Try this: Stop at various cities and towns within a ten mile
radius of the city of Rechovot, flag down any pedestrians you
see, and ask them for directions to Rabbi Tzvi Schwartz's
outreach center. Chances are that every one of them will know
the way.
To get a sense of what Rabbi Schwartz has achieved in
Rechovot, merely tag along with him for an hour or two. Even
a casual walk down the street is an eye-opener. Every few
paces Rabbi Schwartz pauses to chat with men or women of all
ages, backgrounds and religious leanings. He addresses them
all by their first names, and he manages somehow to remember
each person's job, marital status and number of offspring. "
. . . And how is your son doing in law school?" he will ask a
middle-aged Rechovot matron.
Another few paces, and, "Nu, how is the Air Force treating
you?" he queries a crew-cut youth clad in denim with a black
leather jacket.
Rabbi Schwartz set off on his career of kiruv rechokim
thirty-five years ago, as a representative of P'eylim. At
the time, Rechovot was certainly no stronghold of
religion.
The city was first settled in the late 1800's by a group of
fifteen idealistic, Torah-observant Jews who had sailed from
Russia to Palestine intending to found their own agricultural
settlement. This group called themselves the BILU, an acronym
for the Hebrew phrase, "Bais Yaakov Lechu Veneilcho --
House of Jacob, come let us go forth." The continuation of
the posuk is: "be'or Hashem -- with the light
of G-d."
However, with secular Zionism dominating the scene as the
settlement developed, the descendants of the original group
of Torah-observant settlers gradually abandoned the ways of
Torah, and by the time Rabbi Schwartz arrived on the scene,
religion had all but vanished from the area. Atheistic-minded
intellectuals who taught and studied at the Weizman
Institute, along with the decidedly anti-religious members of
the dozen or so Shomer Hatzair kibbutzim that surrounded the
city, set the tone of the region.
Rabbi Schwartz built his outreach center in this spiritual
wasteland through sheer determination. He worked with
tireless devotion, showering love and personal attention on
his new students, as if each one were his own child. For many
years Rabbi Schwartz worked single-handedly, spending all day
involved in outreach work and raising funds to support his
activities by night. Rabbi Tzvi Eliach, another old-time
member of P'eylim who today serves on Lev L'Achim's
directorate, recalls fondly the days when a much younger Tzvi
Schwartz showed up regularly at his yeshiva dorm in
Yerushalayim, collecting five-lira pledges from the
bochurim who studied there. In those days traveling
from Rechovot to Yerushalayim was no simple matter -- it was
a grueling trip, involving hours of travel on miserably
inadequate roads; yet that never deterred Rabbi Schwartz.
Today the picture is altogether different. P'eylim / Lev
L'Achim's facility in Rechovot disseminates Torah knowledge
to residents of Rechovot and a large area surrounding it,
including such cities as Yavne, Mazkeret Batya, Nes Tziona,
Rishon Letzion, Gederah and Kiryat Ekron. Rabbi Schwartz has
touched countless lives over the course of the past few
decades, and thousands of people have come back to the ways
of Torah as a result.
Rabbi Schwartz no longer works alone. The facility has a
staff of forty full-time outreach professionals who
coordinate over seventy weekly beginner-level lectures in
various sites throughout the region, including the Weizman
Institute, local public schools and community centers. The
lectures focus on highly relevant contemporary issues, and
most target nonobservant men and women in their 20's and
30's. Over 1,400 individuals participate regularly in these
lectures.
The public lecture program is an effective method of
disseminating Torah knowledge among the populace, but it is
also an important element in the scheme of Lev L'Achim's
broader outreach work. At least five outreach workers attend
each lecture, mingling with the audience, getting to know
them personally, and handing out questionnaires. Participants
are asked to fill in their names and telephone numbers, and
to indicate whether they are interested in finding out more
about Judaism. These questionnaires are then computer-
processed at Lev L'Achim's headquarters.
The personal data that participants provide in the
questionnaires enable staff members to track everyone's
progress, and to determine the best ways of keeping each
individual motivated: Those who attended a lecture for the
first time, for example, receive a schedule of upcoming
events in the mail, while individuals who have begun
attending lectures on a regular basis receive a phone call or
a personal visit from one of the center's outreach
professionals.
