Germany's Largest Synagogue Reopens in Berlin

With a capacity of 1200, the Ryke Street synagogue is the largest in Germany
Berlin's Ryke Street synagogue, Germany's largest, completed its remarkable return to its former glory Friday when it was reopened after extensive reconstruction.
Nearly 70 years after it was badly damaged in the 1938 Nazi pogrom known as Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass), Germany's largest synagogue reopened in Berlin Friday after being restored to its original glory over the past year at a cost of 5 million euros ($7 million).Built in 1904 in the neo-Romanesque style, the Ryke Street synagogue was attacked during the infamous night of violence during which Adolf Hitler’s followers torched Jewish homes, businesses and places of worship. While the synagogue was desecrated, it was not burned down, apparently because the Nazis feared causing damage to the surrounding buildings
Now, after a colorful history which also saw it fall under communist rule, the synagogue has been reborn as symbol of the rebirth of the Jewish community in the German capital. Ninety-four year-old rabbi Leo Trepp, who had preached at the synagogue in the 1930s and was one of the rabbis who was seized and deported to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp along with many of congregation members, called the reopening a "miracle".Synagogue's rebirth "a miracle"
Trepp was among the guests at the inauguration ceremony in the restored building with political leaders and Holocaust survivors from around the world. "It is a miracle that there are Jews in Germany again," Trepp told reporters. "And the synagogue on Rykestrasse, which survived two different regimes, is the symbol of that miracle," he said.The synagogue's architects Ruth Golan and Kay Zareh used three surviving black-and-white photographs of the original building to recreate its remarkable elegance. "It is now the most beautiful synagogue in Germany," the cultural affairs director of the Berlin's Jewish community, Peter Sauerbaum, said.Bildunterschrift: The synagogue survived some of Germany's most testing times
German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble and the president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Charlotte Knobloch, also took part in the opening ceremony in central Berlin.The opening coincides with the start of the capital's annual Jewish Cultural Days, which includes a series of concerts at the newly restored synagogue.Israeli pop star David Broza and violinist Daniel Hope will be among the performers taking part in the 10-day festival, which runs to September 9.On Sunday, a new cultural center is being formally opened in the western part of Berlin for the Chabad-Lubavitch branch of orthodox Jews. A feature of the center, which cost 5 million euros, is a 30-metre replica of part of the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, built with stone from around the city.
The reopening of the synagogue marks a remarkable return to grandeur since its last prayer service at the Berlin synagogue took place in April 1940.After World War II, it was first used to house Jewish survivors of the Holocaust in Eastern Europe before reopening in 1953 and becoming home to the East Berlin's Jewish community after the capital was divided The synagogue out-lived the Nazis and communism. Over the years after 1967, the synagogue was gradually renovated, and the most recent works have seen the restoration of the colored-glass interior. With German unification in 1990, the synagogue served an influx of Jewish immigrants from Russia which continues to make Germany's 120,000-strong Jewish community one of the fastest-growing in the world. The synagogue can accommodate some 1,200 worshippers.

Chabad rabbi sues town for filming home

A New Jersey rabbi filed a civil rights suit against a municipality alleging that it filmed prayers at his home to prove he was running a "house of worship." Rabbi Avraham Bernstein, a Chabad rabbi who hosts Sabbath prayers in his Freehold home, was given a summons by the township for operating a "house of worship" without zoning permission, according to a story appearing Wednesday on lubavitch.com, the Chabad Web site.
Bernstein sued, saying the council was overreaching. Subsequently, the rabbi alleged, the council set up a camera to monitor comings and goings to his home. That prompted a federal civil rights lawsuit with the assistance of the Rutherford Institute, a group that advocates for religious freedoms.

Agoura Chabad begins construction

Chabad of the Conejo invites residents to a festival and ground breaking at 11 a.m. Sun., Sept. 9 at 30345 Canwood St., Agoura Hills.
The event will feature live music, dignitaries, refreshments and the ceremonial placing of the foundation stone for a new campus.
A major capital campaign is underway to build the New Chabad of the Conejo Community Campus at the site of its current Agoura Hills center. The organization has acquired the empty parcel in back of the existing center for the campus expansion.
The proposed project has two phases: the construction of a new Center for Jewish Life on the empty lot and the demolition of the existing building in front to erect a new synagogue.
The new Chabad Community Campus will enable the organization to increase enrollment of its Hebrew School, Hebrew High and adult education programs and also increase the capacities at community events and Shabbat services.
Planned new programs include senior programming for the elderly, the Parenting Place for new and expectant parents, and additional Friendship Circle activities for children with special needs.
Chabad began in 1979 in a small storefront and has since expanded into a network of nine community centers spanning the Conejo Valley.

Yeshiva of Rock

Four years ago, I received a burned CD copy of an unreleased album. Hastily written on the disc in black marker was the band’s name, The Marcus Brothers. The CD contained an album-worth of explicitly Orthodox rock. It was something of an underground Chabad secret, the group’s core members two real-life brothers, one of them a Lubavitcher emissary in California.

