. “While many Jewish organizationshave recently begun to notice and addressthis gap,” says schwartz, his program, likethat of his colleagues, has grown organi-cally. “Chabad shluchim have been dedi-cating resources and programming to themfor almost a decade.”

in downtown Miami, rabbi Chaimlipskar focuses much of his efforts on thiscommunity. “With the urbanization of

downtown Miami which has attractedthousands of young, unaffiliated adults, theprogram has become a main focus of ourwork,” says lipskar, 29, who together withhis wife deenie, counts 4000 young Jewishprofessionals who’ve connected with themover the last five years.

Chabad’s YJi leaders will roll out a num-ber of programs this fall, a result of thesummer conference. JMiami, a discretematchmaking service will also connect withYJi’s matchmaking services s in other citiesin the U.s. and Canada. also on thelaunching pad is a national Chabad YJiwebsite, and a humanitarian food programthat will engage the services of young Jew-ish professionals to help food distributionto shut-ins.

rabbi Yehuda Krinsky, Chairman of theChabad-lubavitch social and educationaldivisions, met with the young Jewish pro-fessional leaders at the conference and ex-pects the program to grow rapidly.

“The idea of developing a networkwithin this demographic, nationally and in-ternationally is enormously promising. Thisis a community that is vital now and to thefuture of Judaism. as educated profession-als, they will have great influence withintheir respective communities. investing intheir Jewish education so that they takeownership of their Jewish identity willmake an important difference to the futureof our people.”

NEXT FRONTIER IN CHABAD OUTREACH:continued from cover page

What I care about is making [this population]Jewishly educated. We need a common noblevision of what it means to be Jewish.”

“

On Rosh hashana, a ram’s horn is blown during the prayers, emitting a total of 100 wails.

The shofar sounds are like the cry of a child, wordlessly evocative of desire for contact, protection and love.On the day of Judgment, the Jewish people call out to g-d, hoping to elicit his love, protection and forgiveness.

SHOFAR

The shofar has a bend in it, symbolic of the Jewish people’s preparedness to bend their will to that of g-d.

The shofar is narrow at one end and broad at the other. Before the traditional blasts are sounded, the congregation recitesPsalms 118: Out of the strait (narrow) I call You, You answered me with (broad) abounding relief.


7

>>We passed through Jackson, mS on our way to

Natchez. We hit rough patches on the road and wore

out four tires during the forty-mile stretch. In general

we've been keeping a tight schedule, but now we

were running late for our appointment with the city

mayor.

>>When we finally arrived, we joined a round-table

discussion with the mayor and local members of the

press. The conversation turned to the purpose of our

trip—Friendship Circle—and its goals: raising aware-

ness for special-needs children.

>>During the discussion, the mayor mentioned the

local Jewish community and made arrangements for

us to meet the owner of Lehman’s Cash & Carry and

two other members of the community who would give

us a tour of the city’s historic synagogue. mr. Jay

Lehman chatted with us for a good while. We asked

him about the mayor's reference to the synagogue,

an “old temple,” and learned that Jews had been in

Natchez since before the Civil War.

>>Shortly before sunset, two additional members of

the community joined us. We quickly helped them

don tefillin –an unusual sight in Natchez! The syna-

gogue, we were told, was built in the early 1900s

after the original one had burned down.

>>as we posed for a group photo, someone called out

in Hebrew,“mah Nishmah? How are you?”

>>Itzik, the father of an Israeli family touring Natchez

on their own cross-country trip joined us. We

wrapped tefillin with him, and he and his family came

along with us on a tour of the synagogue. along the

way, one of the men told us it was the first time he’d

ever fulfilled the mitzvah of tefillin. We broke into joy-

ous dance. The man’s two sons joined in the dancing,

with Itzik accompanying us on the synagogue’s old

piano! Who would have thought that after all these

years, there’d be a Bar mitzvah celebration in the old

synagogue of this city on the mississippi River once

again?

>>We watched a video about the Natchez Jewish com-

munity. During the cotton trade boom, we learned,

there was a large Jewish community that contributed

significantly to the local economy. But as the cotton

industry declined, most of the Jews left. There are

now only thirteen members in the Jewish community,

the youngest ones in their 60s.

>>Like many of our experiences on this coast-to-coast

trip, our stopover in Natchez was an illuminating de-

tour that gave us insight to life in the historic South,

and the dramatic changes in american Jewish life

over the last two centuries.

COAST-TO-COASTcontinued from cover story

Perlman came up with the idea of biking across america to benefitFriendship Circle last year while helping at Chabad’s MayanotYeshivah in Jerusalem. With his friends shmuel rothstein and danisaul, both 22, the trio spent the year preparing for the summer’s jour-ney.

Training in the early morning and evening hours, the men com-pleted their rabbinical studies and received their ordination beforestrapping on their helmets.

Peddling cross country can be daunting even for a fit person.shmuel, concerned “how [his] body would handle the stress,” saidthat careful planning and team work put them all “in good shape.”

The trip took the bike 4 Friendship team along the east coast andacross the south. Crossing the southwest was daunting, with record-setting high temperatures scorching states such as Texas and arizona.

but dani said he took a rewarding life lesson from these difficultstretches.

“There were days we knew we had only a short amount of time tocover 140 miles in 120 degree weather. it seemed overwhelming,” herecalled. “but by breaking the route into ten mile sections, we man-aged to surmount the difficulties.”

BIKE ACROSS AMERICABar mitzvah in Natchez

1:15 am 2 comments

article comments

Training in theearly morning andevening hours, themen completedtheir rabbinicalstudies andreceived theirordinationbefore strappingon their helmets.

8


ISRAEL

PM NETANYAHUSALuTeSCHABAD OF THE FSU

Israeli Prime Minister benjamin Ne-tanyahu was guest of honor at a Tel

aviv banquet in august, celebrating 20years of the Federation of Jewish Commu-nities of the FsU.

addressing the crowd of Chabad emis-saries and friends, Netanyahu praisedChabad’s work in the Former sovietUnion.

