‘Lost’ Jewish Young Men Flock to Aliya Institute
They are the lost Jewish boys of Brooklyn, finding solace inside a shabby Crown Heights storefront where signs of vice are the norm.
Their problems – drug addiction, dropping out of high school, abuse and hunger at home – are almost never discussed in a community where the sight of a religious woman wearing pants is shocking.
Instead, troubled young men age 17 to 25 flock to the Alternative Learning Institute for Young Adults (ALIYA) on East New York Avenue, some to get help and some just to hang out with others like themselves.
The center was the backdrop in a controversial a web video that went viral showing cops beating Ehud Halevy, 21, sparking outrage across the city.
“This is finding souls in the community who need love and need to be accepted,” said Rabbi Moishe Feiglin, 36, who founded ALIYA in 2002 and is its only full-time employee.
“Why run to Timbuktu to find needy souls when we have them right here in our own backyard?”
But in Crown Heights’ ultra-Orthodox, conservative community, Feiglin’s willingness to help misfits is often viewed with skepticism.
ALIYA “isn’t structured,“ said a yeshiva principal. ”They don’t have a model in place to serve all those kids. ALIYA is not a school.”
Police said they’ve visited ALIYA 14 times during the past 13 months responding to reports of fighting, robberies and burglaries.
“I feel comfortable at ALIYA,” said Halevy, who’s been sleeping on one of the center’s nine couches for the past month after clashing with his family in Flatbush.
“Members,” as Feiglin calls them, don’t have to follow an application process or a standard curriculum; they just have to show up.
Because professional staffers are nonexistent, Feiglin plays the role of drug rehab counselor, therapist, and employment agent, finding members jobs ranging from scooping ice cream to cleaning apartment buildings.
“It’s a revolving door 24/7,” said Feiglin, who estimated he has helped 700 troubled young Jewish men over the years. “There is no institution or school that is immune to negative stuff,” he said. “The difference is we talk about it. We are open about it.”
Donations from former members support the organization’s $250,000 annual budget, paying for a two-story building composed of a first-floor synagogue and lounge with two ragged couches and a worn ping-pong table. There’s an upstairs gym with cardio machines and free weights. The basement boasts electronics for video editing and music production.
Feiglin’s success stories include Mordy Speilman, 18, who dropped out of a Crown Heights yeshiva and landed in a drug-fueled “party life.” He’s now trying to keep a steady job as a warehouse worker while making electronica music in ALIYA’s basement.
“According to the community, we are bad kids because we are not doing what God wants,” said Speilman, one of seven kids supported by a medical clerk mom and a hardware store salesman dad. “I just want to work.”
Still, Feiglin said, ALIYA struggles financially.
“We need a dormitory,” he said. “We haven’t been active enough in pursuing city and state funding. I don’t have the manpower to pursue it.”
So Feiglin’s loyal followers try to help out – including Zalmy Trappler, 24, who was tapped as a volunteer security guard and called cops on Halevy Oct. 8 after the two argued over Halevy sleeping naked.
“We need a security guard, not volunteers,” Feiglin said. “If something doesn’t go wrong in one night, then that’s a miracle.”
Dazed and Confused
It is misleading to use the word “ALIYA”. They are not making Aliya to Israel. Very confusing.
Wow
Sweetie, face it, Gd said if you didn’t do His will you were bad! Mommy and Daddy didn’t say it!
ALIYA or YERIDA?
Unfortunately ALIYA gives more legitimacy to kids who are “off” – than help. They are not helping our community.
grateful parent
Kol Hakavod Rabbib Feiglin and Rabbi Shemtov for all the great you work you do at Aliya
i dont know what hope our youth would have without you.
we should all be supporting Aliya as much as we can.
they are the most important Moisad we have!!!
pls pls
so wat does this have to do with the ice cream guy?????
someone pllllllllllllllllls explain???
never lost
BSD
they were never lost. the neshama just got a little dusty and there are those wonderful people in chabad who just dust them off and make them shine!!