The pair (occasionally joined by four other brothers singing back-up) eventually re-formed as The 8th Day and last month released their second album, “Brooklyn.” The record is something rare in the burgeoning business of frum rock. Instead of marketing a collection of revved-up wedding songs, The 8th Day takes its cues from contemporary popular music, from the dirge-like post-grunge of “C.D.S.G.” (Chassidim Don’t Say Goodbye) to the reggae-rock of “Wake Up.”

“Brooklyn” lacks some of the under-produced charm of that first bootleg, but it contains enough of its own to make it worthwhile. Foremost among its charms is the band’s melding of Hasidic pop and rock sounds. (Try finding another band that sings about bubbes with guitars grinding in the background.)

The 8th Day is at once yeshiva-oriented and musically up-to-date. Other ultra-Orthodox musicians tend to either be trapped in a liturgical-inspired genre (such as well-known Hasidic musician Avraham Fried, who happens to be the Marcus brothers’ uncle) or sacrifice the motifs of Hasidic culture for mass appeal (Matisyahu).

The 8th Day alternates its lyrics between English, Hebrew and Yiddish. This musical melting pot is what makes songs like “C.D.S.G” — with its soaring English-language chorus punctuated by a rat-a-tat-tat hip-hop delivery in Yiddish — so interesting. Unfortunately, the band’s English lyrics too often tend toward weakly formulated clichés (“The hearts are broken, how can you shatter a dream?” on “Broken Hearts”). Nevertheless, “Brooklyn” is an album well worth examining — at the very least to see the enormous influence that modern rock is exerting on a new generation of Hasidic musicians.

You can listen to “C.N.S.G.” and title track “Brooklyn” on The 8th Day’s MySpace page. See The 8th Day playing “Yarmulke Blues” here.

Mordechai Shinefield has written about music for Rolling Stone, The Village Voice and the New York Press.

A lost tribe in India

Paharganj, Delhi, our first day in India. Bombarded from all sides by pungent smells, loud shouts, touts advertising their brother’s hotel, and cows pulling fruit wagons, one sign catches our attention. No, it is not Bollywood; rather it is a large smiling photo of the Lubavitcher Rebbe welcoming Israelis to the Chabad House, Delhi.

We were four Jewish university students from Leeds and North-West London, veterans of years of Jewish day school, Bnei Akiva and gap schemes in Israel. We had chosen to visit India in the hope of opening our eyes to new vistas and a foreign culture. As it turned out, much of our holiday was spent grappling with a subject we had expected to leave behind: Israelis and Judaism.

Israelis, we had been constantly told during our years of Jewish education, were the ideal Jews. Only in Israel was it possible to live a Jewish way of life, observing the festivals in their correct context, serving in the army whose mission is to protect the Jewish people. The upright and proud Israeli towered over the feeble diaspora Jew who, if he was not being persecuted by gentile society, was assimilating into it.

It is well known that Israelis like to travel, but there is something unique to the phenomenon of Israelis in India, where, in certain parts of the country, even the road signs are written in Hebrew. Frustrated with years of obeying orders in the army, they arrive in India to enjoy absolute freedom.

Military fatigues turn into robes and, where once not more than a millimetre of hair grew, flowing locks and tangled beards become the order of the day. The mystical lure of India’s ancient culture and religion is highly attractive to young Israelis who find little to excite and inspire them at home.

Our first Shabbat was spent in Varanasi on the banks of the Ganges. Having gained permission to light our candles in the hotel window, we settled down to enjoy a Friday night meal thousands of miles from home. The hotel was on a busy street, and within half an hour, six Israelis were sitting around the table with us.

A girl in full sari, when asked where she lived, replied haughtily, “Ani lo gara” (“I do not live”). She was above being tied down to any specific place. She was an Israeli in India who could come and go whenever she pleased, without the need to forge roots or pledge commitment to any given place. Yet for all their confidence, they were attracted to our Friday night meal which reminded them of times gone by.

The next week we found ourselves in a village called Bhagsu, in the foothills of the Himalayas. Together with some 80 Israelis, on an open balcony overlooking snow capped mountains, we began to sing Shalom Aleichem, the traditional song before beginning the Friday night meal. A long-haired Israeli named Adam turned to me and mentioned how nice the atmosphere was. Did I know, he asked, that he had only heard Shalom Aleichem for the first time while in India? Over the months spent at Friday night tables around the country, he had learnt to appreciate it as “something which binds Jews across the world… like one big family”.

Adam summed up the true paradox of Israelis in India. Arriving with little of which they are consciously proud, religion is for them simply a synonym for unwanted coercion. Adam had never thought of having a Friday night meal until he came to India. All Judaism had meant for him was rabbis forbidding one thing after another. This fitted into the context of living in a country with corrupt politicians, a horrific security situation and glaring social inequalities. In short, Adam and thousands like him are Israeli, they told us, simply because they are born there, and not because anything positive makes them want to define themselves as such.

All this changes in India. Confronted by a culture that is completely alien to theirs, if they wish to maintain any sort of link to Israel and Judaism, they must do something active about it. Into this vacuum, appear groups such as Chabad and Lev Yehudi, which are all too happy to give the ex-paratroopers and Sbarro waiters (an Israeli pizza chain) their first taste of traditional Judaism.

