Brooklyn Heights Chabad Saluted

By: Sarah Schmerler
Photos: Levi Tenenbaum

The sky was bright and sunny at six pm as the more than 350 guests arrived to the Museum of Jewish Heritage on the tip of lower Manhattan for Congregation B’nai Avraham’s 23rd Anniversary dinner.

Outside: panoramic windows yielded breathtaking views of the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, the Hudson River, and beyond, the Jersey skyline; inside, the mood was electrifying. First the crowd hit the open bar; they began to feast on sushi and lamb, charcuterie and a mouth-watering display of side dishes and fruits while the sky delivered an amazing sunset. By eight o’clock it was time to file downstairs to the auditorium for the more official part of the evening, but already some were wont to remark that the mood had escalated to a kind of spiritual high at seeing so many people at so joyous an occasion.

The M.C. of the evening, the Honorable Steve Cohen, started it all off by introducing Dinner Chairman Judge Willy Thompson. Appropriately enough, Thompson spoke wholeheartedly (and of personal experience!) of other dinners, namely, those given every Friday night by CBA Rebbetzin Shternie Raskin.

Rosen rejoined, “We have finished the first 23 years but we have much much more to accomplish. Hopefully, together with your support, we can bring G-d and yiddishkeit to every resident in Downtown Brooklyn.” Rabbi Aaron Raskin, spiritual leader of CBA, came next with a Dvar Torah of the week’s Torah portion, focusing on its opening words, “Vayikra el Moshe (and G-d called out to Moses). “Rashi says that the terminology of Vayikra is a terminology of Love,” began Raskin, “and why did G-d call Moses ‘with Love’? Rashi explains that this is because Moses was humble. He saw the last generation of Jews at the threshold of Moshiach, a generation that neither saw the revelation of Sinai, nor the manna that came down for 40 years, nor even the splitting of the red sea — and yet this generation our generation the last generation of Exile and the first generation of Redemption was very special. Seeing this generation doing the mitzvos and studying Torah diligently made Moses humble. Therefore,” he went on, “G-d called Moses with love. Now tonight we have in the audience over 350 guests of honor, because each one of us is born with the spark of Moses, the potential for greatness. We are, all of us, hardwired to succeed, and all we have to do is ‘vayikra’ call out to one another with love and affection and admiration. In this way we will reveal the Moses in every individual.”

Then came the Honor Roll, and an impressive list it was Robert Henoch, Esq. (of the Law Firm Kobre and Kim), the Dinner’s “Man of the Year,” came first, offering some important insights into both psychology and the living of a Torah life as born out by the example of the professional athlete. What’s the reason so many athletes ‘choke? It’s because they use the brain’s pre-frontal cortex too much, namely, they worry about outcome, about whether or not they will be successful. “It’s better if we stop thinking so much and just do,” adjured Henoch, “Do mitzvot. I always wanted to become more observant, so now I don’t worry what people will say. I advise that we don’t over analyze when it comes to our Jewish lifestyle, rather, each one of us should live life to the fullest. When it comes to mitzvot, you just do what you’ve got to do.”

Sheila Kaplan, MSW, MSIS, a fierce and steady advocate for children’s privacy, came next. She accepted the Woman of the Year Award remarking, as she thanked the shul profusely for honoring her, that her humble beginnings (though she was born upstate) really began in Brooklyn, near Ebbets Field.(Kaplan penned a bill that has already passed the New York State Senate and will hopefully soon be signed into law — protecting student privacy; on the topic of young people, it’s Chaya Raskin and her weekly challah-sharing visits that Kaplan particularly cherishes about CBA.) Penny Rosen, board member and co-founder of CBA, introduced her brother Todd Blinder, D.M.D., former oral surgeon and current tireless leader of the synagogue’s physical plant reconstruction, for the Kesser Shem Tov Award. He donated many hours and days to of hand-on labor build his local Chabad house in Florida, and now, as well, he’s ever on site in Brooklyn, effecting so many essential repairs. Blinder, in turn, thanked everyone at CBA for welcoming him, laying tefillin with him, making him feel at home despite the fact that he didn’t come from observance. “I feel that this is my extended family,” he said, “I feel such a camaraderie and warmth from everybody in the shul.”

Alan Shulsinger, M.D., received the Maimonides Healing Arts Award, explaining with great candor and sincerity the sources of his serious involvement with both medicine and Yiddishkeit. He became a doctor after the untimely death of his sister, yet still he felt a big void in his life.

Eventually, a few Hassidim in Crown Heights, none other than Rabbi Tevel and his sons, came to visit him. Tevel had a big bump of his head, delivered by the back of a Nazi’s gun yet he was always smiling and joyous. He gave Shulsinger a d’var Torah, inquiring from Shulsinger where he lived. When Shulsinger replied ‘Brooklyn Heights,’ Tevel adjured him, “You know, there’s a shaliach in Brooklyn Heights.” And today Shulsinger has five children and a beautiful wife, all of them living in a kosher and sabbath-observing home. “For us, too” Shulsinger closed, “B’nai Avraham is an extended family.”

The youngest honoree, Warren Cohen, came last (and as the crowd soon learned, decidedly NOT least) to accept the Leadership Award. Tulane University’s (Cohen’s Alma Mater) Chabad shaliach Rabbi Yochanan Rivkin was on hand to introduce him. “In 2005 we had Hurricane Katrina,” Rivkin announced, “and in 2006 we had Hurricane Warren!” Rivkin went on to prove how Cohen (whose acts of chesed during that tragedy involved shepherding necessary medical supplies and personnel to a pop-up pediatric hospital) had helped “Chabad of Tulane grow exponentially. There used to be 30 people at dinner on Friday nights,” Rivkin explained, “but by the time Warren graduated there were 150.” Warren himself, got up. He thanked everyone present for coming. He spoke of the Rebbe’s practice of giving out dollar bills as a blessing every Sunday, and in true, hands-on style, opened his jacket to reveal two inner pockets stuffed with dollars. With the help of Mendy Raskin, the crowd soon received the dollars making them shluchim, in a sense, providing them with the chance to participate in the Rebbe’s teaching that ‘zedakah mkareves ha geulah’ –Charity hastens the geulah, the ultimate Redemption, of Moshiach in our time.

Jewbilation, singing duet extraordinaire, topped off the lineup with “The Sounds of Shabbos” sung to the tune of Simon and Garfunkle’s hit “The Sounds of Silence” and everyone went back to the main room to davven Ma’ariv and taste from the array of sumptuous desserts.

By this time the stars had come out.

Perhaps in more ways than one. Sheila Kaplan remarked privately to Rabbi Raskin, “It felt that as if my mother’s soul were here tonight.” Observed Raskin, “The spirit of the dinner reached that kind of plateau. So great was the sense of warmth and unity in the room. Even a soul from beyond could shep the nachas.”

Despite the loveliness of the setting, the warmth of the candlelit room, a keen, unspoken longing was felt by all for a change of locale: May the next year’s Annual Dinner be held, not on the edge of the Hudson. but in the City of Jerusalem, with the coming of Moshiach. May he not tarry!!