BROOKLYN, NY—When Mishelet Lev—the Israeli branch of Make A Wish Foundation—contacted Snyr Cohen, a buoyant 15 year old who is in the fight of his life against leukemia, they got a request that threw them for a loop. Snyr wanted to visit the resting place of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, and to spend one weekend—Shabbat—in the heart of Lubavitch Headquarters, in the Brooklyn community of Crown Heights.

Perhaps hoping to coax a more “age-appropriate” wish out of him, Make-A-Wish asked Snyr for his second wish. “This is what I really wanted,” says Snyr, still grateful for the Rebbe’s blessing for his recovery 10 years ago when he was severely injured by a tractor. Snyr repeated his wish, and when his response was the same for his third preference, Make-A-Wish came through all the way: Snyr, who lives in Gilboa, not far from Jenin, with his parents and two younger brothers, age 13 and 6, got to spend Rosh Hashana in Brooklyn, joining thousands of others in what is possibly the most spiritually moving of Rosh HaShana services anywhere. “This has been such an uplifting experience for all of us—it is the most spiritually meaningful Rosh Hashana we’ve ever had,” says Snyr’s mother, Margalit.

Coming as it did after a year of terrible lows for the Cohen family with Snyr in and out of hospitals where he was being treated for an acute form of leukemia, and suffering the debilitating effects of chemotherapy, the week they spent with Chabad-Lubavitch in New York, says Margalit prayerfully, “will set us onto a much better track this year.”

Coordinating the logistics on the American end was Rabbi Shlomo Friedman of Tzeirei Chabad in New York. “Rabbi Friedman went above and beyond anything that Make-A-Wish had agreed upon with him,” says Yisrael, Snyr’s father. Sunday evening, several hours after their arrival, Rabbi Friedman contacted them, and on Monday morning he had two yeshivah students meet the family and accompany them all week on their trips around the city, to help out with the language barrier and show them their way around New York. Rabbi Friedman also arranged for a surprise visit by the popular Jewish singer, Avraham Fried, after learning that he is a favorite of Snyr’s.

Tuesday was wish day. Rabbi Friedman accompanied the Cohen family on their visit to the Rebbe’s resting place, known as “the Ohel.” Snyr, now contemplative and introspective, prayed quietly alongside his parents and brothers.

“It was a very, very moving experience,” says Margalit, choking back tears, of the family’s visit to the Ohel. Later, the family was given private time to spend in the Rebbe’s study at Lubavitch World Headquarters, at 770 Eastern Parkway. This was where the Rebbe spent most of his time, counseling people for nearly half a century. For the Cohens, the opportunity to spend time in this holy space gave them a new, inner strength and an optimism that they need urgently.

Rabbi Friedman arranged for the Cohens to share each of the festive holiday meals with a family in the Lubavitch community. “People have been so gracious and generous,” says Yisrael, “that we are moved beyond words.”

For Israeli backpackers, Thailand–geographically and culturally remote from Israel–offers an escape from the tensions of home. By association, that has sadly come to mean anything Jewish.

And yet, thousands of miles away from a homeland where synagogues and yeshivas are as indigenous to the terrain as olive groves, these young men and women who had previously shied away from all religious affiliation, were looking to connect.

Call it the strife of the spirit. Rabbi Yosef Kantor, Chabad representative to Thailand, sees it as the pull of the Jewish soul that defies explanation: with approach of Rosh Hashana, it seemed every Jew in Thailand wanted to be in a Shul. Anticipating this from years past, Rabbi Kantor arranged for 10 rabbinical students from abroad to set up Rosh Hashana services in four locations, at which thousands of Jews participated.

“With the start of the New Year, it is important for Jews to feel that the despite the disagreements that are a cause of so much discord in Israel, we are all part of one unified people. This is the message we try to impart to residents and tourists alike,” says Rabbi Kantor.

In Chiang Mai, the rabbinical students worked with Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Tzeitlin and his wife–new Chabad-Lubavitch representatives here, organizing services for several hundred Jews. Five hundred participated at the services they set up on the southern island of Koh Samui, and in Bangkok Chabad representatives Rabbis Kantor and Wilhelm conducted two respective services to accommodate 1,500 Jews who wanted to pray. At each location, a festive meal with singing and discussions followed services, prompting many to return to Chabad on the following day of Rosh Hashana.

“Every Jew had where to turn to this Rosh Hashana. They were able to come and get a taste of holiness,” says Peleg Moscowitz, a native of Israel who moved to Thailand fifteen years ago. According to Peleg, himself a previously unaffiliated Jew whose life was “completely transformed” by Chabad in Thailand, it was the sincerity of Chabad and their message that was so compelling. “The dedication of these young men and women who travel all this way to help others is enough to spark an interest in even the most secularized Jew.”

