Who *ARE* These People in Chabad.org's Fundraising Letter?

     I received this email in my inbox the other day. Chabad is known the world over as masters at fundraising, and I mean that as a huge compliment--and as a huge fact. Shluchim (missionaries) learn both on the "job" and in classes, as well as through in-house literature, how to effectively solicit donations for their programming. Fundraising can be done in a multitude of ways. In this case, I'm sharing an email, recently sent out to those on the Chabad.org list. While I do receive several of these per year, I wanted to share this particular one. I've taken the liberty of underlining certain lines in red and green.

   "...Chabad.org is often the deciding factor in the life of a troubled teenager, a lonely college student, or a "regular" family in some forlorn corner of the world with no Jewish community or friends."

     I'd like to know what the decision is that these people are trying to make. What are they deciding between? I'd also like to point out that Chabad emissaries don't only set up camp in "some forlorn corner of the world with no Jewish community." If you look around the New York/New Jersey/Connecticut tri-state area, you'll find many existing Jewish communities with Reform and Conservative populations into which Chabad emissaries have inserted themselves and set up Chabad centers. While they may say that they are not in competition with local synagogues, it is my opinion that this assertion is not entirely true. Through fundraising, they are able to greatly offset the cost of things like Hebrew School, holiday and shabbat services, and social programming, thus enabling them to offer little or no-cost (Chabad-centric, nicely packaged orthodox) Judaism to local Jews. The problem here is that this hugely subsidized programming serves to compete with the more liberal synagogues in existence, thus compromising temple membership for the more liberal factions. So, while they may not be directly in competition, the competition still exists. (This is not taking into account competing holiday programs, Purim parties, Hanukah celebrations, etc. that may occur at the same time.)

     I am also curious about the "troubled teenager" they are trying to reach and how exactly my money is going to help this person. How is he/she troubled? If there is preexisting knowledge that someone is indeed "troubled" then I would think that there are some ethical issues to be considered. Are parents being contacted? What is being done?  And what's the story with this "lonely college student?" Will money be given to the college's Student Union to help fund a new campus club? (This is a good time to remember specifically that missionaries, regardless of affiliation, regularly prey on people who may be more vulnerable and searching for belonging and meaning.) Is Chabad telling us that money that goes to the Chabad.org website will magically change people's lives? And tell us more about the ""regular" family." Why is "regular" in quotes in the email? Is that code for ... secular? And if they're secular, why exactly is this a problem?

     Let's also address the other line I underlined.

"We must continue to share and innovate until every last Jew has the opportunity to learn about his or her heritage."

The use of the word "must" conveys a sense of urgency in reaching "every last Jew" in order to give them this opportunity. Donors are paying Chabad.org to help them find every last Jew. I believe it was in Sue Fishkoff's book The Rebbe’s Army: Inside the World of Chabad-Lubavitch (Schocken Books, 2003) in which we learn that Chabad missionaries new to an area will often use the phone book as a guide to locating local Jewish families. I guess that's part of the effort to make sure that "every last Jew has the opportunity to learn about his or her heritage."Chabad is known for their mitzvah tanks, their street-corner kiruv, and their more aggressive outreach efforts in attempting to reach people. It's no surprise that this is Chabad's modus operandi. They're good at what they do and they have many hands willing to do the work, research, article writing, and website maintenance to make sure they can approach "every last Jew."
     As a quick note, I know that for many people reading, none of this is a surprise. Some of you may have even received the same email. The reason I periodically post letters from outreach organizations is because I find the language to be very interesting when looked at critically. Most of us barely skim fundraising letters. But when we read into them, they really just leave a lot of questions unanswered.

Keeping it Hidden

Kiruv'd? Hide your BT status!

     Once upon a time, when I decided to uproot my secular life and become a ba'al teshuva (newly religious Jew,) I was strongly advised by an orthodox woman (who had been, decades before, a BT--ba'al teshuva,) that I should never, ever tell anyone that I was not always religious. "Tell them you're from out of town," she advised. "But don't tell them you're a BT." Of course, in my naivete, I privately laughed at this advice. I'm proud of my background, I thought to myself. I have no regrets, I'm not ashamed of anything I've done.
     Fast forward to the present time. I was researching material on the topic of what happens after kiruv workers convince the non-orthodox to take on an ultra-orthodox lifestyle. (Again, I'm talking about ultra-orthodoxy--meaning any orthodoxy that is past modern orthodoxy in observance and stringency.) I found a lot of interesting material on what those who become orthodox can expect, and much of what they can expect is kept well-hidden from new inductees during the process of becoming frum (religious.) I've included links to some pretty interesting articles, each highlighting different aspects of post-outreach ultra-orthodoxy. From how children of BTs are treated, to how FFB's [frum from birth--those who were born orthodox to orthodox parents] really feel about interacting with BTs, to the stresses of an orthodox lifestyle, to how communities enmeshed in kiruv-work are forgetting about their own community members, I've tried to create a montage of perspectives on what often happens once a person commits to an ultra-orthodox lifestyle. I hope that you'll take the time to click on the included links, and read the articles and the comments for greater insight.
     Rabbi Yakov Horowitz reprinted Catriel Sugarman's article from The Jewish Voice and Opinion, entitled "The Yeshiva World and the Children of Baalei Teshuva: The Ugly Secret," sparking a huge number of comments. Sugarman makes the interesting point that while the newly religious may think they have been fully accepted into a community, they very often find that once they have children, their kids face discrimination in school, social settings, and even later on, when it comes to getting married. Often such innocent-sounding questions on school applications for incoming students asking about the family's history, require the checking off of the box next to the term "ba'al teshuva," and for how long. These students are often treated as social pariahs, snubbed by both teachers and fellow students, regardless of how long the parents have studied Judaism in formal settings. Rare is it that the child of BTs is treated well, the article mentions, although there are exceptions, for instance, if the family is very wealthy and can contribute substantially to the school. The article provides accounts of bullying suffered by children, due only to their BT status in the community. What kiruv professionals failed to tell the parents they brought into orthodoxy was that despite teaching that a BT is considered higher up for having left the secular world and taken on the obligations of the orthodox world, BTs in the orthodox world are often treated poorly and have extremely low status.
     Sugarman's article isn't the only place that you can read about the plight of those who get past kiruv and become orthodox. A 2005 article on the Jewish Worker blog entitled "A Baal Teshuva's Fate in the Haredi World" discusses an explanation made by a woman married to the son of a ba'al teshuva. The problem, which is expressed in various articles around the internet, is that because BTs retain contact with their non-orthodox family and friends, they put the frum [orthodox] community at risk of being influenced towards a secular lifestyle, thus justifying the exclusion and alienation of the very people they worked so hard to make frum. She stated that a relative in education explained the low status and discrimination faced by BTs and their children this way:

