Founder of Tzivos Hashem

Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, was sought after by top political figures, successful business people and the finest professionals for his sage advice on matters of grave importance. He was mentor and spiritual leader to hundreds of thousands of everyday people in all corners of the globe, no one was turned away. Yet, amidst his awesome schedule, the Rebbe busied himself with the lives of children, and set out to harness their great potential.

With a vision that has been unfolding and mushrooming for twenty years, the Rebbe called for the establishment of Tzivos Hashem in the fall of 1980. Children were a top priority for the Rebbe. Rather, each Jewish child was a top priority for the Rebbe. From his vantage point as world leader and spiritual giant, he understood the intrinsic promise held by children, and he founded Tzivos Hashem to cultivate and nurture them so that they could grow to be strong and healthy in body, mind and soul.

The Rebbe himself would hold communal meetings, which he called rallies, with thousands of children at a time. And it was the Rebbe himself who spoke to the children directly and put great responsibilities on their shoulders. Not only did the Rebbe see children as the promise of a better tomorrow, the Rebbe saw children as the promise for a better today.

Judaism stresses that chinuch, Jewish education, should begin at an early age to prepare for adulthood. The Rebbe emphasized that not only are children’s mitzvos for the sake of practicing for the future, but that their mitzvos, now, while they are young, have significance in and of themselves. Through his confidence in them and his expectations, the Rebbe actually confirmed a child’s self esteem and challenged children to use their inborn strengths and talents for good.

The Tzivos Hashem relationship did not flow in just one direction, of commander to commandee. The soldiers of Tzivos Hashem gave nachas to the Rebbe as he watched them increase their mitzvos and perform them with greater care. And it was the children who were able to identify with and express the Rebbe’s passion to bring the world to peace and goodness, as they would sing for him their theme song: We want Moshiach Now!

Tzivos hashem chanuka play

Rav Shimon Nosson Nota Biederman. Born in Tiveria to Rav Yaakov Yitzchak, the Admor of Lelov, a descendent of the first Lelover Rebbe, Rav Dovid, who himself was a talmid of the Chozeh of Lublin. When his father was niftar in 1981, Rav Shimon Nasan Nota became Admor and opened Mosdos Ohr Yaakov in his father’s memory; these included kollelim and chessed organizations. (1930-2004)

YBA Netivot Chaim aims to provide a Torani educational option for boys from northern Jerusalem and nearby settlements. Pisgat Zev is the largest neighborhood in Jerusalem with a working class population that resembles the socioeconomic level of a development town. The school places an >emphasis on sports, in which the boys excel, together with a strong Jewish education. The students have earned numerous trophies in a variety of sport competitions.

YBA Netivot Chaim maintains an open registration policy, which means that many students come from traditional, rather than religious families, and that a high proportion cannot afford to pay tuition and fees. As a result, the yeshiva has a greater need for scholarship funding than other YBA schools to maintain YBA’s high educational standards. Matriculation tracks include biology, computers, art, geography and Land of Israel studies.

Due to budgetary constraints, the yeshiva reduced the number of teaching hours this year to just six hours per day, and opened an afternoon Beit Midrash program staffed, in part, by rabbinical students studying in a Kollel Yeshiva located within the yeshiva’s building. Students volunteer every week by delivering food to the needy, working with the Citizen’s Alert Patrols, and visiting the sick and elderly in the community, as well as engaging in outreach work to help bridge the gap between observant and non-observant neighborhood residents.

Some of the Yeshiva’s most urgent needs:

1. Scholarship Fund (for increase of 2 hours per day) – $125,000
2. Beit Midrash furniture and Torah library – $50,000
3. Upgrading of Educational Environment and Landscaping – $50,000
4. Upgraded of Computer Laboratory – $20,000

Located 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) south of Jerusalem, Beitar Illit was established in 1985 and initially settled by a small group of young families from the religious zionist yeshiva of Machon Meir, including that of Rabbi Reuven Hass (now of Beit El). As Beitar Illit began to grow, an influx of Haredi Jewish families came to predominate while the original group moved on. The city has since expanded to three adjacent hills.

Beitar Illit is a fast-growing settlement, with a higher birthrate than any other habitation in the West Bank or Israel. At the end of 2007, it had a total population of 32,200. According to former mayor Yitzchak Pindrus, the population is expected to reach 100,000 by 2020, based on population growth and the building of new apartments to attract more Haredim from older Haredi cities such as Bnei Brak and parts of Jerusalem. Like other settlements within the Israeli-occupied territories Beitar Illit is widely considered as illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.

