The Jewish Press, October 17, 1997

KEHILA MORESHES YAAKOV BLOOMS IN BROOKLYN

The absolute elation that a parent feels when his child takes his first step is indescribable. Parents can tell and retell every detail of how their baby reached this incredible milestone.

As of March 1997, the Flatbush community is the proud parent of a long awaited child, who in the last six months has not only taken its first step, but has grown from a tiny infant to a budding, mature adult.

Kehila Moreshes Yaakov if the first of its kind in the Russian Jewish community. It is the only Torah-based Russian congregation of its type to have started from a grassroots movement. Unlike the yeshivot for Russians that were organized by concerned American Jews for the benefit of their Russian brothers and sisters, Kehila Moreshes Yaakov is a Torah-based congregation organized by Russian baalei teshuva themselves to serve their own community.

Every group of European Jews that came to these shores in the late 1800s and early 1900s immediately formed their own chevra, or association. Even Americans who move to Eretz Yisrael organize their own chevras. By functioning as a group with others with whom they are comfortable, they get the moral support that they need. The Americans in Eretz Yisrael also relate better to American-born rabbonim who may be more sensitive to their background and particular needs.

The Russian community is no different. But because they were so far removed from yiddishkeit when they came to America, they did not even realize that it was a kehila, a chevra, that they were lacking. American Jews who wanted to help them put all their efforts into Jewish education for the Russian immigrants, since that was seen as the most pressing need at the time. There were no new shuls established for Russian Jewry on these shores. The hope was that the Russian Jews would somehow be absorbed into our shuls.

It did not happen. The Russians were not absorbed by our shuls. Despite gallant efforts by numerous community leaders who arranged for Russian families to join our shuls and homes for Shabbos and Yom Tov, and despite many attempts at bringing the Russian community close to us, few shuls can boast of having even a single Russian member.

Did the American Jewish community misread the situation? Not really. The newcomers did want a spiritual home, but it is almost impossible to get the Russian Jews interested in a shul with services they don’t understand, and to relate to rabbonim who grew up in another culture.

However, the American Jewish community did perhaps make one miscalculation. Our community certainly underestimated the thirst for Torah values that exists within the Russian immigrant community. Other would-be volunteers who became involved with kiruv (outreach) among the immigrants were rejected. Eventually, many gave up trying. Yet the Russians who were thirsty were truly like the fourth son in the Haggada, the son "she’eino yode’a lish’ol" – they had no place to turn. There was not a single rabbi exclusively dedicated to the Russian community, to whom they could talk about yiddishkeit, to whom they could pour out their hearts on a shalom bayit (family) problem, or who could conduct a Jewish funeral service in Russian.

The Almighty creates the refua (cure) before the illness. As Russians were beginning to sense their own needs for what every Jewish kehilla has always had, Rav Avrohom Binsky was brought to America to head a Russian kiruv organization that sought his assistance.

As Rabbi Binsky surveyed the Russian scene here, he found Jews, many Jews, who were seeking true yiddishkeit. The nucleus of one family of baalei teshuva grew to two, then three, and before he knew it, Rabbi Binsky’s shiurim were attended by over 100 people. Today, his shiurim reach out to well over 300 people on a regular basis.

As a rav, Rabbi Binsky is able to reach the entire family unit. He is equally comfortable dealing with the grandparents as with their grandchildren. In the dynamics of the Russian family structure, this multi-generational elements is extremely important. Rabbi Binsky has masterfully utilized his ability to form the kehilla in this vertical manner, giving it ever more stature among the immigrants.

During this period, as the families came closer to yiddishkeit both in quality and quantity, there was a realization that what they sorely lacked was a kehilla and a shul they could call their own.

Which the help of a few American friends, the kehilla was formed. At first, the kehilla got together for shiurim only. Internal pressure soon called for not only learning together but also davening together. With a gift of a Sefer Torah from a relative of the congregation’s president, a shul was opened in Rabbi Binsky’s basement. While they only davened Mincha on Shabbos together for logistical reasons, the basement shul was already too small on the second Shabbos after it opened.

To buy a shul or rent one was out of the question. The congregation is comprised of Russian baalei batim who are just beginning to establish themselves in America. There is not much money to spare in the community.

But a shul was an undeniable necessity. The kehilla could not flourish without it. At the insistence of its few American friends, the congregation rented a room in the basement of the Young Israel of Midwood where tefillot are held every Shabbos, complete with Kiddush, shalosh seudot, and lots of Torah learning. The shiurim have now moved out of Rabbi Binsky’s home and other borrowed homes to the shul.

In only six months, the shul has come a long way.

The Russian congregation is now located in the heart of Flatbush, with a Russian born talmid chacham at the helm. The baalei batim are true bnei Torah, completely committed to Torah and mitzvot. Dozens of Russian immigrants are being brought closer to this inner nucleus which today stands at close to 100 families, with many hundreds more on the periphery.

The members of the community celebrated the graduation of three children of the kehilla from Yeshivat Mir and Yeshiva Chaim Berlin. Other children of Kehila Moreshes Yaakov attend Torah Vodaath, Yeshiva of Brooklyn, and Prospect Pak Yeshiva. They are all continuing in our mainstream yeshivot and, in a few short years, will be the much needed mechanchim (educators) to the Russian community. They are the lucky ones who know the language, understand the mentality, and are true bnei Torah.

For the first time, the congregation held its own davening for the Yamim Nora’im (Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur). Despite the fact that the members are fully committed, davening in Hebrew was still somewhat of a challenge, certainly with the nusach hatefilla of the Yamim Nora’im. To get over this hurdle, a number of American friends of the kehilla, yeshiva leit and baalei batim, davened with the congregation on the High Holidays, to give the davening the flavor of tefillot yamim Nora’im, while joining in this milestone for the kehilla.

Kehila Moreshes Yaakov has taken giant strides in a short period. It is a kiddush Hashem success story of the first order. We invite the American community to join us and participate in this major event. The community needs all the help it cat get.

We share our prayers in this time of tefilla with Rav Binsky and the entire community that Kehila Moreshes Yaakov be only the first of many more kehhilot to sprout for the hundreds of thousands of Russian Jews in this country who so sorely need it.