This first weekend in September 2016 we’re celebrating the recent wedding of Mendel’s youngest brother Motti and his new wife Chana’le (nee Paltiel) at Shabbos House. In honor of this occasion many family members and guests have come to celebrate with us. You may know some of these people who have been here before, but there are those whom students haven’t met yet, I (Mendel) thought it might be nice to “introduce” some of these special guests to our students to our students – in no particular order:
MOTTI & CHANA’LE
If you’ve stayed up late on Simchat Torah with us, you’d know Motti. He usually walks up late from the shul downturn to reinvigorate our dancing and enliven our last Hakafah. Some may know him from his many Mitzvah escapades and adventures around town and indeed around the world. In honor of the wedding Motti put together a book of amazing stories of his connections with Jews in unlikely places and situations and how they did Mitzvot together. Motti thrives on these connections, it means to the world to him – and now to Chana’le, too! Chana’le was born and raised in Brooklyn and she is our daughter Mushky’s closest friend. They spent a year studying together in Israel, and even when apart they are only a text or DMC away. Mushky saw these two as a great couple and put one and one together as they say!
RABBI ISRAEL AND ROCHEL RUBIN
Mendel’s parents were sent by the Rebbe to the greater Capital Region area (indeed all of Eastern NY) in 1974 and have been dedicated to building and spreading Judaism here ever since. They founded Shabbos House in 1976, we’re now in its 40th year. “Morah Rochel” as Mrs. Rubin is known is the Judaic principal of Maimonides and she loves teaching and learning, and knows and cares for each child in the school. Rabbi Rubin is regional director for Chabad, dean at Maimonides, he’s the Rabbi at Shomray Torah on New Scotland Ave, has a large collection of English-language articles he’s written in a unique style over the years and he also enjoys scholarly pursuits (especially of Pirkei Avot) and has recently been publishing scholarly Hebrew booklets on various topics.
RABBI YOSSI AND SARA PALTIEL
Rabbi Paltiel is one of the better known exponents of Chassidic teaching, both online and off-line, in Crown Heights and around the world, with his own unique style and passionate dynamo. Aside, now through his daughter Chana’le of course, we have two connections with Rabbi Paltiel: Mendel’s grandmother (who now lives in Tzfat Israel) is an intelligent woman who didn’t have a chance to study much Torah in her youth (back then women didn’t have as much chance to study Torah), so she was quite eager for such opportunities to do so in her retirement years. One of her favorite teachers was Rabbi Yossi Paltiel who gave classes to women on weekday mornings in the women’s section of the Rebbe’s synagogue. And there’s an earlier connection yet! It’s a long story, but in the late 1980’s in Troy NY there was a two-year stint of an experimental out-of-the-box Yeshiva, visionary and ahead of its times, and Rabbi Paltiel was one of the dynamic and dedicated young teachers there at the time, so Rabbi Israel Rubin and Rabbi Paltiel go back a long way. Many thanks to Mrs. Sara Paltiel for making Mushky feel so at home in her home on her Crown Heights visits, like one of the family.
RABBI EPHRAIM AND CHANI PIEKARSKI
Well, first of all, Mendel’s aunt Chani was the Shadchan (matchmaker) who thought Raizy might be a good idea for Mendel, so we met, and we remain ever-grateful. Uncle Ephraim was the long-time principal and dean of Mendel’s alma-mater Yeshiva in Brooklyn, and we have many fond memories of rich farbrengens and mentorship. In addition to being a student at the school, Mendel got to spent many a Shabbat dinner in their home. After his retirement from the Yeshiva, Rabbi Piekarski now writes an in-depth English aid to the study of Tosefos – the more complex commentary flanking a Talmud page opposite Rashi. These books are called TIE or Tosefos In English, and are a marvelous new tool to aid in the study of Tosefos. Chani has published guides for Shlichus (Chabad activities) and is involved in many projects and endeavors. Mendel grew up with their kids, and we actually recently randomly (no such thing as random!) bumped into their oldest son on our big I-95 roadtrip to and from Raizy’s brother’s wedding in Florida.
ZEIDE AND BUBBE PALTIEL
It’s not my side of the family, so I know less about the Paltiels, but I can tell you one thing. In the 1980’s the Crown Heights Jewish Community began organizing into a proper Community Council, with elected representatives from all area synagogues and other organizations and constituencies. If you think two Jews = three opinions, this can be even worse with Lubavitchers who are very opinionated and have quite a bit of diversity within our own ranks. But the early head of the elected council was this Rabbi Paltiel, who was broadly respected for his upright decency, sense of fairness and justice and people-sense.
