Old Timer Returns to the Wheel

By COLlive reporter

Thanks to a pilot program at this year’s Kinus Hashluchim convention in New York, Rabbi Mendel Katzman got to relive an old tradition of his from back in the day.

In his youth, Katzman, today Director of Chabad-Lubavitch of Nebraska, would hop on a motorhome every Friday and drive it to Manhattan, while a loudspeaker blared chassidic music and offered Jewish passersby to do a mitzvah.

This past Friday, around 30 years later, he was one of the Shluchim who led a Mitzvah Tank as part of a project in memory of Rabbi Dovid Raskin OBM, the late Chairman of Lubavitch Youth Organization (Tzach).

“It is our great zechus that the Shluchim personally participated in
the activities of the Mitzva Tanks,” said Rabbi Shmuel Butman, Director of Lubavitch Youth Organization and Chairman of the Mitzvah Tank Project.

“They are the real ‘Tankisten’ bringing light, inspiration and commitment to our brethren all over the world,” he added.

The group of bochurim and shluchim stood on the street asking Chabad’s signature question “Are you Jewish?” and then proceeded to help Jewish males put on Tefillin. Jewish women received Shabbos candles.

They were joined by Yoav Shamir, an Israeli filmmaker who is filming a documentary about the Rebbe and Lubavitch for Channel 10.

When he joined Rabbi Katzman and the fellow Tank-riders for the trip to Manhattan, he was offered to put on Tefillin as well. He refused. But after spending a few hours with the enthusiastic Lubavitchers, he too, rolled up his sleeve and extended his right arm.