Spotting Moshiach In Midtown

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What signs will tell us when the Moshiach (the Messiah) has finally arrived?

That question was far from my mind when, recently, I booked a short stay in New York City.  I made a reservation at a convenient hotel and received, along with a confirmation of my reservation, a letter from the manager.  He wrote that a “diplomat” would be staying at the hotel during the days I had booked, and, as a result, there would be heightened security in place.  None of that, he assured me, would detract from my stay.

I promptly forgot about the letter… until I arrived.  The hotel’s perimeter was ringed by massive concrete blocks, each about a meter apart from the next.  It looked like the builders of Stonehenge had been at work on Park Avenue.  61st Street, which bordered the hotel to the south, was closed to traffic.  Police were guarding the street, questioning would-be pedestrians before allowing them to pass.

There was more: besides the New York City police surrounding the hotel, there were teams of body-armored officers with guns strapped to their chests, tasked with searching everyone who went into the hotel.  “Secret Service”  was stenciled in bold yellow letters on their vests, making their identity less than a mystery.  Searches were conducted with an x-ray machine, wands, a bomb-sniffing dog, and plenty of pat-downs.

The mystery that had the guests guessing, of course, was the identity of this “diplomat.”  To my inexpert eye, the security looked heavy enough for the world’s most powerful leader, President Biden, or perhaps its most threatened one, Ukraine’s President Zelensky.  According to news accounts, neither was in town.  But, because the United Nations General Assembly was meeting then, there were many other leaders nearby.  Which one, we asked each other, were we sharing the hotel with?  Which of them had sufficient status to require locking down the block and deploying a small army around the building?

My first clue came when I went to the gym on the first morning of my stay.  Two young, super-fit men were pushing each other to the limit of their strength and endurance, urging each other on in rapid-fire Hebrew.

Confirming evidence came from a fellow guest, a balding man wearing green shorts and horn-rimmed glasses.  He and I rode the elevator to the lobby with six heavily armed not-so Secret Service members. 

“Well, at least we can feel safe,” I said.

“They’re here for Herzog… the president of Israel,” he said.

I asked him how he knew.  He wrinkled his nose and said, “Why do you think there are so many yarmulkes around?”

On the morning of my last day, all the security—the concrete blocks, steel gates, x-ray machine, small army and sniffing dog—vanished without a trace, as they had been part of a dream.  A hotel employee said, yes, President Herzog had indeed been staying there.  He had addressed the General Assembly, a reasonable walk from the hotel.

The president of Israel is a largely ceremonial role. The office has prestige but little power.  Sadly though, it is an office that requires heavy security.

I wondered if, on his way to his speech, Mr. Herzog had lingered at the monument outside the UN on which Isaiah’s prophecy of an age of eternal peace is carved: “Nation shall not lift sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”

In the same verse, Isaiah foresees that nations “will beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks.”

And, reflecting on what I had seen, I would add that when that golden age of peace arrives, the President of Israel shall walk alone from Park to First and will fear no evil.  For, in that time, Israel’s head of state will be protected not by concrete and steel but rather by “the law… from Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.”

May that time be at hand.

The writer welcomes comments from readers, and invites you to comment below or email him at alex.troy@honestscholar.com

Alex Troy worked at two Jewish schools, teaching history at one and serving as head of the other. He has written a novel inspired by his time as an educator, which will be published in 2023. Alex also worked as a lawyer and investor. He and his wife, Dale, have three grown daughters. They live in Florida and Connecticut.

Remembering the Rebbe’s Father

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The 20th of Av (corresponding this year to August 7) marks 79 years since the passing of Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson (1878-1944), father of the Lubavitcher Rebbe.

Rabbi Levi Yitzchak was a renowned scholar who served as the chief rabbi of Yekaterinoslav (now Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine) for thirty-two years, until he was arrested by Soviet authorities and interrogated for his activism on behalf of the Jewish community. He was sentenced to five years of exile and sent to Chi’ili, Kazakhstan, in the remote Aqtobe region in Central Asia. His wife, Rebbetzin Chana, followed him there soon after, and even here, the couple found ways to help, sustain and inspire Jews in distress and need.

