YIPPEE-KI-OY!

March 18, 2007 -- Call him the kosher cowboy.

A Brooklyn rabbi with the Chabad-Lubavitch movement pulled up stakes in Crown Heights last week and schlepped west to Bozeman, Mont.

"I saw a growing Jewish community thirsting for a connection to their religion," said Chaim Bruk .

Bruk, 25, and his wife, Chevie, 22, traded in their view of Eastern Parkway for a 1.2-acre claim nestled against the Rocky Mountains. They arrived Wednesday.

Montana has about 1,500 Jews spread out over 145,000 square miles, according to United Jewish Communities, and Bruk had been sent there by elders in Crown Heights twice before.

"The goal of our movement is to make sure that there isn't one Jew in this world that feels lonely, that he feels comfortable with the religion that he was born into," Bruk said.

"I'm going there to bring exciting Jewish knowledge to these little cities."

And as Bruk teaches his flock about Judaism, he's hoping they'll teach him something about the cowboy way.

So far, Bruk has done some horseback riding and shooting out on the range, but no hunting. His religion does not permit it.

He's started scouting locations for weekly Torah classes in Bozeman and monthly and bimonthly sessions in Helena, Billings, Kalispell and Great Falls.

"We're there for them. God forbid they need me to officiate at a funeral or, on the brighter side, a wedding," he said. "Even if it means that we have to drive all night long."

The rabbi is also preoccupied with trying to keep a kosher kitchen with only a blowtorch and hot water to sterilize the dishes.

Eventually, he said, he'd like to have time to take up fly-fishing.

"I'm ready to learn," Bruk said.

"Maybe I'll get a pickup truck. I'm more used to riding the No.3 train."

But don't expect Bruk to trade in his black fedora for a 10-gallon hat.

"If someone gives me a nice pair of custom-made cowboy boots, I'll wear them, as long as it's permitted by Jewish law," he said.

There are no kosher restaurants in Montana, but Chevie is an excellent cook, Bruk said, adding, "I'll miss my family and friends and the occasional kosher pastrami sandwich."

The adjustment shouldn't be too hard for the rabbi, said famed Jewish cowboy Kinky Friedman.

"I'd just tell him to hang on tight, spur hog and let 'er buck," said Friedman, an author, musician and former gubernatorial candidate from Texas.

"Jews and cowboys have a lot of things in common. They both like to wear their hats indoors."

janon.fisher@nypost.com

Purim, Just Another Reason to Party

Published: March 11, 2007

Last Saturday, at the start of the Jewish holiday of Purim, Rabbi Shmuel Lein read from a ceremonial scroll at the Chabad of North Brooklyn, a center of Hasidic Jewish culture on Bedford Avenue and North Fifth Street in Williamsburg.

Then Rabbi Lein, a slight 28-year-old with a wild beard and, on this festive day, a crazy-colored tie, shouted out an order — “Party!”— and things began to get a little, well, funky. An Israeli man in a faded Union Jack T-shirt picked up an electric bass and unleashed a stream of psychedelic sounds. A rapper raised a microphone to his lips and lauded the Jewish cornerstones of “Torah and mitzvah, kid.” Standing in the 50-strong audience was a man with a tattoo of a Hebrew prayer on his forehead.

In New York and around the world, members of the Lubavitch sect of Hasidic Judaism run Chabad Houses, or outreach and education centers, as a way of spreading Orthodox beliefs to people of Jewish ancestry whom they consider less devout. Since Rabbi Lein and his wife, Leah, moved into the Chabad of North Brooklyn two years ago, they have made an effort to generate excitement in a part of Williamsburg where indie rockers in tight jeans outnumber yeshiva boys in black fedoras.

The Leins have commissioned menorahs from local artists. They serve organic foods at women’s meetings and teach classes in kabbalah, a form of Jewish mysticism that has enjoyed a surge of enthusiasm among celebrities like Madonna. Because many singles live in the neighborhood, the Leins hold plenty of rollicking parties in their crowd-friendly loft space.

“There’s always a holiday to blame it on,” said Rabbi Lein, “Purim, Tu Bishvat, Lag Ba’omer.”

At Purim, a holiday on which getting drunk is considered a good deed, a makeshift pulpit at the front of the room doubled as a bar. Throughout the night, guests poured themselves cups of whiskey and vodka from Costco-size bottles. The guests represented an eclectic mix: an Israeli hip-hop producer with his ponytail in a pink scrunchy, a music-video director in jeans and a blazer, a resident of the Hasidic section of Williamsburg in a satiny frock coat and a black Yankees cap.

“Some people just come here for the big parties,” said Michelle Shapiro, a freelance make-up artist. “Some people come just for the prayers.”

Whatever their reasons for coming, the guests roundly applauded Nosson Zand, a 25-year-old Orthodox Jewish rapper who lists the Lubavitch sect as a “friend” on his MySpace page.

“Let’s get high,” chanted Mr. Zand, also known as NIZ.

“High on Hasidis,” he added, referring to the philosophy at the heart of the Hasidic movement.

SAKI KNAFO

Symbol of a changing chaplaincy

Rabbi vows to bring 'inspiration' to Canadian troops

GLORIA GALLOWAY

From Tuesday's Globe and Mail

OTTAWA — When Chaim Mendelsohn swears his oath to the Queen and receives his commission as a military officer this morning, he will become the first rabbi to serve with the Canadian Forces since the guns of the Second World War felt silent.

Crawling across mud fields, living in tents and eating rations -- even if they are kosher -- will be quite a change of pace for the 27-year-old Orthodox Jew who is the spiritual leader at the Ottawa branch of Chabad Centrepointe, an international Jewish outreach group.

But Mr. Mendelsohn, a married father of two, is brimming with enthusiasm for the task of bringing comfort and faith to the men and women of Canada's military.

"The most important element of a rabbi's role is his reaching out and guiding and inspiring members of his community, members of his congregation and, in reality, people that he comes in contact with," he said in an interview yesterday.

"These young, brave men and women are looking for encouragement and inspiration."

Because he will join the reserve force, his initial commitment will be just three hours a week. But he said he would embrace the opportunity to serve in Afghanistan or anywhere his unit is needed.

The last rabbi to serve with the chaplain's office of the Canadian Forces left the job in the mid-1940s. There just haven't been enough Jews in the military since then to warrant having a rabbi in the service, said Major Neil Parker, a military chaplain.

And those numbers may not be there even now, Major Parker said. The Defence Department estimates that that just 1.1 per cent of the Forces are Jews, about the same as their presence in the Canadian population.

"But we are not going to wait until there are a certain number of people for whole faith groups before we start to meet the needs," said Major Parker, adding that having representation of particular religions is one way of encouraging its adherents to join.

Mr. Mendelsohn knows his reserve unit with the 28 Field Ambulance will be composed of all denominations.

"My role in the Forces is to reach out to the soldiers, regardless of their faith," he said. "Obviously, my Judaism is what inspires me and what moves me, and my commitment to Judaism is what directs my approach to life and everything that I feel.

"But I am joining the Forces as a spiritual leader, not as a Jewish leader."

Mr. Mendelsohn's recruitment began with a member of his congregation, a retired major-general who persuaded him, over time, that it could be his calling.

"It was something I was excited about from the very first moment I heard it, but it was something that was just over the top for me," Mr. Mendelsohn said. "And slowly but surely he managed to convince me."

Military life is not structured around the Jewish faith, but the Forces are willing to accommodate him.

"They understand that my religious requirements are foremost in my life and there are certain things that I can have almost no flexibility with, such as the holidays and the Sabbath, as well as dietary restrictions," he said, "and they are prepared in any way, shape and form to ensure that I can fulfill my role as a padre."

But he is hoping that those he counsels will take as much from him as he knows he will get from them.

"I have no doubt that there is going to be a very strong relationship between myself and my unit," Mr. Mendelsohn said.

"It really makes me proud to be able to serve with them and I have no doubt in my mind that the inspiration that I will get from them -- from their questions and from my dealings with them and from relationship with them -- is going to be something that's going to carry me for the rest of my life."