BUBBE NEMANOV
She may or may not be able to make it up for this weekend. The Nemanov family is well-known in Chabad, especially thanks to a “Reb Nissan” an exceptionally pious and devout Chassid and Chassidic mentor of the French Chabad Yeshiva in Brunoy. He passed away in the early 1980’s, and his younger son (who Mendel remembers from his years at that Yeshiva) took over, but his older son Moshe worked as a editor/typesetter at his father-in-law’s Brooklyn print house for holy books. That father-in-law, named Mottel Shusterman was the Rebbe’s Torah reader, and he lived on the same street as Mendel’s grandparents in Crown Heights. Mendel has many fond memories of him, his Torah reading, his honest and caring character, a special man. But that’s a story for another time. His daughter married the late Moshe Nemanov, and the story of Moshe Nemanov’s passing (just a couple of years ago) is an incredible story, one for the books.
UNCLE YANKEL AND SARA
Sara is Mendel’s father’s youngest sister. She married Yankel Yuzevitch from Israel in the early 1980’s (and Mendel remembers their wedding as a kid). Yankel first worked as a scribe but then transitioned over to Kosher supervision with the OK. Their first apartment was a few houses down from Mendel’s grandparents, so he ate there occasionally on Shabbat. Later they bought a house – right around the block. In fact, Mendel (who lived for 10 years at his grandparents while studying in Yeshiva) could practically see the back of their home from the bedroom he had in the back of his grandparents house. One of the very special things about Yankel and Sara’s home was how open it was. You could just pop in anytime and you were welcome so warmly and so easily, a very lived-in home that was bright with warmth and positivity. Always a good vurt, something to eat, and a place to feel welcomed.
UNCLE ABBIE
So Mendel’s mother was one of 4 boys and 2 girls. She was close in age to Abbie who was an introductory teacher of Talmud for elementary school students for many years. At some point Abbie and Rivki moved from Empire Blvd to Union Street, where their home was very close to the Rebbe’s synagogue at 770 Eastern Parkway. Often, when the Rebbe would farbreng at 1:30pm on Shabbos, and there was little time to get away for lunch, Mendel would pop into their house, where Rivky would serve heaping portions of delicious food in a rush, so you could get back to 770 before the start of the Rebbe’s farbrengen. Abbie is an uncle who takes notice and cares about the physical things in people’s lives.
TANTE SADIE
Tante is Yiddish for aunt, and Sadie is a nickname for Sara. She’s Mendel’s mother’s younger and only sister and she lives with her husband Rabbi Gavriel Marzel (and now Mendel’s grandmother, too) just above the city of Tzfat, on Mt. Canaan. All of their children are married, aside for the youngest. One is a Rosh Yeshiva in Moscow, another is a graduate of the Technion, most live in Israel and some settled in their hometown of Tzfat. Both Gavriel and Sadie are American-born, but moved to Israel in the mid-1970’s when the Rebbe sent several groups of Shluchim to bolster and encourage and enrich communities in Israel. Rabbi Gavriel runs a Chabad Center in the Old City of Tzfat and also a historic synagogue there. Her youngest son Yechiel Michel (named for Mendel’s grandfather) – a Yeshiva student the age of our college students – is joining us for Shabbos.
RABBI MENACHEM AND CHAVA SCHMIDT
Menachem is graduate of Syracuse University and Chava is from Albany NY. He has since started Chabad on UPenn, led the Baal Shem Tov band, and founded JHP. Today, he is President of Chabad on Campus International Foundation which he started from scratch. Menachem has warmth and soul, and means it with his whole heart. It’s a rarity to find leaders of big Jewish organizations with that level of sincerity and humility and so so genuine. He and Chava live in Center City Philly, parents to five children, and involved in a host of projects. They’ve been very instrumental (behind the scenes as they do things) in getting Shabbos House to where it is today. Rabbi Yisroel and Rochel Rubin were there for them when they got married so it’s really nice for them to come and celebrate in return.
THE CHANOWITZ’S
Uncle Moshe and Esther (she’s Mendel’s father’s sister) Chanowitz ran Shabbos House for most of the 1980’s. Rabbi Chanowitz had a Peanuts-inspired Question book on campus, and he developed close relationships and partnerships with then RZA, later Tagar, forerunners in some form of today’s Great Danes for Israel. They also ran “Akiva Day Camp” in town. Rabbi Moshe now has an engraving shop in Montreal called “Plaque Impact” and with his wife Esther (Mendel’s aunt) spent many years being caregivers and hosts to Mendel’s grandmother Yocheved Miriam Rubin who passed away and our little (Esther) Miriam is also named for her. Their children are in NJ, Florida and Brooklyn, running online daily-sales businesses, a baby store in Park Slope, successful pre-school programs and Chabad Houses. Their youngest son Yossi will be also be up for Shabbos and he is now running a small creative agency for startups and small organizations.