The handwritten notes on this page were made with ink derived from berries.

After serving his term, now physically weakened by the hardship of his exile, the Rabbi Levi Yitzchak and his wife moved to Almaty, Kazakhstan, where his health continued to deteriorate. He passed away shortly thereafter.

While in exile, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak wrote voluminous notes of his own commentary on themes in Torah, most of them esoteric, Kabbalistic. With little provision of paper and no ink, he wrote most of his notes in the margins of books, using ink that his wife made from locally grown berries. His legacy lives on in his surviving works, which were eventually published into a five-volume set entitled Likkutei Levi Yitzchak.

To study Rabbi Levi Yitzchak’s works, now published in English, view this link. 

THE KEREN LEVI YITZCHAK FUND 

Established by the Rebbe in 1964 in honor of his father, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson, the fund provides short term loans to educational institutions and school teachers.

To donate: Kerenleviyitzchak.com

The Songs of the Soul on Shakedown Street

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In a unique cultural phenomenon, an outsize percentage of Deadheads — fans of the Grateful Dead band — are Jewish, and when Phish did a three-day run in Alpharetta, Georgia recently, those fans found a warm welcome and an opportunity to turn their experience into one that was spiritually uplifting.

Outside of Grateful Dead-adjacent concerts an impromptu vending area called Shakedown Street often springs up, and Rabbi Noah Pawliger realized that here was a unique opportunity to offer opportunities for mitzvahs. 

“The Rebbe spoke about the tremendous potential in hippies, as they don’t accept the status quo, and that they can be the agents for positive change,” Pawliger — who runs an organization aiding neurodiverse children in the Atlanta area — said. “My meeting with these unique fans has taught me that there’s potential for good everywhere you go — ‘you just gotta poke around.’”

Following the footsteps of legendary campus shliach Rabbi Nosson Gurary, Pawliger hand-wrote a few signs reading “Free P.O.T. and L.S.D.” with an asterisk explaining that this was an acronym for “Put On Tefillin and Let’s Start Davening (praying).” He began by simply walking up to Shakedown Street outside Phish or Dead and Co. concerts, toting his homemade signs, a pair of tefillin, and Shabbat candles. 

The overwhelmingly positive response inspired him to expand, and this year, Pawliger came prepared with a tent, a folding table, and more handwritten signs. In keeping with the spirit of giving and the impromptu vendors selling “hippie food,” as Pawliger put it, he also brought a griddle, loaves of bread, and Chalav Yisrael cheese, offering grilled cheese sandwiches for the price of a dollar or a mitzvah.

They brought — and distributed — 90 Shabbat Candle kits homemade by Pawliger’s daughter and festooned with lyrics to make a spiritual point. “The light is growing brighter now,” the Shabbat candle kits read. “One way or another, the darkness got to give.”

Pawliger also invited fellow lay people as well as local Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries to join in the mitzvah efforts, and a number of them did so, putting on tefillin and sharing the opportunity to do mitzvot with concertgoers.

“The fans have this wonderful spirit of connectivity; people sharing with each other and greeting each other as if they’re family,” Pawliger said. “And during the Year of Hakhel, how apropos to channel that spirit of connectivity to Jewish growth.”

Stranded in Portland, Jewish Merchant Marine Midshipman Finds Warm Home

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When a Jewish U.S. Merchant Marine midshipman found herself stranded in Portland, Oregon, thousands of miles from home, she knew where to find kosher food, Shabbat services, and a warm welcome.

Midshipman Abigail Edelman, who is in her third year at the United States Merchant Marine Academy, was assigned—as are all prospective Merchant Marine officers—to spend time on a U.S.-flagged vessel to “learn the ropes.” In Edelman’s case, her vessel was USAV Essayons, a hopper dredge belonging to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, whose primary mission is to maintain the channels and harbors at ports up and down the West Coast.  

Edelman, who grew up in Windham, Connecticut, connected with Chabad in high school. She was a regular at CTeen of Eastern Connecticut.

