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Orthodox Judaism outreach

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Orthodox Jewish outreach commonly referred to as Kiruv or Keruv (קירוב - [bring/ing] close in Hebrew), is the collective work or movement of Orthodox Judaism that reaches out to non-Orthodox Jews to believe in God, Torah study, practice the Mitzvot in the hope that they will live according to normative Jewish law. The process and act/s of any Jew becoming more observant of Judaism is called teshuva ("return" in Hebrew) making the "returnee" a baal teshuva, see repentance in Judaism. Orthodox Jewish outreach has always reacted to and worked to foster and enhance the rise of a modern-day Baal teshuva movement.

History

Orthodox Jewish outreach in the modern world is often directly associated with, and may function as a trigger, partner and response to, the modern Baal teshuva movement.

Orthodox outreach workers and professionals include activists, rabbis, lay leaders and all kinds of organizations advancing this initiative of "Jewish outreach" mainly based on Orthodox Jewish education some call them "kiruv professionals" or "kiruv workers" as well as "kiruv volunteers."

Varieties of Orthodox outreach

Chabad Outreach

Main article: Chabad outreach

Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn, 6th leader of the Chabad-Lubavitch branch of Hasidic Judaism, and then his successor, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson were responsible for turning Chabad's strength and activities toward outreach. Each in turn sent out large numbers of rabbinic emissaries, known as "Shluchim", and their wives to settle in places across the world solely for the purpose of teaching those who did not receive a Jewish education or to inspire those who did. The vehicle chosen for this was termed a "Chabad house."

Chabad has been active in reaching out to Jews through its synagogues, and more direct outreach efforts, such as its Mitzvah tanks. The organization has been recognized as one of the leaders in using free holiday services to reach out across demoninations.[1]

Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn, the 6th Lubavitcher Rebbe, had a core of dedicated Hasidim who maintained underground yeshivos and mikvaos, and provided shechitah and circumcision services. They served as the rabbis who jump-started the teshuvah movement and had these services in place so that the new baalei teshuva had whom to turn to for their religious questions and needs.

Chabad, with its dozens of Chabad houses throughout Israel, and yeshiva programs for Israelis, Russians, French, and Americans, reach out to thousands. Followers of Chabad can be seen attending to tefillin booths at the Western Wall and Ben Gurion International Airport as well as other public places, and distribute shabbat candles on Fridays. There are also Chabad houses in almost every location that Jews might be located, whether as permanent residents, on business, or tourists.

Chabad rabbis and their families were sent to teach college students, to build day schools, and to create youth camps. Most of these were geared towards their secular or less religious brethren. Additionally, unmarried rabbinical students spend weeks during the summer in locations that do not yet have a permanent Chabad presence, making housecalls, putting up mezuzot, teaching Judaism, and simply reminding people that they are Jewish.

rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson also initiated a Jewish children's movement, called Tzivos Hashem (lit. "Army [of] God"), for under bar/bat mitzvah-age children, to inspire them to increase in study of Torah and observance of mitzvot. Rabbi Schneerson also encouraged the use of modern technology in outreach efforts such as Mitzva tanks, which are mobile homes that travel a city or country. The Chabad website, chabad.org, a pioneer of Torah, Judaism outreach on the Internet, was started by Rabbi Yosef Y. Kazen and developed by Rabbi D. Zirkind.

In addition, nearly 7000 people a year visit Chabad's Ascent of Safed, which is a combination recreation center, Jewish youth hostel, and religious retreat that exposes Jews to Judaism, particularly the mystical aspect of it.

In June of 1994 Rabbi Schneerson passed away leaving no succesor. Since than more than a thousand couples have gone out to do outreach work, bringing the total of "shluchim" to three thousand worldwide.

Non-Hasidic Haredi yeshivos

Main articles: Aish HaTorah and Ohr Somayach

The late 1960s saw the founding of the non-hasidic, Haredi institutions that eventually became the Aish HaTorah and Ohr Somayach outreach yeshivas.

Aish HaTorah has had notable success. The Aish.com website attracts over two million visits each month, and 160,000 unique email subscribers. The site features articles, movies and audio segments on spirituality, parenting, dating, weekly Torah portion, Holocaust studies, and an "Ask the Rabbi" service. Spin-off sites in Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, French and Russian are all leading websites in their respective languages. At their Discovery Seminar (in different languages) they teach material by Orthodox scientists specifically prepared in accordance with Aish's educational aims to support the authenticity of Orthodox Judaism and its relevance. More than 100,000 people have attended Discovery, at university campuses, Jewish Community Centers, and Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox synagogues.