“You stand atop of the mountain,” thePrime Minister said poetically. “and theJewish people gathered at its base saluteyou. i am the first [to do so.]”

Philanthropist lev leviev, President ofthe Cis Federation of Jewish Communi-ties, also in attendance, was recognized byNetanyahu.

“lev has given his all to the Jewish peo-ple,” Netanyahu said. The Prime Ministerenumerated many of Mr. leviev’s philan-thropic activities for the benefit of Jewishlife in the FsU.

even by Western standards, Moscow’sJewish infrastructure is impressive. in theMarina roscha part of the city, a complexof buildings houses the community's com-prehensive social and educational institu-tions catering to Moscow’s Jewishpopulation.

The erosion of Jewish life during com-munism makes it difficult to know just howlarge the country's Jewish population is,but according to its Chief rabbi's esti-mates, there are approximately half a mil-lion Jews in this city of 10 million.

on average, 1000 Jewish people visit theshaarei Tzedek Chesed Center daily. amagnificent architectural space with state-of-the-art facilities, seniors come here forfree medical and dental care, hot meals,recreational activities and educational op-portunities.

The adjacent Chabad ohr avner schoolbuilding is designed for maximum naturallight with walls of windows. inside, chil-dren from pre-school through high schoolenjoy a lively academic setting where Jew-ish history is taught alongside russian his-tory, and students participate in a richoffering of extra-curriculars including

swimming, drama and choir. Nearby, about 1600 people a day--

parents and children, teenagers, singles andseniors--come through the doors of theJCC. Known as the Marina roscha syna-gogue from Communist times, the seven-story building, renovated and expanded in2000, is a vibrant hub of Jewish life. its fa-cilities are in constant, simultaneous use,including the sanctuary, a gym, ampithe-ater, social halls, classrooms, acomputer/internet café and offices.

There are 160,000 Jewish members atthis JCC, and membership is free. Food isplentiful, with kosher meat and dairyrestaurants, and an endless schedule of so-cial events. on any given shabbos, hun-dreds of Jewish men and women fill themajestic sanctuary.

The transformation is reflected in 425communities in the Former soviet Union.From estonia to Tadjikistan, and in russia,160 cities from Khabarovsk in the Far eastto leningrad in northwest, Chabad-lubavitch representatives are hard at workgrowing a vibrant Jewish reality.

at the helm is 46 year old rabbi berellazar. a Chabad emissary, father of 13,lazar arrived in 1990, during the days ofperestroika and glasnost. With his ameri-can wife Chanie and a baby in tow, rabbilazar, an italian native who spoke norussian, embarked on what would prove tobe a historic mission with a bold agenda.

rabbi lazar was among hundreds ofChabad emissaries from the former sovietUnion who filled the exhibition hall of Tel-aviv’s Ganei Ha’tarucha, in august, wherea video of the Prime Minister’s personalvisits with the lubavitcher rebbe, rabbiMenachem Mendel schneerson, of blessedmemory was shown.

C habad-lubavitch has long blan-keted israel with representatives in

major population centers. Now it is allocat-ing more human resources to narrowerareas, opening neighborhood Chabad Cen-ters within regions with established, larger

ones already in place. rabbi Moni ender, director of media

relations for the Chabad of israel says thatlast year saw the appointment of 69Chabad representative couples in israel.With smaller areas to focus on, the newrepresentatives can better evaluate and re-spond to the needs of their respective com-munities.

The trend will continue in the comingyear, with more centers saturating smallerpopulations. “instead of expecting oneChabad representative to reach 40,000Jews in his city, the new representativeshave an area with four to five thousandJews to reach,” said rabbi ender. “it's amuch more logical ratio, and we expect thenew representatives to reach an exponen-tially greater number of people.”

in the Kiryat Haim suburb of Haifa,rabbi levi oirechman is one of the newermicro-Chabad representatives. KiryatHaim had no publicly funded religiousschools.

“Parents are looking for a warm, Jewishenvironment for their children,” said rabbioirechman. This week, Chabad of KiryatHaim celebrated the opening of a pre-nursery school for children ages threemonths to three years old.

enrollment is limited by law, and thisyear's class may not break ten, but rabbioirechman sees the pre-nursery as the be-ginning, to grow in time to a kindergartenand beyond. “Why should children have totravel outside Kiryat Haim for a Jewish ed-ucation? The population is ready forchange.”

Notwithstanding the United Nationsvote regarding recognition of a Palestinianstate scheduled for september 20, Chabadis also sending more representatives toJudea and samaria.

“We do not differentiate between settle-

ments and israel. The Chabad positioncontinues to be that the land of israel is oneunited whole,” said rabbi ender.

More worrisome to ender is the state ofinter-Jewish relations. anti-religious voicesin israel are few but strident, vocal and

adept at attracting sympathetic media at-tention. Facing off against a fellow Jew inopen debate would do more harm thangood. Chabad would rather overcome op-position by focusing on areas of mutualagreement in Judaism.

every Friday night, even before collegeclasses begin in Tel aviv University, rabbiYeshayahu “shai” Gerlitzsky works onovercoming the divide. The Gerlitzskys' ta-bles are ringed with TaU students willingto sample a taste of shabbat. among themare visiting students from North americawho seek out the lively Chabad atmos-phere.

“at our table, no two minds are the same.The one thing that unites us is that we areall Jewish, and that's what we keep in mind.No matter what our differences are.”

CHABADIN ISRAEL:MOREREPRESENTATIVESTO LEAD SMALLERCOMMUNITIES

It's a much more logical ratio, and we expect the newrepresentatives to reach an exponentially greaternumber of people.”

““ ”You stand atop of themountain, and the Jew-ish people gatheredat its base salute you.I am the first [to do so.]