Jewish philanthropy group finances full-time rabbi for Bozeman

By the Associated Press - 03/14/07

BOZEMAN (AP) — A Jewish rabbi is moving here to serve Orthodox Jewish families in Montana.

Chaim Bruk, 25, and his wife, Chavie, 22, are members of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, a branch of Hasidism founded in Russia in the 1700s. Its followers are Orthodox Jews.

The Bruks, with seed money from Jewish philanthropy group the Rohr Family Foundation in Florida, intend to set up a base in Bozeman.

‘‘We’re really a statewide organization based out of Bozeman,’’ Bruk said Monday in a phone interview from his native Brooklyn, N.Y. ‘‘Our primary focus will be adult education.’’

Classes will cover the religion, its customs and culture, along with the modern Jewish perspective on science, world events to the Torah, Bruk said.

He will concentrate first on Bozeman, Billings and Helena and said he plans to use hotel conference rooms, libraries or other gathering places rather than establishing a permanent Chabad center.

Bruk said he won’t offer Orthodox worship services until there is a demand.

The Chabad-Lubavitch effort is not connected with Bozeman’s Congregation Beth Shalom, which is headed by Rabbi Allen Secher, who lives in Whitefish and comes to Bozeman for 10 days each month.

Chabad may soon have a West Virgina house

By Susan Jacobs
Associate Editor

Morgantown, W.Va., may soon have a full-time Chabad emissary.

Rabbi Zalman Gurevitz, 26, of Crown Heights, Brooklyn, his wife and young daughter are looking into relocating to Morgantown to reach out to the students and faculty of West Virginia University. Theirs would be the first Chabad in West Virginia, although Chabad representatives have visited the state on holidays and during the summer for several years.

"We're still working on the details," said Gurevitz in a phone conversation. On Purim, Gurevitz was in Morgantown to read the Megillah and host a Purim party, which was held at the WVU Hillel.

"It's a wonderful community; everyone is very welcoming," said Gurevitz.

Officially, Chabad activities in West Virginia are supervised by Chabad of Virginia. However, because Morgantown is so close to Pittsburgh, Rabbi Yisroel Rosenfeld of the Lubavitch Center is also assisting Gurevitz in establishing a Morgantown presence.

For several years, Chabad of Pittsburgh has sent emissaries to Morgantown and other sections of West Virginia on Purim, Chanukah and other holidays to bolster the local Jewish communities. "Usually a family from Pittsburgh comes down and we do a little Purim party together," said Deva Solomon, co-director with his wife Heidi of the WVU Hillel.

Baruch and Taibke Hyman of Squirrel Hill accompanied Gurevitz at the Purim celebration this year in Morgantown. Taibke has a strong connection to Morgantown - her father ran a business there for many years, although the family lived in Uniontown.

While WVU does not track students by religious affiliation, Solomon estimated that there are between 600 and 800 Jewish students on campus. About 45 or 50 of those are active in Hillel, which offers both Jewish cultural and religious programming.

In addition to the Hillel on campus, Morgantown also has one synagogue, Tree of Life Congregation, which is affiliated with the Reform movement.

It is unclear what effect, if any, a Chabad presence would have on Tree of Life's membership, said Rabbi David Feder, the spiritual leader.

"I really don't know what he's going to be focusing on," said Feder. "I don't think his presence in town will affect our membership to any substantial extent."

However, WVU Hillel may be more affected.

"Morgantown is a small place and I don't know if there are going to be enough people and resources," said Solomon.

And, some question whether unaffiliated Jewish students in Morgantown want to be Jewishly involved.

"I question whether there is enough interest in doing Jewish stuff that people will participate," said Richard Cohen, a local attorney and former president of Tree of Life. "People who live in this area are self-selecting not to be involved."

However, only time will tell if Chabad will be able to reach students who are not already connected to the Jewish community.

"Who knows? We'll find out," said Cohen. Because Hillel and Chabad offer very different programs from one another, they may attract different populations of students, said Solomon.

So far, the students and surrounding community haven't expressed strong feelings about the proposed Chabad presence.

"There's probably interest and curiosity more than anything else," said Solomon. "We welcome him with open arms and wish him the best of luck."

Feder, who is the only congregational rabbi in Morgantown, said he welcomes the presence of a rabbinic colleague in town.

"Overall it broadens the Morgantown Jewish community," he said. "It will be very nice to have a colleague here."

(Susan Jacobs can be reached at sjacobs@pittchron.com.)

Rabbi Levi Shemtov

Rabbi Levi Shemtov is Washington office Director of American Friends of Lubavitch. Shemtov is a well known figure in political and Jewish circles in Washington, and his activism symbolizes the change Chabad's culture has gone through in recent decades from a limited Chasidic faction to a powerhouse working across the Jewish and non-Jewish world. Shemtov's highest profile event is the Hanukah Menorah lighting on the White House lawn. We will discuss with him the state of American Jewry, Chabad and other topics. Readers, as usual, can send their questions to rosnersdomain@haaretz.co.il.

Rabbi Shemtov,

Can you explain what is the Jewish education you refer to? is it educating people in the mode of Chabad or in the mode of Reform Judaism? These are two very different things.

Thank you for your reply,

Tzvi Noah
NY


I think the focus must be the education of many more Jewish people - particularly children - in the ways of Torah and yiddishkeit. The differences you mention, while indeed real, have sadly served all too often as a reason to end these types of discussions before they begin.

The need to reinforce and expand Jewish education is a vital one, regardless of a Jewish person's particular station in life, communally or otherwise. We need progress, not just process.

Obviously, I am most familiar with the Chabad-Lubavitch method, which seems to work to a large measure with open-minded Jewish people of a variety of affiliations. Too often I hear from participants - as do many of my colleagues - that specifically because they felt welcome, as they were, the possibility for their Jewish growth and that of their family became possible in a meaningful way for the first time. While this indeed is gratifying, it also pains the heart to know that others who seemed a "better fit" lost so much opportunity with these people for so long.

So, if someone is indeed serious about the issue, they need to address it for all the Jewish people. Distinctions instead of solutions is what we have way too much of already. They will only distract from the intended focus. We can and must do better than that.

RLS


Dear Rabbi,

I'll start with the topic of last week's dialogue, and with a general question of the state of American Jewry. Is it declining or thriving - is it in crisis or going through a period of renaissance? Give us, for starters, your list of "must do" for American Jewish leaders.

Rosner

The Jewish people today live in a time of great triumph, but also great challenge. We are taught that G-d tests us either with the pain of poverty or the power of prosperity. We seem to be enduring both right now - the prosperity is material, the poverty is spiritual. But there is a bright spot as well, and reason for hope, if people are willing to act.

There is no way you can ignore the fact that there is presently a serious decline in the American Jewish community, with over half believed to be totally unaffiliated. And the organized community decries the apathy and ignorance of those who do consider themselves affiliated, and are anxious about how to reengage them in Jewish identity.

On the other hand, there is not only a simultaneous resurgence - or resuscitation - of Jewish life, with so many finding their way back or more deeply into their Jewish heritage, but those who for a very long time advocated a lesser degree of tradition in their life as Jews, perhaps thinking that the age-old Torah teachings and directives were no longer "as relevant" now realize and publicly state, emphatically, that ONLY through a return to Torah and mitzvos is there any real hope of Jewish survival. It seems as if all the alternatives ultimately give way to a return to Torah - sooner or later. It's been that way since Sinai

And this leads to the key point I believe the Jewish community must focus on as a most urgent priority: Jewish Education.

From our beginning and up until the latest National Jewish Population Survey, Jewish education appears and reappears as the core factor in Jewish continuity. I am loath to judge the previous generation or two for their failure to provide adequate Jewish education. Perhaps they thought their own Jewish identity would automatically transfer without the requisite strenuous effort to educate children properly. Or they didn't think they had the financial ability to do so. But that can't help us today, as we live with the painful results of the last few decades. Not enough energy was dedicated to afternoon Hebrew school and other similar programs once thought a panacea. They became an afterthought, even a joke, and then a disaster; barely better than nothing. And almost any Jewish adult I speak to indeed remembers that part of their lives with dissatisfaction, if not disdain.

