By COLlive reporter
Congregation Ahavas Moische in Crown Heights, commonly known as The Maple Street Shul, will be holding their annual Melave Malka this week.
The event will take place on Motzei Shabbos Vayakhel-Pekudei, Adar 23 – March 17 at 612 Maple Street, Brooklyn, NY 11203, beginning at 9:00 PM.
The event will celebrate the synagogue’s growth and continued survival amid past years of hardships.
“When we originally got the building it was in bad shape,” said R’ Eli Blachman, who has been the Shul’s president since 5734 with the blessings of the Rebbe and Crown Heights Rabbi Zalman Shimon Dworkin OBM.
To raise funds to fix the roof and general renovations in 1981, Blachman organized a Membership Drive Breakfast with journalist Gershon Jacobson as the speaker. “The Rebbe sent us membership too,” he proudly noted.
Being located on the borders of Crown Heights, with mostly non-Jewish neighbors, was a challenge at the time. “I used to stand on the corner of Lefferts Avenue and Albany and beg people to fill our Minyan,” Blachman recalls.
Upon finding bullet holes at the Shul in the wake of the 1991 riots, the Shul dedicated a room to Yankel Rosenbaum HY”D, who was murdered that August.
When Blachman hesitated about organizing the Melave Malka, “the Rebbe told me that I must do something. Even small, but don’t stop it,” he says.
To continue the wishes of the Rebbe, an event is planned for this weekend with the featured speaker – Rabbi Shea Hecht, veteran activist and Chairman of the National Committee for Furtherance of Jewish Education (NCFJE).
There will be a performance by talented violinist R’ Yitzchok Hurwitz.
“While we of course need financial assistance, we need our members to attend and participate in the shul,” say Blachman and Yisroel Karp, the Chairman of the Board, inviting the Crown Heights community to join the celebration.
Donate online at MapleStreetShul.com (suggested $54).
