Very Interesting Story showing the importance of avoiding machlokes with a hint of something that may be interpreted by many as hashgacha pratis. Rabbi Yossi and Mariashi Groner have been emissaries of the Rebbe in North Carolina since 1980. Rabbi Groner relates: One of the programs we established in our early years in Charlotte was an after-school program for children. In 1985 we recognized the need for a preschool. The community preschool was full and we had had requests from parents to open one. We met with the administration of the existing Jewish preschool to speak with them about our desire to open a preschool. They voted not to stand in our way and actually encouraged us to open. After running our preschool successfully for a number of years, parents began to ask us to open a Jewish day school, starting one grade at a time. A community day school did exist but it was not Orthodox. We wrote a letter to the Rebbe asking if we should open a day school. The Rebbe responded that we should not open our own day school because it would be divisive and that is not what Lubavitch is about. One of the parents in our preschool who was Orthodox decided to write a letter to the Rebbe. In a rather forceful and aggressive way, he told the Rebbe that he really wanted us to start a day school and he couldnt understand why the Rebbe was not concerned with the Jewish welfare of the children in Charlotte. The Rebbe responded, It will bring to division and war. This is not the matter of Lubavitch at all. Two years later, the community day school closed. We took the opportunity to write to the Rebbe again, and explained that now that the school had closed we had the opportunity to start a day school. The Rebbes response was that we should speak to the Rebbes secretariat. We spoke to the Rebbes chief secretary, Rabbi Chaim Mordechai Chadakov. Rabbi Chadakov told us, The reason the Rebbe wanted you to speak with me is because the Rebbe wants you to know that the establishment of the school must be bdarkei noam ubdarkei shalom - in a pleasant and peaceful manner. With that instruction in mind, we established the Charlotte Jewish Day School. The school has been, thank G-d, quite successful. Our Jewish studies classes have always been very warm, educational, non-judgmental. Jewish children and families from all walks of life feel comfortable in our school. And everything is done according to halacha (Jewish law). At a certain point a number of lay leaders - including a very influential philanthropist - put pressure on us that the school should be pluralistic and that all kinds of viewpoints should be taught in the school. We were called to a meeting with these people. Mariashi and I discussed at length how we would put to rest the arguments of the lay leaders at the upcoming meeting. The night before our meeting, as we were discussing what our approach would be, I commented to my wife, We always wrote to the Rebbe when we had issues with the community and the Rebbe would advise us how we should act and what we should say. And, now we dont have that option. The next morning, at 6:30 a.m. when I arrived at our Chabad House for the morning minyan, I went into my office and saw that there was a long fax that had come at some point in the night. I looked at it hastily and saw that it was a copy of a letter from the Rebbe. After the morning prayers finished, I took the fax and began to read the letter. There were two letters. The first letter was to an educator in Israel who was coming under pressure to change the school. The letter said, ...: To the fundamental question about the schools administration, he is correct when he writes that above all, the main thing is the benefit to the students and success in their studies and their education....the hope is strong that finally even those who dont consider the benefit to students, for whatever reason, will see the truth... I took the letter home to my wife and we studied it together. It was clear from the Rebbes letter that what is most important in education is to always have in mind what is best for the children. This must be the over-riding concern. We understood that at the meeting that day, our question about any proposed changes would be, Is this for the benefit of the children? At the actual meeting, each time a change was proposed, we asked, Is this for the benefit of the children? Does it have educational value? Or is it only for the benefit of a political viewpoint or agenda? The proposed changes were not discussed again and we were never asked to attend a follow-up meeting. We were still trying to figure out how did this letter come to us, out of the blue, with the precise answer we needed and the night before we needed it. To satisfy my curiosity, I called my father (Rabbi Leibel Groner, a member of the Rebbes secretariat) and asked if he had faxed the letter to me. He assured me he had not. I then called Rabbi Yaakov Chazan who worked in the Rebbes library at the time. I had been in the middle of a family research project for someone in the community. This man was not Jewish but had ancestors who were Chasidim. I had been in touch with Rabbi Chazan, to get some historical facts on behalf of this person. Rabbi Chazan said he had come across a letter of the Rebbe written in 1964 to Kadish Luz, speaker of the Israeli Knesset, a relative of this person. He told me that he would send it to me. But weeks passed and I did not receive the letter. The second of the two letters that had been faxed to me before the meeting was a letter to Kadish Luz. When I reached Rabbi Chazan he told me the following: Last night, at 3 a.m., I suddenly remembered that I had never sent the Kadish Luz letter to you. I could not fall asleep. I felt like something was pushing me to send it right then. I got out of bed, got dressed, walked over to my office at the library and found the unpublished letter. It was part of a signature (four pages that when folded become a section of a book) with another letter and rather than tear off the first letter I sent the whole thing.
Posted on: Mon, 07 Apr 2014 21:24:43 +0000
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