Shopping in their Brooklyn enclave, a group of Lubavitch matrons and their children ,gather around a produce stand.
Lubavitch
walks a fine
line when it
comes to
Israel.
moo_ rranAv nFrnuiRFR
immediately after the Who Is A Jew con-
troversy erupted, but that the numbers
have risen even beyond the old levels in
the months since.
"It is now as strong as it ever was,"
said Rabbi Shmuel M. Butman, director
of the Lubavitch Youth Organization,
which conducts programs all over the na-
tion. In fact, he added, the attacks
against Lubavitch because of its advoca-
cy of Who Is A Jew "drew a lot of our
supporters closer to us."
Rabbi Shmuel Kaplan, the regional di-
rector for Lubavitch in Maryland, said
that while he stood firmly behind the
Who Is A Jew amendment as a Halachic
imperative, he felt it necessary last year
to make it clear to his local supporters
that each region of Lubavitch "operates
financially autonomously."
"We don't send money to New York
and New York doesn't send money of any
significance to Maryland," he said. In so
doing, he insisted, he was not distancing
himself from New York. He emphasized:
"We receive our inspiration from our
Rebbe in New York and our guidance
from our Rebbe in New York."
Rabbi Kaplan said that last year he felt
it was important to confront the Who Is
19R9
Photo By Ricki Rosen.
A Jew issue "head on" by drawing the
distinction between finances and alle-
giance at a Friends of Lubavitch Dinner
held last year in Washington. Now, he
said, complaints about Lubavitch's ad-
vocacy of Who Is A Jew have all but
ceased and, if the dinner were held today,
"I wouldn't confront it."
The educational director of the Chabad
House in Milwaukee, Rabbi Yosef
Samuels, used another barometer for the
decline and subsequent resurgence of Lu-
bavitch support. Rabbi Samuels, who est-
imates that he convinces 1,500 people
each year to try on a pair of tefillin, said
that he was having trouble finding will-
ing subjects in the aftermath of Who Is A
Jew. "Now it's getting back to normal,"
he said.
The main Lubavitch spokesman, Rabbi
Krinsky, declined to specify how much
Lubavitch receives in financial contribu-
tions each year, though he characterized
an estimate of $50 million as "very low."
This past year, designated by the Rebbe
as the Year of Building, has resulted in
the initiation of at least $150 million in
new construction projects, outside of Is-
rael, according to a spokesman. For ex-
ample, in New York alone Lubavitch
plans to expand its headquarters in
Crown Heights with a new $23 million
building and is completing a $12 million
girls school and a $5 million boys school
in the Brooklyn neighborhood.
Among the major donors for these pro-
jects are Joseph S. Gruss, the philan-
thropist, Ronald 0. Perelman, chairman
of the Revlon Group, and David T. Chase,
chairman of the board of Chase Enter-
prises.
Dr. Bayme of the American Jewish
Committee said that some of the sup-
porters are having "vicarious" Jewish
experiences by contributing to Lubav-
itch, which they view as perpetuating au-
thentic Judaism. He was, however, criti-
cal of this relationship. "There is some-
thing fundamentally wrong with the no-
tion that I give to Lubavitch so that I can
save Jews because I can't save myself,"
he said.
"That kind of vicariousness is
unhealthy," Dr. Bayme added. "It is far
more important for Conservative and Re-
form Jews to experience their own Jewish
renewal, to hook more into what it means
to be a Conservative or Reform Jew."
Dr. Bayme added that many of the Lu-
bavitch contributors are unaware of the