A few verses later, Adam started laughing. Why? Because his girlfriend sitting opposite us was also singing Shalom Aleichem. Why was that funny? Was he already worried about the rabbinic injunction against hearing a woman’s voice? No, it was funny because his girlfriend was not Jewish. She was a charming Catholic New Yorker he had met in India. Having been dragged to many Friday night meals, it had become second nature for her to sing Shalom Aleichem.

So what does Adam, and thousands of other young Israelis like him, do now? He has had a glimpse into a life of meaningful Judaism that is too powerful for him to walk away from. He told us that although he cannot imagine his children wearing kippot, he would hate to deprive them of the opportunity of knowing what a traditional Friday night is.

His was a dilemma, the answer to which is of crucial relevance to the identity of the state of Israel and the character of the Jewish people. The failure of secular Zionism to provide a positive identity for a generation which no longer needs to fight the British or drain swamps means that, paradoxically, the Israeli youth of today who journey thousands of miles to discover the secrets of the Orient, find that what they are looking for has been in their own heritage and tradition for thousands of years. Whether Adam and those like him will make the return journey back to Israel remains to be seen.

Joe Wolfson is a former JC intern studying politics at Cambridge University and a Bnei Akiva youth leader

'Praying without Paying' is becoming a more popular option among shuls

SAN FRANCISCO (JTA)—When 63-year-old Steven Fruh was growing up in Manhattan, his parents did not belong to a synagogue. "They couldn't afford it," he says.

At the High Holy Days they would buy one ticket between them, for the congregation's overflow service in the basement.

"As a kid, I was very affected by this second-rate, third-rate thing," he says. "That's what I grew up with—this one ticket my parents shared, and not even in the main sanctuary."

The only thing that's changed since then is the price. Fifty bucks if you're lucky. Hundreds of dollars if you're not. As summer draws to a close, tens of thousands of unaffiliated American Jews begin the yearly hunt for affordable Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services, which fall this year on Sept.12-14 and Sept. 21-22.

Tickets for these services are usually free for dues-paying members of a congregation, but can be quite expensive for non-members, if they are even available. Price is driven by demand—these are the only two times of the year that many Jews, synagogue members or not, step inside a shul. And while the extra crowd puts pressure on a synagogue's resources, it can also be a major source of revenue.

In recent years, however, more and more synagogues have begun opening their doors for free on the High Holidays. Some look at it as an outreach strategy aimed at introducing non-members to their congregation, in the hopes they will be so entranced with the community that they will become dues-paying members.

Other congregations view it as a mitzvah, providing worship opportunities for those who cannot afford tickets, or are away from home. Still others emphasize the communal responsibility aspect, explaining that a synagogue should be open to any Jew.

"It's a growing trend, dating back at least to the 1994 GA and the 50% intermarriage rate," says Mayer Waxman, former director of synagogue services for the Orthodox Union, referring to the General Assembly of the then-United Jewish Appeal that focused on the results of the 1990 National Jewish Population Survey. "The keruv," or in-gathering, "mentality has entered the mainstream."

Many people credit Chabad-Lubavitch with spearheading the movement for free holiday services across the denominational spectrum. Building on its extensive network of more than 2,000 outreach centers, the movement operates a global search engine, www.chabad.org/HighHolidayServices, which lists free services at its centers around the world.

The Orthodox Union offers a list of "beginners minyanim" for the High Holy Days on its Web site, at www.ou.org/community_services/minyan. Some are free, while others are low-cost.

None of the liberal streams offer such comprehensive listings, but they are taking other steps and individual congregations of various stripes are launching initiatives of their own.

Rabbi Jerome Epstein, executive vice-president of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, says there have always been some Conservative synagogues that offer free holiday services, but it's become "much more in vogue this past decade, especially the last five years."

He says the movement encourages synagogues to offer free tickets to a non-member for a year or two, but not forever. They need to ante up and join eventually, and it's up to the synagogues to encourage it.

Some congregations and institutions are going beyond just opening their doors:

* The Young Adults Division of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia is co-sponsoring "Taste of the New Year," a first-time outreach event aimed at students and young Jewish professionals. At the Aug. 29 event, representatives of most local synagogues will hand out sips of kosher wine along with free seats to their High Holy Day services.

* Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld of Ohev Shalom-The National Synagogue in Washington, DC, is holding a "Honey Giveaway" on Sept. 11, blowing the shofar and giving away free High Holy Day tickets at the corner of Connecticut and K.

* Baltimore Hebrew Congregation is expecting 2,000 to 3,000 people for "Rosh Hashanah Under the Stars," a free Rosh Hashanah Eve service that it is sponsoring on Sept. 12 at Oregon Ridge Park. Things will get rolling at 5 pm with picnicking, family activities and a performance by the Israeli group Seeds of Sun. At sundown, seven shofars will be blown from the hills, and the service will be conducted from a symphony bandshell.

