EVERY JEWISH CHILD COUNTS

PART I

The “Vaada LeDovrei Ivrit” is an organization that has been spreading the wellsprings for nearly fifty years among thousands of Israelis who live in Metropolitan New York. R’ Shraga Zalmanov started the organization and runs it till today. He became aware of the fact that hundreds and even thousands of Israelis who live in New York feel the strain of leaving Eretz Yisroel or have problems acclimating in America. Many of them were used to living religious or traditional lives back home and find it hard to integrate into Jewish institutions in the US, whether because of the language barrier or differences in mentality and culture. R’ Zalmanov decided to fill the need and reach out to these people and has done so successfully.

R’ Zalmanov has numerous stories about people who became involved in Judaism and Chassidus thanks to the Vaada LeDovrei Ivrit. Here is one of his stories:

Right after the Rebbe announced Mivtza Chinuch, those who worked for the Vaada LeDovrei Ivrit worked hard to get as many Jewish children as possible to switch from public schools to Jewish schools. It wasn’t easy, especially because Jewish schools cost a lot of money and public schools are free. Families that did not understand the importance of providing a Jewish education to the next generation, were not willing to spend money on it.

Nevertheless, the Rebbe often encouraged the heads of the Vaad, led by R’ Zalmanov, to continue trying.

One day, the phone rang in R’ Zalmanov’s office. It was a woman who introduced herself by saying she’s a Jewish lady. He could hear her crying. After she calmed down a bit, she was able to tell him that her daughter had a black, gentile boyfriend and they were planning on getting married. The mother pleaded with him to speak to her daughter and explain to her how terrible intermarriage is and try to convince her to leave her fiancé.

“Do you think she will be willing to meet with a rabbi?” asked R’ Zalmanov.

“I asked her,” said the mother. “She said she was open to listening on one condition, that the rabbi come to her house where she lived with her boyfriend. She wants the conversation to take place in his presence.”

“Where do they live?” asked R’ Zalmanov.

When he heard the name of the neighborhood, he was taken aback because in those days, merely the name of it was enough to make people nervous. It was a crime ridden place where even the police were afraid to enter. They did so only when they had no choice and under heavy protection.

R’ Zalmanov is a faithful general in the Rebbe’s army and he arranged a time to meet. On the appointed day, he went to the dangerous neighborhood. He was concerned about his safety but was even more concerned about having to speak to the girl in front of her gentile boyfriend and having to convince her to leave him.

He didn’t have much choice and he tried to the best of his abilities. He brought logical reasons, emotional explanations, insights about success in life, but it seemed it was all for nothing. The girl wasn’t moved and wasn’t ready to leave her boyfriend.

At a certain point he said to her, “Think about your future children. According to Jewish law, they will be Jews. But in your situation, they will grow up as gentiles. When they get even older and will discover that they are members of the Jewish people, they will be torn. They will come to you complaining, justifiably so, and you? How will you be able to look them in the eyes?”

For a moment it seemed that he had reached her. She was quiet for a long time and then she turned to her boyfriend who was sitting on the side and listening.

“Will you agree that our children should get a Jewish education?”

He shrugged indifferently and said he had no problem with that.

The girl was satisfied with his answer and turned triumphantly to R’ Zalmanov. “That’s what I will do. When we have kids, I will make sure to provide them with a Jewish education and send them to Jewish schools.”

PART II

Years went by and the phone rang in R’ Zalmanov’s office. The lady on the line did not have to work hard to remind him of the unfortunate story of her daughter. R’ Zalmanov remembered immediately.

“My daughter gave birth to a girl a few years ago,” said the mother-grandmother. “She will be starting school soon. I reminded my daughter about her promise to send her children to Jewish schools and she agreed to it. Her gentile husband went to the nearest school in their area to register their daughter, but when he heard how much it would cost he went back to my daughter and said, ‘I have no objections to your daughter attending a Jewish school but I am not willing to pay for it.’

“Please help them get my granddaughter into a Jewish school. This is the only way my family will have Jewish continuity,” she said, crying once again.

R’ Zalmanov quickly assessed the situation and knew he was in a bind. On the one hand, this was a Jewish girl and he had to help her get into a Jewish school, especially when this was the only chance she had of maintaining the family’s Jewish heritage. On the other hand, the money he raised for this purpose was very limited and if he paid this girl’s tuition, it would be at someone else’s expense, that of one of the mekuravim in his community who would not get the needed help.

“I thought about what the Rebbe said to us about this, that when the budget is limited and the expenses are great, you need to weigh what is more important. This girl, even if she were to attend a Jewish school, would be going home every day to a family where her father is a goy and her mother has no interest in Judaism. So what would become of her Jewish learning? There are traditional families that raise their children in the spirit of the Torah but because they can’t financially manage tuition, they can only send their children to Jewish schools with our help. Who takes precedence?”

This question is one of dinei nefashos (a life and death legal issue) and one that only a Rebbe can answer. R’ Zalmanov quickly wrote to the Rebbe and laid out the considerations. Not long afterward, the secretary called him with the Rebbe’s answer: Pay for the girl’s Jewish education.

Of course, after this answer from the Rebbe, not only did R’ Zalmanov pay the girl’s tuition, but in the years to come, when the grandmother reported to him about the births of another daughter and a son, he got them into Jewish schools and paid their tuition, which cost quite a lot of money.

PART III

Some more years passed and the mother of the children became sick and suddenly died. A few months after her passing, the gentile father decided to move to a small town in upstate New York. Within a short time, R’ Zalmanov’s connection with the three Jewish children ended. Nobody from the Vaada LeDovrei Ivrit had any idea where the children were and what happened to them.

Years passed and one day R’ Zalmanov got a phone call. On the line was a young girl who introduced herself as a college student who took part in Chabad’s activities on campus. She told him that she was born to a family where her mother was Jewish and her father was not. Unfortunately, her mother died and her father wasn’t interested in helping them at all with anything Jewish. Her brother would be bar mitzva soon and she wanted to do something to mark the occasion. She asked for his help in buying t’fillin.

R’ Zalmanov’s ears perked up. From the few details she offered he thought she might be the daughter of that family whose tuition he had paid for.

“Did you live in Brooklyn at some point?” he asked out of the blue with no connection to what they had been talking about.

“Yes,” she said.

“Is your name …?”

There was a pause and then she said yes.

“Are your sister and brother … and …?”

She was astonished. How did the rabbi know their names?

R’ Zalmanov then explained his part in her Jewish education and about all the conversations he had with her grandmother and her mother over the years. He was so happy to hear that the three children tried hard to preserve the Jewish education they had received in Jewish schools and to keep mitzvos to the best of their ability.

Of course, the Vaada LeDovrei Ivrit celebrated the bar mitzva of her brother and bought him a pair of t’fillin. Since then, R’ Zalmanov has been in touch with the three children. The three of them became very Jewishly involved and at some point they left their gentile father and moved to a religious community. They eventually established religious families of their own.