jews d

in
the

A day in the life of a pair
of Friday Boys as they make
their pre-Shabbat rounds of
teaching, learning, sharing
Yiddishkeit — and teen-age
fun.

continued from page 13

There, they meet with a series of regulars.
“Every Friday, I look forward to them coming,”
says Murray Goldenberg, a Southfield-based
photographer. “I find it fascinating how much
they really know about Judaism; they are so far
educated beyond their age.”
The boys are willing to endure all types of
weather to complete their weekly rounds.
“It gets pretty tough going out in the winter
when there is snow and sleet and our hats go
flying into Northwestern,” Levi says. He prefers
the warmer weather of his hometown, Chestnut
Hill, Mass.
Moshe, a native of Charlotte, N.C., views
trudging through Michigan winters as a per-
sonal responsibility. “If you had a family mem-
ber that lives right near you, would you not go
through the snow —go through anything to
meet them? We’re all children of God.”
The late Lubavitcher Rebbe Rabbi Menachem
Mendel Schneerson had a number of “revolu-
tionary ideas,” says Rabbi Mendel Shemtov,
director of the International School for Chabad
Leadership. “One was to send out these emis-
saries.” But, in 1994, the idea that yeshivah stu-
dents as young as 13 could fulfill this role was
far from certain. That first week, Shemtov rent-
ed a small school bus and dropped his students
off on Civic Center Drive in Southfield.
“I was excited, but within two and a half min-
utes, they all came piling out of the building —
security got a hold of them,” he says. Seven years
later, the program had barely started to take
hold. “But we waited it out another three or four
years, and it really took off.”
The program will only be complete, Shemtov
says, “when every Jew is met. Every Jew, and by
way of them, every person should be touched.
The soul should be touched and [the Friday
Boys] are the lamp lighters.” •

14

August 30 • 2018

jn

TOP: Levi Uminer, 16, a student at the International School for Chabad Leadership in
Oak Park, puts on tefillin as part of his morning routine. BOTTOM: Levi and Moshe
Weiss, 14, engage in chevruta-style study before going out with other pairs of Friday
Boys to bring Yiddishkeit to Jews on their route along Northwestern Highway.