In general, most congregations will give tickets for free to those in financial need, but the person has to ask for it, a process many find embarrassing. Paul Golin, assistant executive director of the Jewish Outreach Institute, says synagogues should be more helpful. "If you really don't have the room, at least know what other services are going on in your community," he suggests. "That's very rare."

Most congregations of all denominations let young Jews in for free, or at a highly reduced rate.

The Conservative movement sponsors Project Reconnect, encouraging its member synagogues to offer free seats to young alumni of Conservative youth programs. In Manhattan, the High Holy Days Committee of the New York Metropolitan Conference of the Men of Reform Judaism sponsors "Bernie's Services," free High Holy Day services for students, young professionals and faculty members. Three to four hundred people attended last year.

Fewer synagogues are willing to open their doors for free to adults beyond college age. "It's a trend that makes more traditionally-structured synagogues nervous," says Golin. "In the liberal movements, a lot of their economic model is built around the number of Jews that only come to synagogue three times a year, so they say, we have to make those days how we support ourselves financially."

While such thinking is widespread, none of the movements keep track of how member congregations' budgets are affected by High Holiday ticket sales.

Brenda Barrie, executive director of Beth Shir Sholom in Santa Monica, Calif., says she doesn't "think it's true" that synagogues need the holidays to stay afloat. Last year her congregation took in $7,500 during the holidays, but that barely covered renting a hall, paying for security, and providing food and drink. "The High Holy Days aren't a moneymaker for us, not even close," she says.

Some congregations report that offering free services actually helps fundraising.

Last year, Congregation Sinai, a small Conservative synagogue in San Jose, Calif., offered free services for the first time. Congregational President Steve Dick reports they took in more money than in any previous year, as many of those who attended for free made substantial donations afterwards.

"People enjoyed the services, and wanted to contribute," Dick says. "Some even became members. The year before, when we charged for tickets, people felt that was their donation."

Chabad rabbis say free services help membership grow. "Our experience is, get people involved, get them excited, it generates more vitality in the Jewish community, and they say, hey—I want to support this," says Rabbi Mendel Lifshitz, who runs the three-year-old Chabad Jewish Center in Boise, Idaho.

That happened to 60-year-old retail salesman Jan Toas, who moved to the Philadelphia-area two years ago after many years as a self-described "three-times-a-year Jew" loosely affiliated with his family's Reconstructionist synagogue. He went to the free Rosh Hashanah services last year at Congregation B'nai Abraham, a Lubavitch-led congregation in downtown Philadelphia, liked what he found, and joined up right after the holidays. "It was the most welcoming, non-judgmental place," he explains.

"Our philosophy is, everyone is welcome," says Rabbi Yochonon Goldman, spiritual leader of B'nai Abraham. That is, he admits, "an expensive philosophy, " and he "understands the perspective" of congregations that don't do it.

Even congregations that feel compelled to charge for tickets, draw the line at actually turning people away. Congregation B'nai Israel, a small Conservative congregation in Danbury, Conn., charges for tickets, but doesn't check for them at the door. "We've been doing it for years," says Rabbi Nelly Altenburger. "We have a number of 'regulars' who always show up, and there's always some kvetching."

Recently a board member suggested a "pay as you pray" system, whereby those who only want to come for the holidays would pay reduced dues. The idea was quickly voted down.

"We go back and forth a lot," Altenburger says. "But at the end of the day, we decided we are not going to check. That's not how we see ourselves."

Praise for Jersey generosity

And a few words of praise for the teenagers of the Chabad of East Brunswick Friendship Club, who every Friday spend a few hours interacting with residents of The Chelsea of East Brunswick, an assisted-living facility on Cranbury Road.

Under the leadership of Rabbi Aryeh Goodman and his wife, Ora, the youngsters who range in age from 12 to 16 bring gifts, play games, put on performances, and perform mitzvahs like painting fingernails as they help the residents — who are of mixed backgrounds and faiths — enjoy their present lives and build memories.

From manholes to mikvahs

by Erin Cohen

of The Chronicle staff

Bruce Glaser recently added a new product to his company, APS Concrete Products, Inc., product line. In addition to pre-case transportable buildings, bridge systems and other concrete products, including pipes and manholes, APS now manufactures mikvahs.
The idea arose when Glaser met with Rabbis Menachem, Dovid and Moshe Rapoport “to see what I could do to maybe help them” with the building of the Joseph and Rebecca Peltz Center for Jewish Life in Mequon.

And though Glaser did not end up building that mikvah, his meetings coincided with the visit of Rabbi Gershon Greenbaum, a “mikvah consultant” from the Chabad in St. Paul, Minn., who was in town to offer guidance to the Rapoports on their new mikvah.

Grossbaum, who has “traveled internationally helping people with mikvah projects,” he said, had been looking for a concrete company that would be willing to go in on an idea that he had for a pre-cast mikvah.

During his travels, Grossbaum noticed that in smaller, more isolated communities, it was “a bit of a challenge” to install new mikvahs.

The traditional method of construction involves pouring concrete with the use of ready mix trucks in the place of the mikvah to form the basic structure, followed by placing tiles over it. This was difficult and expensive to coordinate in small communities, Grossbaum said.

