Grapevine: ‘Ani ma’amin’

This Shabbat, for the Torah reading of Jethro, prior to the new month of Adar, Chabad of Talbiyeh-Mamilla will host Modzitz hassidim in a Shabbat of Unity of the People of Israel at the former President Hotel, 3 Ahad Ha’am St.

The occasion is special because this year is a Jewish leap year in which there are two months of Adar, with Purim celebrated in the second Adar. The Jewish leap year occurs seven times in a 19-year cycle.

Cantor Yisrael Hershtik will lead the service with his powerful voice, singing Chabad and Modzitz melodies and praying for unity, followed by a kiddush. Why is Modzitz so important at this time? Because the most widely sung melody to “Ani Ma’amin” (“I believe”) is that of Azriel David Fastag, a Moditzer hassid, whose compositions were frequently sung in the court of the Modzitzer Rebbe Shaul Yedidya Elazar Taub. Fastag composed the haunting melody to “Ani Ma’amin” in a cattle car on the way to the Treblinka death camp; the melody was inspired by the chugging of the train.

He pledged half of his share in the world to come to anyone who could take his final composition to the Moditzer Rebbe, who had escaped from Europe at the war’s onset. Two men agreed and leapt from the moving train. One died from the fall, but the other survived and eventually located the Rebbe’s son in the Land of Israel. The son sent the musical score to his father in Brooklyn, New York, who sang it to a packed congregation the following Yom Kippur, and everyone wept.

Chabad has a more joyful tune to “Ani Ma’amin,” which is often sung at weddings and has been recorded by popular Chabad singer Avraham Fried. The Modzitzer Rebbe was a great composer and a phenomenally gifted scholar . He twice visited the Land of Israel from Poland, long before the Holocaust, and believed that a Jewish state would come into being. Ironically, he died on November 29, 1947, the day when the UN voted in favor of the partition of Palestine.

As space is limited, reserve a place by writing to chabadmamila@gmail.com

Shurat HaDin head speaks

■ THE JERUSALEM Anglo Women’s Club has resumed its activities following a wartime hiatus. It will host its monthly Rosh Hodesh luncheon on Thursday, February 8, at Kehillat Mevakshei Derech, 22 Shai Agnon Blvd., at 12:45 p.m. Entrance is NIS 50.

 The guest speaker will be Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, an international lawyer and human rights activist who has devoted much of her career to representing hundreds of terror victims in legal actions against terror organizations and their supporters. She initiated a legal campaign to deprive terrorists of social media such as Facebook and X, and assisted in blocking the Gaza flotilla. Founder and president of Shurat HaDin – Israeli Law Center, she will speak on “Taking Israel’s Enemies to Court.”

Celebrating bar mitzvah anniversaries 

■ IT HAS become fashionable in Israel to celebrate milestone anniversaries of bar mitzvahs, especially among men aged 83. Additionally, many Holocaust survivors and those who grew up in the Soviet Union, where it was rare to mark a bar mitzvah, are now able to celebrate with all the religious and secular trimmings thanks to organizations ensuring they can make up for the lost opportunity.

Last Shabbat, congregants at the Migdal Hashoshanim synagogue, popularly known as Pinsker, celebrated the bar-mitzvah anniversaries of two members. Dr. Manny Wasserman, a retired orthodontist and expert Torah reader, who taught many bar-mitzvah boys in California before making his home in Jerusalem, read the Torah portion for the week; and Jay Shapiro read the haftarah, which last week was the second-longest of them all. Wasserman celebrated his second bar mitzvah, and Shapiro decided not to wait for a milestone year but celebrated the 76th anniversary of his bar mitzvah.

The Pinsker kiddush is always sumptuous, but the one sponsored by the Wasserman and Shapiro families was above and beyond!

Tu Bishvat fair

■ MADE IN Israel, the Tu Bishvat fair co-hosted by Yad Ben Zvi and KKL-JNF, originally scheduled for last month, will now take place next Friday, February 9, at Yad Ben-Zvi, 14 Ibn Gabirol St., Rehavia. It will feature fruit, flowers, and vegetables grown by farmers in the Gaza border communities and the North, brought to Jerusalem directly from the fields and orchards.

Israel’s agricultural output is in peril due to labor scarcity. Family farms that have existed for two, three, and four generations may have to cease operations due to this and rising water and electricity costs – and the tendency by some supermarkets to purchase wholesale from foreign growers, such as Turkey, a country not exactly well disposed toward Israel.

It is a patriotic gesture to pay a little more per kilo and support Israeli agriculture and individual Israeli farmers. The fair will also include books, musical performances by Moti Zeira and singer Meital Trabelsi, tours of Jerusalem, workshops, a coffee bar, and more. For inquiries, call (02) 539-8888.

Rabbi Shalom Rosner heads English-language religious studies

■ THE JERUSALEM College of Technology (JCT) has announced the appointment of noted educator Rabbi Shalom Rosner as head of its English-language religious studies program for English-speaking students at Machon Lev, JTC’s campus for men.

As a JCT faculty member, Rosner will help set up the Torah environment for students who find it more convenient to study in English. Rosner is due to take up his post in September 2024. A rabbinical graduate of Yeshiva University, he was a popular lecturer in Woodmere, New York, for six years prior to settling in Israel in 2008. His lectures are broadcast online and followed by thousands in Israel and abroad. Rosner is best known for his ability to clarify the most complex issues in the Torah and the Talmud and is widely regarded as being a caring teacher and mentor.

greerfc@gmail.com