Rabbi Kantor and his family have been serving Bangkok’s Jewish community of 300 since 1992. Seven years ago, Rabbi Nechemiah Wilhelm and his wife joined the Kantors. Today, kosher food is available, a full range of Torah study classes, a well-attended school and summer camp, and three synagogues in Bangkok alone are all part of a Jewish infrastructure that has made living Jewishly in Thailand altogether plausible.

And for the one hundred thousand Israelis who come through Thailand each year, Chabad has become more than just a community center. Unexpectedly, it is here that they learn to look past the negative stereotyping they’ve absorbed in Israel, venturing to try mitzvot, study Torah and learn more about themselves.

MIAMI, FL–For Kenneth N., the loneliness and despair of life behind bars has no parallel. “It was a denial of my essential humanity,” he says, reflecting on the years he spent at a correctional facility in Iowa, in punishment for dealing drugs.

Absent the preoccupations of life on the outside, the only thing Kenneth did have was time, stretches of empty time. “With all this time on your hands,” Kenneth says, “you get to doing a lot of thinking.” But without the guidance of a mentor or a rabbi, time becomes its own tormentor, breeding anger, bitterness and frustration, leaving the prisoner doubly incarcerated, body and soul.

That’s why the Aleph Institute, a Florida-based Chabad-Lubavitch organization that provides social services to individuals and families in crisis, sent rabbis to federal and state prisons nationwide this past weekend, where they led Rosh Hashana services, blew the shofar, and observed the holiday together. “Basically, our purpose is to connect with “forgotten” Jews, who are isolated from life as we know it,” says Rabbi Menachem Katz, director of prison programs for the Aleph Institute.

Moshe Barouk spent last Yom Kippur at FCI Coleman federal prison in Florida, and is spending these High Holy Days at a federal prison in Yazoo City, Mississippi. Moshe is Aleph’s administrative director. He describes Shofar blowing at the prison as “an incredibly intense experience.” Some inmates, he says, have never before heard the sound of a shofar or participated in High Holiday services. “Prisoners are overwhelmed by the idea that here, where they feel so disconnected from any sense of community or identity, they nevertheless are able to nurture their spirit, and that in turn, sustains them.”

Established in 1981, Aleph provides inmates and their families with the emotional, spiritual and legal support to see them through their imprisonment, as well as rehabilitative programs to prepare them for life after their release. “For every person being sentenced to jail, ten others will suffer adverse effects,” says Rabbi Sholom Ber Lipskar, who founded The Aleph Institute at the behest of the Lubavitcher Rebbe. And Aleph’s professional team of counselors and Rabbis are always only a phone call away, with 1,000 collect calls and six hundred letters received monthly from inmates and their families attesting to that.

Holiday programs and visitation routes reach Jews at over 350 prisons nationally each year, and Aleph ships thousands of ritual materials and holiday packages before each holiday—the last shipment included Machzors (Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur prayer books), honey packets and shofars—ensuring that every one of the country’s 4,000 Jewish inmates have the means to observe the Jewish holidays. Aleph also arranges for Kosher meals and work schedules that allow prisoners to keep Shabbat and holidays just like Jews the world over, giving these inmates some sense of belonging to a community.

“Many people don’t want to be bothered with us ‘people behind the wall,’” Kenneth acknowledges. “Aleph sent someone to me when I felt totally forgotten.” It was a visit that reassured Kenneth that someone out there in the vast and busy world was thinking about him. And it would be followed by many more visits during which Kenneth would transform empty time into invaluable opportunities for spiritual growth and healing.

These days, Kenneth can be found with the people “behind the wall” every now and again. It’s not recidivism; it’s just that he remembers gratefully what Aleph did for him, and wants to do the same for fellow Jewish souls in distress.

When the shofar is sounded during Rosh Hashana services tomorrow and Sunday, 10-year-old Shane Golden will have a better grasp than many of the adults around him, of the mystery behind this Biblical tradition. Like thousands of other children nationwide, Shane participated in the manufacture of a shofar, hollowing out a raw horn and deftly working it down to a smooth finish with his own hands.

The Shofar factory, a unique feature of the Chabad-Lubavitch Living Legacy Programs, has become so successful it has now been incorporated into the educational programs of hundreds of Chabad centers across the country and abroad. Teaching kids the way they learn best—by hands-on experience, the Shofar Factory gives them an enthusiasm and attachment to Jewish holidays and traditions in a way that no classroom lesson ever could.