That was when the pre-cast mikvah idea “started developing in my mind,” he added.
After Grossbaum met with Glaser, he was able to secure funds to support the initial design and manufacturing of the 42-piece mikvah kit, from Abraham Bistritsky of New York, who donated the funds in memory of his brother Rabbi Levi Bistritsky, who had been the chief rabbi of Safed in Israel.

Grossbaum sells the pre-cast mikvah as the Levy Bistritsky mikvah. “We’re definitely honored to carry the name,” he said.

Challenges in design

“Rabbi Grossbaum created the original design,” Glaser said and “we worked with him to modify” it and “work out some practical issues.”

“There were all sorts of halachic [Jewish legal] issues in designing it,” Glaser said.
But through several meetings that included the participation of Glaser’s “Lutheran operations manager and Russian Jewish engineer” — as well as “many iterations in design,” the mikvah kit design was completed.

APS manufactures the kits specifically for Grossbaum, who travels to each site for installation. Grossbaum has installed four of the kits so far, including one in Brooklyn, N.Y. Another is about to be delivered to a location in Montreal, Grossbaum said.
“There is demand,” Glaser said, “but not a lot of demand.”

Though pre-cast kits are “not the preferred method,” they are “halachically acceptable” and lower in cost, Glaser said.

In addition, noted Grossbaum, the process of installation of the pre-cast mikvah takes “less then a day,” where the standard method could take two weeks.

Glaser said he is personally “excited about making a product for Jewish use.”

It “is a thrill to hear the whole company talking about mikvahs,” he said. And because his employees know the mikvah is used for religious purposes, they take the entire manufacturing process “very seriously."

A new mitzvah in the kitchen

For Metrowest residents, dish-washing is becoming a more spiritual experience.

“The Dish Mikvah,” which opened last month, is the most recent installation of the Mei Menachem Western Well’s community mikveh, a state-of-the-art Natick facility aimed to serve roughly 40,000 Jewish individuals living west of Boston.
Rabbi Levi Fogelman and his wife, Chanie, the leadership at the Chabad Center of Natick, spearheaded the initiative with the intent to revitalize the “mitzvah of the mikveh,” as well as to address the importance of making dishes and other utensils kosher for household use.
“The goal of our Chabad, in general, is we look to promote mitzvot that need more attention,” Fogelman said. “People were unaware and didn’t know [what a dish mikveh was]. It’s a mitzvah that is not very well known, but yet it’s a mitzvah that was given to us in the Torah over 3,300 years ago.”
Featuring a counter-high surface for easy dipping, “The Dish Mikvah” is filled with a body of original rainwater that falls directly into the vessel. When an individual buys new dishes or eating utensils, Jewish law states that some of these items have to be immersed in the mikveh to become sanctified.
The Fogelmans told the Advocate that a breakfast and formal dedication for “The Dish Mikvah” is expected to be held on Oct. 14. An educational program about how to use the facility is being planned for after the holidays.
“We want to make this a very positive experience,” said Chanie, who noted that more than 20 people have already come to toivel – ritually immerse – their eating utensils.
Long awaited by the Jewish community, “The Dish Mikvah” was originally constructed approximately three years ago, but was unable to open until now because of a leak. The facility is housed in the same building as a women’s mikveh, educational resource center, preparation room, and men’s mikveh, which is currently under repair.
The completion of “The Dish Mikvah” was made possible through a generous donation by a Natick family who are members of the Chabad Center of Natick. According to Fogelman, the construction of the Mei Menachem Western Well, which was supported financially by countless donors in the community, cost more than half a million dollars.
David Joel, who made the generous donation to “The Dish Mikvah” in memory of his mother, Rose W. Joel, said he was honored to help finish up the project. Visiting the facility from time to time to toivel his eating utensils, David added that it’s a fitting way to remember his mother.
Said David: “It’s a nice thing to know that her memory will be there.”

For more information about “The Dish Mikvah,” call (508) 650-1499 or visit www.westernwell.org.

It’s a toy-ous time at Yale kids’ hospital

Pamela McLoughlin , Register Staff

NEW HAVEN — Rabbi Yossi Hodakov didn’t realize how meaningful the little things can be to a family when there’s a hospitalized child — until his own 8-year-old daughter had a stay at Yale-New Haven Hospital.
So when Hodakov delivered some 100 toys Monday to Yale-New Haven’s Children’s Hospital, it really came from the heart.

"Most organizations deliver toys in December around Hanukkah and Christmas," Hodakov said. "But sometimes, in the summer, a child can feel even more left out because they know other kids are outside playing and having fun."

Hodakov, director of Chabad of Westville, was asked to distribute the toys by the National Committee for the Furtherance of Jewish Education, based in New York. The donation is part of the organization’s Toys for Hospitalized Children project.

Ellen Good, manager of the Child Life Department at Yale-New Haven Hospital, said the donation is wonderful because the hospital is always in need of toys for its young patients.

Good said there are four playrooms, waiting areas for children in various departments, as well as places such as the emergency room and testing areas where toys are sometimes used as a distraction or just to add fun to the kids’ lives during a difficult time.

Children also get gifts on their birthdays and at other key times during treatment.