If there is one thing above all others which Jewish communal leaders need to address urgently, this would be it. Reinforce and expand opportunities for affordable, quality Jewish education. After way too long, many Jewish philanthropists, who have collectively donated billions to causes that others beyond our community could easily fund, have now finally begun to realize the emergency and have started to (re)direct serious sums to Jewish causes. Those directing these initiatives need to further redirect these new funding sources toward ensuring Jewish education for all those in our community who can then avail themselves of it.

King Solomon taught us that a properly educated Jewish child will much more likely become a strongly Jewishly identified adult and then a committed member of the Jewish community, even into their later years.

And, for those who are already passed their childhood, innovative and quality programs and initiatives can help rectify a gap in this regard and refocus parents on the Jewish educational needs of themselves and their children. And the educational effortss and mitzvah campaigns for Jews of all or no (perceived) affiliation, which the Lubavitcher Rebbe, of blessed memory, initiated and which thousands of my colleagues throughout the world have developed (to the curiosity, sometimes disdain, then appreciation or even replication by so many others), have had a serious impact in this area. And much more remains to be done.

There are no doubt enough resources in our vast community membership to address this issue. That is what we have. What we don't have is a choice. The answer to this question when it is asked the next time lies absolutely in our hands today.

Chabad on the Avenue one of four new Toronto centres

By FRANCES KRAFT
Staff Reporter

Rabbi Menachem Gansburg and his wife Chana have brought Chabad to a trendy section of Avenue Road north of Lawrence Avenue, causing some initially confused reactions from people who wonder why they’re not on nearby Bathurst Street, with its many Jewish shops and institutions.

Thirty years ago, large North American cities like Toronto typically had one Chabad institution. Today, “almost every zip code has representation,” said Rabbi Zalman Grossbaum, director of Chabad Lubavitch activities for Ontario.

“You have Chabad spilling into every community, every pocket where Jews are situated.”

In Toronto and the surrounding area, there are about 17 Chabad centres, including in Mississauga, Hamilton and Niagara Falls.

Typically, Chabad shluchim (emissaries) are young married couples who start their endeavour from scratch, creating programs and raising funds to become self-sustaining. “It’s challenging, because these rabbis come without being invited,” said Rabbi Grossbaum. “We create the demand.”

In Toronto, Chabad on the Avenue – as Rabbi Gansburg’s fledgling centre is known – is one of just four new Chabad centres that have opened in recent months, and plans are in the works to open one in the Beach area as well.

• Chabad Lubavitch of Downtown Toronto (jewishdt.com), run by Rabbi Mendel Chaikin and his wife Chanie out of their Queen’s Quay condo, serves the area south of College Street, between Bathurst and Yonge Street. They serve area residents, tourists, people who work downtown, and downtown hospital patients.

• Rabbi Moshe and Yehudis Steiner at Uptown Chabad Lubavitch (uptownchabad.com), cater to, for the most part, young families, many of whom are unaffiliated, who live in Bathurst Manor. The Steiners operate out of their home, but recently began holding Shabbat morning services at C.H. Best Middle School.

• York University also has a new Chabad, a student club run by former York student Vidal Bekerman, a 30-year-old ba’al tshuvah, and his wife Chanah Leah Medina. Bekerman, who is not a rabbi, said that there are about 300 students on his mailing list. He said he is on good terms with Hillel staff, who offer a variety of programs and services to York’s 4,500 Jewish students. However, noted Bekerman, there is still a large percentage “that needs to be reached.”

The Gansburgs have been on Avenue Road in a 6,000-square-foot former restaurant, across from the upscale food store Pusateri’s, since December. They are reaching out to Jews in the area bounded by Wilson Avenue and Eglinton Avenue, Yonge Street and the Allen Road.

On an initial visit to the area west of Avenue Road and north of Lawrence, where many small postwar homes have been replaced by newer, larger ones, the Gansburgs noted that a large percentage of the homes had mezuzot.

They introduced themselves to about 50 neighbours by going door-to-door with challah for Shabbat. Many residents told the Gansburgs they didn’t even know their neighbours.

The rabbi, a 25-year-old Toronto native who grew up in Thornhill, said he wants to “create a tight-knit community.” Typically, he said, residents of the area are young families with parents who are “very successful, but very overworked.

“We are here to service the local Jewish community in anything they need.” Programs include a “Kiddie Care” afternoon drop-in centre that features weekly challah-baking, evening Torah classes, a women’s program and the Avenue Road Synagogue, which attracts more than 40 people to Shabbat morning services – and almost double that when services are followed by a kiddush.

Most of the “members” (there is no membership fee) belong to other synagogues, the rabbi noted, referring to existing institutions that service area residents.

Although Chabad’s highest priority is outreach to unaffiliated Jews,“if someone happens to be a member [elsewhere] and wants to come to our synagogue,” they are welcome, he said. The shul, where men and women sit on either side of a row of artificial trees, offers Friday night and Saturday morning services.

Although Chabad is Orthodox, it’s “non-threatening,” said Rabbi Gansburg. There’s “no obligation” to become religious, but he is happy to help anyone who wants to “advance” in their Judaism.

Joy Kaufman, a 47-year-old mother of two who is affiliated with a synagogue that is not close to her home, describes the Avenue Road facility as “a great place to be.

“You’ve got to come on a Saturday. It’s magical,” she said, adding that she is “not the least bit religious.” She was at the centre to help organize last weekend’s Purim program that was scheduled to feature a smoothie bar from Pusateri’s and costume judges from Canadian Idol.

Chana, a 21-year-old teacher who grew up in Montreal, runs the children’s program and the “Jewish Women’s Circle,” which offers programs every six to eight weeks. For Tu b’Shvat, a local chef demonstrated fruit carving, and Chana talked briefly about the holiday.

“I wanted to show this neighbourhood, especially the kids, that Judaism can be as hip as anything else out there,” said Rabbi Gansburg.

Chavez denied visit to Caracas synagogue

Chabad rabbi argues that visit intended to garner political gains

Chaim Levinson

A recent request by socialist Venezuelean President Hugo Chávez to pay an official visit to a Chabad synagogue in Caracas was rejected.

The Chabad official news site posted an article saying that Rabbi Moshe Ferman, the chief Chabad envoy to Venezuela, had rejected the president's request arguing that it was aimed at garnering political gains in light of the West's revulsion of him.

Chavez who has been in office since 1999, allied with Saddam Hussein at the time, befriended Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Syrian President Bashar Assad , and has even paid them personal visits.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center has accused him of anti-Semitism after in one of his speeches he accused the Jews of crucifying Jesus and of holding the entire world's capital.

Since 2002, when he accused the Israeli Mossad of an attempted coup in his country, the Jewish community is fearful of his conduct.



The Jewish community in Venezuela, one of the oldest in Latin America, comprises a population of 25,300 (some 60 percent are from Ashkenazi descent, and the remainder is Sephardic.) The large Jewish communities reside in the cities of Caracas, Maracaibo, Valencia and Maracay.

Good for Chabad of Venezuela.

Good for Chabad of Venezuela. Chavez is a nut-case, and has found a friend in Ahmadinejad. He openly opposes Israel and America as evil nations. Chavez denied visit to Caracas synagogue

A recent request by socialist Venezuelean President Hugo Chávez to pay an official visit to a Chabad synagogue in Caracas was rejected.

The Chabad official news site posted an article saying that Rabbi Moshe Ferman, the chief Chabad envoy to Venezuela, had rejected the president’s request arguing that it was aimed at garnering political gains in light of the West’s revulsion of him.

I picture Haman Harasha to look much like Chavez. There’s a little Purim feeling to this: a Jew refuses to bow to an evil man’s wishes. Layihudim Hayisah Orah Vesimchah Vesasson Veeyikar, KAIN TIHYEH LAUNU !