Modern Orthodox outreach

Main article: Modern Orthodox Judaism outreach

Within Modern Orthodox Judaism, the Union of Orthodox Congregations created the National Conference of Synagogue Youth (NCSY) to reach Jewish teenagers in public schools. Founded by Rabbi Pinchas Stolper, himself a noted charismatic speaker and writer, the movement also developed its in-house literature geared to the newly observant mainly written by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan. In addition, many Modern Orthodox professors have developed and used a sophisticated modern terminology to present Judaism in a scientific manner. Their books on Jewish sciences are the most readily accessible.

Main article: NJOP

In 1987, an organization called National Jewish Outreach Program (NJOP) was founded. Headed by a leading outreach rabbi, Ephraim Buchwald, in the first fifteen years of its existence it had managed to create, co-ordinate and guide thousands of volunteer teachers and tens of thousands of Jewish adults. They participated in programs advertised via the mass media and taught at Reform, Conservative and Orthodox synagogues, as well as Jewish non-religious organizations, such as Jewish Community Centers.

Using mass marketing techniques, NJOP have won the support of major Jewish philanthropists, and an ever widening audience by advertising via the media for the Crash Course in Hebrew Reading, Crash Course in Judaism and other programs.

Finally, outreach professional have been convening national conventions to bring together the professional outreach workers with leading Orthodox rabbis. The Association for Jewish Outreach Professionals (later renamed The Association for Jewish Outreach Programs) (AJOP) was founded in 1988 and is based in Baltimore, Maryland.

Outreach organizations

AJOP

Main article: Association for Jewish Outreach Professionals

The Association for Jewish Outreach Professionals (AJOP) was established in 1987 to unite and enhance the work of outreach rabbis and their wives. AJOP is lead by prominent rosh yeshivas ("yeshiva deans") and is not affiliated with Chabad.

Project Genesis

Main article: Project Genesis, Inc.

Project Genesis was founded in 1993 by Rabbi Yaakov Menken to reach college students and others via the Internet. Billed as "the IT department of Jewish outreach," Project Genesis facilitates the efforts of less technologically-savvy Rabbis and educators to reach a global audience. Project Genesis sponsors text-based classes, an "Ask the Rabbi" resource, a large and growing MP3 library, and even a popular Rabbinic group blog to present the positions of Orthodox Judaism in a different light.

Orthodox outreach by and to Jewish women

United States

One of the earliest pioneers of outreach to men and women is Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis, the founder of the international Hineni movement in America. A Holocaust survivor, she has made it her life's mission to bring back Jews to Orthodox Judaism. She has written popular books and made tapes. Another notable pioneer of women's Orthodox outreach education is Rebbetzin Leah Kohn founder of the Jewish Renaissance Center (JRC) in New York.

Israel

Neve Yerushalayim, founded in 1970, is an Orthodox school for secular Jewish women seeking a college level introductory program. Neve Yerushalayim College has a campus in Jerusalem. Its founder and guiding Dean is Rabbi Dr. Dovid Refson and Mrs. Tzipporah Heller is an extremely popular teacher who has inspired thousands of women.

Machon Chana of Crown Heights (founded 1972), Bais Chana (formerly of Minnesota) and Machon Alte of Tzfas, are Lubavitch women's yeshivos that have taught thousands of Jewish women who are beginners in their knowledge of Judaism.

Orthodox Jewish day schools

Main articles: Jewish day school and Torah Umesorah - National Society for Hebrew Day Schools

Torah Umesorah: The National Society for Hebrew Day Schools was founded by Rabbi Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz. It is an American Orthodox organization which has opened hundreds of day schools and provides resources to many different Orthodox Jewish day schools. It has an outreach effort called Partners In Torah whereby volunteer Orthodox men and women learn on the phone for an hour a week with a non-Orthodox study-partner. A similar program is called Jnet. Torah Umesorah also sponsors the SEED Program whereby young Yeshiva students spend a few weeks during their summers teaching, this is similar to the Chabad Lubavitch "peace corps" which are Yeshiva-student pairs that visit remote Jewish communities over the summers to help develop Jewish communities by teaching.