"I don’t have a budget, so I rely on donations for the children," she said. "Sometimes at the end of treatment, it’s nice to have a special gift for them."

She said that while the hospital loves receiving gifts at Christmas when the need is so high, it’s true that donations sometimes lag at other times of the year. She said the children’s department can always use toys, games and puzzles for children of all ages.

Hodakov, whose congregation is Orthodox with a focus on outreach, delivered toys with a broad range of age and gender appeal, including plush toys, electronic games and board games.

He said the donation is part of the New York organization expanding its program outside the state.

He said that aside from the joy a toy brings, it’s a nice feeling for children to know someone was thinking about them.

"It’s really a beautiful thing," he said of the cause.

Anyone interested in donating may contact Good at 688-3844.

Moscow to Get First Mitzvah Mobile

Moscow will soon be receiving its first Chabad "Mitzvah Mobile," according to an August 20th report on the Chabad.org website.

The large recreational vehicles -- mobile Jewish educational and outreach centers for areas not serviced by Chabad Houses -- are visible in cities all around the world, but this will be the first one in the Russian capital. The first such vehicle took to the road in New York City in 1974, as a means of reaching secular Jews and introducing them to Lubavitcher-style Chassidism.

Chabad hopes to have the vehice up and running by the High Holidays in September to distribute Shabbat candles, teach small sections of the torah and get Jewish men to don tefillin.

230 Years Since Chassidic Aliyah Push

by Ezra HaLevi

(IsraelNN.com)

Sunday marks 230 years since the first Chassidic Aliyah (immigration to Israel), when three leading rabbis and their students arrived in Israel on Elul 5, 5537 (1777).The group of settlers was led by Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk, Rabbi Avraham of Kalisk and Rabbi Yisrael of Polotsk. The men, though leaders of Chassidism in Russia, rallied 300 of their students to make the perilous journey to the Land of Israel.All were disciples of Rabbi Dov Ber, the Maggid of Mezeritch. They were also joined by Chabad founder but he was instructed by Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk to remain in Moholiev, on the Dneistre River, as they passed though the city, in order to remain behind to serve as the leader of the Chassidic community in White Russia and Lithuania. The group faced many perils on the way to the Holy Land. One of the boats they used sank, and with it 30 Jewish passengers died. They eventually reached the Land of Israel on the fifth of Elul.They established a Jewish community in Tzfat, but were harassed and attacked by the Ottoman Turks and Arabs, and were forced to resettle in Tiberias (T'veria).Rabbi Schneur Zalman retained close contact with the settlers and arranged for much-needed funds to be sent to them. They faced extreme difficulties as the students lacked trade skills and knowledge of the basics of state-building, but Rabbi Menachem Mendel refused to give up.In the spirit of the rabbis' penchant for using gematria(the numeration of the Hebrew letters of words for expounding upon their meaning and significance), Sunday's 230-year anniversary is equal to twice the word Aliyah - perhaps connecting their early Aliyah and that of today.
Reasons For the Move
Examining the reason for the rabbis’ move,Rabbi Eliezer Melamed writes:
“It is difficult to understand what exactly caused Reb Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk to make the move to the Holy Land. He was, at the time, at a peak: He was the most important of the Maggid’s students; he wielded great influence over his followers; they loved him and he loved them as well. So great was his authority that even the leading students of the Maggid, themselves fit to be great spiritual leaders, answered to him. Then, suddenly, he decided to take a group of followers and travel to the land of Israel with the intention of staying there for the rest of his life.“Some believe that the ongoing persecution at the hands of his opponents, the ‘Mitnagdim,’ caused him such hardship that he decided, in order to divorce himself from the quarreling, to move to the land of Israel. And, indeed, because he succeeded in disseminating Chassidism in areas bordering on Lithuania and even enjoyed a following inside Lithuania, Rabbi Menachem Mendel became the main target of the attacks of the Mitnagdim. Public denouncements and excommunications were issued specifically against him, and it was due to such persecution that he was forced to leave his home in Minsk. All the same, it is difficult to accept that as mighty a personage as he would be deterred by such things. What’s more, he was succeeding and his influence was forever expanding.“It would appear that, in truth, his thirst for closeness to God, and his great longing for the Holy Land - the land wherein God rests His Divine Presence - shook his inner being so strongly that no worldly enjoyment could compare to living in the land of Israel. In addition, by settling in the land of Israel, Reb Menachem Mendel wished to transcend all factional discrepancy, and map out a path for mending the whole Jewish people.”
Rabbi Menachem Mendel instructed his students to avoid arguments with the local Sephardic Jews already living in Tzfat. His son was arranged to marry the daughter of a local Sephardic family, a practice Rabbi Melamed says “was not at all accepted in those times” by Ashkenazic Jews.

Paved the Way
“As a result of his move to the land of Israel Reb Menachem Mendel forfeited his central position in the Chassidic arena,” Rabbi Melamed writes. “His younger students and friends became the leaders of the movement, and founders of dynasties, while his name was forgotten by many. Yet, it would appear that, thanks to Reb Menachem, the land of Israel became engraved in the consciousness of the Chassidic movement. Leading Chassidic sages, his students and his friends, were appointed with the task of collecting donations in order to support the Jewish settlers in Israel. As a result, they and their followers became attached in one way or another to the land of Israel.