“My kids came home from the Shofar factory fairly bursting with enthusiasm for the upcoming High Holidays,” says Shane’s mother Kathy Golden. Shane and his older brother Tyler, 12, both attended Chabad of Richmond’s Shofar Factory. “This experience enriched their understanding of Rosh Hashana and the shofar and made the whole concept come alive for them.”

More than 150 children attended the Shofar Factory in Richmond, participating in demonstration that detailed the entire process of creating a shofar and then becoming absorbed in the process of making one of their own. “The fact that they do it themselves makes the whole experience so personal,” explains Rabbi Yechiel Baitelman, director of Chabad in Richmond. “So when they’re in the synagogue several days later, they’re thinking, ‘I have a part in this.’ They relate directly to this mitzvah.”

The Shofar Factory in Marion, Pa. includes a petting zoo of horned animals so the children can actually feel the shofar in its previous manifestation. “I can’t think of a more effective way to get the meaning of the holiday across,” says Rabbi Lowenstien, Chabad-Lubavitch representative to Marion Station, who incorporates many Rosh Hashana in the course of the demonstration. “When a kid has actually drilled and sanded and polished his own shofar, the tradition has become a part of him and will stay with him for a very long time.”

One of the newest Chabad Centers, in Commerce, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit presented its first ever Shofar Factory to the community this year. “The response was tremendous,” says Estie Greenberg, who arrived in Commerce with her husband Rabbi Schneor Greenberg in May 2002. “It was a fascinating demonstration that brought the community together and made the holidays really relevant to them.”

In nearby West Bloomfield, Michigan, Rabbi Levi and Bassie Shemtov presented the Shofar Factory to a unique group of people: members of the Friendship Circle, a Chabad organization that works to provide physical and spiritual enrichment to hundreds of special needs children in the Detroit area.

“We had about 80 participating children,” says Bassie, “and every one of them left the demonstration visibly excited and with a special appreciation for the significance of the upcoming holidays.”

The Shofar Factory demonstration often includes other Rosh Hashana related projects—children dip apple in honey, create a honey dish, or bake a round challah in the traditional custom. And the men and women of Chabad who run the demonstration illuminate many important aspects of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur while the children are working their horns. “This is an opportunity we have to teach Jewish children—many who are public school educated—some of the essentials of their tradition,” says Bassie.

And it is one learning opportunity that the children, attentive and thoroughly engaged in the experience, will probably retain well until another new year comes around.

Here in the slums, among the open sewers and crime-ridden streets, young children amuse themselves, fashioning castles out of uncollected garbage heaps. This is where they play, dream, and sometimes, they even die in this landscape of hopeless desperation.

Many of Argentina’s 200,000 Jews are among the statistics of this country’s impoverished, compounded further by a shattered economy. Often it is no more than a few routines of civilized life—a hot meal, a couple of hours in a cheerful, danger-free zone—that go a very long way to opening a ray of optimism in an otherwise bleak existence.

That’s what the new Morasha program, established this past June, holds out for Jewish children trapped in the slums, alienated from Jewish life, community and tradition. Several times a week, the children are delivered to any one of seven Morasha centers citywide, where they enjoy cooked meals, stimulating classes in Jewish history, tradition and Hebrew. English language courses taught in conjunction with the world-famous Berlitz school, gives these children the edge they will need once they are old enough to seek employment. And with extracurricular activities that include sports games, dance, and professional chess, the children are exploring constructive outlets while developing their own skills and talents that will hopefully buy their way out of the slums.

Thanks to the backing by philanthropists Eli Horn of Brazil and Eduardo Elsztain of Argentina, the Morasha program, a joint effort of Chabad and the local Sefardic community, has already affected the lives of over 600 children and their families. Their goal is to reach 1,000 children by this December, with plans for reaching an additional one thousand children in the areas surrounding Buenos Aires.

According to Miriam Kapelushnik, director of Morasha, it’s not only children from the slums who are benefiting from the program. Many of Argentina’s Jewish families who were financially secure before the crisis, have absorbed a lot of the economic devastation. Left without the means to send their children to private Jewish schools or pay dues to the local Jewish community centers, “they too, were becoming alienated from the Jewish community and Judaism itself,” she says.

“We saw the need to reengage these families, particularly the children, in Jewish activity, and that inspired the founding of Morasha,” says Rabbi Tzvi Gruenblatt, director of Chabad-Lubavitch of Argentina.

Pablo Eisik, 16, loves every minute of the six hours weekly he spends with Morasha. “The situation here in Argentina is very difficult and that Chabad could think up an idea such as this one is incredible,” says his mother. “I would’ve never thought it possible. The children are learning, they are spending time with other Jewish children, and they are so very happy.”

