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NEWS
HaRav Shteinman: "Everyone has an Obligation to
Participate in Lev L'Achim"
by A. Cohen
At a special emergency meeting held last Friday afternoon in
the home of HaRav Aharon Leib Shteinman, the Rosh Yeshiva
told representatives of various bnei Torah kehillos in
Bnei Brak, "Everyone has an obligation to participate in the
activities of Lev L'Achim [by covering] the cost of enrolling
at least one child in the Torah-based education [system]."
Some thirty avreichim talmidei chachomim--summoned to
help boost public participation in the Lev L'Achim
fundraising drive held on Shabbos Behaaloscho--were on
hand.
During the meeting, which lasted over an hour, HaRav
Shteinman said, " . . . Diamonds are rolling in the streets.
Saving children is both Torah and chesed, as Maran
HaRav Eliashiv, shlita, instructed, for `Kulhu
isnehu beih [it includes everything].' Many children from
homes that do not keep Torah and mitzvos can be brought into
the Torah education [system], and every individual must be a
partner in this. This is a situation in which people are
drowning in the river, and in such situations one does not
ask questions."
HaRav Chizkiyohu Mishkovsky also spoke to the participants,
describing the big opportunities that must be created, such
as opening new nursery school and kindergarten classes at
Torah-based schools, saying it all depends on how many homes
Lev L'Achim is able to reach and how many parents can be
spoken to. "The public must snap our of its indifference.
This is a true case of hatzolas nefoshos. The problem
is that financial strain prevents us from enrolling and
[sending] fieldworkers to do the work. If, chas
vesholom, we do not work with full vigor and to the full
extent, [our present achievements] are liable to be affected,
since classrooms in which do not have a sufficient number of
students and will not receive [additional students] will be
in danger of closure. The expenses in bringing a child to a
Torah-based school come to an average of $100." He asked each
of the participants at the meeting to present the facts to
the members of their respective kehillos and to call
on each and every individual to donate at least $100 to the
fundraising drive.
Lev L'Achim Director Rabbi Eliezer Sorotzkin, who was the
last to speak at the gathering, said, "This is a time of
testing, as marshi'ei habris are making concerted
efforts to disrupt and sabotage our work, and we cannot allow
a situation in which instead of increasing and strengthen the
work, we diminish it because of budgetary problems. There was
tremendous his'orerus during the Shabbos fundraising
drive, rabbonim and gedolei Torah spoke and roused the
tzibbur, but now on the entire tzibbur has an
obligation to become a partner, and toward this end we have
gathered here in the home of the Rosh Yeshiva shlita,
to ask the heads of the tzibbur to act upon
congregants to encourage each of them to commit to the cost
of enrolling at least one child."
The great importance HaRav Shteinman attaches to the
enrollment work of Lev L'Achim to bring yaldei Yisroel
to Torah-based education and to return lost children to Our
Father in Heaven infused each of the participants in the
emergency meeting with a sense of mission and a feeling of
responsibility to do everything in his power in order to
provide the means to continue the work of enrolling
students.
According to the Lev L'Achim administration, donations to the
Shabbos fundraising drive can be made by credit card at the
education telephone headquarters at 1-800-550-300 or via
gabboim at various botei knesses.
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