The center's vibrant beis hamedrash boasts many
accomplished Torah scholars who developed their potential in
Torah learning there. The beis hamedrash, which bears
a plaque marking a Hachnosas Sefer Torah commemorating Rabbi
Avrohom Hirsch zt'l, the indefatigable leader of the
American P'eylim movement, is a truly unique learning
environment where one can find professors and nuclear
physicists from the nearby Weizman Institute sitting shoulder
to shoulder with fighter-pilots from the local air base. A
number of distinguished scientists have taken sabbaticals,
not to travel or to work on theses or doctoral dissertations,
but to spend twelve- to fourteen-hour days in the Rechovot
facility's beis hamedrash.
Among numerous other activities, Rabbi Schwartz and his staff
assist newly observant individuals and couples in their
struggle to overcome the discouraging, seemingly
insurmountable obstacles that threaten to prevent them from
returning to the ways of Torah. Drastic changes in lifestyle,
difficult decisions regarding their children's education, and
strained relations with family, friends and employers are
just a few of the problematic issues with which ba'alei
teshuvah must contend as they embark on their path of
return. The Rechovot facility offers sensitive, intelligent
and well-informed personal tutors to everyone who would
benefit from them.
Rabbi Schwartz and his dynamic staff coordinate all of this
manifold activity from severely cramped headquarters. The
main complex consists of four small rooms and a maze of
cubbyhole-sized side chambers. This facility serves as
central synagogue, study hall, lecture room, auditorium,
consultation room, and dining area. Rabbi Schwartz's own
"executive cubicle" doubles as a cassette library.
To say that the Rechovot center is overcrowded and inadequate
for Lev L'Achim's ever-expanding needs is a gross
understatement. No more than one activity at a time can be
held there, and due to the severe shortage of space, only a
few people can participate in any given program. The beis
medrash is filled to overflowing -- not even one more
chair can fit in the room. Students sit along hallways and
staircases and, weather permitting, in the center's outdoor
parking lot. Classes are held in an apartment across the
street.
The office and computer department are located in an adjacent
building, while the Women's Division consists of a dozen
rented apartments scattered throughout the city. Precious
time and energy is spent transporting educational materials
back and forth between the center's far-flung divisions.
Creating a positive learning environment under these
extremely limiting conditions poses a major challenge.
Since Lev L'Achim has no proper auditorium of its own, public
lectures must be held in municipal buildings, where outreach
work is prohibited as a matter of policy. Outreach
professionals are not permitted to enter the lecture hall,
nor may they distribute questionnaires, literature or any
recorded materials. Understandably, these cumbersome
restrictions severely impede their efforts.
Lev L'Achim's current Rechovot facility has no space for
private consultation rooms, to accommodate discussion of
sensitive matters with newly observant individuals. At
present, such discussions must be held in a quiet hallway, in
the relative privacy of the kitchen balcony, or during a
stroll along the sidewalks of downtown Rechovot. Likewise,
additional manpower is desperately needed to deal with the
constant increase in Lev L'Achim's programs and activities,
yet there is no space available to accommodate more
employees. Considering the physical restrictions with which
Rabbi Schwartz has been working all these years, his
achievements are nothing short of miraculous. Yet the Sages
tell us, "Ein somchin al hanes -- do not rely on
miracles."
In early 1998, Lev L'Achim's directorate resolved to
construct a suitable facility in which to house the Rechovot
branch. A plot of land at 27 Zechariah Madar Street was
acquired for this purpose in mid-October, 1998. Municipal
authorities approved the architectural plans in early
December, and construction is scheduled to begin immediately.
Funds have been collected to erect the foundations and the
basic supporting structure of the building, and now intensive
efforts are under way to raise the funds necessary to
complete the entire building by the summer of the year
2000.
Last motzei Shabbos, Rabbi Schwartz's thriving
community of newly observant families and single students
pooled their considerable talents in a gala event in honor
the upcoming ground breaking, and to raise the funds to
complete the building project. The owners of an elegant hall
in Nes Tziona -- who had themselves returned to the path of
Torah with Rabbi Schwartz's help -- generously hosted the
evening at minimal cost, and more than 500 people
attended.
