Jewish movement undercuts synagogues

Chabad targets Jews who won't pay hundreds of dollars to mark holy days

Jennifer Green
The Ottawa Citizen

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Synagogues in Ottawa will charge families hundreds, even thousands of dollars, for Yom Kippur services tonight -- except for a Jewish outreach group whose services are free.

It's just another way the Chabad movement is getting under the skin of the Jewish establishment across North America. A U.S. expert says it's the fastest growing movement in modern Judaism, and in some communities, it is reordering daily life.

Among North American Jews, annual membership fees and tickets to high holy days services are nothing new. In Ottawa, the Orthodox synagogue Machzikei Hadas charges about $1,000 for a family membership, which covers Holy Days services. Other synagogues charge $100 or more for a single ticket to the service, and $250 and up for a family. Some charge more for seats closer to the front.

The rationale is that synagogues must pay for buildings and staff, and cover high holy days security, usually $10,000 or more at each temple.

No synagogue would turn away someone who could not afford the service, "but we don't advertise that, or nobody would pay," says Rabbi Reuven Bulka of Machzikei Hadas.

Chabad (pronounced haBAD) has a different approach. It bends over backwards to make temple fun, friendly and ... usually free. It targets Jews who may have drifted away from their faith, or students who are far from home and distracted by worldly pleasures on campus.

Rabbi Chaim Boyarsky, who leads the Chabad Student Network of Ottawa at 29 Gilmour St., says: "We're catering to students, and students are looking for reasons not to go."

The rabbi's wife will even make chicken soup for a student with a cold, "not as a tool to bring them in, God forbid."

Just so he'll feel better.

Chabad is hip, too, enlisting Larry David's Curb Your Enthusiasm for an advertisement on YouTube. (Mr. David is shown buying Yom Kippur tickets from a scalper.)

Rabbi Boyarsky had 75 students for Rosh Hashanah, and is expecting 140 for Yom Kippur tonight.

There are four Chabad centres in Ottawa and some of them will charge what Rabbi Yeshoshua Botnick says is a "token amount," that doesn't cover the costs but prevents people from taking the service for granted. "If you give something or free, people think less of it."

Chabad of Centrepointe is charging $100 to $250 for reserved seating, but says on its website that "nobody will be turned away for lack of money."

Rabbi Bulka is skeptical. As soon as they need some infrastructure for their activities, they come running to the congregations who've been paying into it for years. "There's some sponging going on."

Professor Jonathan Sarna, one of the foremost experts in North American Judaism, said from his office at Brandeis University, that everyone has an obligation to support the temple. "Therefore, there is a great deal of unhappiness with freeloaders. But Chabad has a different model."

It maintains that people will give even more out of a sense of personal indebtedness if they aren't charged.

Some businessmen believe the Chabadniks, as they are called, operate so frugally, they are just a better investment on the donor's dollar. But Mr. Sarna says nobody fully understands where their money comes from.

The Chabad movement may be unsettling, but that's likely due to its success.

"This is the fastest growing movement since World War II.

It is an unparalleled success story, and other movements are a little suspicious of it, especially as it's mission driven."

They often revivify moribund communities that nobody else wants to take on.

And their rabbis are appointed for life to one community, so they must make of it what they will. Because those spiritual leaders stay, they often become the most senior rabbi relatively quickly.

Mr. Sarna is not surprised that they can rub the rest of the Jewish community the wrong way.

"It does its own thing, it doesn't listen to federations and it works on its own model. It's not a team player."

"The worst of it, from the point of view of the mainline, is that it seems to be working beyond all expectations."

There is a deeper issue. Rabbi Bulka says he's all for any group so devoted to reconnecting Jews with their faith, but "the nature of that connection gets a little bit dicey."

The Chabadniks originate with Lubavitcher Hasidim in Brooklyn, some of whom believe their leader, Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson, never really died in 1994; that he is the messiah they have been waiting for.

Mr. Sarna says that has largely been put aside, at least in public. They may believe the rebbe was the greatest human who ever lived, the best person of this generation "but he's not alive anymore."

© The Ottawa Citizen 2008

Brandeis students raise big bucks for Chabad

Waltham Chabad hosts gala dinner

At its Feb. 10 gala dinner in a large hall at Lexington Chabad
House, nearly 100 Brandeis University students raised more than
$30,000 for the Waltham house.
Run by Rabbi Peretz and his wife Chanie
Chein out of their home across the street
from campus, the Waltham house
operates on a shoestring budget, hosting
crowded weekly Shabbat dinners and
holiday celebrations and offering a series
of classes as part of their iLearn series.
The house was established in 2001, and
the gala was the first of its kind. All
proceeds raised from the event will fund
operating expenses such as the cost of
food and a modest living for the rabbi.
There is a small fee for the popular classes offered at the house
throughout the week in which a reported 90 students are currently
enrolled.
“Chabad House is independently funded and we receive no major
contributions from donors or institutions,” said Chein, whose
students address him by his first name. “The people we serve don’t
have the ability to support our costs and that makes fundraising
extremely challenging.”
Relying only on small donations from people who come to the
house often, Chein said the house has operated under a deficit over
the last few years and there needs to be ways to support the work
they do. The gala itself was conceived and planned entirely by
seniors Cindy Kaplan and Yael Klein with help from other students,
including sophomore Lily Namanworth.
And despite the ice storm that night, close to 100 people attended
the fundraiser, paying the rather steep price of $180 a ticket.
Though shy of the 120 expected, in addition to the $31,000 raised,
someone reportedly made an additional pledge of $20,000.
What’s the attraction?
“Personal relationships and personal interaction,” said Chein, 32,
recalling a recent conversation with a 2004 Brandies graduate who
called to say hello and talk. “It develops and evolves and gets
people interested. That’s why they’ll come in big numbers. Everyone
feels special and important. We’re engaging, speak to important
issues and people of all backgrounds feel comfortable here.”
“We love Chanie and Peretz,” said Namanworth. “Every Friday
there’s a dinner at their house with something like 150 people.
They’re constantly giving to us and being there for the students.”
With a strong Reform, Conservative and Orthodox community,
Chein said Chabad is still able to have large dinners without
decreasing involvement in Hillel and other Jewish organizations on
campus.
“The number of those not engaged far exceeds those that are,”
Chein said. “When Chabad arrived we created a different model
and attracted those who were not engaged.”
He said the model starts with a “principle belief in the innate value
of every Jew regardless of, not despite, their current level of
engagement and observance.”
He said his goal and responsibility is to move everyone who walks
through his door forward from where they were before.
“As long as they’re moving forward, the individual answer is
different for everybody,” Chein said.
Senior Cindy Jacobs, who was raised Orthodox in New York, said
she’s been going to the house for Shabbat dinner and classes since
her sophomore year
“I hadn’t been happy at other places I’d gone before and a friend
told me about Chabad,” Jacobs said. “I’ve never had the experience
where I could consider a rabbi a friend. Peretz and Chanie are
amazing. Their door is always open and it’s a place where I can be
the kind of Jew I want to be. It’s important to have an anchor and
somewhere to go that feels like home.”