Reported by S. Olidort

SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO—Up until his encounter with Chabad two years ago, Michael Green, a lawyer by profession, felt “lukewarm” towards Judaism. “Chabad breathed life into me and nurtured it,” says Green who maintains that the Chabad couple serving Santa Fe’s Jewish community, “has succeeded enormously, against all odds, thanks to a strongly rooted sense of Jewish identity that they have conveyed to the Jewish community.”

Green is one of many Jews drawn to Santa Fe, a city with altitudes so high and scenery so divine, it inspires spiritual devotion. And yet, until Rabbi Levertov and his wife Devorah Leah, arrived here in 1996, traditional Jewish life was practically nonexistent. “Many people come here searching for a more meaningful existence, but they are easily carried away by the spiritual lures of cults and eastern religions that have nothing at all to do with their own Jewish roots,” says Rabbi Levertov.

The Levertovs have worked hard to guide Jewish seekers towards an authentic Jewish experience, and the response has been so positive that a tent is going up on the Chabad grounds in time for Rosh Hashana. “We’re expecting many people will want to attend high holiday services,” says Rabbi Levertov. And until renovations on the sanctuary in Chabad’s new adobe style center is completed, worshipers in this city where the sun is always shining will feel comfortable joining Chabad’s makeshift sanctuary.

With the establishment of Chabad, the symbols and holidays of Judaism have become highly popular and meaningful for Santa Fe’s Jewish community of 5,000. Chabad’s first public menorah-lighting ceremony in the center of town several years ago marked the first time in 400 years that a Jewish service was conducted in the plaza.

For Richard Lieberman, a physician residing in Santa Fe, who was raised in a completely secular Jewish home in the heart of Brooklyn, it took Chabad in Santa Fe to spark an enthusiasm for traditional Judaism. “I always felt a little light glowing within me, looking to express itself. Then Chabad came to Santa Fe and gave me the tools to help myself find meaning and fulfillment,” says Lieberman, who participates in the Shabbat minyan and several Torah study classes each week with Rabbi Levertov.

Chabad’s trademark educational programs, including the popular children’s shofar factory and the lively roving sukkah mobiles draw hundreds to learn more about the Jewish holidays. The Levertovs have fine-tuned a series of classes that address the interests of Santa Fe’s artistic and spiritually sensitive community. With a strong focus on Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism, Chabad’s weekly adult education program is a big draw. At a monthly women’s circle established by Mrs. Levertov, fifty women explore Jewish themes through art, culinary projects and lectures. Chabad’s Hebrew School gives 20 little ones an impressive primer in the basics of Hebrew reading, the significance of various holidays and a good familiarity with their Jewish heritage.

“Residents of Santa Fe often come here alone, so we make ourselves available to them on a multitude of levels, becoming a sort of surrogate family for hundreds of individuals,” says Mrs. Levertov.

Dr. Lieberman sees in Rabbi Levertov not only a Rabbi, but a friend. When Lieberman fell ill earlier this year and had to undergo surgery at a hospital in Arizona, Rabbi Levertov flew there to be with him, even though his wife had just given birth. “I sometimes feel Hashem sent the Levertovs to Santa Fe just for me,” says Dr. Lieberman. And the doctor prides himself on having taught Rabbi Levertov something new–how to ski. Together the two ski, bike ride, and study Torah and Chasidic philosophy.

It was an unusual event that brought traffic to a halt in the streets of Vilnius earlier this week. Five-hundred of the city’s residents were joined in a procession through the center of town, led by a 30-piece marching band, Vilnius’s vice mayor, members of parliament and foreign ambassadors.

The object of all this fanfare? The dedication of a Torah scroll to the city’s Chabad shul, donated by Mrs. Lily Safra, head of the Edmond J. Safra Philanthropic Foundation. Carried under the traditional chuppah canopy, the Torah made its way through Vilnius’s ancient streets and alleyways, beginning at the site of what was once the Great Vilna Shul on Hebrew Street.

The scene was surreal, a poignant hark back to another time, when Vilna’s streets pulsated with Jewish life. As the procession continued on to the area that was home to the Chabad school and shul before World War II, the dramatic impact of the moment was lost on none. Ninety-four percent of Vilna’s vibrant Jewish community was decimated in WWII.

But with all the pomp surrounding the arrival of a new Torah scroll to Vilna—including scores of Chabad-Lubavitch yeshiva students carrying flaming torches—a small measure of redemption has finally come to this former bastion of talmudic scholarship.