Photo Credit: Meir Alfasi

KOL NIDREI

The Yom kippur servicesbegin dramatically with therecitation of the kol nidrei,an Aramaic declaration of alegal formula in which allpersonal vows that onemakes between him/herselfand g-d, are retracted.


9ISRAEL

Four out of Chabad's 24 preschools inthe coastal city of ashkelon, a target

of Gaza rocket attacks, remain without se-cure shelters.

The municipality is offering pre-fabconcrete shelters at a price of 70,000shekels a piece, and Chabad is feverishlytrying to raise the money. recent escalationof bombing raids have parents worried. Fif-teen children were pulled from Chabad'spre-schools and enrolled in public schoolsas a result.

“To see a child's Jewish education endedbefore it ever began is a sad way to beginthe year,” said rabbi Menachem lieber-man, director of Chabad in ashkelon.

back-to-school jitters of a life-or-deathvariety were allayed in ashkelon when thelocal Chabad boys' high school moved into

its new, secure building. The old locationhad a tin roof which offered no protectionfrom rockets or missiles launched fromGaza. The new multi-storey school is con-structed from reinforced concrete.

“News of the new building has broughtenrollment up by 100 students,” said rabbilieberman.

Chabad of ashkelon's celebration of itsnew building together with the troublinglack of security for its preschools offers asnapshot of the complex situation faced bymany of israel's Chabad representatives.This year, getting ready for the new schoolyear and rosh Hashanah's renewal with avision of progress, comes with an asterisk.

While Chabad of ashkelon is workingto obtain the shelters, school bells are ring-ing in the new school year. From a spiritualperspective, opening Jewish preschools, el-ementary schools, high schools and voca-tional programs on time generallycontributes to a safe environment, accord-ing to rabbi lieberman.

“We believe that when children pray itenhances security, not only for our studentsbut for the entire city as well.”

COPING WITH UNCERTAINTY, WORkIng fOR unITY,CHABAD IN ISRAEL GREETS THE NEW YEAR

Gaza terrorists launch rockets into Israel

Phot

o Cre

dit:

4une

ws.c

om

ISRAEL'S PRESIDENTPERESOPenS SChOOL YeARAT ChABAd SChOOL

Israel’s President shimon Peres openedthe school year in israel with a visit to

Chabad’s elementary school in ir Ganim,Jerusalem. accompanying him wasJerusalem’s Mayor Nir barkat.

The students, clad in t-shirts sportingtheir Chabad school logo, received a warmhandshake each from Mr. Peres who thenled them in line to their seats at the orien-tation.

The President participated in a tradi-tional, first-day-of-school ceremony forfirst graders. Under the canopy of the talit,he recited the biblical verses of Jacob’sblessing to his grandsons, efraim andMenashe and then offered his own per-sonal advice to the boys and girls of the firstgrade:

“live your lives according to the 10

Commandments. learn well, for study isthe key to progress.” Mr. Peres went on totell them that there is great Torah andknowledge in the world, and that theirstudy must also reflect itself in their behav-ior.

according to the President’s office, theChabad ir Ganim school was chosen be-cause of its exemplary achievements.

“it is a model school that has succeededto integrate a highly diverse student body,”reflecting the cross-section of israel’s Jew-ish population: ethiopian immigrants,FsU immigrants study side by side with is-raeli children, sefardic and ashkenazic,non-religious and from all streams of reli-gious affiliation. it is a school that deservesto stand as a model for other schools to fol-low, said the President’s office.

Cre

dit:

CO

L Ph

otog

raph

er M

endy

Hec

htm

an

LIve YOuR LIveS ACCORdIng TO The10 COMMAndMenTS. LeARn WeLL, fOR

STudY IS The keY TO PROgReSS— from President Peres’ address to schoolchildren

“

.”

We BeLIeve ThAT WhenChILdRen PRAY ITenhAnCeS SeCuRITY,nOT OnLY fOR OuRSTudenTS BuT fOR TheenTIRe CITY AS WeLL.”

“

Atop Mt. Zion in Jerusalem,dancers at Pascale Gozlan's wed-

ding pulsed to a sephardic middle easternbeat. Grooving along with the radiantgroom, Tomer Chazan, was rabbi YossiWitkes, director of israelinks. He held histwo-week-old baby daughter in one handand a skype-enabled videophone in theother.

Watching on the other end of the video-phone connection was rabbi Yisroelbernath, director of Chabad of NdG andloyola Campus in Montreal. Thousands ofmiles away, he stayed up to odd hours ofthe morning to be part of the wedding, vir-

tually, at least. Gozlan's wedding was anemotional passage for the rabbi, “like mar-rying off a child of my own.”

The two rabbis extended themselves tobe part of the celebration because it wasthrough their programs that the brideturned her minimal Jewish cultural identityinto a knowledgeable one, a Jew committedto marrying Jewish.

The international span of Chabad hasmade its centers a home base for Jewishtravelers of all affiliations for decades. Nowthe menu of programs offered by Chabadhas deepened to address the needs of Jew-ish people throughout the life cycle, partic-ularly at the crossroads of adulthood andmarriage, when Jewish continuity hangs inthe balance. Chabad's programs carryyoung adults seamlessly as they transitionfrom young adult to college student tomarriage and beyond.

The new Mrs. Chazan first encounteredChabad in Montreal's young and trendyNdG neighborhood. Fresh out of college,working in a real estate development com-pany, and searching for more spirituality,she attended classes given by rabbi Yisroeland sara bernath. a dream of going to is-rael was realized when she joined Chabad

on Campus's israelinks program. at theend of three weeks of intense study, shewanted more. Chabad's MaayanotWomen's program fit the bill. she studiedthere and later met Tomer Chazan, a southafrican who made aliyah to alon shevut.The Chazans will be living in israel.