At 47, a Son of the Commandments

Russian emigre celebrates his Bar Mitzvah at Congregation Toras Emes

Friday, February 23, 2007
By LESLIE PALMA-SIMONCEK
ADVANCE STAFF WRITER

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Vitaly Benzion remembers eating matzoh for Passover as a child in the Ukraine and later in Leningrad. But that was about it for Jewish practice.

"In Russia, it was killed there," he said of religion. "Nobody really believed in God there. Those who believed were in jail."

When Benzion came to the United States in 1981, he met some people from Chabad Lubavitch, the Brooklyn-based Jewish outreach organization, and became interested in connecting with his Jewish roots.

He wrote a letter to the Lubavitcher rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Schneerson, and received a letter back from a representative telling him the rebbe had given him a blessing.

For $5 a month, the organization provided him with tefillin for morning prayers and he sometimes attended Shabbos services at a Lubavitcher yeshiva in Morristown, N.J.

"I had some questions still," said the New Dorp resident. "The religion was new to me."

His religious journey took a giant step this week when, at the age of 47, he became Bar Mitzvah at Congregation Toras Emes, an Oakwood synagogue he has sometimes attended since moving to Staten Island from Brooklyn five years ago.

"I had some kind of inner feeling that it would support my future in Judaism," he said of the rite of passage usually celebrated at 13.

The ceremony took place Sunday, with cousins, his aunt, and friends in attendance. Morris Shuster, president of the United Association of Eastern European Jewry, spoke about the challenges the Russian immigrant community has in reconnecting with their Jewish heritage.

Fluent in Russian and English, Benzion admitted to some difficulty with the Hebrew.

While reading from the Torah, "I had to repeat after Rabbi Ivry," he said. "Hebrew I don't know very good."

When he became a U.S. citizen in 1986 he changed his name from Benzianov to Benzion because it sounds more Jewish. This week he chose Yeshaya for his Hebrew name.

"In Yiddish it means help," he said. "I try to help people as much as I can."

Rabbi Ivry said this was his first adult bar mitzvah.

"We were very excited and glad he chose our synagogue," said the rabbi, a Lubavitcher. "We feel it's a milestone."

Benzion said the ceremony was an emotional one for him.

"I feel kind of uplifted, energized," he said. "I feel quite different."

As he continues his journey of return to Judaism, the still-single Benzion said he would like to find a wife to accompany him.

"I certainly would like to have a companion."

Leslie Palma-Simoncek is the religion editor for the Advance. She may be reached at palma@siadvance.com.

© 2007 Staten Island Advance

Leaders Try To Revive Judaism

Rabbi Tzvi Berkowitz, the director of Howard Beach’s Rockwood Park Jewish Center, rocked to the cadence of the Exodus verses that opened last Saturday morning’s Shabbat service. At the synagogue’s lectern, he then, like hundreds of other clergy people conducting weekend services throughout the borough, referenced scripture in his exaltation of virtues such as tolerance, charity and honesty. And though the 25 worshippers present listened with rapt attention, Berkowitz — like these other clergy people — still found himself addressing a congregation significantly smaller than those his predecessors did.
But Howard Beach’s legacy as South Queens’ incubator of Judaism makes this membership decline — a 40 percent drop in congregation size in the last 15 years, by some estimates — all the more alarming. The responding leaders of Howard Beach’s Orthodox Jewish communities have looked both inside and outside their neighborhoods to find out where the Jewish community has gone and how to get it back. As recently as the early 1970s, both Lindenwood and Rockwood Park were roughly 50 percent Jewish, according to current residents of both communities. Many now estimate that Jews comprise roughly 10 percent of Rockwood Park’s population and that Lindenwood’s Jewish population has shrunk considerably as well.
Most Howard Beach Jews today cite the separate draws of the Florida sun for retirees and Long Island suburbia for young families when asked about their population’s decline. Brian Roffel, a 155th Street resident, said simply: “There are no Jews moving back into the community when people die.”
Berkowitz, an 85th Street resident, said that it is the “astronomical” price of Howard Beach homes that makes moving back into the community difficult.
Now in his 10th year at the Rockwood Park Jewish Center, he has begun counseling prospective Jewish homeowners about the different options available in the neighborhood. Keeping abreast of changes in the garden co op, co op, condominium and residential real estate markets, he steers potential congregants toward different area lenders and mortgage brokers. He said that he typically assists three new Jewish couples or families a week in their searches.
“This is a beautiful community. Most people take the Belt Parkway and just pass us by,” he said. Berkowitz tries to sell prospective congregants on this relative isolation, the accessibility of public transportation and significantly lower city taxes, compared with what Long Island homeowners pay. For the couple he met on Monday afternoon whose Crown Heights, Brooklyn neighborhood has become too congested, Howard Beach offers “a bit of suburbia in the city,” according to the Rockwood Park Jewish Center’s Web site.
Others have traveled from farther than Brooklyn to consider making the Rockwood Park Jewish Center their synagogue. Only a year old, the center’s Yeshiva teaches approximately 20 young men, many recruited by Berkowitz when he was on different out of state trips. They have come from Los Angeles, Chicago and Connecticut, among other places. All are between the ages of 19 and 23 and roughly half dorm together in a Lindenwood home.
The center’s 33 year old cantor, Yehoshua Samuels, himself a Milwaukee native, said that these men and their families may represent the center’s base for years to come. Samuels envisions re establishing the center’s preschool, closed now for roughly 10 years, to complement its Hebrew school.
But the religiosity of Howard Beach’s Jewish population, not just its size, concerns Orthodox leaders. Of Howard Beach’s roughly 3,000 Jews, Berkowitz estimates that 200 are Rockwood Park Jewish Center congregants. Some say the fact that no strictly kosher store exists in the community both reflects this low number and keeps it from growing. Though no reform synagogue which would ask significantly less adherence of its members exists in Howard Beach, Howard Beach Judea, a Conservative synagogue, has a congregation of only 140, according to President Barry Rachnowitz.
Rabbi Avrohom Richter, the director of Chabad of Howard Beach, has targeted non Sabbath observing Jews in the area. His fliers, advertisements and home visits have fueled the word of mouth spread of the mission of his Chabad, an Orthodox Jewish community center under its own auspices now in its third year.
Richter, the 29 year old former youth and activities director at the Rockwood Park Jewish Center, runs the Chabad of Howard Beach out of his 87th Street home. He said that the underlying philosophy of Chabad, a movement within Orthodox Judaism that emphasizes the inclusion of all Jews, has allowed him to draw roughly 40 worshippers for Sabbath services each weekend and over 200 people for holiday services. He estimates that 90 percent of his following was never affiliated with any other synagogue.
“Our objective is to make the new, the next generation that has gone away from the synagogues to come back to the synagogues,” he said. “I believe that every single Jew has the capability of being a Torah abiding Jew, a religious Jew,” added Richter, who also serves as a prison chaplain at the Queens Private Correctional Facility in Jamaica.
Many Chabad prayer services are conducted in English, whereas most Orthodox prayer services are held only in Hebrew. During Purim celebrations last year, the Chabad’s worshippers read scripture passages that scrolled in English across the bottom of a 6 foot by 6 foot screen. Richter’s wife, Zeldi Richter, the center’s co director, runs a Jewish women’s club that has drawn as many as 40 women to meetings.
Shia Tauber, a Chabad of Howard Beach member, said that the “tremendous amount of energy” that Avrohom and Zeldi Richter possess accounts for their success.
But despite their efforts to grow their congregations, both Chabad of Howard Beach and the Rockwood Park Jewish Center remain fiercely loyal to Orthodox Judaism. While recognizing that “a Jew is a Jew,” Samuels said that orthodoxy, as opposed to Reform and Conservative Judaism, remains “the real truth, the real religion.”
The Rockwood Park Jewish Center’s mechitzah displays this commitment to orthodoxy. The wooden, 6 foot high latticework partition completely encloses an eighth of the synagogue, separating women from men during services. When Samuels paraded the Torah throughout the synagogue for congregants to kiss on Saturday, the seven women in attendance waited patiently at the enclosure’s swinging doors for him to make his way in their direction.
Some women who attend services less regularly call the current mechitzah, double the size of the one used before Berkowitz’s arrival, troubling. Tauber, a former Rockwood Park Jewish Center congregant, said that both vocal support and hushed opposition surrounded the new mechitzah’s construction. Many favored the lower, more symbolic mechitzah built by the center’s previous director, a modern Orthodox rabbi.
Howard Beach Judea does not have a mechitzah. Men and women sit separately during services at the Ozone Park Jewish Center, a modern Orthodox synagogue, but no barrier exists between them.
The Chabad of Howard Beach uses a folding partition to separate men and women during prayer. “This is the hardest thing that a Chabad has to deal with. Many people are very intimidated by a mechitzah,” Richter said. But he added that many misunderstand the segregation. He said that a woman is the “pillar of a Jewish home” and that mechitzahs address male desires, not female fallibility.
Though Richter said that some women have not attended services after showing interest in the Chabad because of the mechitzah’s presence, he added: “There’s no concession here. This is God’s house and I’ve got to follow God’s rules.”