Rabbi Simcha Hacohen Kook, chief rabbi of Rechovot, opened
the evening, stressing that the new facility will serve as a
beacon of Torah knowledge not only to the city of Rechovot,
but to the entire region. "In a year or two," Rabbi Kook
said, "when Lev L'Achim's new building is completed, all of
us will want to point it out to our children, telling them
with pride, `I too have a portion in it.'" Rabbi Kook made a
personal pledge of $1,000 to the new building and urged
everyone present to do likewise.
The Mayor of Rechovot, Yehoshua Forer (Likud), addressed the
gathering with words that were very much in tune with the
religious sensitivities of the audience. He expressed his
sense of pride over his own small share in helping Lev
L'Achim expand its scope of operations in Rechovot. "Words
cannot possibly grasp the importance of Rabbi Schwartz's
work," the mayor said. "All of the citizens of Rechovot --
religious and non-religious alike -- benefit from the newly
awakened interest in traditional values of Judaism that Rabbi
Schwartz and his staff are disseminating among the
populace."
Rabbi Mordechai Neugroschel, paraphrasing the words of
Chazal, referred to Rabbi Schwartz as "the entity that
strikes the city of Rechovot and says to it: `grow!'" He
expounded on the deeper meaning of the letters that comprise
the name Lev L'Achim. "The letter lamed, when used as
a preposition, means `toward,' which symbolizes movement. As
for the letter bais, it means `into,' which symbolizes
depth and internalization. This is the essence of Lev L'Achim
-- to mobilize people throughout the country who can connect
with the internal essence of every Jew."
Rabbi Neugroschel compared the Lev L'Achim activists to the
craftsmen of the Mishkan:
"As Ramban points out, the men who worked under Betzalel, who
had no previous training in such fine craftsmanship, should
not have been able to manufacture the delicate vessels of the
Mishkan. Yet their artistry defied all logic, and their
efforts were crowned with complete success, for Hashem
rewarded their mesiras nefesh by performing a miracle
on their behalf.
"Similarly, logic dictates that only people who are well-
versed in the combined disciplines of psychology, public
speaking, sociology and theology should be able succeed in
such extensive outreach work; yet we find that Lev L'Achim's
activists, each with his own diverse talents and background,
are bringing thousands upon thousands of Jews back to their
roots. How can we explain this? Hashem rewards Lev L'Achim's
activists for their mesiras nefesh, performing
miracles on their behalf."
Rabbi Neugroschel urged Jews everywhere to help Lev L'Achim's
organizers with the considerable financial burden that
accompanies their efforts to bring Jews back to the ways of
the Torah. "We -- those of us who realize the importance of
Yiddishkeit -- are obligated to supply people like
Rabbi Schwartz with the gasoline they need to fuel their
activities."
Rabbi Eliezer Sorotzkin, Lev L'Achim's Director General,
served as the master of ceremonies. At one point he called
Reb Eliyahu Schwartz, Rabbi Tzvi Schwartz's elderly father,
to the podium for an impromptu appearance. In impeccable
Yiddish, Reb Eliyahu intoned an impassioned plea to the
Ribono Shel Olom that He bless the Jewish People with
peace, eliminate all internal strife and dissension, and
assist every Jew in the world who endeavors to disseminate
Torah among the populace. The overwhelming majority of those
in attendance could not understand a single word he said, yet
the intensity of his plea struck a chord deep within
everyone's heart.
As the evening drew to a close Rabbi Uri Zohar rose to the
podium and showered more praises on Rabbi Schwartz. His
speech concluded, the audience broke out in spontaneous song
and dance, invigorated with all they had seen and heard in
this unforgettable display of selfless dedication to Torah.
Rabbi Schwartz found himself surrounded by concentric circles
of dancers.
The organizers of the dinner report that a large number of
signed pledges were handed in at the dinner -- beyond even
the most optimistic expectations. "Boruch Hashem,"
concluded a cheerful but visibly exhausted Rabbi
Schwartz, "it's a very good start."
