The students and faculty of the Schultz Rosenberg Campus was honored with a visit by Rabbi Yosef Mendelovitch, author of "To Be a Free Jew," well-known for his adherence to Zionism and public attempts to emigrate to Israel at a time when it was considered to be against the law in the USSR.

 

The Campus' Beit Midrash was filled to standing-room-only, with students from Yavneh and Akiba academies, as well as guests from Levine Academy and the Rae Kushner Yeshiva High School, parents and teachers who sat in awe, and with duly honored respect for this true hero of the Jewish People.

 

Rabbi Yosef Mendelovich

"It is incredible to stand here before you, this is a

demonstration of Am Yisroel Chai," said Rabbi Mendelovitch. "It's beautiful to come from Israel to Dallas, Texas and find a little piece of Israel right here."

 

"I was born in another place, in another time, where learning and living Judaism wasn't possible, this, what you have here, this is a dream come true and you are all very blessed," said Rabbi Mendelovitch. "I can only appreciate this opportunity to stand here before you."

 

"Religion was restricted in the Evil Empire, not just to Jews but to all religions," said the rabbi. "It as forbidden to study, to learn to teach anything to do with Judaism. You couldn't simply 'move to Israel,' you were to assimilate, to just 'be' and to just imagine going to Israel."

 

In 1970 the rabbi, then a young man, was part of a group of sixteen refuseniks who prepared to hijack a Russian aircraft and fly it to Sweden, to freedom. Under the guise of a trip to a wedding, they bought up all the tickets for the local flight on a small 12-seater aircraft. On June 15, 1970, after arriving at Smolnoye Airport near Leningrad, the entire group of the "wedding guests" was arrested. Rabbi Mendelevitch, who was imprisoned for eleven years, said that "I am proud for the attempt to bring freedom to my nation."

 

Rabbi Mendelovitch was interrogated, beaten and suffered the "attempts by those in charge to squeeze our strength out of us and to have us stop all activities and to forget our Jewish lives," he told the audience. "To break us and have us serve them, that was their plan."

 

The rabbi, while imprisoned, was determined to prove that he was a Jew fully before he was a Russian, you could not be both. He prayed in his cell, he ate grass and other natural items to keep kosher, he refused to work on Shabbat, and he wore a handkerchief on his head as a kippah, he feigned illness to get medication - rather the alcohol in the medication in order to make Kiddush on Shabbat - all of which angered his captors. "Even in prison you can be a free man, if you realize that freedom is knowing what you want," he said.

 

In 1981, after 11 years, the rabbi's Russian citizenship was revoked, he was released from prison and driven directly to the airport where he was provided a one-way ticket to Israel. There, he studied in a yeshiva, he received his rabbinical ordination, and he has since made a life of telling his story and teaching Talmud to Russian emigrants - "this, is a gift of a life," he said.

 

Please mark your calendars for next Saturday, November 10 @ 7:30pm, for the first session of our Mishmar class.  The student body is invited to share an evening of learning and pizza.

Please also note December 1 @ 7pm, the Yavneh Family, parents, students and faculty are invited to a Melaveh Malkah with learning, havdalah, and food before the Yavneh Bulldogs play the St. Marks.

We hope you enjoy the Dvar Torah and this week's   

                    Snappy Sentiments  and that share and discuss them at your Shabbat table!    

 

Click here to watch FOX 4's Richard Ray following Yavneh's hosting of the Rae Kushner Yeshiva High School Cobras.