Ritual bath to be adapted for disabled

A Hallandale Beach synangogue plans to open a 'mikvah' accessible to women with physical disabilities. It will be the first of its kind in Florida.

BY JENNIFER MOONEY PIEDRA
jmooney@MiamiHerald.com

For years, Rabbi Raphael Tennenhaus has wanted to bring an ancient Jewish cleansing tradition to his Hallandale Beach synagogue.

Now, his dream is coming true.

Plans to build three mikvahs -- or ritual baths -- at Chabad of South Broward are in the pipeline.

But one of the baths, which are used by some married Orthdox Jewish women after each menstrual period, is a little different from most.

It will be one of only a few mikvahs worldwide equipped with a hydraulic lift for use by women with physical disabilities, said Rivkah Slonim, a New York-based bestselling author of Total Immersion: A Mikvah Anthology.

''Every mikvah is extremely important -- the single most important institution a Jewish community needs to have access to,'' she said. ``Since Miami has such a huge Jewish population, I can only imagine what a tremendous asset this will be.''

Other synagogues in Broward and Miami-Dade are equipped with mikvahs, including ones in Hollywood, Aventura, Weston and Miami Beach.

No existing mikvahs in Florida are handicapped-accessible, Tennenhaus said.

Under Orthodox Jewish law and tradition, the baths are primarily used by married women after the end of their menstrual cycle.

Some men also choose to take part in the ritual -- some every day, others once a year before Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, Tennenhaus said.

For a woman to take part in the tradition, she must be clean. No makeup, nail polish or perfume is allowed. Teeth must be flossed and brushed, and her hair must be down in its natural state, Tennenhaus said.

The women enter a back room of the synagogue and undress in a private dressing room.

An attendant is present during the spiritual cleansing, which takes place in a small pool filled with about 200 gallons of tap water and rain water.

During the short ritual, the woman enters the mikvah nude, says a blessing and then completely submerges the body under the water.

But doing so is often difficult for women with physical disabilities because they need assistance from someone, which makes the intimate moment much less private, Tennenhaus said.

''Mikvahs are a very symbolic part of Jewish history,'' Tennenhaus said. ``There are a lot of women who have some sort of paralysis who want to take part in the tradition but can't.''

''We're meeting a need that is out there,'' he said.

Hallandale Beach zoning officials have given preliminary approval for the addition of the mikvahs -- one with the hydraulic lift for women, one for men and a smaller one for new dishes -- at the Chabad center.

A room now used as a dining hall will be converted into the spa-like mikvah facility, which will include marble and granite tile and private dressing rooms.

Hollywood architect Joseph Kaller hopes work on the $500,000 project will start within the next few months and be complete by year's end.

Margie Szerer, a member of the Chabad of South Broward, is looking forward to the opening of the mikvahs.

Once a month for the past five years, Szerer has traveled from her home in Hollywood to Aventura to take part in the ancient tradition.

Having a new, luxurious facility so close to home will be nice, she says.

''It's a beautiful thing that makes a woman feel like she is in control of her body,'' Szerer said.

``I think it's wonderful that they are giving the opportunity to other women who would normally be unable to go because they are in a wheelchair.''

Judaism on the slopes of Hunter Mt.

As 30 Jewish teens, all first and second generation Russian immigrants, snapped their boot bindings into their skis and leapt aboard Hunter Mountain’s lift, they were continuing a tradition of Jewish education begun by Friends of Refugees of Eastern Europe ( F.R.E.E.) in 1969.

Back in the 70s and early 80s, when Soviet Jews arrived with few or no possessions but a passion for religious freedom, F.R.E.E. served as benefactor, offering practical necessities – dishes and clothing – and spiritual growth opportunities with a yeshiva, Jewish camp, and brit milah services. All still exist: F.R.E.E. recently performed its 13,200th circumcision; its Brooklyn day camp attracted 150 kids last summer; the F.R.E.E. high school is still open on Ocean Parkway. But the organization’s focus has evolved with the changing needs of the Russian-Jewish community. Overall, the first generation of Russians that came as children and now have kids of their own do not value what their parents felt was important,” said Rabbi David Okunov, associate program director of F.R.E.E. “Those who can afford it go to private schools out on Long Island How can a Jewish organization compete with the American dream? The answer may be found on the snowy peaks of Hunter Mountain Resort, where F.R.E.E . campers have been welcomed by the owners, the Slutzky family, for years. Skiing, rope courses, tubing, ice skating, bowling and swimming in an indoor pool at the winter camp’s site on the premises of the Landfield Avenue Synagogue’s inn took up most of eight-day experience. Torah classes were offered once a day. Directors Rabbi Dan Dashevsky and Rabbi Mendel Okunov counted more upon the camp’s Jewish atmosphere and the counselors to convey the compatibility of Judaism and fun. The idea is they should have a great time while gaining a sense of Yiddishkeit,” said Rabbi Okunov. Sam Trost, a star student at P.S. 234, recently celebrated his bar mitzvah enjoyed camp.” What I love most about camp is that I had the opportunity to learn what being Jewish really means,” he said. Parents reluctant to enroll their sons in yeshiva favor the Jewish cultural experience offered by the F.R.E.E., especially since it is combined with winter sports. Sam’s mother, Marina, harried and still trying to get her baby daughter into a bath at 8:30 p.m. on Monday night, was grateful for the opportunity Winter Camp afforded her son. “I was very happy to have him go,” said Mrs. Trost. “He really liked it. The winter activities were very good for him, because otherwise he doesn’t get out much.”

Rabbis Meir and Hirshel Okunov, originally from Russia, were just settling into rabbinical studies at the central Lubavitch yeshiva when the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s chief of staff Rabbi Chaim Mordechai Aizik Hodakov, received word that two fatherless young men had arrived in New York from the Soviet Union. The Okunov brothers took Rabbi Hodakov’s request to make the Rosenberg boys feel at home very seriously. They repainted their dorm room and gave the newcomers their beds. As more Russians followed, the Rebbe encouraged the Okunovs to go door to door at New York City hotels where Soviet Jews took shelter.

Graduates of F.R.E.E. activities have found their way into leadership positions throughout the Jewish world. Alumnus Rabbi Eli Blokh leads Chabad of Rego Park in Queens, NY. Zelig Krymko, who received a brit funded by F.R.E.E. at age two and is now the national director of TruePeace.org, a pro-Israel think tank, recalled his summer in F.R.E.E.’s camp as “the first really positive, fun-filled Jewish experience I had.” More than three decades since its founding, times have changed but its core remains unchanged. F.R.E.E. brings Judaism to Russian Jews by building personal relationships family by family, child by child.

If you know of any children who might benefit from FREE’s youth programs or to get more information, please contact FREE at 718-467-0860 Ext.123, or email office@russianjewry.org.

Torah scrolls confiscated from Ukrainian community

Vladimir Matveyev

KIEV — As their Torah scrolls were packed into black plastic garbage bags and carried out of the Jewish school, the students and adults continued to pray, many with tears in their eyes.

The scrolls originally belonged to the Jewish community of Zhitomir in central Ukraine, but were acquired by the local state archives through communist and Nazi looting.