“Marrying a Jew, marrying an in-volved Jew, living in israel, if otherstudents on israelinks achieved butone of these three, i would be happy,but Pascale did all three,” said rabbiWitkes. There are about 400 is-raelinks alumni, a program thatstarted four years ago, and of the 20that married, he hasn't heard of oneintermarriage.

Chabad on Campus's executivedirector rabbi Yossy Gordon saysthat marrying Jewish is a facet, nota focus of israelinks. “our empha-sis is on Jewish growth. israelinksis for students ready to reach for thenext level of a healthy, happy Jewishlife,” said rabbi Gordon. For somethat means keeping kosher. othersare ready to keep shabbat, or at leaststop checking Facebook on the dayof rest.

For rabbi bernath, it meansmarrying Jewish, and several months agohe launched a matchmaking site, JMon-treal.com, which counts 120 matches so far.Personalized and more private,JMontreal.com is limited to Montreal res-idents. More than 1,000 people havesigned up, and rabbi bernath estimatesthat three or four couples are getting closeto popping the question.

at the University of illinois at Urbana-Champaign, rabbi dovid and GoldieTeitchtel have also spent their summer at-tending students' weddings. as a result, anew trend is emerging at illini: couplesbrought together by Chabad programs arereturning to campus to round out their de-grees or pursue grad and post-grad work.

rabbi Teichtel, proud and pleased, ac-knowledges, “it is a very big responsibilityto be there for the couple's emotionalneeds, different from those of the otherstudents on campus.” With three coupleson campus, and more to come, the Teich-tels are adding classes in Jewish family lawsand traditions to the Chabad's schedule.

shimon and Gila Zimbovsky are wellprepared to teach those classes. shimon,who is back at illini pursuing a Mla inlandscape architecture, met the Teichtelssix years ago at the Chabad illini table onthe quad.

in much sunnier Florida, a friendbrought Gila, then Caitlin asprinio, toChabad of West Palm beach. she stayed intouch with the Chabad student Center inboca raton, and spent vacation on aChabad on Campus snorkel and study. ata regional shabbat weekend for Chabadstudents in Florida, she signed up for is-raelinks. shimon signed up for the sametrip.

The two met, became friends, lost touchand reconnected a few years later whenthey were studying in israel, he at Tech-

nion, she at University of Haifa. They mar-ried in the summer of 2010, spent a year atthe rabbinical College of america, andcame back to illini this september.

While shimon studies, Gila is servingas an associate Chabad representativealongside the Teichtels. looking out across

the quad, Gila sees young women just likethe student she was a few years ago. “i seehow much work there is to be done. it's anhonor to give back.”

SeAMLeSS TRAnSITIOnS fROM COLLege TO ISRAeL And BACk

MAKES IN-MARRIAGE HAPPENCHABAD'S EXTENSIVE NETWORK OF PROGRAMS MEANS MORE JEWS MARRY JEWISH

The makeshift structureof the sukkah, coveredwith cut greenery, is onlyused as temporarydwelling. The festivaloffers a challenge tohuman dependence onmaterial comfort, andtells us to leave behindour possessions andaccumulated wealth, andrelocate, if only for aweek, to the far simpler,uncluttered, spiritualworld of Torah.

SUKKAH

OuR eMPhASIS IS OnJeWISh gROWTh. ISRAeLInkS IS fORSTudenTS ReAdY TOReACh fOR The nexTLeveL Of A heALThY,hAPPY JeWISh LIfe.

10


???????


11CAMPUS

HOPE BEHIND THE HEADLINES:

W ith one of the highest proportions of Jewish students at any campus, WesleyanUniversity in Middletown, CT, finally has its on-site Chabad representatives.

rabbi levi and Chanie schectman joined new students this fall as Chabad’s full-timerepresentatives at this New england liberal arts school, where roughly 25-30% of the2,766 member student body is Jewish.

as early as 1979, rabbi Yosef Gopin, today director of Chabad of Greater Hartford,began a weekly Talmud class at Wesleyan. Chabad has since expanded its social and ed-ucational offerings. as the number of interested students grew, rabbi Yosef Wolvovsky,who ran programing at Wesleyan and serves as executive director of Chabad east of theriver in nearby Glastonbury, felt “the time was ripe” for a full-time representative.

The schectmans, are excited to tap into the school’s atmosphere of independent studyand personal discovery.

“during our previous trips to Wesleyan, we were struck by the inquisitive and opennature of the students,” levi says. “We’vefound their desire for personal study

and discovery similar toChabad’s passion

for Jewish study and identity building.” dr. vera schwarcz, the Freeman Professor of east asian studies at Wesleyan, wel-

comes this development. since coming to Wesleyan in 1975, schwarcz says, the school’s Jewish studies de-

partment has grown, but Jewish practice has been less vibrant.“The nature of academia is such that the pursuit of knowledge can be entirely isolated

from one’s personal life.” With her own academic work “greatly enriched by living a more observant Jewish and

by Chabad teachers whom i have encountered from New York to beijing,” schwarczsays she is grateful for the schectmans move to Middletown to serve Wesleyan’s sizableJewish community.

The new Chabad center received a grant from the rohr Family Foundation in con-junction with Chabad on Campusand rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky oflubavitch World Headquar-ters.

CHABAD OPENS PERMANENT HOMEAT WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY

“We’ve found their desire for personal study and discovery similar toChabad’s passion for Jewish study and identity building.”

brisky, executive director of Chabad of theConejo said he will be addressing the shakeups – geological, economical and otherwise– from the perspective that “G-d is in con-trol of the bigger picture and our job is tofocus on things within our control” such asinterpersonal relationships and mitzvahobservance. His congregation willstrengthen bonds of community as theywalk together, a procession of 1,200 wor-shippers, to perform the Tashlich serviceon the afternoon of the first day of roshHashana.

rabbi shraga sherman, director ofChabad of the Main line in lowerMerion, Pa, is hoping for sunny skies dur-ing his community's Tashlich walk. Hur-ricane irene's wrath, which wiped outbridges, commuter trains, and power linesin Pennsylvania, exacerbated his commu-nity's anxieties, already high due to finan-cial struggles. When he steps up to thelectern on rosh Hashanah before an ex-pected crowd of 200, rabbi sherman willaddress living with faith.

