Chabad House is a non-profit, Section 18A organisation that offers scores of projects whose aims are primarily education, assistance and comfort to the entire Jewish community.
Drug-related problems, the elderly, children’s education, marriage counselling, books for the invalid and hospital visitation are a mere spectrum of our daily activities. With a team of Rabbis, Chabad House is much more than an activity centre; it is an institution that is absolutely indispensable in the South African Jewish communal scene.
Based on the instructions and directions of the Rebbe, the aim of Chabad House is to be a nerve centre of continuous activities and programmes to bring all Jews closer to Torah and their heritage. In South Africa this has been under the auspices and direction of the Lubavitch Foundation opened in 1972 by Rabbi Mendel Lipskar.
Our programmes are divided into Pre-school, Primary School, High School, Young Adults, Senior Citizens and a host of projects that reach out all over the country. It is important to note that Chabad is part of a worldwide network with Chabad Houses in every conceivable country in the world where there are Jews. For further information on any of the worldwide Chabad Houses visit
www.chabadjoburg.org.
In South Africa there are a number of Chabad Shuls which operate independently and they are located throughout Johannesburg and South Africa.
Learning without Boundaries
Chabad House successfully runs learning programmes on a daily basis for every age group and level of study. These include women’s learning programmes, learning sessions for the elderly, shiurim for young adults and advanced shiurim for those in the know. Topics vary from and include amongst others parsha, Jewish thought, Talmud and Mysticism, Chassidus etc.
The women’s learning programme has been extremely successful and well attended and this years’ programme includes some new and exciting speakers.
Monday night shiur with Rabbi Shishler continues to attract in excess of 100 people per shiur, addressing topical and pertinent issues and their significance to our lives today.
Learning for the elderly
Elderly men attend learning everyday from Monday-Friday between 09:00 -10:30 under the keen direction of Rabbi Raitport and our elderly ladies have learning on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10:00 -11:30 with Mrs Aviva Goldman and Mrs Chaya Haller.
International Guest Speakers
Chabad has the privilege of having access to world-renowned speakers, last year we had the privilege to host Chief Rabbi Lau as well as Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky .
New Programmes
Another unique and exciting programme is JLI (Jewish Learning Institute) which is run by Rabbi Dovi Rabin. This global learning programme has been successfully run in over 160 countries.
We are also poised to launch a new Hebrew reading class at Chabad House.
Reaching out to children across the land – Rabbi Ariel Woznica
The primary goal of the Chabad House Children’s programmes is to reach each and every Jewish child in the community, instilling them with a belief in G-d, pride in their heritage, moral understanding and methods of improving themselves and affecting the lives of others.
Factories – hands-on interactive learning programmes
The aim of the “factories” is to reach as many children as possible on an annual basis and to educate them about the Jewish festivals in a fun, hands-on way. Children from Gauteng schools are invited to attend the factories, which are divided up according to different grades, so that every year each child comes to learn something new and different.
Shofar Factory
Before Rosh Hashana (September) a practical interactive course is held for children, explaining the meaning of the festival, and most particularly the shofar (rams horn). A practical demonstration of how a shofar is made, pre-empts each child to make their own Shofar. By participating in this ancient craft the children are taught the value of history and heritage and the hands-on participation gives them a sense of being and belonging. This programme runs in Gauteng, as well as in Durban and Cape Town.
The Olive-Oil Press
The “Chanukah (Festival of Lights) factory” includes a demonstration to children on exactly how olive oil is made. The object is to connect the children with an important heritage landmark, as well as a targeted campaign to involve them in a festival that has light as its central theme. The concept of a little light dispelling a lot of darkness, or a little good dispelling a lot of evil, is easily conveyed to the children in this programme.
Matzah Bakery
This is an innovative and exciting project that takes children down a pathway of history, into the annals of our heritage. The children re-live the exodus from Egypt, the 10 plagues and the art of actually making their own Matzah. The flour, water, dough, rolling pins and oven combine to excite and involve all five senses as the children participate and actually taste their own hand-made Matzah. Year-in and year-out, this project attracts thousands of children, educating and enthusing them for a long time thereafter. The Matza factory is run annually in Gauteng, Durban and Cape Town.
Torah Factory
Before the Festival of Shavuot (Pentecost) – the anniversary of the Giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai – we have an exciting factory which teaches how letters are written on parchment, how the quills are refined, how the parchment is prepared and how the letters of a hand-written Torah scroll are formed. The project gives the children a very practical link with their heritage, teaching them the value of each letter of the Torah. Its simple message of the true value of each individual, and each nuance of life in G-d’s world is also taught and applied.
Purim - Mishloach Manos
Purim has, as one of its tenets, the obligation of giving and sharing with others. This is done through giving to charity, and distributing food gifts to friends. This year 13,000 packages for children countrywide were made-up and distributed to them to be exchanged with friends at the festival. Coins are enclosed in each package for the children to give to the charity of their choice, teaching them in a very practical way that sharing and caring are integral to humanity and the building of a solid society.