RABBI EFRAIM AND MENUCHA
If you’ve stayed up at Albany for our Rosh Hashanah services then you’ve heard Mendel’s brother Efraim. He leads our services and blows the Shofar. Efraim is an expert Jewish researcher and translator, he works on all kinds of projects and loves looking things up and discovering interesting things. Their son Mendel had very significant medical challenges, but thanks to Menucha’s insistence and patience and hands-on efforts, and the prayers of many, he’s made tremendous strides beyond many medical expectations and we pray for a continued complete recovery. Their younger son’s name has initials that spell Kosher!
RIVKY FROM MANCHESTER
Her husband Rabbi Mendel had to fly back before the weekend, but Mendel’s sister Rivky is here from England with her daughter Mushky (around our Sara’s age) and son Moshe (our son Moshe’s age). They are part of the administration of the school there and this is a the busy start of school season. Rivky is very talented and interesting, she’s curious and artistic, and thoughtful about things, but also practical and pragmatic and down to earth, and very giving and understanding of others. Manchester is far, but we feel closer because of Whatsapp!
RABBI ABBA AND RAIZEL
OK, the Raizel may throw you off! This Raizel is not Raizy, but Raizel who together with her husband Abba run Saratoga Chabad on Circular Street, not far from Congress Park. UAlbany students may know Rabbi Abba from his many years of graciously volunteering to run our Shofar Factory on campus – because our Rabbi Mendel isn’t handy in the slightest. Saratoga Chabad serves community and tourists and students at Skidmore College, and they are well-known for their events in the public square, from Havdalah on Broadway, MatzahBalls at FirstNight, Felafel at July 4th, the Shalom Festival in August and many others…
INTERESTED IN JEWISH SOUTH AFRICA?
We got someone for you to talk to! Chanoch Weinberg recently married the older Paltiel sister Mushka. He grew up in Johannesburg, and can tell you all about it. For those who think that Jewish life basically ends at the shores of New York and picks up again in Israel – this can be an eye-opener.
AH, AND WHAT ABOUT COLOMBIA?
No, not the District of Colombia! We’re talking about Bogota Colombia, down in South America! Mendel’s cousin (Uncle Abbie’s son) named Chanoch is a shliach down there with his family, speaking Spanish and all. Chanoch’s son Chaim is one year older than our son Moshe, and they recently spent this summer together in the Catskills and Westchester. Want to hear Chassidus in Spanish? Meet a bonafide Chabadnik from Bogota? Look for Chaim this Shabbos!
RABBI YOSSI & LEYEE
Mendel’s brother Yossi is Rabbi at Clifton Park Chabad, about 15 minutes up the Northway, his wife Leyee or Leah is principal of our Maimonides Bnos Chaya girls High School in Albany. Leah just returned from Israel with her oldest daughter Mussie for a Bat-Mitzvah trip. Yossi does grantwriting for Maimonides, he teaches and is also in his third year with the “Better Together” program at the school, bringing students and seniors together.
RABBI SHMULY & LAIKY
Union College is one of the nation’s oldest universities, going back to 1795 and is known as the “Mother of Fraternities” as some of the oldest fraternities were founded there. Despite the much smaller Jewish population there vs. a place like UAlbany, Shmuly and Laiky have a Chabad going there that’s really doing some great stuff. Older alumni may remember Shmuly coming to Shabbos House to build the Sukkah, a much bigger endeavor back in the day when we didn’t have the deck trellis as the built-in Sukkah frame.
SIMMY AND CHAYA
Simmy is the Rubin brother closest in age to Motti. He’s come back to town to run a contracting and property management business. He and his crew work hard to do all kinds of projects, including stuff right here at Shabbos House! Chaya now runs the local Friendship Circle chapter, which pairs teen volunteers with children with special needs. They recently had an end-of-summer four day camp for these kids, and also received prestigious local recognition and a $10K grant for the good works they do.
AND LOTS OF KIDS OF ALL AGES!
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Of course we missed people. And these quick tidbits don’t do them justice and only highlight the angles through which we (and our students) may know them best. Maybe we will have time before Shabbat to “introduce” more of our special guests here for this Sheva Brachos weekend. If not, this is just a taste… please come and celebrate with us!
Sheva Brachos schedule and info, click here.