“We need the ability to put our trust in

G-d, so he will give us the strength to carryon in the face of things we can't control,”he said.

The financial troubles in Greece, on theother hand, have been molded by humantouch. stores are closed, real estate mag-nate have gone belly up, but life continues,says rabbi Joel Ka-plan, a Chabadrabbi in Thessa-loniki and chiefrabbi of albania.but Kaplan will notbe dwelling onstrategies for cop-ing with incomewoes on roshHashanah.

“Jews need Ju-daism. There is a great amount of Zionistpride in Greece, but many Jews were noteducated about the basics of prayer, bless-ings, the nature of the Jewish soul.”

Within the week, rabbi Kaplan will betraveling to Tirana, albania's capital cityto dedicate a new Torah, a first since the

pre-WWii era. last year, when rabbi Ka-plan was appointed chief rabbi of albaniaby Prime Minister sali berisha and Chiefrabbi of israel shlomo amar, he helpedorganize the first minyan there in 70 years.The Torah is the next step in bringing Jew-ish life back to the country which has had

a Jewish presencefor over 1,300 years.

albania's for-tunes are rising on atsunami of invest-ments, but the lonebright spot forGreece over thepast year appears tobe upsurge intourists stretchingtheir vacation

budget by visiting the isle. Traffic in Thes-saloniki's airport grew 23% this June overlast. Two months ago, PaP corp’s astoriaHotel in the city opened a full time glattkosher kitchen with rabbi Kaplan's assis-tance. Mayor Yiannis boutaris has dis-cussed capitalizing on salonika's rich

Jewish history, whose port was once sodominated by Jews that it closed on theJewish sabbath, to bring in more visitors.

The ripples of economic edginess havereached comparatively prosperous areaslike the Flamingo community of Thornhill,ontario, Canada. rabbi Moshe Kaplan,director of Chabad of Flamingo, expectsmore than 2000 people will attend one ofthree full services, a youth minyan, andchildren's programs, not counting the 250walk-ins during the Kol Nidre or Yizkorservices.

like his colleagues, rabbi Kaplan willencourage his community to enrich theirexperience in the year ahead through mitz-vah observance. it is, he says, the most re-liable scaffold to steady people duringtrying times, whether brought on by paltrybank balances or extreme weather. betteryet, it is a perfect way to embark on thepromise of a new year of great blessing.

“We need the ability toput our trust in g-d, so hewill give us the strengthto carry on in the face ofthings we can't control”

12


BOOKS

BOOkS In RevIeW

W hen faced with the challenge oftranslating the bible, perfect intel-

ligibility is a high and worthy goal, but itruns into a challenge. on the one hand, thedistinguishing quality of scripture is theholiness of each word, even of each letter.as Jewish law notes, while one cannot ful-fill the mitzva of learning Torah if onereads a rabbinic text without understand-ing, one can indeed fulfill the mitzva thatway with the Written Torah, Tanach. asthe mystical masters have pointed out, theholiness of scripture permeates even theletters.

on the other hand, however, scripture’sholiness is not limited to the letters, butfills other realms as well. Classical under-standing speaks of four categories of un-derstanding—the simple, straightforwardmeaning of the words; the legal andhomiletical meanings encoded within thetexts; the allusions the texts hint atobliquely, with connotations and othermeans; and finally, the esoteric meaningsuncovered by mystical contemplation andtradition.

so how must the translator of scriptureproceed? one person who succeeded wasonkelos, the author of the aramaic trans-lation of Torah that was accepted by therabbis as the standard translation. onkelos’translation is lean and focused, hewingclose to the simple meaning of the text.even so, it will often choose a short andclear rabbinic interpretation over a literaltranslation of the original Hebrew.

There are other translation traditions,however, that choose to leave the simplesense much farther behind. in rabbinictimes, the Targum Yerushalmi is noticeablylonger than the Targum onkelos. andsome translations see as their task the in-corporation of a vast body of interpretivematerial that were passed down by the oraltradition and cannot be directly derived

from the words of the text.The Kehot Publication society’s trans-

lation of Chumash devarim, the book ofdeuteronomy, chooses an expansive styleof translation. it is explicitly aiming at acertain kind of reader; in the words of theintroduction, it “is geared to adult readerswho may be well-educated generally butwho are newcomers to the traditional studyof the Torah.” its goal is to spare such read-ers the work of understanding how the tra-ditional understandings of the texts (asepitomized in rashi’s classic commentary,at some occasions as seen through the eyesof the lubavitcher rebbe obM, in his fa-mous studies in rashi) are derived. Whileunderstanding derivations might be a finegoal of scholarship, the introduction pointsout that there are already quite a few trans-lations of the shorter sort as well as trans-lations of rashi into english. What Kehotis offering is something new – even as itfollows in a long tradition of interpretivetranslations.

although the translation reads as onesmoothly flowing text, it does accentuatethe words which are direct translations ofthe Hebrew with bold-face type, so thatthe reader can have a sense of where thecommentary begins. it is a good way to tryto pool the advantages of both the easy andaccessible reading of an integrated singletext along with a commentary’s honesty ofstating its own opinion. and this latter isimportant, for such stellar figures as ram-ban and ibn ezra, among others, often dis-agree with rashi, so it is well not to set hisopinion, as great as it is, as the only way tounderstand the text. That is accomplishedto some degree by the artful use of differingtypefaces. one is free to consider the trans-lation as a coherent view, reading the textthrough the eyes of rashi and the lubav-itcher rebbe.

