In the small Yemenite-Iraqi town
of Beit Dagan, near Kfar Chabad, I
visited with a young Australian rabbi
who works with the Sephardic families.
When we rode through Beit Dagan with
Reb Shmulik, people ran after the little
van calling "Shmulik, Shmulik." These
were people whom Shmulik had
helped: people with drug problems,
women who were battered wives. The
interesting part is that this young rabbi
was once as lost a soul as they were
before the Lubavitchers got hold of him
and turned him around.
I learned that no matter what
happens there is always someone who
cares, and that is Lubavitch.
•• •
•
he
bavitch
In Dinner
ing the
e Campus
Judaism
Aber 13, 1991
5, 5752
Hotel
'enter, Detroit
Associate Chairmen
Donald Barris
David Pollack
an
rles L. Levin
igan State
Court
oundation
ebelt Road
, MI 48334-4129
7-7000
1990 Honorees
Emma Lazaroff-Schaver
Martin & Phyllis Abel
They're an Anchor
It all started when our son needed
Bar Mitzvah training.
We knocked on many doors. This
one was too busy. That one had no
answer. Another couldn't help
Lubavitch was there for us when
other institutions weren't.
A Lubavitcher became a teacher
for our son and a guide for ourselves.
This group is an anchor that will
help keep Judaism from disappearing.
Philip T. Warren
•• •
I come from a long line of
Lubavitchers, and I am proud of that
lineage because the Lubavitchers know
what it means to be a Jew.
Our children have become Ameri-
canized, frequently losing their link to
their past and their roots. We saw the
results of this assimilation in Germany;
we know the terrible price that was paid
by those who forgot their roots.
The Lubavitchers don't forget.
The tireless rabbis, their wives and
even their children visit hospitals,
prisons, senior citizen homes. They help
those in need. Their actions are good
deeds done not for the 'thank-you' but
for the sake of the good deed itself.
They remind us of our heritage.
•• •
They Have the Formula
They seem to have found the
formula to communicate with our
misguided sons and daughters. In the
60s and 70s, on campuses and else-
where around the country, they reached
out. They never "talked down" to the
kids. They were never "rabbinical."
They were "cool." And they were the
only ones bringing back (to normalcy
and to Judaism) those of our kids who
were going off the tracks.
I remember David Lazerson in
particular. Here was a young man
whom my Lubavitch friends brought
down to Florida to speak at a meeting in
my Coral Gables home. If I remember
correctly, he used to "do drugs" exten-
sively. He was a drop-out from society,
a hippie wandering through Europe to
"find himself" when the Lubavitch
found him. Today Dr. Lazerson is a
Ph.D. in special education, helping
other confused teenagers.
Jewish survival in a non-Jewish
world is a concern. Our own children
often don't seem to share even our most
basic Jewish values! And that's where
the Lubavitchers come M.
They have the philosophy that
turns our young people around.
Proud to be Jewish
Dr. George & Vivian Dean
Heavy on Action
One of the things I admire about
Lubavitch is that they are very "light"
on meetings and very "heavy" on
action.
Others see a community prob-
lem as an occasion for a three-year
study and a statistical analysis. The
Lubavitchers roll up their sleeves and
plunge right in.
They are understaffed and
underfunded, but they are always
over-endowed with the Rebbe's
indomitable enthusiasm.
They touched and changed the
life of one of our children. They touch
and change the lives of many other
Jews. In this way, they help us
survive.
•• •
Jack & Miriam Shenkman
Children Are the Priority
If Lubavitch has a priority, it is
children.
We have seen with our own eyes
what the Lubavitchers are doing in
Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil,
Holland and Israel. Right now, for
example, in K'far Chabad, they are
treating hundreds of children from
Chernobyl for radiation exposure. They
expect those numbers to climb into the
thousands.
They also help those whose
parents cannot help. The father of one
child in a K'far Chabad outreach school
is serving a life sentence in jail. Another
may not know who his father is.
The Rebbe is behind all these
activities. He is the source of inspiration
for the work being done.
•• •