Since then, in the absence of a restitution law, the archives had lent the scrolls to the community — but on shaky terms.

On February 14, the community was forced to return 10 scrolls it had received more than two years ago.

Representatives of the archives carried them out of the Ohr Avner Jewish Day School, leaving the community without any scrolls.

“This was like the medieval times, this was like a nightmare,” said Oleg Rostovtsev, a spokesman for the Federation of Jewish Communities of Ukraine, the country’s leading Jewish umbrella group.

The seizure was the result of a controversy that was triggered a few months ago when the officials at the Zhitomir Regional State Archives demanded the return of the scrolls, citing concern over their safety.

In 2004, the archives handed over 17 out of 290 Torah scrolls in its possession to be used by the local Jewish community run by Chabad.

The scrolls had been the property of the many synagogues and private Jewish households in Zhitomir, and were confiscated by communist authorities during anti-religious campaigns or seized by the Nazis during the occupation of Ukraine in World War II.

For two-and-a-half years, the scrolls were kept in a specially designated room at the Ohr Avner school.

Without a restitution law, many Jewish communities in the post-Soviet Ukraine were allowed to temporarily use Torah scrolls confiscated by the Bolsheviks, while most of the scrolls remain the property of state-run museums and archives.

Such loans do not always satisfy the Jewish community.

The Zhitomir community had previously expressed its concern that in the absence of a proper restitution act, they could not repair the borrowed scrolls in accordance with Jewish law.

In addition, representatives of the community had to submit a petition every three months that would allow them to keep the scrolls.

In October, representatives of the archives checked the scrolls kept in the Zhitomir school and demanded their return, claiming that at least seven of the scrolls may have been damaged while in the community’s possession.

Archive Deputy Director Natalia Shimchenko said that the archive’s curators had established that the “number of units” registered with the archives “did not correspond with those in the community safe.”

Local Jewish leaders deny the accusations of improper care or alterations and said the scrolls — some of them fragmented — were improperly catalogued in the archives.

But the community chose not to argue, and last month returned the seven scrolls in question to the archives.

The archives then refused to prolong the loan agreement on the remaining 10 scrolls and confiscated them Wednesday despite protests from the Jewish community and the local governor.

“We are law-abiding citizens of Ukraine and we have not violated any laws,” community leader Vladimir Rozengurten said, adding that allegations of improper care and damage were “slander.”

“The statements that we have damaged the scrolls are outrageous,” Zhitomir Chief Rabbi Shlomo Wilhelm said. “This is a groundless accusation, and we still have no results of the examination” of the scrolls.

But community leaders said they had to back off, apprehensive of possible use of force by representatives of the archives.

“I’m sure we are not saying goodbye for a long time to the Torah scrolls,” Rozengurten said.

He and other community leaders are hoping that legislation will be adopted in Ukraine dictating the return of the scrolls that were confiscated by the Bolsheviks and the Nazis.

JTA

Rabbi reaches out with YouTube videos

By John C. Ensslin, Rocky Mountain News
February 20, 2007

WESTMINSTER - Rabbi Benjy Brackman is preparing for the Jewish holiday of Purim.

This week, he will don a traditional costume and recite the religious message he has written and memorized before a video recorder.

You won't hear this message at any synagogue. But you can find it on YouTube.com.

Brackman, who leads the Chabad of Northwest Denver, has turned to a novel use of the Internet to get his message across.

So, mixed in with the videos of rock bands, people playing air guitar, stupid human tricks and the vast array of self-posted videos on the site, there are two short messages from Brackman to his followers so far.

The 34-year-old London native is the first to admit they are not exactly polished performances. But for his modest purpose, they appear to be working. He's embedded them on his Web site at thechabadhouse.com/youtube.

"At this point, it's just me and the camera. I do as many takes as necessary," Brackman said Monday. "You know, us rabbis, we're not trained for this."

For Brackman, his modest venture into self-broadcasting is a natural extension of his efforts to do outreach.

When he was studying to become a rabbi in Brooklyn N.Y., his religious leader used to broadcast messages worldwide via a set of satellite dishes.

Brackman's efforts are far more modest. But he likes to add a personal touch.

So, in one message aimed at inviting people to a summer camp, he is seen wearing a T-shirt on a cold day standing next to a snow- covered field.

He is also not above a bit of stage play. In his other video, in which he announces a Shabbat program, his talk to the camera is "interrupted" by a staged phone call from a congregant to whom he explains all the details of the program.

Brackman said he even finds himself now studying the body language of television reporters as they deliver the news.

"There's a real skill to this," he observed. "You've got to find that fine line between real comfortable but upfront with what you have to say."

Chabad opens Vienna center

By Dinah A. Spritzer

VIENNA (JTA) -- As a slender violinist with flowing black hair played ``Oseh Shalom" to an audience peppered with at least a dozen long-bearded rabbis, Bukharian Jews in this capital city ushered in a new era.

Their cause for celebration: Unlike many of those from Central Asia who came to Austria more than 25 years ago, immigrants to the country now have a new center to help them find their way.

On Feb. 18, Chabad opened a $6.05 million facility in Vienna aimed at serving their needs.

``The House of the Future," as the center has been dubbed, is expected to cater mainly to Bukharian Jews from Central Asia with whom Chabad is already deeply involved.

``The main purpose of the center is to provide help with integration," said Rabbi Jacob Biderman, chairman of the extensive Chabad organization in Austria. ``Yes, this is initiated by Chabad and there will be a chance for Jewish classes, but job skills, language skills and adult education are the focus."

The five-story building, which features a polished, 19th century facade, is across the street from the Lauder Chabad School for kindergarten through 12th grade.

It represents a natural extension of ties with Chabad for a large portion of the community, and also the general vitality of the Bukharians, who have managed to retain their traditions and a high level of observance as immigrants.

Shlomo Ustoniazov, a businessman in his 50s and artist from Uzbekistan who has lived in Vienna for several decades, said the center ``is an expression of unity of the Bukharian community."

``We are developing, we have our own identity, but we are also part of the Kultusgemeinde," he said, referring in German to the Jewish Community of Vienna, an umbrella organization.

Estimates put the Bukharian population at 3,000 to 4,000 of the approximate 10,000 Jews in Vienna.

The center will offer activities for seniors, job training, women's programs and a youth club. It also will be available to other immigrant groups such as Turks, according to Biderman.

Many Jews who came to Vienna from the former Soviet Union in the late 1970s and early 1980s on their way to Israel said they felt unwelcome in Austria. Bukharians in particular, with their large families and mostly lacking higher education, seemed backward to the integrated Ashkenazim.

Tamar Yusupov, a Bukharian Jew who hosted the center's opening ceremony and an active member of Chabad, said she didn't want future immigrants to feel the way she did when she arrived, ``not speaking the language, not having any friends, not having a home."

Bukharians over the decades have become successful businesspeople. Although they have become more integrated within the Jewish community and Vienna at large, many continue to feel comfortable with Chabad's Chasidic approach to Judaism.

Integration has slowed, and Biderman said that some 20 to 60 new families from the former Soviet Union each year seek out education for their children at the Lauder Chabad School. He estimated that of the school's some 410 students, 60 percent are Bukharian.

Many Bukharians say Chabad was the first to recognize that preserving their mostly Sephardi identity, and not looking askance at traditions such as marriage in the late teens, was vital to having them feel comfortable in their new home.

``It is true that when they first began arriving, the Jewish community of Vienna did not understand their need for separate traditions, but that is all in the past," Austria's chief rabbi, Paul Chaim Eisenberg, said in an interview last December.

Chabad has been particularly successful at attracting financing for its projects in Vienna that cater to Jews from the former Soviet Union. ``The House of the Future," for instance, received city and state funding.

The center features a Hebrew inscription, Beit haLevy Chabad, in honor of a key donor for the project, Lev Leviev, who was on hand for the opening ceremonies. Leviev, a Bukharian billionaire from Uzbekistan now living in Israel, is a major funder of Chabad in Austria and the former Soviet Union.

He was among 300 people at the center's opening, along with city and state officials. The crowd was mostly Bukharian, but there were also large numbers of Georgian and Caucasus Jews.

