CHABAD COMMUNITY CENTER For Jewish Life And Learning Dec. 2008 Issue 3 Kislev 5769 IN YOUR WORDS DOORS OPEN TO NEW HOME “I hope that (Chabad) continues to ... challenge DURING MOMENTOUS AFFAIR the community to be Labels of Ortho- more spiritual and dox, Conservative more involved with its and Reform were left at the door on historical roots.” Sept. 7 when people RICK BLACK streamed in through the physical thresh- old of the new “(The event) was Chabad Community Center for Jewish one more chance to Life and Learning party and pray, and and through the really appreciate the spiritual threshold of an idea a decade significance of the Torah.” in the making. DR. PAUL SILVERSTEIN That day, there was FR OM L eft , Att O R N E Y GE N era L Dre W EDMOND S ON , RA BBI an incredible mixture YE H U D A WE G , Larr Y DA VI S , RA BBI YE H U D A KR IN S KY , RA BBI of people from all dif- OV A DI A GOLDM A N A ND RICH ar D TA N E NB au M C ut T H E R IBBON ferent backgrounds T O U NV E IL T H E CH A B A D COMM U NI T Y CE N ter . “Let’s not take for who were genuinely granted ... our Chabad happy to celebrate the for the future. And the hot very warm, almost like a Center here and our building’s grand opening, sun aside, there was a per- glowing shine on people’s Rabbi Ovadia Goldman vading sense of warmth faces. … That stood out,” mikvah. They are a said. More than 350 people for another reason: The Goldman said. testament to an enduring fanned away the heat for a event marked the first new Glenna Tanenbaum was chance to take part in the Jewish building to go up in among those faces. “I was, tradition.” historic event and garner a Oklahoma City in 60 years. ORIT RABKIN glimpse of what’s in store “What I sensed was the » See OPENING, 4 FEATURES Just two weeks after enlivening the community A BBI S E M ar K S 3 with the first Jewish building to open in more than R ’ R OBSERVANCE, 60 years, and just two weeks before rejuvenating PIC S & QU I ps 3, 7 the community with the call of the shofar at High Holiday services, Chabad of Oklahoma City filled PR OG ra MMING 5 the souls of Jews and the streets of the city with CELEBRATION ID S O R N er naches at the completion of a Torah. The scroll was K C 5 unique in that it was the first one ever written for OF HISTORIC a specific community in the state. RE CI pe BOX 5 Eli Reshef had a hand in finishing it. His family, like many others at the Chabad Community Center Guest COL U MN 6 on Sept. 21, fulfilled the last commandment of the ONLIN E FIND S 8 TORAH SPILLS Torah to write a scroll by buying one of the 304,805 letters in the Sefer Torah. The MA Z E L TOV ! 8 INTO STREETS letter the family of five filled » See TORAH, 2 he has lived, including heav- see what was going on — -2- Torah ily Jewish areas like Dallas they didn’t know what was and upstate New York. going on but they started “It was frankly very in also is the first letter of “There are vacant shuls in waving and they knew it all their names — an aleph. places like Muskogee and was a good occasion,” he moving because, you “It was kind of ironic — or Ardmore and Seminole and said. if not ironic, symbolic know, we all talk about maybe — that with- out choosing we got things from generation to do alef,” he said. Reshef said the to generation, and here experience was uplifting. “It’s an we have our little boy honor. … It’s a once- in-a-lifetime event,” who is named for an he said. The Torah was uncle he never met but completed by Rabbi Moshe Klein, a spe- who wanted a chance cially trained sofer, or scribe, from New York to honor a person of City. It was written in memory of Holo- the prior generation.” caust victims Moshe and Tzyrl Schechter ROBERT FLACK and Norbert Schech- ter, the parents and DR. Pau L SILV erste IN C arr I es T H E TO ra H brother of Torah U ND er A CH uppa H T H R O U GH T H E streets O F sponsor Ed Kaswan. TH E VILL A G E . Klein guided the hands of each person over Enid, Okla., and others I’m Young the parchment paper with sure. Nobody ever scribed a Sam, the feather pen, including the Torah for them,” Flack said. mean- hands of Sam Karchmer, 11. But this Sefer Torah is an while, Sam asked to fill in the letter indication that Oklahoma had shin in honor of his uncle for City’s Jewish community is a few whom he is named. on a different track, he said. words of “It was frankly very moving “I believe in our heritage and his own because, you know, we all I believe in our faith and it to share talk about things from gen- is such a blessing to have after eration to generation, and Rabbi (Ovadia) Goldman doing here we have our little boy and Nechoma here to bring his part who is named for an uncle he Yiddishkeit to all of us.” filling in never met but who wanted After the Torah was com- a shin. a chance to honor a person pleted, police escorted a “I asked of the prior generation,” said parade of about 125 people him how Robert Flack, grandfather of through neighboring streets he felt Sam Karchmer and father of in The Village. Dr. Paul Silver- about the deceased Samuel Flack. stein was among those who that,” The event was memo- carried the Torah along the Flack rable for Flack in his own route.“It was one more chance said, right, too. “I’m 70, and I to party and pray, and really “and his have never seen or known appreciate the significance answer of a Torah that was literally of the Torah,” said Silverstein, w a s , scribed for a community of who had never seen a Torah ‘Papa, ED Kas W A N , R IGH T , C arr I es T H E TO ra H H E sp ON - which I was a part,” he said, dedicated. “Neighbors were it was a S O re D A LONG S ID E HI S G ra ND S ON Matt GOLD - rattling off the many places coming out in the streets to wow.’ ” B er G . NEWSLETTER DESIG N ED , WRITTE N A N D EDITED BY WE N DY K. KLEI N MA N FEEDBAC K WELCOME : W K .K LEI N MA N @GMAIL .COM -3- OVADIA GOLDMAN MO re ON RABBI’S REMARKS PA G E 7! PICS & QUIPS LEFT: RA BBI MENORAHS AND Jere MY Cass I us , L eft , A ND DR. MICH ae L POL - MITZVOT ILLUMINE L A CK F ILL T H E I R P L ates WI T H TIMES OF DARKNESS KO S H er sus HI . Dear friends, I write to you RIGHT: Ste - during these fa NI NA CH at ILO auspicious days HOLD S A L U L A V at of Chanukkah as T H E Sus HI IN T H E we increase in SU KK A H E V E N T . light every day. My rebbe taught me that when we focus and listen attentively to the flames on the menorah, they have a story to tell. The candles tonight remind me of two flames whose physical presences were extinguished by a group of terrorists in Mumbai, RIGHT: DR. Fat IM A A B ra N tes - India – those of the rabbi and reb- PA I S S HOW S H er E N T H us I as M bitzen of the Chabad center in the F O R SU KKO T A ND T H E sus HI . Nariman House. Although Nechoma and I did not know Rivkah and Gavriel Holtzberg personally, we have a keen under- standing of what it took for them LEFT: RA BBI OV A DI A GOLDM A N to do the incredible things they did ta LK S WI T H CHILD re N as T H E Y start of bringing the flame of Yiddish- A pr O je C T D ur ING JE WI S H EN R ICH - keit – its joys and inspirations – to M E N T CL asses . thousands of Jews in Mumbai in the short five years they were there. BELOW: MIRIAM Cass I us , 3, Living in a smaller Jewish commu- D E CO rates HE B re W L etters D ur ING nity, even with all of its amenities, we JE WI S H EN R ICHM E N T CL asses . know it can be challenging to come by what it takes to provide a kosher Friday night dinner. We know what it takes to remain inspired, to be able to inspire others with a Torah class a mitzvah deed, or just to be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week for anything and everything a fellow Yid may need.