Chabad Lubavitch Center actually looks pretty nice

I have watched the construction of the Chabad Lubavitch Center on Silverside Road. Beginning eight years ago I fought this project, voicing concerns at zoning meetings and in letters to this newspaper. In the end those of us opposed to this project lost.

Judging from the outside, the center is nearing completion. I believe it's worth noting the lessons I learned from my first foray into local politics.

I am still troubled that the Board of Adjustment granted five zoning variances for this project. These variances were challenged in Superior Court, but were upheld in April 2002. The ease with which variances were granted is symptomatic of why development in our county is haphazard and uncontrolled.

However, I was wrong concerning the center itself.

Contrary to what I feared, the building does not look out of place in the neighborhood. The center looks better than other nearby structures. My objections were based on fear of change. The design of the center proves that change isn't always bad when it is done well.

But the most important lesson is that it is critical to stand up to local politicians and bureaucrats. These people are supposed to serve the community - and must be watched carefully to make sure they do so.

Scott Kirwin, Wilmington

Friendship Circle welcomes new director

The Friendship Circle of the Conejo Valley has announced the appointment of Rabbi Eli Laber of Chicago, Ill., as its new full-time director. Laber's wife, Rochel (nee Bryski), will assist in program development for the children and teenage volunteers.
Laber and his wife have served as teachers and directors of major school and summer programs in California, Texas and New York. The couple is expected to move to the area in mid-August.
The Friendship Circle, founded in 2002, is a program that pairs children that have special needs with teenagers for social and recreational activities under the guidance of qualified counselors and staff members. Nearly 200 children are visited by teenage volunteers and participate in special activities on a weekly basis.
"The need for the Friendship Circle to engage a strong, capable, dynamic, fulltime, longterm leader and director to bring the program to a new level has been apparent for quite some time" said Rabbi Yisroel Levine of the Friendship Circle. "Given their respective and complementary talents, Eli and Rochel seem to offer just the right people for the right job at the right time."
In addition to strengthening the Friendship Circle's existing programs, Laber will focus on drawing in more teenage volunteers, introducing new programs for the children and their families, broadening fundraising efforts and creating a stronger program infrastructure.
As a member of the rabbinical staff of Chabad of the Conejo, he will also offer spiritual guidance to the families and teens involved with the program and introduce new programming, including Shabbat services and bar/bat mitzvah preparations for program families.

Community honors fallen soldier

EUCLID -- A fallen soldier got a hero's tribute from a community he moved away from more than 20 years ago.

PFC Daniel Agami was killed in action back in June.

His services were held in Florida where his family moved when he was a boy.

However, the soldier was born in Cleveland and his family was part of The Community of Chabad House in South Euclid.

Sunday they paid him a tribute.

His mother and sister flew into town to observe the service.

VIDEO

Chabad launches news site

Chabad-Lubavitch has launched a news Web site.

The site, www.chabad.org/news, will feature updates from Chabad centers around the world, as well as profiles of Jewish figures, information about Jewish holidays and rituals, articles on Lubavitch philosophy and links to other resources at www.chabad.org.

Current offerings include the announcement of a new Chabad rabbi in Cancun, Jewish community news from Ukraine and Germany, and a comprehensive guide to Jewish marriage.

The site is headed by Joshua Runyan, former news editor of the Philadelphia Jewish Exponent.

Readers may sign up for a free daily e-mail of top stories.

Chabad to open school’s doors in Old Tappan

One year after setting up the first Chabad house in Old Tappan, Rabbi Mendy Lewis is set to create the town’s first Hebrew school this fall.

Registration is now open for the school, which Lewis will run with his wife Devora and which will meet on Sundays. Although it is scheduled to begin next month with less than half a dozen children, Lewis is confident it will succeed. And in an area without another shul, where children have had to go to Closter, Teaneck, or even New York’s Rockland County, for a Jewish education, Lewis believes the community is ready.

Old Tappan has close to 300 Jewish families and, with the surrounding communities, Chabad counts between 500 and 600 families in the area, Lewis said. A Hebrew school in Old Tappan signifies a significant shift among the borough’s residents.

"For a first year in a small community, that’s a tremendous sign of interest and growth."

Chabad will typically open a Hebrew school a few years after it enters a community. But Lewis said interest from parents led him and his wife to start the program now.

"I’m not sure we would have started something right away without the parents initiating it," he said. "It’s really coming from the community."

Tina DeNike was one of the parents who urged Lewis to start a school. She and her family live in Old Tappan but belong to an out of the area Reform shul where her 13-year-old son, Jake, was bar mitzvahed. Her 10-year-old son, Zachary, will attend the Chabad school.

"They felt like they could approach the rabbi so easily, there was no question that couldn’t be asked," she said of the relationship between the rabbi and her children. "Most important was the fact my children enjoyed being around him."

The school’s students are a mix of Reform, Conservative, and unaffiliated. Chabad accepts students from every stream of Judaism, the rabbi said.