Publishers of English outreach literature

English, Russian, French and other translations of classical rabbinic literature and modern Jewish works are crucial to the growth and popularity of the Ba'al teshuva Movement. Some of the most important publishers include:

  • Kehot Publications, which is the publishing wing of the Chabad Lubavitch movement, has been publishing basic Jewish texts, and Chasidic works since 1941.
  • Mesorah Publications, publishers of the ArtScroll series [1], including the Shottenstein English translation of the Talmud.
  • Feldheim, which offers a mixture of classical texts and lighter literature. [2]
  • Merkos Publications, books on every subject [3]
  • Herman Branover's SHAMIR publishes all kinds of Jewish books in Russian. A team of translators and editors have produced the Pentateuch with commentaries, the Code of Jewish Law, and writings of Maimonides and Yehuda Halevy, Machzorim etc. [4]
  • Jason Aronson (sold to Rowman & Littlefield), which publishes texts from rabbis of all Jewish denominations.
  • Verdier in France published classical Jewish texts.
  • Targum Press (targum.com)
  • Ktav http://www.ktav.com/

Orthodox rabbis in outreach

The following lists are not meant to be definitive, they are just a sampling of prominent personalities mainly in Israel and America.

First generation

  • Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook (1864 – 1935). Chief rabbi of the British Mandate of Palestine and also regarded symbolically by the latter State of Israel as its first chief rabbi as well. He was steeped in Kabbalah, Talmud, and philosophy. He was regarded as a guide to the Mizrachi Religious Zionist movement, and an advocate of urgent Jewish emigration (aliyah), to then Palestine before the Holocaust. He won much trust of the secular Jewish leadership in London, Europe, and Palestine, and argued that a warm and positive outlook to the secular pioneers (halutzim) would win loyalty and greater respect for Orthodox Judaism.
  • Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson (1902 – 1994). The seventh Rebbe of Chabad Lubavitch hasidism. He established a vast international educational, outreach, and community-building movement. In over 40 years, he inspired about 5,000 young men and women to become rabbis and rebbitzins (a name for a rabbi's wife) as his personal emissaries all over the world, with the goal of exposing and attracting non-religious Jews towards Judaism, as well as opening schools, mikvehs, synagogues, yeshivahs, etc. This campaign has had notable success, as a large portion of Lubavitch hasidim today are baalei teshuvah or children of baal teshuva parents. After Schneerson's death in 1994 his hassidim continue his work and hundreds of new emissaries continue to leave for even the remotest places.
  • Rabbi Yitzchok Hutner (1906 – 1980). The late Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin in Brooklyn. Moulder of many Orthodox rabbis in America. Author of Pachad Yitzchok ("Fear [of] Isaac"). Arriving in New York in the 1930s, he attracted many young men and influenced them to study Talmud intensively in his "Chaim Berlin yeshiva". Many of them eventually became scholars and leaders of Orthodoxy active in education (chinuch) and outreach (kiruv). He developed a unique Jewish philosophy combining mysticism, ethics, Talmud, hasidic thought, and Jewish law. His daughter, Bruria Hutner David (b.1936-), obtained a Ph.D. from Columbia University and became the dean of Bais Yakov of Jerusalem ("BJJ"), an influential seminary for Orthodox women. In the 1970s he moved to Jerusalem and established a new yeshiva called Pachad Yitzchok.
  • Rabbi Avigdor Miller. Congregational rabbi, one of the first writers of books on Jewish philosophy for today's seeker, and former mashgiach ruchani ("spiritual supervisor") in Rabbi Hutner's Chaim Berlin yeshiva in Brooklyn. Renowned for his over 2,500 taped lectures disseminated amongst, and influencing, many Jews; religious and non-religious alike.
  • Rabbi Henoch Lebowitz. Head of the Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim: Rabbinical Seminary of America with its graduates, branches and schools all over the United States. Unique in that his yeshiva combines a maximal focus on becoming a deep scholar, together with a strong focus on outreach and reaching non-observant Jews. There are currently fifteen affiliates, including outreach centers and yeshivos, across the US and Canada with two more in Israel.

Second generation

See also

Full-time baal teshuva yeshivas
Part-time yeshivas
Organizations
Online resources

References

  1. ^ Fishkoff, Sue. "‘Praying without paying’ becoming a more popular option among shuls", Texas Jewish Post. Accessed September 22, 2007. "Many people credit Chabad-Lubavitch with spearheading the movement for free holiday services across the denominational spectrum."
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