Oleg Sivan, 31, from the Republic of Dagestan, said, ``It is great what Chabad does; it brings us all together. There are some minor differences between us, but that is normal."

Not everyone was happy with the new center.

The president of the Vienna Jewish community, Ariel Muzicant, said at the center's opening that it would duplicate existing community programs, detract from an existing Sephardi center that receives community funding and siphon potential government money from the community.

His criticism reflects a history of tense competition between the community and Chabad, although they have cooperated often as well.

``It's the same story over and over with Chabad," he said. ``They sell it to the Austrian government officials as an open center for integration to get funding, but it's all about Chabad."

Biderman strongly denied the accusations, saying he had worked with all elements of the Jewish community to gain support and approval for the project.

``The people on our board are also on the board of the Sephardi center, so there is no competition," he said, adding that the center was open to all immigrants.

Ustoniazov, one of the board members to whom Biderman referred, said the suggestion of competition was outrageous.

``It is absurd to even think that we would duplicate activities or do anything to split the community," he said.

The Sephardi center, which opened in 1989, also was a Chabad-led effort but under the auspices of the Jewish Community of Vienna. The center, in the historically Jewish Second District, caters to the Georgian and Bukharian Jewish congregations. It has two synagogues and facilities for gatherings and study.

More recently the Bukharians have split into three congregations -- one oriented toward Chabad and two non-Chabad.

Two organizations represent the Bukharians: the Bukharian World Congress, with links to Chabad, and the non-Chabad Association of Bukharian Jews in Austria. Biderman said they were working together to set aside their differences and form one group.

Signaling that unity approach, the head of the Association of Bukharians Jews in Austria, Uri Gilkarov, attended the center's opening, and Biderman said he was seeking his input on programming.

Natalia Usopov, 29, and Marina Aminov, 31, who were celebrating the opening of ``The House of the Future," seemed to embody the mood among some of the Bukharian guests.

Aminov, an Uzbek native asked about the differences between the Bukharian groups, said: ``That's for the husbands to worry about. We just say 'Shalom.' ''


Posted: 2/20/2007

Female Chabad emissaries share experiences at NY gathering

When Dina Freundlich came to Beijing with her husband and two young daughters six years ago, there was no significant Jewish infrastructure. The community had never had a rabbi, there was no Jewish school, no kosher meat and only a very limited number of kosher food items were available.

Six years later, the community has grown tremendously. The Freundlich family, sent as Chabad emissaries, established a Sunday school and a Montessori school, and they brought over a butcher who enables them to supply kosher meat to four cities in China. They also spearheaded the building of a mikve (ritual bath), the first in China since World War II, which includes Chinese touches such as a pagoda and a carved dome ceiling, as well as a jacuzzi, multi-jet shower and massage services.

Approximately 1,200 to 1,400 Jews live in Beijing - employees of embassies, academics, students and foreign businessmen. About 3,000 Jews visit each year.

Freundlich is one of 2,000 female Chabad emissaries who came to New York from as far away as Singapore and Uzbekistan last week to learn from each other's experiences and to discuss the future of the movement. Topics addressed included the "revival" of world Jewry, contending with terrorism, leveraging the latest technology for spiritual outreach, and "breaking the ice" in new communities.

"Sometimes I go to bed thinking I've been pulled in a million directions, but I feel I've done something to make the world a better place," said Freundlich, who grew up as an emissary child in South Africa.

Chabad's emissary movement has trained and ordained thousands of rabbis, educators, ritual slaughterers and ritual circumcisers, together with their wives, to establish communities around the world aimed at Jewish outreach. Today there are roughly 4,000 emissary families, with growth of about 100 families each year.

"It makes me proud to fulfill the dream of the Rebbe [the late Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson] to create a home for every Jew in the world, and I am proud to be a part of his team," said Freundlich.

The five day conference ended Sunday night at the Brooklyn Marriott, at a gala dinner that also served as a tribute to Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka Schneerson, widow of the late Rebbe. All the women were dressed in skirts and long sleeves, but it was clear that contemporary fashion had slipped through the cracks. Tight, form-fitting skirts, patent leather belts, and fashionable boots were all part of the evening attire.

Contrary to popular perception Chabad insists that women are not insular, nor are they secondary to men. On top of juggling large families, women run Chabad houses on college campuses, provide substance abuse counseling and share the responsibilities with their spouses.

"It is a perception that comes from judging things that are synagogue based, but Judaism is not a synagogue based religion," said Rivkah Slonim, an emissary at the University of Binghamton, where her and her husband run one of the largest and most successful Chabad houses in the country. "Ninety-nine percent of ritual doesn't take place in the synagogue."

Women and men are equally obligated to study the Torah required to observe mitzvoth, but women, unlike men, are not required to study above and beyond that because of their household obligations, Slonim said.

"The Rebbe going back all the way to the first, greatly encouraged women to develop every aspect of their personality including their intellect."
The late Rebbe recognized that in contemporary times, where women have more time, and are not just engaged in day to day household activities, they need to use their time to study Torah, according to Slonim.

"Certainly the contemporary Chabad woman does not see herself as disconnected from Torah study."

The rift between motherhood and professional life is less of an issue in the Chabad world, according to Sara Esther Crispe, editor of TheJewishWoman.org, a Chabad website launched a year ago that offers intellectual, emotional and spiritual writings on a range of women's issues including motherhood, and marriage.

On top of juggling large families, the women run Chabad houses on college campuses, provide substance abuse counseling, and share in their husbands' responsibilities.

Chabad women and men are equally obligated to study the Torah, but the women are not required to study beyond that because of their household obligations, said Rivkah Slonim, an emissary at the State University of New York at Binghamton, where she and her husband run one of the largest Chabad houses in the US.

"The rebbes, going back all the way to the first, greatly encouraged women to develop every aspect of their personality, including their intellect," she said.

Sara Esther Crispe, editor of TheJewishWoman.org, a year old Chabad Web site that offers intellectual, emotional and spiritual writings on a range of women's issues including motherhood and marriage, said, "In the modern world, there is always a big rift, either you are a good mother, or you have a career. There is major pressure to choose, but these women [the emissaries] have shown that you can simultaneously do both."

Many of their daughters, "little emissaries," also came to New York for the conference, a rare chance to socialize with others like themselves. The kids participated in seminars on how to deal with cultural isolation.

At one point, they were asked to compare where they were from and where they get their kosher nosh (snacks). The girls were thrilled to be in New York, where they had all the kosher snacks they desired.

The night ended with a roll call by country, and then the emissaries were asked to rise by their decades of service. It began with just a few, and as the decades passed more and more women stood until the whole room was standing.

Jerusalem 2 Jersey

...New Jersey’s Israeli immigrant experience

[excerpt]

The Jewish connection

Hebrew school can affect more than just the children, though. Parents want to see their children become part of American life, said Hyman, but after a few years, they realize it is not just the children who are forgetting their Israeli and Jewish heritage.

"That’s when they join the shuls, send [the children] to Hebrew schools to learn traditions, and then after a while, [the parents] feel they miss Jewish life," Hyman said. "In Israel, it’s part of daily life. Here, you have to be a member."

Because of synagogues’ emphasis on membership, Hyman said, many Israelis are drawn to Chabad, which offers an open-door policy and no membership fees. "They welcome everyone," Hyman said. "You can come in your jeans, drive your car."

While Americans typically wear suits and ties to shul, Israelis will show up in jeans, said Rabbi Mordechai Shain, director of Lubavitch on the Palisades in Tenafly. "We don’t look at that," he said, explaining the attraction of Israelis to Chabad. "They get the same royal treatment, making them feel they’re still part of us."

A lot of Israelis, he said, are looking for Judaism when they come to America because they want to connect to something that’s still Jewish. "In Israel, they’re living in a Jewish country. Here, they’re not living in a holy, sanctified land and environment. They look for more Yiddishkeit, so they tend to come to [Jewish] programs much more than they would in Israel," he said.

