A short clip on the CGI Parksville visiting the Rebbe in honor of Chof Av. The camp video is available for preorder on this link.
Rabbis Gather For Yarchei Kallah @ CGINY
Leading Chabad rabbis, Rosh Yeshivas and Mashpiim from around the world are meeting in the Catskills for the annual Yarchei Kallah.
By COLlive reporter
Photos by N&M Photos
Leading rabbis, Rosh Yeshivas and Mashpiim have traveled from around the world to the Catskill Mountains this week to participate in the annual Global Yarchei Kallah summit.
Held in the pastoral setting of Camp Gan Israel in Parksville, NY, it is the largest, ongoing gathering of Torah scholars of this generation brought together by Rabbi Abraham Shemtov, Chairman of Agudas Chassidei Chabad International.
Continue reading “Rabbis Gather For Yarchei Kallah @ CGINY”Campers Travel to the Ohel on Chof Av
It is a memory that is vivid in the minds of those who were zoche to be present: the Rebbe leads a farbrengen on Chof Av, the yahrtzeit of his father, R Levi Yitzchok. Joining the other chassidim are the campers and staff of Camp Gan Yisroel – NY.
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Continue reading “Campers Travel to the Ohel on Chof Av”Rabbi Ceitlin Uplifted at CGINY
Shliach Rabbi Aaron Eliezer Ceitlin visited the Catskills this week before a medical procedure and was in for an uplifting surprise.
By COLlive reporter
Rabbi Aaron Eliezer Ceitlin, one of the Shluchim the Rebbe personally sent to Israel who is currently battling an illness, spent this past Shabbos in New York’s beautiful Catskills mountains.
But that wasn’t the reason why the known Shliach and Mashpia came on Friday afternoon to Camp Gan Israel, an overnight Chabad boys camp in Parksville.
“I wanted to be in the ‘daled amos’ of the Rebbe,” he told the camp’s directors, Rabbi Avraham Shemtov and Rabbi Yossi Futerfas, who gladly extended an invitation.
Rabbi Ceitlin, Director of the Chabad kindergarten network in Tzfas which educates close to 2,000 children, has been diagnosed with a very rare type of malignant growth before Pesach 5775. A group of colleagues, with the public’s financial support, have sent him for treatment in the USA.
After months of daily treatment and before an important medical procedure, a little change of scenery was needed. He thought of Camp Gan Israel, a location which the Rebbe visited on 3 rare occasions.
He was joined by his wife Ruty Ceitlin, son Heshy Ceitlin, family friends Rabbi Yisroel Shimon and Chani Kalmenson of Crown Heights, and relative Rabbi Yehuda Ceitlin, a Chabad Shliach in Tucson, AZ
Over Shabbos, Rabbi Aaron Eliezer Ceitlin davened in the main camp shul with the spirited campers and staff members. Following the Shabbos day meal, he sat with Rabbi Shemtov for an hours-long farbrengen in preparation for Chof Av, yartzeit of Rabbi Levi Yitzchok Schneerson OBM, father of the Rebbe.
One of the stories Rabbi Ceitlin told was of an elderly Jewish man named Itkin who told him the following story about Reb Levik that happened in the Ukrainian city of Ekaterinoslav (today Dnepropetrovsk).
This Jew once came to Reb Levik’s shul and was shocked to see the people to his right immediately rise from their chairs. He turned to his left and see the same honor being given to him as well. He was even more shocked to discover that the entire congregation had stood up upon his entrance.
It was only after he took a few steps into the Shul that he saw Reb Levik himself walking over to him to hand a siddur to the guest. Out of respect to the legendary rabbi and scholar, the entire congregation had stood up.
Rabbi Ceitlin concluded, “Reb Levik led the first Chabad House. He certainly had people that could have welcomed the guest or passed along a siddur. But he saw a Jewish person enter and wanted to greet the Yiddishe neshama himself.”
“Reb Levik was an example of spreading Yiddishkeit with self-sacrifice,” he added. “We can learn from him to have self-sacrifice for our own Yiddishkeit and have self-sacrifice to help others with their Yiddishkeit.”
Sicha to CGINY Campers after Mincha Chof AV 5749 August 21, 1989
After the Rebbe stopped holding Farbrengens during the weekdays, the Rebbe would deliver a Sicha after Mincha and/or Maariv on Chof Av. Drawing lessons from the nature of the day, the Rebbe brought to the forefront Horav Levi Yitzchok’sdedication toward Jewish education.
The Rebbe encouraged that resolutions be taken in his memory, to strengthen matters relating to Jewish education.
An address to the campers of Gan Israel New York, on the Yahrzeit of the Rebbe’s father, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson:
The primary purpose of my father’s self-sacrifice was the education of Jewish children under communist.
Staff Play of 5775
As the campers gathered on the soccer field of Camp Gan Yisroel-NY, you could see anticipation written on their faces. Spellbound, they watched each carefully orchestrated scene with interest.
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Continue reading “Staff Play of 5775”