“Abigail was one of the first CTeen Leaders of our chapter,” recalls Rabbi Aizik Schwei . After participating at a Shabbat weekend in Crown Heights, she was taken by the sense of community and belonging. “I met so many people at the Shabbaton,” she told Lubavitch.com. “It made me realize that regardless of where you live in the world, the Jewish community is one big family.

Edelman leaned on that family throughout the grueling years of study and training at the USMMA on Long Island, New York, often visiting the nearby Chabad of Great Neck.

The required “Sea Year” posed a new set of challenges. “I try to keep Shabbat and kosher aboard ship as much as possible, but it can be very challenging,” she explained. She was determined to avoid eating non-kosher meat, but having kosher meat shipped to the Essayons while underway at sea was nearly impossible. So she sometimes went a month at a time without, while still maintaining grueling 10-hour shifts at the helm of the vessel.

While underway in the Pacific not far from Portland, the forty-year-old Essayons developed mechanical issues involving its propeller shaft that required repair, forcing it to dock at the Port of Portland.

Stranded thousands of miles from home and yearning for a hot kosher meal and Shabbat services, Edelman found Chabad in Southwest Portland where she joined Shabbat services and met Rabbi Chayim and Simi Mishulovin of Chabad of Portland and took their invitation to join them for Shabbat lunch at their home, following the kiddush. “It’s wonderful to see how important Judaism, keeping kosher, and attending shul is to her, regardless of where in the world she is,” said Rabbi Mishulovin.

Edelman has been back to visit the Mishulovin family several times since that first Shabbat. “It’s really nice knowing that there’s a community around the world,” Edelman told Lubavitch.com. “Wherever I go, I know there’s always a Chabad family where I feel welcome.”

While Essayons continues to languish at the Port of Portland under repair, Edelman will finally be moving on, as she was recently transferred to a roll-on, roll-off cargo ship carrying vehicles, where she will resume her routine as perhaps the only Shabbat- and kosher-observant Merchant Marine midshipman aboard an oceangoing ship. 

But for a few short days in Portland, Edelman was able to enjoy the warmth and light of Jewish family and communal life, thanks to Chabad. “I’m excited to get going again, but it was a nice break,” Edelman said. “It’s so nice to be able to get a taste of home.”

New Wave Of Ukrainian Jewish Refugees En Route To Poland In Wake Of Kakhovka Dam Collapse

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WARSAW – Following the breach of the Kakhovka dam in Southern Ukraine earlier this week, Ukrainian Jews are boarding buses and fleeing the country towards Poland. Chabad of Poland is preparing to receive and shelter the group in Warsaw. The buses are expected to arrive just hours before Shabbos begins.

While the flooding is damaging homes and wreaking havoc on critical infrastructure, it’s also creating an environmental crisis that the war-torn region is already struggling to manage. Late Wednesday the Ukrainian authorities urged locals to only drink bottled water and avoid eating fish from the river. Both sides of the conflict have warned that minefields were likely flooded and have cautioned that landmines may have moved due to the floods. Nuclear watchdogs are worried that Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, Zaporizhzhia, which relies on the dam, is at risk of possible meltdown, further imperiling those living and working in the area.

“Because of the war, our brothers and sisters in the Kherson Oblast area have already lost so much,” said Chabad of Poland Director Rabbi Sholom Ber Stambler. “We must do everything possible to help them during this difficult time and ensure that they don’t also lose their hope.”

Since the start of the Russian incursion into Ukraine, Chabad of Poland has been on the front lines, helping Jewish Ukrainian refugees resettle in Poland and serving as a spiritual waypoint for those resettling in Israel and other nations. Throughout their time in Poland, Chabad’s locally based emissaries have provided Ukrainian Jewish refugees with shelter, food, and religious services to those in need.

“Our team is already at work procuring the necessary food, accommodations, clothing and other staples to ensure the highest possible level of dignity and comfort for those en route from Ukraine,” said Chabad of Poland Co-Director Rabbi Mayer Stambler. “So many generous donors from across the Jewish world have already extended their offer of support for this group, and we’re working to ensure that the group is cared for upon their arrival.”