On average, Friday night is the big draw for Israelis, Shain said. While some 120 out 170 people who come to Chabad on Saturday are American, about 50 out of 70 people on Friday nights are Israeli. Of the approximately 700 people who attended High Holy Day services this year, about half were Israeli, he said. Shain credits Chabad’s services, in part, for this influx of Israelis, describing them as like typical services in Israel.

"They feel like they’re in a shul in Israel," he said. "They don’t feel like they’re in some Americanized setting. They feel at home."

Although the service is Orthodox, Shain said the vast majority of Israelis who attend are not. In fact, many Israelis tell him that they are Israeli first and Jewish second, a perception that Shain tries to reverse. Secular Israelis, though, put their Israeli identities first, Sarna said.

"It’s so important to give a Jewish education to the children because in Israel you don’t have to be traditional; you know you’re Jewish," she said. "But here, if you’re not observant, then you really don’t have anything. Parents feel they are almost losing the kids."

The welcoming atmosphere at Chabad definitely helps counter that, Sarna added. "There are no preconditions. It’s open to all and [Israelis] feel very fortunate they have this home," she said.

Book tells of Lubavitcher Rebbe’s deliverance

by morton i. teicher
correspondent

Adding to the sparse list of stories about Jews being saved from the Nazis, historian Bryan Mark Rigg has written “Rescued From the Reich,” a remarkable saga about the rescue of Joseph Isaac Schneersohn, the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe.

Schneerson arrived in New York on March 19, 1940, a little more than six months after the German army invaded Poland. The Rebbe had been trapped in Warsaw and the chances of his being saved were slim.

Using a variety of sources, Rigg has pieced together the unusual tale of how American influence joined with a few Nazi soldiers and officials to transport the Rebbe and his entourage out of Warsaw, through Germany and on to Riga in Latvia.

After a lengthy delay because of the Rebbe’s health problems and the difficulty in obtaining American visas, the group finally reached Sweden, where they boarded a ship bound for New York. The trans-Atlantic voyage was hazardous because of U-boats, but the Rebbe reached New York.

Rigg tells how the Rebbe’s escape had been facilitated by pressure from American Lubavitchers, which had reached the three branches of the American government. Senators, congressmen, cabinet officials and Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis all became involved.

Robert T. Pell, assistant chief of the State Department’s European Affairs Division, was asked to help save the Rebbe by using his contacts with German officials. He appealed to Helmut Wohlthat, a Nazi party member who had studied at Columbia University from 1929 to 1933. Wohlthat apparently thought that freedom for the Rebbe would be in Germany’s best interest and succeeded in involving Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, head of Nazi military intelligence, who had helped Jews and who opposed some of Hitler’s policies.

They enlisted Major Ernst Bloch, a half-Jewish army officer who had fought in World War I and was declared to be an Aryan by Hitler despite Bloch’s Jewish father. Three other German soldiers who also had Jewish ancestry joined Bloch in the mission to rescue the Rebbe.

The efforts of these four German soldiers to find the Rebbe in Warsaw almost failed because the Jews to whom they talked understandably refused to give information about where the Rebbe was hiding. When the Germans found the Rebbe they swiftly spirited him, his family and his followers out of Poland.

Once in America, the Rebbe worked to bring his followers to the United States, but ran into the same kind of visa problems that he had experienced in Riga. Rigg clearly identifies Breckinridge Long and Avra Warren as anti-Semitic State Department officers who blocked Jewish refugees from entering the United States.

Rigg also describes the strenuous efforts of Max Rhoade, a lawyer hired by the American Lubavitchers, to cope with visa and other legal issues. He spent endless hours on these matters with little or no compensation and is one of the unsung heroes in the rescue.


“Rescued From The Reich: How One of Hitler’s Soldiers Saved the Lubavitcher Rebbe” By Bryan Mark Rigg. Yale University Press, 2006. 304 Pages. $17

Jewish Superbowler speaks on NFL

HANDLING PIGSKIN WAS NO PROBLEM FOR ALAN VEINGRAD

BY ROBERT A. COHN, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF EMERITUS

What does it take for a "nice Jewish boy" to have a successful career in the rough-and-tumble of the National Football League? For Alan Veingrad, former NFL offensive lineman and Super Bowl champ, it helps being six-foot-five, 240 pounds, having a very "thick skin" and a sense of humor. All of those qualities were on full display last Saturday evening after Shabbas, when Veingrad, who now sports a full beard in addition to his Super Bowl ring from the 1992 Dallas Cowboys championship, and who also answers to the name Shlomo, spoke to 126 enthusiastic fans at the Sheraton Clayton Plaza, at an event sponsored by Chabad of St. Louis.

The self-described "skinny Jewish kid from Brooklyn" who remembers "often skipping Hebrew school which I really hated," regaled his appreciative audience with the story of his remarkable football career, which evolved from attaining athletic prowess in high school, and accepting a football scholarship at East Texas University, where he recalls "being the only Jew at the school and within a 75-mile radius," to a successful NFL career with the Green Bay Packers and the Dallas Cowboys, where he helped his teammates win the Super Bowl in 1992. He also described his journey from Jewish pro football player to fully observant supporter and follower of the Chabad Hasidic movement.

"When I was first talked into coming to a discussion of the Torah Portion of the week, I had no idea what a "parsha" or portion was, and was surprised at the second discussion that there was a different Torah portion each week. Now I really look forward to studying the Torah seriously, and at home, my daughters and I have come to look forward to our new weekends of observing and celebrating Shabbat together. I had been nervous about telling them we would have to give up our weekend camping trips, but the next morning they were all dresssed up and ready for shul," Veingrad said.

Veingrad's wide-ranging talk and the discussion that followed, alternated and blended his colorful football anecdotes with his spiritual journey. Drawing a comparison to the hard training of "bench-pressing 400 pounds, getting eight hours of sleep and maintaining a healthy diet" to his "spiritual journey," Veingrad said, "The key word to both is preparation. There is no way you can be a serious foootball player, especially at the NFL level without serious preparation, and there is no way you can be a serious Jew without preparation. After while, what seems hard and challenging at first becomes a joyful experience," he said.

"I had to take some giant steps to make it in college and pro football," Veinegrad said. "We all have to take a giant step spiritually as well as physically. I had heard all of the great motivational speakers, including Zig Zigler, but nothing can compare to the power of the Chabad rabbis I have met who have helped me become a baal teshuvah, a Jew who has returned to his spiritual roots."

Veingrad said that during his college football career at East Texas University under Coach Ernest Hawkins, "I really did not experience any anti-Semitism at all. I guess it helped being the biggest guy on the team at 6-foot-5 and then 200 pounds, but my Christian teammates were very positive about Judaism and the Jewish people."

Only once in the NFL, while training for the Green Bay Packers, did a teammate say, "Okay, Jewboy, show me what you've got," Veingrad recalls. "Well, I used full force in blocking him as hard as I could, and I guess that showed him what I've got. I asked how he figured out I was Jewish since my name is not for sure a Jewish name. He said it was the name on my helmet and he really didn't mean anything by it, and I chose to let it go."

Veingrad said that Jewish newspapers have kept track of the few Jewish football players in the NFL. Reminded that comedian Jerry Lewis once said that the "Jewish Pro Football Hall of Fame could be listed on the edge of a Super Bowl score card," Veingrad laughed and said, "It was the Jewish Press in Brooklyn, where I was born, which first interviewed me about being Jewish. In my seven years as an NFL player, I counted five other Jewish NFL players in all. They were all great guys, including Bret Novostelsky on our team, Harris Barton of the 49ers and Ariel Solomon of the Steelers. After the games, we would usually seek each other out and shake hands as fellow Jews who were proud to have made it in the violent sport of pro football." Asked jokingly if it was a problem for an observant Jewish player to "handle a pigskin," Veingrad smiled broadly and said, "As an offesive linebacker, I did not have to come in contact with the ball that often, but I would not hesitate to pounce on it as needed. Now I'm proud to go into the record books as the first Sabbath-observant, Shomer Shabbas NFL player to wear a Super Bowl ring, who looks forward to coming to shul early in order to be as prepared for Judaism as I tried to be for pro football."