Representing Mrs. Lily Safra at the dedication was Yair Torenhaim, who remarked on the significance of this event taking place on the 18th of Elul, the birthday of two great luminaries: the Baal Shem Tov and the founder of Chabad Chasidism, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi. Also addressing the crowd was a former Jewish member of parliament, Mr. Zingeris, who spoke of the significance of rebuilding Jewish life in Vilna.

“The idea that this once was such an important center of Torah gives us more of a sense of urgency in our work to restore Jewish activity here,” says Chabad-Lubavitch representative, Rabbi Sholom Ber Krinsky.

Today, Vilna is home to 7,000 Jews. Since 1994, Rabbi Krinsky and his wife, Nechama Dina, have been working vigorously to reacquaint the city’s Jewish community with Jewish life as it once thrived here. Kosher food is readily available at two major supermarkets; 150 children are enrolled in Chabad’s elementary and high school; some 30 college students participate in Chabad’s weekly Torah classes, and as many as 350 adults join in Chabad’s adult Jewish education program.

Slowly but surely, “Jerusalem of Lithuania,” as this city was once known, is reclaiming a rich Jewish past.

Before the introduction of Chasidism, Jews were either rich or poor, educated or ignorant, and recognized along those distinctions. Then came the Baal Shem Tov and soon after, Reb Schneur Zalman of Liadi. Suddenly, “a Jew was a Jew, and that’s all that mattered.”

In a word, that was Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg’s take on the gift of Chasidism to Jewish life. Speaking to an audience of 200 in the beautiful Beit Lubavitch Jewish center in Rio De Janeiro, Hertzberg explored the origins of Chasidism, and shared his thoughts on the phenomenon that is Chabad-Lubavitch.

The occasion was the 18th day of Elul, corresponding this year to August 26, which marked both the birthdate of the founder of Chasidism, the Baal Shem Tov (1698-1760), and of the founder of Chabad Chasidism, Reb Schneur Zalman (1745-1812).

Mr. Israel Klabin, the former mayor of Rio who has been very instrumental in promoting the work of Chabad in this city, introduced the evening’s speaker, and a simultaneous translation in Portuguese was rendered.

Rabbi Hertzberg, who served as President of the American Jewish Congress and subsequently as Vice President of the World Jewish Congress, is now Bronfman Visiting Professor of the Humanities at New York University. He reflected on the transformation Chasidism has achieved in the way Jewish life is perceived and experienced. For the better part of an hour, Hertzberg shared historic perspectives, anecdotal information and a deep recognition and appreciation for what the Lubavitcher Rebbe had achieved in his lifetime—saving Jewish life by his revolutionary outreach activities.

That 200 people in a city famous for its heady nightlife would choose to spend a hot August evening learning about Jewish history, was itself proof of Rabbi Hertberg’s assertion. Fifteen years ago, there were 1500 Jews in the upscale community of Leblon, in Rio De Janeiro. But there was no Jewish activity.

Then Rabbi Yehoshua Binyomin Goldman and his wife came as Shluchim of the Rebbe in 1987, and Rio hasn’t been the same since. So intensive was their outreach that before long, the Goldmans would recruit another 10 Lubavitch couples—Shluchim all—from different parts of the world, to join in their efforts, establishing Jewish institutions in neighboring communities of Copacabana, Ipanema, Tijuca and Leblon.

Rabbi Hertzberg recalled a meeting some years ago with another Jewish group who lamented the dearth of Jewish leadership. He suggested that they train rabbinical graduates and then send them out to various outposts to reach out to Jewish communities. Much to his dismay, the response he got was that these graduates are on a career path, and that would be a primary criterion in determining whether they would agree to undertake such positions.

Contrasting this to the response of Lubavitch Shluchim who would go in a heartbeat whenever and wherever the need arises, without any regard for all other considerations, Hertzberg observed their unique commitment to the Rebbe’s vision of Jewish life, and a deeply held value that the way to enrich one’s own soul is by helping a fellow Jew. “This,” said Rabbi Hertzberg, “is why Lubavitch is different from everyone else.”

Dr. George and Sheila Gitlitz, of Sarasota, Florida are regular summer vacationers at Chautauqua. But it wasn’t until they joined the newly established “Jewish Discussion Group” that the experience would take on a whole new dimension.

Surprisingly, there is a sizable Jewish population in this predominantly Christian intellectual and spiritual oasis in upstate New York. According to Rabbi Zalman Wilenkin, who has just spent a second summer at The Chautauqua Institute with his wife Esther and their two children, 30% of Chautauqua’s 150,000 summer visitors are Jewish, and searching for serious answers. While Judaism may not be the subject they expected to explore at Chautauqua, a growing number of them are finding answers to long-held questions and discovering in their own religion a depth of intellectual stimulation they had never known.