For more information or to contribute to relief efforts, please visit: www.saveajew.org.

Banking On A New Space, Chabad of Clearwater Expands

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As bank closures swept across the country in late March, a shuttered Bank of America building in Clearwater, Florida, found new life as a vibrant Chabad center.

Rabbi Levi & Miriam Hodakov, directors of Chabad of Clearwater, had been eyeing the property since June 2021. Situated in a prime location on a bustling street corner that attracts thousands of passing cars on a regular basis, it would be an ideal space to host Chabad’s expanding activities and community needs.

Chabad of Clearwater has been around the block before in its search for a suitable space.  In 2017, with the generous support of donors Moris & Lillian Tabacinic and Marvin & Linda Feldman, they purchased a neighboring lot, and broke ground on construction in October 2019. But with the onset of the pandemic, the project faced setbacks and plans came to a halt. “We were left spinning our wheels, trying to figure out what to do,” says Rabbi Hodakov.

The Hodakovs and their community members continued to look into other options, and from time to time, the rabbi inquired with Bank of America’s transaction manager for updates on the status of the building, but each time the answer was the same: The bank was not for sale.

Signs from Above

Until it was. In March 2022, the bank announced permanent closure. Sofie Menachem, a realtor and close friend of the family who had been an integral part of the property search, put the rabbi in touch with a commercial broker in her office.

When the building was finally listed and a public bidding process was initiated, members of the Clearwater community and beyond signed a petition to encourage the bank to sell to the Chabad center. Frank Hibbard, then-mayor of Clearwater, also wrote a letter on behalf of Chabad. 

During this time period, Rabbi Hodakov received a call from a chaplain at a local hospital requesting his presence. A deteriorating patient wanted a rabbi to come say prayers with her. To his surprise, the patient’s son turned out to be Louis Fanelli, whose wife, Susann, had served as the former manager of the bank. Rabbi Hodakov and the Fanellis made plans to stay in touch. A short while later, toward the end of January, Chabad of Clearwater received the good news: the bank was theirs. 

Closing and Opening

Chabad closed on the property on the first day of the Hebrew month of Nissan. An auspicious date, explains the rabbi, for on this day, the Jewish people inaugurated the establishment of the mishkan (Tabernacle, or the roving sanctuary) in the desert. “It was the perfect day to set up our mishkan here in Clearwater.” 

Rabbi Hodakov invited Susann and her husband to come tour the property with him after the closing. She showed him around the place she had known well for years. And then, inaugurating the new facility with a Jewish rite of passage, they celebrated an impromptu bar mitzvah. Louis stood inside the building and wrapped tefillin for the first time in his life. It was a special moment symbolic of the building’s transformation from a financial institution to a center of spiritual wealth.

A recent class in the new Chabad house

The wait for the building was long but worth it. “It was very exciting to spend our first Shabbat there,” Sofie says. “It was very emotional for me, since we had gone through such a long process to get there.” 

At the community’s first Seder in the bank-turned-Chabad House, the children searched for the afikoman hidden in the vault that held over 800 safe deposit boxes. The boxes have since been removed and the vault will be repurposed for the Chabad center’s storage needs.

Some features of the bank will be reimagined. Hodakov hopes to convert the bank’s drive-through into an attraction unique to the Southern United States: a kosher drive-through selling everything from food to Judaica items.

Most of the space will be remodeled.  “It is a shul, after all, and not a bank lobby,” Rabbi Hodakov laughs. “We are making plans for repainting, taking down the glass teller walls, and buying furnishings in anticipation of the grand opening at the end of the summer.”

The Hodakovs are also exploring the possibility of opening a full-service sit-down deli. They already run a grocery store, Clearwater Kosher, featuring imported kosher staples such as meat products, dairy items, and favorite Israeli snacks from bamba to bourekas.

Lead donors Marvin Feldman and his wife Linda, are thrilled with the outcome of their involvement. “The fact that one can be proud to walk around with a yarmulke on or to go out on the beach and light a public menorah is truly phenomenal,” Marvin says.