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Community

CONGREGATION SHAAR HASHOMAYIM

Proudly Presents

REBBETZIN ESTHER JUNGREIS

World Renown Speaker & Author

At the First Zalman & Dina Kamen Memorial Lecture

Wednesday, September 20, 2000 at 8:00 pm
Congregation Shaar Hashomayim
115 Giles E., Windsor, Ontario

Admission: $10.00 Canadian or $7.00 US
For more information please call: (519) 256-3123

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"The rabbis spent their August vaca-
tion visiting families, teaching adults
and children and organizing cultural
events," Kagan says of the three visitors,
who spend the rest of the year doing
post-rabbinical school studies in Crown
Heights, N.Y.
"We visited many, many houses, and
saw close to 500 people in Jewish-
Russian homes in Michigan in one
month," Rabbi Aisenbach says. "We
would sit and talk, put on tefillin with
the people. Many have mezuzas — we
help put them up. We teach them to
light Shabbat candles, saying the bless-
ing in Russian and in English."
Many of those they met are elderly
and don't speak English, but, says the
rabbi, "they know Yiddish, which all
three of us speak perfectly. We encour-
aged them and discussed their life in
Russia and here."

Learning Together

Visiting in Oak Park, Southfield and
West Bloomfield, the rabbis offered the
adult Russian community Torah,
Kaballa and Chasidic philosophy classes,
mostly one-on-one, with some lectures
and question-and-answer sessions on
Judaism.
"Many eagerly learned Hebrew,
Jewish history and Jewish laws and
customs," Kagan says. "A new Jewish
pride has been kindled as they speak
of faint Jewish memories and ancestral
Jewish heroes."
Many days were spent with young
children who, during the school year,
study at the FREE school after attend-
ing public schools during the day.
"We got very close with the children,
studying and playing all kinds of games
that would relate to them in a fun way,
but blending in Jewish issues. We want-
ed to hear them say, 'Mom, Mom, I

want to go to Sunday school.'"
Also studying with the teen-aged
boys, the rabbis taught them how to
put on tefillin, conducted Torah stud-
ies and prepared them for bar mitz-
vah, teaching haftorah."
"A real bond has been established
between the rabbis and the regulars at
the adult education classes," Kagan says
of the Lubavich-sponsored program.
Having already done similar pro-
gramming in England, Rhode Island
and Tampa, Rabbi Aisenbach was joined
by the other two rabbis as part of an
international outreach program.
Kagan says FREE, a national organi-
zation with a Southfield-based office,
"has been in the forefront of local activi-
ties, including educational programming
and synagogue services."
Rabbi Yosef Misholovin, the orga-
nization's Russian-born director, visits
families shortly after their arrival in
Detroit. "Armed with Jewish literature
in the Russian language, the rabbi
offers advice and hope of a better life
in the USA," Kagan says. FREE runs
two Hebrew schools, an adult educa-
tion program and regular Shabbat and
holiday services in the Jimmy Prentis
Morris Building of the Jewish
Community Center in Oak Park.
Kagan recalls the words of Nachum
Labidensky, a West Bloomfield resident
who was influenced by the young rab-
bis: "In Russia, we were never allowed
to forget who we are. However, in the
American melting pot it is easy to forget
one's roots. We are grateful to these
Jewish messengers for helping us reclaim
our beautiful heritage."
Watching one elderly man put on
tefillin, Rabbi Aisenbach reflects, "It
brought something back in him. I felt
he was thinking, 'You couldn't do some-
thing better for me than to bring me the
tefillin.'"

❑

Photos clockwise on previous page:

Riding horses at the Highland Recreation Area Riding Stable
in White Lake, Rabbi Mendel Aisenbach, alongside
Rabbi Mendel Gotlieb, describe their mission as
capturing the souls of Detroit Russian Jewry."

Bris Vaksler of Oak Park and
Rabbi Mendel Gotlieb say a blessing.

Rabbi Mendel Gotlieb watches Shimon Shirman
of West Bloomfield place a mezuza
on the doorpost of his home.

Michael Milshteyr of West Bloomfield says a blessing
after putting on tefillin, with the help of Rabbi Mendel Gotlieb.

Rabbi Mendel Gotlieb helps David Zabarovsky
of Oak Park put on tefillin.