The Chautauqua Institute is possibly the least likely of places one would expect to encounter a Chabad presence. Founded in 1874 as a Christian retreat center, Chautauqua grew to become, in the latter part of the nineteenth century and early twentieth, an exclusive retreat for the intellectual and political high society of the country, minus Jews, who were barred entry. In the 1950’s, having fallen on economic hard times, the Institute changed its mission statement to include “all people, of all faiths,” and quickly became the summer retreat of choice for the academic and intellectual elite, among them a growing percentage of Jews.

The Wilenkins arrived in Chautauqua for the summer of 2001, to found “The Jewish Discussion Group,” offering classes on a wide range of Jewish subjects and inviting the community for Shabbat services and meals.

“The classes are so thought provoking and there’s a very strong sense of community and tradition growing around the Jewish Discussion Group,” says Sheila Gilitz. “It has made our summers so meaningful.”

A lakeside, gated community, Chautauqua offers a utopian sort of existence for its visitors, most of whom are distinguished professionals and academics, who vacation there year after year in the course of the 9-week summer season. Classes and lectures are offered throughout the day on every conceivable subject of interest, and in the evening, visitors are treated to a smorgasbord of the finest cultural entertainment.

Jewish vacationers, wary at first, began attending the Wilenkins’ classes, and slowly, a community of sorts began to take shape.

“Many of the people here, particularly the academics, had an impression of Judaism as a tradition-laden, very ritualistic religion,” says Rabbi Wilenkin. “And while there is that aspect, there is also the entire dimension of Jewish scholarship that many of them were unaware of.” Discussions often go on for hours after the class is over, says the Rabbi.

In addition to Jewish study, the Jewish Discussion Group offers vacationers, most of whom are entirely unaffiliated, a warm dose of Jewish tradition. Esther’s Friday afternoon Challah baking classes are a popular draw for the women as they discover the art and joy of preparing for Shabbat. Well attended Shabbat afternoon services followed by a generous Kiddush brings many Jewish families together in the spirit of the day. And a Shabbat afternoon children’s hour—many of the summer residents of Chautauqua are young families—gives the little ones their own Jewish experience. “This is a great crowd to work with,” says Esther, who grew up only several miles from Chautaqua, in Buffalo, where her parents are Chabad representatives. “The men and women here are eager and anxious to learn and are very receptive.”

The Wilenkins point to the long-ranging effects of their involvement with the summer residents of Chautauqua. “One couple from Cleveland who was here last year came back this summer and told us they had koshered their kitchen at home because of the things they learned here over the summer,” says Rabbi Wilenkin, “Another doctor from Pittsburgh finally had a bar-mitzvah this summer. He is forty years old.”

The Jewish Discussion Group, while not yet registered officially with the Institute, has the status of a volunteer organization at Chautauqua, and plans are in the works to become an official part of the program.

Rabbi and Mrs. Wilenkin expect to continue spending the summer months each year with their family in Chautauqua.

“The challenge of teaching Jewish people is so rewarding,” says Rabbi Wilenkin. “What can be a meaningful way to spend the summer?”

In its busiest season ever, the Mayanot Institute of Jewish studies in Jerusalem has coordinated Birthright Israel trips this summer for over 900 Jewish students, becoming the largest Birthright provider.

Birthright Israel, a revolutionary idea conceived and funded by philanthropists Charles Bronfman and Michael Steinhardt, the State of Israel, and local community federations, sees its goal as giving every Jewish student the opportunity to experience Israel for 10 memorable days, at no cost to the participant. Birthright provides the funding and the basic parameters of the trip, and partners with Chabad Houses, Hillel houses, temples, and synagogues, who recruit the students and arrange the actual tours. Birthright staff carefully monitors each tour to ensure it meets security, technical and educational standards.

Mayanot, a Chabad-Lubavitch yeshiva for college age students, became a Birthright provider three years ago, further enhancing the Israel experience for thousands of teenagers with a deeper dimension of spirituality and unique Chabad spirit.

According to Gidi Mark, International Director of Marketing for Birthright Israel, the Lubavitch Mayanot Institute has been the largest North American provider of Birthright trips this season. In an interview with Lubavitch International, Mr. Mark attributed their success to an incredibly hard-working and devoted staff both in the US and Israel. “In addition to their professionalism, Rabbi Gestetner and his staff have devoted heart and soul to the goal of bringing Jewish kids to Israel,” he said.