I always say
No PR is bad PR. This incident goes to prove it…
Ahavas Yisrael please
To #2: Excuse me, G-d didn’t say if you don’t do His will you’re bad. He just said if you don’t do His will, you’re missing out. Good to learn some chassidus.
To #1
Aliya means to go up. This place is about helping these young men lift themselves up…
best shluchim
amazing job!!!!
Daniel Botnick
What is this BS about “lost?” Why categorize people? The way I heard it is that a Jew is a Jew.Some go here, some go there, but they are what they are and neither the Daily News nor any other medium needs to stigmatize anyone. And that includes the Yeshivas of the “lost” whose mission statements and publicity are often embarrassing and humiliating to those they think they are helping.
CH Mom
To # 2: Actually, we say before reading Pirkei Avos “ve-amech kulam tzadikim” – we are all “good”, not “bad”! Just sometimes we make mistakes, and then we have to take responsibility to fix them, or get the help we need to do that. Skip the labels – just do what you need to do!
GG
#1: so what do you call it when someone is called up to the Torah? Are you worried about the same kind of misunderstanding there?
#2: can you honestly claim that you are doing G-d’s will 100% yourself? If not, then are you prepared to call yourself “bad” too, or is that somehow different? Rather than calling people names, work on helping them to do good.
#2
#2
Hope to Gd nothing ever happens to you or your family because ur attitude is what’s BAD
el dudearino
Dudie is comming back. maybe he should go visit nossin b, and a dish out some of that structure ” but in nossins defeenc according to him he was taking out of contextscontext
To #2
What G-d wants is relative… Unfortunately, Jews are fragmented and identify with different sects and ideologies. Ironically, Aliya (the verb, not the noun) is a case in point, which some will tell you is doing G-d’s work, while other’s will admonish you for being antithetical to what G-d wants.
boruch hashem
yayyy mordyyy:)
Yep!
Forgive me–you are indeed correct, they are not bad.
Per Likutei Amarim, Chapter 13, “…because where the evil nature gains any control and dominion over the ”small city,“ even though but temporarily, one is at such times deemed ”wicked.”
Yes, I fit that category and I doubt I even do the will of Gd 1% of the time and I hold down a job, study the Word of Gd, pray, give money, help others and the like.
Those who are wicked are also abhorrent to Gd. If your wife is abhorrent to you and you abandon/divorce her, she is more than just missing out on your goodly manhood, she is abandoned and greatly disliked. In your eyes, there is nothing good about her! If one is abhorrent to Gd, does Gd look past what is abhorrent to see the good?
Sadly, I’m afraid it is more than missing out!
shana
the besht approach was alway to worry about a yid’s gashmius in order that he should be in position to grow bruchnius. ALIYA is doing that, and doing a great job of it. i am proud our community has such an org.
to #3 and #16
By helping these boys, they ARE helping the community. Everyone who has a neshama is part of the community. All because YOUR kid doesn’t need guidance, you think you have the right to deem this organization irrelevant? Completely ridiculous. Every single jew is a diamond and worth an entire world- whether or not they directly benefit you or your family.
What G-d ultimately wants is not relative. Our personal journeys ARE relative because we are judged according to our personal circumstances and challenges. Therefore, anybody trying to improve in any way is already making an ALIYA.
We should all merit to see the geulah right away!
The Rebbe
B“H The Rebbe would never say they are ‘bad kids’. He would love them, show how much he cared, help them and guide them, believe in them and see ”the good”.
People who judge, call names, and try to shame jewish boys and girls, are pushing them further away from Yidishkeit and Torah.
We have to work on ourselves to aproach other Jews with love, kindness and compassion. This is the way to bring Moshiach.
Many of these kids had difficulties learning in school and couldn’t succeed. Hashem gives everybody different abilities, strengths and weaknesses. Strengths need to be encouraged and build upon.
These boys are trying to improve their lives.
Wonderful work ALIYA – students and teachers!
Masha F.
chaim lazaros
A wonderful place. I teach the video production class in the studio there. Feel free to come to our free vocational training. Yes, I am a volunteer. No pay. It’s a great place for someone to come, be accepted and be guided in the right path.
