Throughout the month of July, DollarDaily.org will be donating to Gan Yisroel Camps all over the world. Every day, another camp will receive a donation of over $350, cumulated from $1 daily pledges. A summer in Gan Yisroel has a profound effect on campers, immersing them in Yiddishkeit in a fun and enjoyable way.
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Today, you could fly down to South Florida with not much more than the shirt on your back and you probably won’t lack for anything. Whether you crave a smoked brisket sandwich or Florida-fresh sushi, whether you need a minyan or a Daf Yomi shiur, or even a shul whose ladies’ room is so well stocked that it has ponytail holders to put your hair up, it’s all there these days. But turn back the hands of time just a few decades and South Florida looked very, very different and it’s nearly impossible to imagine the spiritual wasteland that Rabbi Abraham Korf encountered when he first came to Miami Beach in 1960.
Rabbi Korf was just the second shaliach to be sent out by the Rebbe, following Rabbi Berel Shemtov who was building Yiddishkeit in Detroit. He was tasked by the Rebbe to fill in anything and everything that was lacking in Florida and, as per the Rebbe’s instructions, in his first year on shlichus he visited all of Florida, as well as Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia.
When Rabbi Korf, who is currently Florida’s head shaliach, arrived in the Sunshine State, there were just three Orthodox shuls – two in Miami Beach and another in Jacksonville. The Hebrew Academy of Miami was the only choice for parents who wanted to provide their children with a yeshiva education, but once students graduated eighth grade their choices were very limited – they could either attend an out-of-town yeshiva or one of Miami Beach’s public high schools.
Having started from literally zero in South Florida, Rabbi Korf slowly began laying the groundwork for what would ultimately lead it to become the place with the single largest concentration of Jews outside of Israel. Understanding the pivotal role that summer camp can play in a child’s life, Rabbi Korf opened the newly established Chabad of Florida’s first Gan Israel overnight camp in DeLand in 1963. The Rebbe was instrumental in helping Rabbi Korf acquire the staff he needed, including counselors and a learning director, and Camp Gan Israel began changing lives.
In the camp’s second summer of operations, Rabbi Korf successfully recruited a group of boys graduating from the Hebrew Academy to come to Gan Israel for four weeks. All of the boys would be attending a local public high school in the fall, and Rabbi Korf felt that infusing them with a solid dose of Yiddishkeit before they entered that secular world was a worthwhile investment in their future. Little did Rabbi Korf know just how important those four weeks of summer fun would ultimately be for at least one member of the group, a boy named Avi Fried*.
After an enjoyable summer, the boys traded in their bathing suits and baseball bats for notebooks and backpacks, and they embarked on the next chapter of their educational careers. Enrolled as they were in the sixties culture where drug use and anti-establishment sentiments were everywhere, it didn’t take long for the influences of the Hebrew Academy to fall by the wayside and unfortunately, the boys learned quite a bit that wasn’t on any academic curriculum. Soon they were virtually indistinguishable from their public school classmates and eventually Avi went from the frying pan into the fire, moving on after graduation to a commune in California, an anything-goes place that was all about peace, love, and freedom. Suffice it to say it was the antithesis of a Torah lifestyle.
And then one day Avi called his father in Florida to share some good news with him – he was engaged to be married.
Knowing just how far his son had strayed Mr. Fried asked Avi to tell him about his future wife, hoping that she was at least Jewish.
“Jewish, non-Jewish – does it matter?” replied Avi. “What’s the difference? She’s a human being.”
Talking to his only son was akin to attempting to communicate with a wall and Mr. Fried’s pleas to appreciate the importance of Jewish roots and lineage fell on deaf ears. Devastated, Mr. Fried called Rabbi Korf in tears and asked him if he could do something, anything, to help. Located as he was 3,000 miles away from Avi and with no Chabad presence in Los Angeles at the time, Rabbi Korf did the only thing he could think of – he wrote a note to the Rebbe asking for a Bracha for Avi.
Three weeks passed and Mr. Fried called Rabbi Korf, this time with positive news.
It seemed that Avi and his fiancé had gone to the local courthouse to get married. As they climbed the many steps leading to the entrance, thoughts swirled in Avi’s head and he began having doubts. It wasn’t the eight years he spent at the Hebrew Academy that had Avi questioning what he was doing – it was his four weeks in Camp Israel that suddenly began replaying themselves in his head. Avi started thinking about his camp counselors and the songs he learned in Gan Israel like “Ain’t Gonna Work on Saturday” suddenly popped into his head. By the time Avi reached the top step, he turned to his bride-to-be and told her he was feeling sick and needed to leave – the wedding ceremony was going to have to wait.
Avi got into bed as soon as he got home and he closed his eyes, waiting for blissful sleep to overtake him and rescue him from the queasiness that had engulfed him as he climbed the courthouse stairs. The minutes turned to hours and as Avi tossed and turned all night long, he thought of his time in Camp Gan Israel and the seeds of spirituality that had been sown in his soul began to sprout vigorously. By the time dawn broke, Avi knew that there was no way he could turn his back on his Yiddishkeit and that the wedding was off.
*Name changed in the interests of privacy
Throughout the month of July, DollarDaily.org will be donating to Gan Yisroel Camps all over the world. Every day, another camp will receive a donation of over $350, cumulated from $1 daily pledges. A summer in Gan Yisroel has a profound effect on campers, immersing them in Yiddishkeit in a fun and enjoyable way.
Subscribe to DollarDaily.org today to partner in the incredible impact on thousands of children.
https://www.dollardaily.org/join-us.php
To apply to receive a donation for your Gan Yisroel go to: https://www.dollardaily.org/request-fund.php