Beitar Illit was the first Haredi town to be established as such. The city’s ideology is based on the desire to have an exclusively Haredi environment. It is named after the ancient Jewish city of Betar, whose ruins lie 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) away.

On the road to Bnei Brak

Jerusalem, Israel

The name “Jerusalem” is a compound of two Semitic roots, “s-l-m” meaning wholeness, peace, harmony or completeness, and “y-r-h” meaning to show, direct, instruct, or teach. Jerusalem means “Teaching of Peace“, or “Whole or Complete Instruction“. A city called Rušalimum or Urušalimum appears in ancient Egyptian records as one of the first references to Jerusalem. These Egyptian forms are thought to derive from the local name attested in the Amarna letters, e.g: in EA 287 (where it takes several forms) Urusalim. The form Yerushalayim (Jerusalem) first appears in the book of Joshua. This form has the appearance of a portmanteau (blend) of yerusha (heritage) and the original name Shalem and is not a simple phonetic evolution of the form in the Amarna letters. Some believe there is a connection to Shalim, the beneficent deity known from Ugaritic myths as the personification of dusk. Another suggested etymology is Jerū-šālēm, the first part of which possibly means “settlement” or “fortress” (thence “The Abode of Shalim”).

Bnei Brak Mayor Interview

Bnei Brak takes its name from the ancient Beneberak, which was not in the same location.

Bnei Brak was founded as an agricultural settlement in 1924 by Rabbi Yitzchok Gerstenkorn and a group of Polish chasidim. Due to a lack of land many of its founders turned to other occupations, and the village began to develop an urban character. Its first rabbi was Rabbi Arye Mordechai Rabinowicz, a descendant of the Yaakov Yitzchok Rabinowicz, known as Yid HaKodosh, and formerly the rabbi of Kurów in Poland. He was succeeded as rabbi of Bnei Brak by Rabbi Yosef Kalisz, a scion of the Vurker dynasty.

The town was set up as a religious settlement from the outset, as is evident from this description of the pioneers:
Their souls were revived by the fact that they merited what their predecessors had not. What particularly revived their weary souls in the mornings and toward evening, when they would gather in the beis medrash situated in a special shack which was built immediately upon the arrival of the very first settlers, for tefilla betzibbur (communal prayer) three times a day, for the Daf Yomi shiur, and a Gemara shiur and an additional one in Mishnayos and the Shulchan Oruch.

The first Jewish high school of its kind in the world, Yeshivas Nefesh Dovid (YND), founded in 2001, channels the knowledge of Torah into the hearts, minds and lives of deaf and hard-of-hearing young men. YND, with its sterling secular educational program, is a valuable support system for this population throughout the global Jewish community. YND accepts young men in their teens from yeshivos, Jewish Day Schools, and public schools and addresses all the emotional and academic challenges that those with hearing loss typically deal with on a daily basis regardless of mode of communication.

A unique aspect of the program is the presence of role models who are deaf or hard-of-hearing themselves, including Rabbi Chaim Tzvi Kakon, the Dean and Rosh Yeshiva, and co-founder Dr. Hart Bressler, MD. In addition to trained and qualified rebbeim and teachers, sign language interpreting services, speech pathology, audiology services and an array of recreational activities all complement the program. Upon graduation, the students receive an internationally recognized Ontario Secondary Diploma. Since its inception, YND’s current home base at the Yeshiva Gedolah of Toronto only serves to further integrate the students with hearing peers and the community at large.

Rabbi Kakon earned his Master’s Degree in Talmudical Law and s’micha (rabbinical ordination) from Ner Israel Rabbinical College of Baltimore, Maryland. He also holds a Master’s degree in Social Work from the University of Maryland. As a licensed therapist, Rabbi Kakon provided clinical therapy services for several years.

While in Baltimore, he also founded and directed the only overnight camp for deaf and hard-of-hearing Jewish adolescent boys at Ner Israel Campus for seven summers. The success of the program and the necessity for a year-around education for this population resulted in Rabbi Kakon and his family’s relocation to Toronto to co-found YND.

Rabbi Kakon, a descendant of the Ropshitzer Rebbe and a ninth generation descendant of the Baal Shem Tov, is a charismatic teacher whose unique experiences and achievements inspire people from all backgrounds and walks of life.