"We don’t push anything on anyone, we just teach and provide opportunities to learn, to grow, and to enjoy Judaism," he said.

The school will focus on reading, writing, an appreciation of being Jewish, an appreciation of Israel, and basic conversational Hebrew, said Devora Lewis.

"Because there is nothing here, you have children who have not had any formal Jewish education yet," she said. "People appreciate something local. We’re hoping to tie the community together."

Devora Lewis has spent 10 years teaching Hebrew school in Australia, Manhattan, and, most recently, Long Island, where she and her husband were teachers for five years before coming to Old Tappan. The Chabad Hebrew School in Port Washington, N.Y., started off with 40 students and had grown to more than 100 by the time the Lewises left. "That’s the way it works," the rabbi said. "It starts off with 10, 15 children and it grows. There has been a tremendous response to the program."

"With experience the school will definitely grow," Devora Lewis said. "People are also looking for something different. This is going to be a wholly different experience."

The school will use color-coded levels to pass students from beginning, white, to the top level, black, much like the belt system used in karate. The system has become popular in Chabad schools across the world, she said. Although the oldest student registered is in fifth grade, the school will eventually offer kindergarten through sixth grade. Devora Lewis has found that seventh-graders are often too busy with bar/bat mitzvah preparation to participate in other activities but the rabbi will offer bar/bat mitzvah training and, eventually, post b’nai mitzvah classes, as well, the rabbi said.

"We’d like to get this going first," he said. "I do see something like that happening in the near future."

For more information, call (201) 421-1551.

Chabad of Bradenton & Lakewood Ranch moving to new location

HERALD STAFF REPORT

LAKEWOOD RANCH - Chabad of Bradenton & Lakewood Ranch will be moving to larger quarters in the new First Priority Bank building in Lakewood Ranch.

The Chabad congregation, which will be celebrating its third year anniversary Aug. 24, will make the move to 11509 Palm Brush Trail beginning Nov. 1, Chabad of Bradenton & Lakewood Ranch, Rabbi Mendy Bukiet said.

"This is a significantly larger center which will suit our expanding needs," said Bukiet, whose congregation will continue to meet at 6311 Atrium Drive # 204 until the move.

The new location will allow the Chabad to expand its Friday night services and early morning Shabbat classes, Bukiet said.

Chabad on the prowl in former Aryan Nations stronghold

Two Chabad rabbis are in a former neo-Nazi stronghold in Idaho as part of an annual summer excursion.

The pair are seeking out area Jews around Coeur d'Alene, the largest city in the Idaho panhandle and once the center of a thriving neo-Nazi network anchored by the Aryan Nations, which operated from a compound in nearby Hayden.

Rabbi Yitzchok Steiner and Levi Slonim are seeking out the areas several hundred Jewish families, sometimes resorting to trolling for Jewish names in the phone book.

"We hope to meet as many Jews as possible," told the local Spokesman Review newspaper. "When we meet them and they do a good deed, we hope to bring them back to their heritage."

EJC: Anti-Semitism Rising in France and Russia

by Hana Levi Julian

(IsraelNN.com)

Senior members of the European Jewish Congress led by EJC president Moshe Kantor warned of rising anti-Semitism Monday during a visit to Israel.

The delegation met with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and other government officials to discuss the rising number of anti-Semitic incidents and other issues affecting European Jewry, the Iranian threat and European Jewish support for Israel.

"Anti-Semitic attacks are increasing, and European Jewry's strong support of Israel brings its own problems," Kantor warned before the meeting.

Anti-Semites struck most recently in France and Russia, with two attacks carried out in the past two weeks.

French youths in the Paris area assaulted a 23-year-old woman while shouting anti-Semitic slogans, according to the European Jewish Press.

The woman, identified only by her first name Rebecca, was phoning in front of her house in Noisy-le-Grand when the attackers suddenly began beating her.

"I thought I was going to die because nobody came to help me,” the woman said. The assailants were described as youths with hooded capes and of being of African origin. They stole her cell phone after the attack.

Police have arrested one of the attackers.

Last week, anti-Semites in the Ukraine attacked the director of the Russian Federation of Jewish Committees and his wife while they were out for an evening stroll.

Rabbi Nachum Tamarin and his wife Bracha, co-directors of Chabad-Lubavitch of Small Communities of Ukraine were attacked by two young anti-Semites near the Chabad synagogue in Zhitomer.

Two young men punched Tamarin in the face and struck his wife as she lay on the ground. The couple later received treatment in a hospital emergency room for the cuts and bruises inflicted by the attackers.

This was the latest in a recent spate of anti-Semitic attacks in the Ukraine which included an attempted beating by a group of youths who set upon the Chief Rabbi of Zhitomer and co-director of Chabad-Lubavitch in the city, Rabbi Shlomo Wilhelm. The rabbi managed to escape his attackers.

A few days earlier, staff members in a local Jewish girls’ dormitory were forced to hold off a group of attackers screaming anti-Semitic insults epithets while trying to break into the building. The attackers tried to punch one of the girls as she fled.

None of the perpetrators have been apprehended.