Weekly Story: An Enduring Act
by Rabbi Sholom DovBer Avtzon
On Shavuos a friend told me the following story. It was so powerful that I knew that I was going to post it. Your comments and feedback are always welcomed and appreciated.
He said, “When I was learning in the yeshiva, I went through challenging situations. It affected my learning as well as my behavior and the administration warned me that if I don’t improve they will consider expelling me. This gave me additional anxiety and I continued to spiral downwards.
“Rabbi Yitzchok Springer knew me and although I wasn’t his student recognized that I am going through a rough time. He came over to me and said: ‘Mendel I want you to know one thing. [Regardless of what the administration told you] you should know that Hashem loves you, the Rebbe loves you and I love you.’
“Placing his hands around my shoulders he then embraced me. Sholom you should know that I still feel the genuine warmth of that embrace forty some years later. That gave me the ability to overcome the challenges, not only then but later ones in life as well.”
While this story speaks volumes about Rabbi Springer and the positive results of a gesture and I could have ended it here, I decided to add a postscript.
In 5737 (1977) a young teenage boy walked out of the yeshiva to make a phone call by a public phone. He wanted to inform a Jew he had met on mivtzoyim that he had arranged for him to name his daughter in the Rebbe’s minyan. After speaking with him the unthinkable happened. A young Hispanic stabbed him with a knife. He ran to his house which was just a few hundred feet away, but he never made it. He collapsed on the way.
That boy is Avrohom Elizer Goldman, my brother in law that I never met.
His neighbors Rabbi and Mrs Lipsker found him and together with my in laws Rabbi and Mrs. Goldman asked the Rebbe what should they do, to perpetuate his memory. In the letter they noted some of their thoughts that would be appropriate. The Rebbe responded and chose the concept of creating or establishing a fund that would help children who otherwise might not go to a camp, due to financial considerations to attend the camp.
While this happened on the 27th of Sivan, a few days before camp began, the fund was immediately set up and helped children that summer and every summer after that one.
The positive effects that a camp experience can have on an individual does not need to be spelled out; as our Rebbe told Rabbi Moshe Lazar, who established Camp Gan Yisroel, [Until I visited the camp] I did not envision how powerful the camp experience can have on a child.”
Over the almost fifty years since the camp funds inception, the camp fund has helped close to ten thousand children, boys and girls with over a million dollars in scholarships to attend the Jewish camp of their choice.
So on behalf of the camp fund and especially on behalf of these wonderful children I ask you to participate in this year’s fundraiser drive by donating whatever you can and give hundreds of children a warm and everlasting embrace, one they will cherish for years.
You can donate at www.thecampfund.com or mail your check to Chasdei Avrohom Elizer
822 Montgomery Street
Brooklyn NY 11213
Rabbi Avtzon is a veteran mechanech and the author of numerous books on the Rebbeiim and their chassidim. He can be contacted at avtzonbooks@gmail.com
