The National Jewish Retreat that we attended last Shabbos touched people’s lives and souls in subtle, yet profound and overt ways.
Esta and I were there over the weekend along with some extraordinary personalities and talents, and as I sit here attempting to describe the experience, I believe we may have changed somewhat also.
The retreat, now in its 18th year, is an outgrowth of the extraordinary impact Chabad shluchim have had on Jewish communities around the world. On a personal note, many of the Chabad emissaries are the children of people I grew up with in Crown Heights a half century ago (okay, maybe a little more).
For me, there were many highlights of the experience. One of them was a session with the curious headline: “The Journalist and The Mystic.” There were just two people on the program: me and Rabbi Manis Friedman (our first cousin), known in cybersphere as “YouTube’s most popular rabbi.” Indeed, the lectures Rabbi Friedman has posted on YouTube and other platforms have garnered tens of millions of views around the world.
I’m not going to go through the subject matter of what we talked about because that would take up too much space. The session took place on Friday morning and we saw each other and chitchatted a few times between Wednesday evening and the start of the session, which was Friday at 11 a.m.
Manis has done this thousands of times, but I haven’t. While I have spoken to audiences on occasion, for the most part, it’s rare. Actually, I am most comfortable sitting at my keyboard and staring at my computer screen, formulating ideas and tapping them into my computer.
So, this was going to be a different experience for me. And it was. It was just a few minutes before we took our seats on the stage and were handed our microphones that Manis finally asked: “So, what do you really want to talk about?” It wasn’t my intent to be cagey or difficult in any way. I just thought that considering our experiences in our different fields of endeavor, it would be okay to just let the conversation evolve naturally. And that’s how it went and it was very well received, baruch Hashem.
We talked about mysticism and journalism for almost an hour and then entertained some questions. I had a good time doing it and later when I saw Manis, he said to me that he thought it went well too.
A young lady who attended the session with Rabbi Friedman approached the ballroom on Friday night to ask about something I had said earlier that day. She rose up from a table of about eight people and said her table was a delegation from the Cayman Islands.
What? A Jewish community in the Cayman Islands?
So, I listened to the young lady’s concerns and then I asked her what Jewish life was like in the Caymans. She pointed to her rabbi and mentioned to me his name was Rabbi Berel Pewzner (pronounced Pevzner).
As it turns out, as a young man in Crown Heights, I grew up with a couple of brothers named Pewzner who eventually grew up and developed thick long red beards. I mentioned to Rabbi Pewzner that I used to live on Montgomery Street, and he said his father did too. Although it’s been many years, I remember I lived at 635 Montgomery Street, and then the rabbi said to me that his father grew up at number 594 on the same street.
And now Berel Pewzner is the Chabad shliach in the Cayman Islands, a British Overseas Territory south of Cuba. He didn’t know me because he probably wasn’t born when I moved away from the community. But as it turned out, he knew more about me and my family then I know about him. He pointed to his wife sitting across from him and tells me that his wife, Rikal, is the sister of Chavi Bruk, who as you know, is married to my cousin, 5TJT columnist Chaim Shaul Bruk, who lives in Montana.
My goodness! I was stunned as I stood there, hearing all of this. A few more questions later and I found out that the total population of the Cayman Islands is around 70,000, of which 1,000 are Jewish. And by the way, they invited me to spend a Shabbos in the Cayman Islands and we are going to try to do that sometime in the year ahead.
As a result of the fact that most of the meals featured random seating, unless you sat with the same group (or family) at each meal, you had the chance to meet new and interesting people several times a day.
On Shabbos, a young lady sat down at our table and introduced herself as Robin (not her real name). She said she is about 30 and her father is Jewish, though a practicing Buddhist most of his adult life. Many years ago, I suppose before they were married, her mother had a Reform conversion. They are from Western Canada, but father and daughter traveled to the Trump National Doral Hotel in Miami for the retreat.
Her father became attached to Chabad and Robin has been seriously considering undergoing a halachic conversion to Judaism. “I want to be Jewish and I want to learn Torah,” she told us.
This coming fall, she is planning to attend the Mayanot Seminary, which she believes will lead her on the path toward conversion. I made Kiddush on Shabbos and then mentioned we are going to first wash for the challah. Robin asked my wife if she can follow her to the washing station so she can observe how she washes and then duplicate it. I washed after Esta, and then Robin washed and repeated the berachah of netilas yadayim after me.
She mentioned that she has visited Israel in the past and is looking forward to returning this fall. She’s tall and athletic, and mentioned that when she was last in Israel, she played in a women’s basketball league. Her father, after dabbling in Buddhism for many years, now has a beard and wears his tzitzis outside his shirt. On Shabbos, he was late for the seudah because he takes his time davening carefully.
We discussed many topics throughout the meal and when we neared the end of the seudah, I heard Robin say to herself in an undertone: “Oh, I have to bensch.”
For us, being frum from birth (FFB), there was a dynamism to this event as it naturally unfolded before us. This is not the kind of thing that we witness every day, actually probably once in a lifetime is more like it.
Aside from pursuing her Jewish studies, Robin is a massage therapist and mentioned to us that when she goes to Israel in the fall, she will have several months before her seminary studies begin and would like to do some volunteer work to help those who are suffering from war injuries.
I mentioned to her that I know a doctor who runs a large rehabilitative clinic in Southern Israel. I wrote to him on Sunday, telling him about her. He said he’s looking forward to meeting her once she arrives in Israel.
There is a great deal more to say about this National Jewish Retreat and the phenomenal impact it is having on so many lives. One of the highlights was a group of around 150 college students who attended and were the life of the party. Their attendance was funded, like so many other Chabad projects, by the inimitable George Rohr and the Rohr family.
It was spellbinding to hear some of the college students speak about how they discovered traditional Judaism despite the difficult climate that exists on so many college campuses today. They are both a courageous and very committed group.
On Shabbos afternoon at Shalosh Seudos, we were seated with a group of new people we had not met previously. To our left was Sid and Elaine. Elaine told us she was born in Jamaica but her family moved from the island to London when she was a child.
At this point, after a few days at the retreat, when you engage someone in conversation, there is no way of knowing the nature of their involvement or commitment to Jewish life and what precisely led them to attend the retreat.
Earlier that day, we were so distracted and engaged in speaking with people that we didn’t realize our table was not served the usual traditional foods associated with Shabbos.
So, my wife, not knowing the extent of Elaine’s knowledge about the fundamentals of Jewish cuisine, explained to her that we did not receive the chili-like dish that was customary on Shabbos afternoon.
Elaine looked at her and responded, “Oh you mean cholent and kugel?”
There was a great deal of depth involved in the Chabad National Jewish Retreat and what compelled all these people to attend. That will be a story we will do in a week or two. In the meantime, we are still internalizing and absorbing all we heard, saw, and learned. All in all, it was a very special few days with some incredible and unforgettable people.
Read more of Larry Gordon’s articles at 5TJT.com. Follow 5 Towns Jewish Times on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for updates and live videos. Comments, questions, and suggestions are welcome at 5TJT.com and on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