let us take the verse third to the end of

the entire Torah (deut. 34:10). This editionoffers a simple translation of the Hebrewin bold-face type: “There never arose an-other prophet in israel like Moshe whomG-d knew face to face.”

as striking as the image is, it is starklyanthropomorphic; to accept it literallywould smack of idolatry. This translationincorporates the essence of rashi’s answerto that question by adding, in a regular face:“i.e., allowed to communicate with Himwhenever he desired to do so.” rashi’s an-swer, given here in a plain-spoken sum-mary, decodes the imagery of face-to-faceas signifying not G-d having a body butMoshe being constantly in communica-tion.

along with the translation/commentary,this edition also provides a digest of Cha-sidic thought in the texts, both in the formof a running commentary and in the formof an occasional box that will explore amore complex or mystical concept that isrelevant to the biblical text at hand.

as an example, the Chasidic insightcommentary distills a thought of therebbe’s on smallness and power in a com-mentary on deut. 7:7 (“G-d did not de-light in you and choose you because you aremore numerous than any other people, foryou are the least of all the peoples.”) Thequestion that this verse can raise is: howcan a people who are so small make a sig-nificant difference? The rebbe’s timely andpowerful response is paraphrased herebeautifully:

The decisive answer to this question hasbeen discovered only in modern times. asscience has learned how to unleash thepower of the atom, the world has learnedthat size is not always an indication ofpower, What matters is knowing how toaccess the energy latent in the smallness;once that knowledge has been discovered,even the smallest particle of matter can re-lease incredible amounts of force.

The basic process used to release thisforce is nuclear fission, in which the atomis broken down into smaller components.as Jews, this teaches us that the key to re-leasing our latent, infinite potential is bybreaking our egos, allowing our inner, di-vine essence to shine through.

each Torah portion is prefaced as wellby a concise overview, which serves tomake the larger picture clear, and allowwhat follows to be easily grasped as part ofa whole. The occasional maps or charts are

clear and helpful as well. (The chart usedon page 35 to elucidate some parallel yetdiffering ideas embedded in two differentverses is a fine case in point.) The full He-brew texts of devarim, onkelos’ aramaictranslation and rashi’s commentary makethis useful as well for following along insynagogue or for a more advanced student.

The appearance of the book is pleasingand inviting. More than just occupying aplace on the shelf, this edition aims to beread. it ought to give a wide audience a realsense of how deeply believing Jews haveunderstood the book of deuteronomythroughout the centuries by making thatunderstanding clear, attractive and intu-itive. its inclusion of the rebbe’s insightsmake this concluding volume of the Torahimmediately and piercingly relevant to thecentral issues of our lives.

THE BOOK OFDEUTERONOMYCHUMASH DEVARIMTHE BOOK OF DEUTERONOMY

Brooklyn, NYKehot Publication society 2011

NEILAH

As 25 hourYom kippur fastwinds down, the spiritualintensity of the day reachesa high point with the finalprayer service, the neilah,right before the gates ofheaven are said to close.The moment is packed withopportunity, opening ac-cess to even the most inte-rior dimensions of theJewish soul and its bondwith the divine. neilahends with the Shema Yis-rael: “hear O Israel, god isour Lord, god is One.”


13BOOKS

on March 29, 1948—approximatelythree years after much of european Jewrywas annihilated—rabbi Joseph i. schneer-sohn, sixth rebbe in the Chabad-lubav-itch dynasty, wrote to queen Wilhelminaof the Netherlands on the matter of Jewishchildren who were placed in foster homesin Holland during the war.

in his letter, now published in a new vol-ume of his correspondences, the rebbe ac-knowledged with gratitude thehumanitarian kindness of the people of theNetherlands in saving “hundreds of Jewishchildren from the hands of their would-bemurderers.”

in fact, 4000 children were saved by thedutch. but the rebbe appealed to her withconcern for some 350 children who, threeyears following the end of the war, have notyet “been returned to their people.”

He writes: “i am informed that of theJewish children saved by the mercifuldutch people (whom G-d will surely rec-ompense with good) there are many whohave not, as yet, been given an opportunityto return to their own people to whom theybelong . . .

“Thus these children are in danger ofbeing condemned to a fate which is re-garded by us as a severance from the sourceof their souls, that is—spiritual death.

“it is inconceivable that the dutch peo-ple would wish to have upon its consciencethe guilt of denying this elementary hu-manitarian right to the victims of the war,by withholding from the unfortunate Jew-ish orphans the opportunity to return totheir own people and faith.”

The letter, written both in Yiddish andin english (presumably, the english ver-sion was the one sent to the queen) is oneof the 500-plus letters newly published involume 17 of igrot Kodesh, letters by therabbi Joseph i. schneersohn.

Most of the letters in the volume are inHebrew, and reflect the rebbe’s correspon-dences during the years 1929-1950 on awide range of concerns to the Jewish peo-ple: the plight of russian Jewry at the time,the rebbe’s move to Poland, his immigra-tion to the Us, his founding of KfarChabad, the Chabad village in israel, andhis involvement in the growth of variousamerican Jewish communities. The bookreflects his contacts with a similarly widerange of individuals in leadership positions,among them Mr. Henry Morgenthau, thenChairman of the UJa, the Minister of Jus-tice in the Hague, the family of israel’sChief rabbi avraham isaac Kook.

readers curious to know how therebbe’s letter to queen Wilhelmina washandled would have to search the Chabadlibrary archive to find a reply from theMinistry of Justice in the Hague who wasinstructed by the queen to respond. in alengthy, three page response, the Ministerof Justice argues that “whenever the Com-mission [for War Foster Children] took acase into consideration religious motivesformed a point of extraordinary impor-tance . . .” and that of the 4000 children,only 350 were placed in the guardianshipof non-Jews. lost on the Minister of Jus-tice was the rebbe’s concern for the spiri-tual heritage and continuity that were theright of these children. He wrote, “one canhardly speak of spiritual liberty with chil-dren under 6 years of age. The greater ma-jority of the above mentioned 350 minorsexists of children who came to their fosterparents at the age of not yet 4 years.”

on page 400 of igrot Kodesh, a Hebrewversion of the rebbe's subsequent reply ap-pears: "i cannot agree that the Commissionhas fulfilled its duty to protect the spirituallife of these 350 orphans. by virtue of hisor her Jewish birthright, every Jew deserves

the chance to be educated as such. a six-year old may indeed not have the ability tochoose, and it is precisely for this reasonthat no one has the right to impose achange of this nature in the direction of thechild's life. born as Jews, these children arenow being delivered to a non-Jewish up-bringing. This is a grave travesty of justicetowards the children, their parents and theJewish people."

