14 | JANUARY 9 • 2020
continued from page 12
GETTY IMAGE
say something like, ‘
He Jewed
me,
’
I stop them and explain
in a kind manner why that
comment is anti-Semitic.
“Often in my experience
people haven’
t been called out
or educated on anti-Semi-
tism and my hope is that by
having a discussion in a calm
manner it opens people’
s
eyes and changes some of
their stereotypes.”
RABBI MENDEL
STEIN
“In recent years,
we have increased
our training of
staff and stu-
dents, and taken advantage
of Federation security assis-
tance, including visits by
Gary Sikorski (Federation’
s
community security direc-
tor),” said Rabbi Mendel
Stein, development director
of the Lubavitch Cheder &
Yeshiva-International School
for Chabad Leadership in Oak
Park.
In the wake of the Monsey
attack, Stein sent an email let-
ter last week from the yeshivah
seeking donations to upgrade
security at the school, includ-
ing hiring a security guard.
Close to 90 teens attend-
ing the school are “Friday
Boys,” taking to suburban
streets each week to bring the
Shabbat Torah portion and
“Yiddishkeit” to Jewish work-
ers in businesses along their
routes. They dress in black
suits, tzitzit (a fringed under-
garment) and wear black hats;
some are even old enough to
have beards. They are easily
identifiable as observant Jews.
“We are not fearful on a
practical level — thank God,
ours is a safe community,” Stein
said. “We upped our training to
be better and smarter, but this
makes us stronger, too. It is not
at all about hiding our identi-
ties. The idea of anti-Semitism
is to instill fear, but we respond
with more Jewish pride and
wanting to increase our Jewish
identity even more.”
LOUIS FINKELMAN
Louis “Eli”
Finkelman, a pro-
fessor at Lawrence
Tech University
and a rabbi at
Congregation Or Chadash
in Oak Park, looks visibly
Jewish, but says he has a
fatalist approach to the recent
spate of violent anti-Semitic
attacks in New York and New
Jersey. “I think the chance
of being injured in a terror-
ist attack is small compared
to slipping on the ice and
getting hurt, so I’
m not wor-
ried about it.”
Finkelman said he general-
“I think the chance
of being injured in
a terrorist attack
is small compared
to slipping on the
ice and getting
hurt, so I’m not
worried about it.”
— RABBI ELI FINKELMAN
Jews in the D