Rabbi Shlomo Gestetner, director of Mayanot yeshiva and the Birthright tours, credits success of the program to a superb staff, both behind the scenes recruiting participants and on the tours, and the spiritual content offered. “We show these kids a connection to Judaism that goes far beyond the inspirational high of being in Israel,” he says, “We show them how to translate those feelings into their lives in a very real, meaningful way instead of them wearing off after the program.” Unique features of a Mayanot Birthright trip include a Bet Medrash study evening at the Yeshiva, guest lecturers, farbrengens (Chasidic gatherings), and intense discussion groups that inspire serious thinking.

The success Mayanot has had in recruiting students, notes Rabbi Gestetner, is due largely to the efforts of Mr. Yisroel Schulman, director of American Friends of Mayanot, based in New York City. Working closely with Chabad-Lubavitch shluchim, particularly on campuses in the United States, American Friends of Mayanot recruits students who often come in large numbers along with their rabbi. “Students who share their Israel experience with their rabbi have an easier time relating the inspiration gleaned from the trip to their lives back in America,” says Rabbi Gestetner.

Tremendous positive feedback follows every tour. “The combination of intense Jewish pride and tradition that is so vibrant in Israel, along with a serious approach to living spiritually on a daily basis is something that students find very inspiring,” Rabbi Gestetner explains. Large numbers of participants have stayed on in Israel to study at Mayanot yeshiva, and the others leave Israel after only ten days, their lives enriched in that short time by a deeper, more profound connection to the land and their Jewish heritage.

An estimated 100,000 young men and women participate yearly in a giant pop music festival, known as “Pepsi Island.” Held on an otherwise deserted island near Budapest, this Hungarian version of the American Woodstock festival attracts youths from across Europe and internationally, making it the largest concert festival in Central Europe.

For five years now, Chabad of Hungary has operated a Jewish booth at the festival. Manned 24 hours a day by Chabad rabbis and yeshiva students, the booth—a spacious tent—is visited by thousands each day, including dignitaries such as the Prime Minister of Hungary and the Mayor of Budapest who regularly make appearances at the concerts.

Throughout the week, Chabad offers informal classes and lectures on Judaism, an “Ask the Rabbi” booth which draws hundreds of Jewish visitors who wait their turn in long lines, and a Shabbat schedule that includes candle lighting, lively services, and a spirited Havdallah ceremony complete with joyous singing and dancing.

“People approach the booth out of a general curiosity about Judaism,” says Rabbi Boruch Oberlander, director of Chabad activities in Hungary. “This is a place where they feel far more comfortable approaching the subject of religion than they would anywhere else.”

In many cases, students strike up relationships with the Chabad Rabbis that continue even after the concert. Rabbi Oberlander tells of a young man who approached him at the Chabad booth telling him that he had found out four years ago that his grandmother was Jewish. “Though it affected him deeply, he had no idea what to do with that information,” says Rabbi Oberlander. The Rabbi spoke with the young man during the festival and followed up with him later. “He is now well on his way to becoming a part of the Jewish community,” says Rabbi Oberlander.

Any way you flip it, 40 years is a milestone.

“Light, Love and L’chaim” was the spirit and the theme of a gala dinner by Chabad-Lubavitch of Minnesota, celebrating four decades of remarkable achievements in the world of Jewish outreach and education.

Held at the Minneapolis Marriot City Center, the dinner hall swelled with guests who were visibly moved by the occasion. Sharing the moment with them were two United States senators: Joseph Lieberman and former senator Rudy Boschwitz. Lieberman, who ran with Al Gore in the last presidential campaign was the evening’s keynote speaker. Senator Rudy Boschwitz, a prominent republican who served as state representative for Minnesota for many years, was honored at the dinner together with his wife.

At opposite ends of the political spectrum, the two senators share a love and reverence for Rebbe—whose hundredth year was also celebrated at the dinner, named “Celebration 100/40.” Speaking of the individual behind the inspiration for the achievements of Chabad-Lubavitch in Minnesota, Lieberman said: “The Lubavitcher Rebbe was the most eminent Jewish leader of our time.” The senator then went on to share personal anecdotes of his experiences with the Rebbe. Senator Boschwitz was recognized for his deep loyalty and support (he is the chief fundraiser for Chabad-Lubavitch of Minnesota) ever since he met Rabbi Moshe Feller some 37 years ago.

“A world-famous democrat presenting a prominent republican with an award for his support of Lubavitch is a sight you don’t see everyday,” Rabbi Moshe Feller, founder and director of Chabad activities in Minnesota, told the audience of over 400, who filled the ballroom to well beyond capacity. “It tells the world a great deal about their extraordinary love and dedication to Yiddishkeit.”

