Chicago Mobilizes for New Mitzvah Tank

There was excitement in the air in Chicago’s Congregation Bnei RIven. The exposed brick landmark has been a hub of Chabad activities since its founding in the late 1800s on the old West Side, and it was a most fitting palace for the next chapter of Chabad in Chicago to unfold. 

Parked outside was a brand-new, colorfully decorated Mitzvah Tank, a replacement for the community’s longtime tank, which had been purchased back in 2006 and was no longer serviceable.

Inside, tables piled high with refreshments, community members were regaled by stories of Hashgacha Pratis and the Rebbe’s personal care, told by Rabbi Levi Baumgarten, director of THE Mitzvah Tank in New York. 

Speaking of his decades of experience, Rabbi Baumgarten inspired his listeners to become Tankists and join the ranks of those signing up to staff the new Mitzvah Tank. 

During the course of the evening, the crowd also heard from Leivi Staal, who shared how his Jewish spark was lit more than 30 years prior when someone approached him on the street and asked him if he was Jewish, and he unthinkingly answered that he was not. 

“That person went home and probably said he had a lousy day on mivtzoyim,” said Staal, who has been a volunteer on Chicago’s tank for more than a decade. “Until this very day, he has no idea that he changed a life and altered the course of generations!”

He then challenged the crowd to get involved, and hands shot up all over the room as people volunteered to take shifts together with their families to staff the Mitzvah Tank. 

The exciting news was then shared that a dollar that the Rebbe sent to Anash of Chicago, generously made available by Rabbi Moshe and Leah Moscowitz, would be raffled off among all volunteer families. 

“The Tank has been a part of the fabric of how our community does hafatzah since the 1980s,” says Rabbi Yochanan Posner, who, together with Staal, oversees the Mitzvah Tank. “Our new Tank is more versatile, has more seats, is easier to use, and will make Yiddishkeit so much more accessible to so many more people.”

With families signed up, the Tank’s finishing touches being performed, the community is ready to take to the road for the year 5786!