-Chaim
http://www.streamnorth.com
Gd Help These Boys From The Inside Out
Please, little Johnny, come here, please. Let me pat you on the back. Awwwww, I’m so sorry life was so rough, yes, go ahead, you deserve to sin. Afterall, it wasn’t your fault you had religious parents who demanded you obey Gd with every ounce of capability you could muster, even if you didn’t do it like everyone else. Had your parents been drug addicts, prostitutes, thieves and the like, I’m sure you would have turned out much, much better and with no concerns! Forgive me for judging you!
p.s., I was raised by religious parents not my own who saw fit not to allow any excuse for sin, even if I did not live in their home! These boys may be struggling but there is absolutely no excuse for wrong attitudes and action. There are many who have gone through much, much worse and struggled with many problems, yet, they do not have the arrogance to demand a place of sin before Gd and the community!
Never will these boys become what Gd wants them to be until the day they admit that the problem in their lives is sin/wickedness, even if they have been on the receiving end of great sin/wickedness.
So, forgive me for loving them enough to tell them the same truth Gd tell everyone of us….even those of us who from the world’s perspective, have every right to hate the people of Gd!
The world will lie to you. Gd will not!
To #2
I have no idea what you are trying to convey! Although it sounds vague and unrelated to the commentary, it does sound cold and sarcastic. What are you talking about when you mention G-d said someone was bad for not doing His will? Looks to me YOU are not doing His will by condemning others instead of having some understanding. Did you drop your compassion and maturity off at the Bad Store?
Reuben C.
To 23: You sound mean. Are you a Lubavitcher? I don’t think of chosidim of the rebbe as sounding upset like you. Maybe you’re just having a bad day–understandable with all the weather. Best wishes to you!
Oh, my!
You know these young men to the point that you know their sins?! How’s that? You most likely do NOT know their situations, their stories, their family patterns, their experiences, what they have been through, what they have tried, how they came to this point. What is this “place of sin” you refer to? I think you are way off the mark. Where do you get your so-called information? You have the right to hate the people of G-d? Huh? Who ARE you?
Gladdened and Saddened
If someone or something can do a better job at being available for young men who need help with their circumstances, then by all means jump in. Otherwise, thank those already there, because at least they are filling a need. If you are not willing to assist in some way, then shah shtill. THERE IS SOMEONE DOING SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL THERE! If as a young man you were searching and in need of a kind and supportive atmosphere, you would understand the mitzvah. I don’t need to be in that position to have empathy with it. There is ENOUGH arguing and division amongst us. I thought we were in this together! I thought we were supposed to live in a community of Yiddishe values! Oy, what are we doing and saying to each other? How heartbreaking it is to read some of these comments. Heartbreaking.
to #23
You obviously have no idea what G-d wants, based on the way you are judging and comparing your fellow Jews. Aliya is not a place of “sin,” but a safe haven of growth and encouragement for those who have already decided to improve themselves. The entire idea of shlichus is to reach out and accept people and recognize that EIN OD MILVADO- we are all one, Hashem is one, and we are all a part of Him. I sincerely hope that you will one day open up your eyes and see that, because it is beautiful. Struggle is a gift given to the most special people so that they can overcome and reach their highest potential. Everyone is responsible for one another and if you ignore the needs of other people, you yourself are lacking in compassion and not following what Hashem wants. Thank you Aliya Yashar Koach!
Anonymous
To all those that have a nasty comment about ALIYA or Rabbi feiglin:
Ask yourself this one question before you even think of making a nasty unnecessary statement…What have you done to make this world a better place? Or what have you done to help these kids?
Because at least rabbi feiglin is there and you may not consider it a help because its not done the way you think or maybe its the people you think are not worth it but at least Rabbi Feiglin is doing something which is more than any of us.Thin about that before you have something just plain rude and useless to say.
Oh yea!!!
Isn’t it just truly wonderful that Gd judges the heart and not the words!