Gan Israel Camps
Several wonderful Gan Israel camps cater to children of all ages during the holidays. It is a well-known phenomenon that during the holidays children are often left to their own devices which, equally often, leads to some form of trouble. The scourges of our society – including drugs and the like are all too readily available.
In a camp environment one has the opportunity to influence the whole child, outside the confines of the classroom where a child may feel that in the classroom one type of behaviour is appropriate, and quite another at home or on the sports-field. Our well structured and all encompassing camp programmes enable the participant to live their entire day in an atmosphere and environment of sound value, ethics and heritage focus.
My First Siddur
We have continued a targeted campaign to bring a simple children’s prayer book to each and every Jewish child in South Africa. Every Jewish child in the country has been located and included in this special project aimed at getting children to appreciate the presence of G-d in the world, and the need to focus on their relationship with Him. This helps to instil the notion of a higher authority in their lives. More moral and ethical behaviour is obviously encouraged through this unique project.
Tzivos Hashem
Tzivos Hashem is a children’s club that is run on a similar basis to boy scouts. The children are given different projects and tasks to do and every two weeks they are ranked according to their progress on the task. Once every two months a structured task is done such as orienteering, hiking etc. The primary objective of Tzivos Hashem is to teach the children a love of Judaism in an enjoyable way while promoting a sense of belonging and ownership.
Camp for Learning disabled Children
The holiday camp for disabled children was held for the second time this year in response to a great need in the community. These children who attend remedial schools throughout Gauteng don’t have the opportunity to participate in traditional Gan Israel Camps due to differences in the holiday. It was therefore our initiative to include these children and the response to this programme has been most rewarding and quite overwhelming.
Over 80 children were given the opportunity to participate in the Gan Israel camp experience this year, and all indications are that we will have many more for our planned camp in 2009.
Publications
Chabad House has published many innovative publications to guide and assist. These include a Learners Guide to Hebrew, A Learners Guide to Weddings/Marriage, A Children’s Siddur, which has been distributed country-wide; A Basic Guide to Judaism and many others.
Our weekly
Wellsprings reaches hundreds with inspiration and thoughts to guide one through a particular Shabbat. Brochures on “how-to” range from Kashrut to Candle Lighting, Tefillin to Family Sanctity, all in up-to-date terminology and appeal.
Our exciting website at chabadjoburg.org links one with libraries of articles on every topic imaginable, a yartzeit/barmitzvah calendar, Chabad Houses around the world and Shabbat times in every city imaginable. The international “Ask the Rabbi” puts everything at your fingertips.
Chabad has always prided itself on being up to date with the latest in technological media and this includes, a mobi site (mobile website –cell phones)
www.chabadjoburg.mobi and the extensive use of MMS as a medium of communication.
Non-sectarian programmes
Whilst Chabad House is aimed primarily at bringing Jews closer to their heritage and learning about the importance of the mitzvot we are cognisant of so many social issues that need to be addressed within the broader community. Drug related issues, lack of self esteem and no value for life are just some of the issues that our youth are facing on a daily basis in our country. Several programmes have been designed to deal with these issues to reach communities throughout South Africa for the betterment of all society.
The “Grow your Life” campaign
“Grow your life” has been set up to encourage children to make a difference to their lives and the lives of those in their community. The idea is that each child receives a beautifully written and illustrated book on how to improve their lives. The book together with a packet of vegetable seeds encourages children to grow their own vegetable gardens in their homes or communities and in instils a culture of entrepreneurship for the people involved in the project.
Piloted during October/November 2008 to 8,000 children at schools in the Alexandra and surrounding areas, it has been very well received. Several hundred copies of the book were distributed to several corporations before the December holidays aimed at their staff who were able to benefit from this unique project. The programme will be extended to children throughout the country over a five year period.
The “ARK” campaign
In an environment of theft, violence and little value for life, we have launched the ARK (Acts of Random Kindness) programme. This unique project is designed to get children to see the value in themselves and others, and to know that every good deed they do can make the world a better place.
Each child receives a novel charity box in the shape of an ARK which they will need to fill with coins over the course of a four week period. Once their money box is filled with coins they need to give it to a charity of their choice or someone less fortunate than themselves.
Included with the charity box is an entry form which must be completed by a parent, guardian or teacher to verify that the child did indeed give the box to someone less fortunate than themselves.
Every child that participates will receive a ‘Certificate of Participation’ as well as one of thousands of sponsored prizes in this exciting initiative.
Seven Values Books
One of the major problems in a modern world is that parents don’t spend enough time with their children – in fact statistics show that parents spend on average 2.5 minutes per week of quality time with their children.
Many children turn to drugs and other sinister sources to fill this void, often with dire consequences. For this reason we have launched a campaign to encourage “Parents to spend more time with their children”. We have introduced a series of seven books - each one teaching children a different moral lesson whilst encouraging parents to spend more time with their children by reading and sharing the ideas of each different book every day of the week.
Rabbi Krinsky - YES Campaign