The letters in this volume of igrot

Kodesh were compiled by Chabad scholarand historian rabbi shalom dovberlevine, editor of the voluminous igrotKodesh series, which contains the letters ofthe seven Chabad-lubavitch leaders.

The 484 page volume, complete with anindex of names, places and subjects, is ded-icated by prominent philanthropist, Mr.ben Federman. The book is available forpurchase at kehotonline.com.

Queen of holland, President falliËres of franceVersailles, June 1912

Libr

ary

of C

ongr

ess.

Prin

ts &

Pho

togr

aphs

Div

ision

A PETITION TO QUEEN WILEHLMINAIGROT KODESH VOLUME 17 (HEBREW) LETTERS BY SIXTH LUBAVITCH

A Petition to Queen Wilhelmina for Jewish Orphans

Publisher: Kehot Publication society Format: ?, 484pp isbN: ?

It is inconceivable that thedutch people would wishto have upon its con-science the guilt of deny-ing this elementaryhumanitarian right to thevictims of the war, bywithholding from the un-fortunate Jewish orphansthe opportunity to returnto their own people andfaith.”

“

THE FOURSPECIES

The four species takentogether on the festivalof Sukkot are com-pared to the major or-gans of the humanbody.

THE MYRTLE LEAF isshaped like an eye,THE ESROG like aheart, both of which,when appropriatelyemployed, enhance ourlife and our interactionwith others and with g-d. THE WILLOW LEAFis shaped like a mouth,the organ of speech.This is the tool of Torah,prayer, teaching andwords of kindness. THE straight, tallLULAV resembles thespinal column, theorgan through which allthe brain's impulses areconveyed to the rest ofthe body. This repre-sents an individual wholives a principled life.

Conversely, these or-gans can be abused.The eye and the heartsometimes unite in aperverted partnershipof sin. The eye sees andthe heart lusts, leadingto unchecked tempta-tions. The mouth maysometimes utter wordsthat cause damage andhurt. Arrogance is thenegative side of pride.

But when we take thefour Species togetherto fulfill the mitzvah ofLulav, we dedicatethese organs to theirpositive and construc-tive purposes, elevatingour existence and re-joicing in Sukkot withheart and limb alike.

14


SPECIAL NEEDS

Though the debate about a bill ban-ning kosher slaughter continues in

the dutch parliament, the Jewish commu-nity of amsterdam enjoyed a historic ex-perience when the old Gerard dou streetsynagogue, located in downtown amster-dam, opened for Friday night services thissummer for the first time since the Holo-caust.

Hidden between two row-houses on thenarrow street, the synagogue was over-looked by the Nazis, and so it remained in-tact. after the War, it was the firstsynagogue in Holland to reopen. shifts inthe Jewish population from the synagogue’shome in the de Pijp neighborhood to res-idential areas in the south of the dutchcapital caused the synagogue to fall intodisuse. For the past fifty years, it has re-mained closed during the week, opening

only for shabbat morning and High Hol-iday services.

The location of the Gerard dou streetsynagogue in the city’s center makes itideal for the work of Chabad emissaries,rabbi akiva and Taiby Camissar. arrivinglast fall to serve the dutch capital’s com-munity of 9,000 israeli expats and the es-timated 50,000 Jewish tourists that visitthe dutch capital each year, the Camissarshave seen a steady uptick in their work.

during off-peak season, the young cou-ple host shabbat meals for some 30 guestsin their living room. This summer touristseason, numbers swelled to upwards of 70dinner guests, while monthly programingfor israeli women attracted some threedozen participants. With High Holidayservices expected to draw a crowd of 300israelis, the Camissars have been forced to

look for a larger space to ac-commodate the numbers.

When akiva approachedrabbi shmuel Katz of theGerard dou synagogue aboutrenting its event hall, the sub-ject of expanding prayers serv-ices was broached. Currentlythe Camissars only offer shab-bat evening services, but in thecoming months they expect toconduct weekday services aswell.

“outside of shabbat serv-ices held in the historic span-ish-Portuguese synagogue,there is little in the way ofkosher and Jewish observancein the city’s center,” Camissarsays. “We hope to fill that void.”

OLd duTCh SYnAgOgueOPenS fOR fRIdAY nIghT SeRvICeS:A FIRST SINCE HOLOCAUST

so kosher vacationers to andalusia’s sun coast were thrilled learn that Chabad openeda fully stocked kosher supermarket this summer in Marbella. ideally located in the centerof the 83 mile coastal stretch that runs from Malaga to Gibraltar, the supermarket madenews in europe’s Jewish communities. a breezy two hour flight from most points inwestern europe, spain’s southern coast is a popular vacation destination.

“every summer we get countless calls from travelers who want to know where theycan buy kosher food,” Chana Goldstein, Chabad representative with her husband, Cheski,told lubavitch.com. The steady stream of kosher tourists coming from France, englandbelgium and beyond, challenged the Goldsteins to step up to the plate and fill it withthe variety of kosher ethnic foods to satisfy diverse palates.