15 Chabad-Lubavitch couples currently serve the Jewish communities of Minneapolis and S. Paul, Duluth, New Hope, Rochester, and Minnetonka, providing a wide range of social and educational activities including the Lubavitch Cheder, Preschool, day camps, the Wexler Institute Yeshiva, and the Living Legacy holiday awareness programs.

The dinner also celebrated the establishment of the Akerberg Family Campus in West. S. Paul, a sprawling 5 acre property, the new home of Bais Chana, and the center of a young, growing community.

“Chabad of Minnesota’s scope of influence extends well beyond the state,” says Rabbi Feller, a native of Minneapolis, who returned to the city with his wife Mindel in 1962 to establish a Chabad presence that has since grown into a statewide network of institutions, “With programs like our Bais Chana Womens Institute (see archives: The Fifth Commandment), the Chabad Hospitality Center at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, and Inward Bound, an educational camping experience for Jewish businessmen, we have been successful in changing the lives of Jews from around the world.”

Rabbi Feller, ever the incurable optimist, looks ahead to the next 40 with fresh enthusiasm. True, forty years is a milestone. But in the spirit of traditional Jewish “L’chaim to 120 years”—Chabad-Lubavitch of Minnesota has only just begun . . .

It was meant to be a small reunion of Israeli backpackers who had spent time with Rabbi Chezky and Chani Lifshitz at the Chabad House in Katmandu, Nepal.

Planned for some 200 participants at a party hall in Rechovot, in central Israel, 750 Israelis, “alumni” of the Chabad House in Nepal, came last week from all parts of Israel in an outpouring of affection and gratitude.

“Chezky and Chani Lifshitz work nights and days for the sake of fellow Jews,” says Ehud Barnai, a popular Israeli singer who counts himself as a close friend of the Lifshitzs and Chabad after spending several months in Nepal.

Chabad in Katmandu has been a presence since 1988, when traveling Yeshiva students first began organizing Pesach seders and holiday services at the behest of the Lubavitcher Rebbe and the local Israeli embassy. The students would arrive twice yearly, and the Jewish tourists, consisting almost entirely of young Israelis on leave from the army, began planning their trips to coincide with what had become known as the world’s largest –and liveliest—Pesach seder.

The crowds grew each year, from 300 to 500 to 1500, and ultimately, the need was realized for a permanent Chabad Rabbi to establish a center. Rabbi Chezky and Chani Lifshitz, both native Israelis, agreed to take up the challenge. Idealistic and full of optimism, they moved to Katmandu in late 1999, setting up house in a primitive country where electricity shortages are a twice daily occurrence and running water is never a given.

Undaunted, the Lifshitzs established a Chabad House and kosher restaurant that doubles as a large dining hall where they hold open Shabbos meals for tourists. There is no established Jewish community in Nepal, says Rabbi Lifshitz. Only crowds of Israeli backpackers traveling the world and searching for spirituality in the religions of the east.

But like Ehud Barnai, their encounter with Chabad often directs their search to the root of their own souls and a depth of spirituality in their own religion that they never knew existed.

“Secular Israelis can be far more secular and ignorant of the basics of Judaism than their American counterparts,” says Chani. “Unfortunately, they also come from a society where tremendous tensions exist between religious and secular Jews.”

The Lifshitz’s natural warmth and their familiarity with Israeli life create an atmosphere in the Chabad House that obliterates entirely any prejudices towards religion previously held by the Israelis. “Our biggest success has been in breaking down barriers and giving people the opportunity to seriously examine Judaism without any bias,” says Rabbi Lifshitz, whose experiences in the army contribute to the excellent rapport he has with other army veterans.

“Hundreds of Israelis leave Katmandu each year with a new enthusiasm for their religion and a respect for religious people.” But the average Israeli stays in Katmandu only several weeks and then moves on.

The Lifshitzs, spending their summer in Israel due to seasonal monsoon rains in Katmandu that shut down the city deterring tourist activity, hit upon the idea of a “reunion” in Israel to continue their connection with their former constituents.

Word spread and hundreds of former backpackers arrived to an event that surpassed the Lifshitz’s highest hopes for the evening. “There was so much love and sense of tradition in that room,” recalls Rabbi Lifshitz, “It was so inspiring for us to see how far these people have come in terms of their Jewish commitment, as a result of their experiences in Nepal.” A favorite moment for him, he says, was seeing the many new Kippas sported that night.

Another highlight was the musical performances by Ehud Barnai and a band of drummers, all “alumni” who dedicated their songs to the Lifshitzs’ hard work and devotion.

“There were people there who would have nothing to do with religion just one year ago,” marvels Chani Lifshitz. “It is uplifting for us to see how these barriers have really come down.”