“We get people of sephardic/Mediterranean, ashkenzaic european, and americanbackgrounds, and the Costa del sol Kosher supermarket caters to them all.”

so did a Jewish concert sponsored by Chabad that drew 2000 people to a bullring in

estepona august. Three pop singers, and the eighth day band, each with their own Jew-ish influence and appeal, delivered a spirited musical experience in the town bullring—offered by the municipality for the concert.

in Marbella for six years, rabbi Goldstein and his wife planned the concert so thatJewish vacationers, backpackers and locals from New York to israel and all points in be-tween, would have an opportunity to pull their energy together in song and celebrationduring summer’s high season when so many converge upon the area. "We're especiallygrateful to rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky for his help with this, the new supermarket and duringevery step of our growth here," says rabbi Goldstein.

Things are slower during the winter months, but with a Jewish community of roughly150 families dispersed along the coast, and some 600 Jews in Gibraltar, the Goldsteins—the only Chabad representatives in all of southern spain—keep busy. Hebrew school,adult education, bar/bat mitzvah services and women’s programs reach Jewish familiesalong the coast and from seville to Granada.

“We try to reach out to Jewish people in the entire area,” says rabbi Goldstein. “Thekosher supermarket—a novelty in this region, will now attract many more.”

For the kosher traveler, vacationing often requires careful packing and planning. Outside of well-trav-eled Jewish destinations, kosher restaurants—prevalent and popular as they are today—are still fewand far between. And staples like glatt kosher chicken, meat, and even dairy products (of strict koshercertification standards) are not readily available in local supermarkets.

SUN, SURF AND SHABBOSOn SPAIn’S Sun COAST

“We TRY TO ReACh OuT TO JeWISh PeOPLe In The enTIRe

AReA. The kOSheR SuPeRMARkeT—A nOveLTY In ThIS

RegIOn, WILL nOW ATTRACT MAnY MORe.”

we need a caption here. concert goers enjoy kosher food?


15

16


RESTORATION

The site of the aron Kodesh, or Holy ark of The Great synagogue of vilnius datingback to the end of the 16th century, was recently uncovered in the excavations of

this historically significant synagogue. lithuania’s Prime Minister andrius Kubilius vis-ited the site to view the synagogue’s excavated fragments as 25 Jewish lithuanian studentsof the local beis Menachem school prayed there.

“For us it is very important to bring back an authentic part of lithuanian history whichincluded the history of the Jewish community,” the Prime Minister told lubavitch.comin a phone interview after the modest ceremony. The findings so far, he said, “are importantnot only for lithuania, but for the global Jewish community. it is a powerful symbol ofboth a great Jewish heritage, a great tragedy when the entire Jewish community was de-stroyed, and it is a very powerful symbol for the Jewish future.”

also uncovered was a part of the original floor, and the top of one of the four pillarssurrounding the bima of the Great synagogue--a magnificent renaissance structure inthis once great Jewish center of Torah study, widely known as “Jerusalem of lithuania.”

“This is a very emotional discovery for us here and allows us to make a bridge to ourauthentic past,” emmanuel Zingeris, a Jewish Member of Parliament, Chairman of theForeign affairs Committee and President of the project to restore the Jewish quarter ofthe old town of vilnius told lubavitch international.

“We now have the precise spot where the holiest part of the synagogue stood, and itis under open sky.”

Partly destroyed by the Germans during WWii, and fully demolished by the sovietauthorities in 1955-1957, these findings are some of the first after efforts to unearth andrestore the synagogue began earlier this summer, under archeologist Zenonas baubonis.

Part of the synagogue sits under buildings constructed by the communists--includinga large building that is now a kindergarten--and will be difficult to get to, making thediscovery of the site of the aron Kodesh unobstructed, precisely matched to drawingsand photos of the synagogue’s interior, especially exciting.

out of respect for regulations that forbade a synagogue building to stand taller than achurch, the synagogue was constructed on a deep foundation with its floor well belowstreet level, to allow for an interior height of five stories. according to legend, the syna-gogue was of such magnificent architecture, Napoleon is said to have stood at the doorof the structure in 1812 in stunned admiration.

Chabad-lubavitch representative to lithuania, rabbi sholom ber Krinsky, who ledthe students in prayer, said: “Holiness transcends time. To pray on this place today 60-70years after this great shul was destroyed by the soviets, is a triumph for every Jew.”

The excavations are part of a broad, government-sponsored effort to restore the oldJewish quarter of vilnius, and include digs to uncover some the eight smaller synagoguesin the area.

“for us it is very important tobring back an authentic partof Lithuanian history whichincluded the history of theJewish community, [the find-ings so far] are important notonly for Lithuania, but for theglobal Jewish community. Itis a powerful symbol of botha great Jewish heritage, agreat tragedy when the entireJewish community was de-stroyed, and it is a very pow-erful symbol for the Jewishfuture.”

Lithuanian Prime Minister Andrius kubilius (left) looks on as a student from Beis Menachemrecites a prayer. At the student's left is MP emmanuel Zingeris who inspired the excavation.At his right is Chabad-Lubavitch representative to Lithuania, Rabbi Sholom Ber krinsky

SITE OF HOLY ARK UNCOVEREDIN EXCAVATIONS OF GREAT SYNAGOGUE OF VILNIUS

keren hashana

KEREN HASHANAH was established by Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory, to enablepeople to have the mitzvah of giving tzedaka daily. Monies from the Keren Hashana fund are distributed twicedaily, before morning and afternoon services, for charitable purposes.

Every day of the week.

Every week of the year.

guaranteed.

CHABAD LUBAVITCH HEADQUARTERS | DONATE ONLINE AT: WW.LUBAVITCH.COM

lubavitchinternational

Documents

year of

jewish year

jewish demographic

time of year

lubavitch movementsince

chabad representatives

chabad centers

onein tokyo