He said that many Baalei Teshuva stay in contact with their non-religious families. Therefore they are a tremendous danger to everyone else. After all, the friends may actually see a non-religious person in the house etc.... Therefore she concluded, that it is better to hurt individual baalei teshuva then to put the whole community at harm.1

     "Humpty Dumpty Had A Great Fall," an article on Beyond BT, takes us on the journey of a person from pre-outreach to kiruv to BT to  leaving orthodoxy. The writer, whose byline is Little Frumhouse on the Prairie, vividly paints the picture of orthodox life as a BT wife and mother. She shows us how frum life can be frenzied, hectic, and both financially and mentally stressful, and can easily lead to a person leaving that lifestyle, even if the person was raised in a stable, non-orthodox environment.
     Finally, in "Chabad Fails Its Own Long Term Members, Chabadnik Says" an article found on Failed Messiah by guest writer Chabad Spring, the writer wants to "Turn Chabad Upside [down] and focus on in reach",[sic.] Chabad Spring urges his own Chabad community to curtail funding to outreach/kiruv efforts to non-religious Jews and to help their own community to maintain a decent standard of living. He talks about the extreme poverty that community members face due to the high cost of raising large families and sending them on to expensive yeshivahs. Instead, the writer points out that their own community's costs could be offset with funding that is put towards bringing more and more non-orthodox Jews to this lifestyle (including the costs of helping those on shlichos, or outreach missions--such as the families of college campus rabbis, those families running Chabad Houses in foreign cities, small towns, etc.) Chabad Spring writes:

Reality is, and it’s no secret, almost all our resources are going towards fishing for new Jews to join into our system, and making more frie[secular] people frum[orthodox].  We have Friendship circles, holocaust survivor circles, release time, youth programs for college kids, youth programs for kids who come to Chabad house, Camp Lemaan Achy,   Camps for yalday hashluchim [the children of Chabad's outreach workers],  you name it if you are not yet Frum = Chabad has something for you. Every sheliach [Chabad missionary] out there is doing his best to be mekarev yidden [get non-orthodox Jews to become orthodox], yet the fact of the matter is that there is none or little programming funds, resources, or attention paid to us, who are actually living the Chabad Working  lifestyle.[sic]2 

      In conversations on social media, I have been accused of trying to keep people from becoming orthodox. Rather than keeping people from orthodoxy, I think that most rational people understand that in making important life choices, it is beneficial to be presented with all information on these choices. That includes even the information that may be viewed as negative. Some may see this blog as providing that negative information, and question why I don't give the other side of the story. Well, that's where all of the outreach workers and their organizations come in. I am filling in the other side of the story, the side that you have to scour the internet for because those in kiruv would rather this side of the story remain hidden.


1. Bluke. A Baal Teshuva's Fate in the Charedi World. The Jewish Worker. 9/17/2005. Accessed 7/24/2013.
2. Chabad Spring. "Turn Chabad Upside and focus on in reach." hosted on Failed Messiah. 7/24/2012. Accessed 7/24/2013.

Increase in College Campus Outreach Planned

(Photo Credit: Bentzi Sasson for Chabad.edu)

  (This is hopefully a glitch-free version of the previously posted piece.)
     The last weekend of this past June 2013, "more than 800 men, women and children gathered . . .  at the Sheraton Hotel in Parsippany, N.J., for the Chabad on Campus International Shluchim Conference, an annual event for the families who run Chabad Houses on university and college campuses around the world." This event was set up in order to exchange ideas, knowledge, and provide support, structure, and programming for the Chabad Houses on college campuses. Currently, there are over 191 Chabad campus centers, and, according to Sara Esther Crispe's article, Chabad is preparing to increase their campus outreach by 20%, in order to mark the 20th anniversary of the death of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson. In a country with thousands of colleges, (see recent statistics here) one might be inclined to think that 191 campuses worldwide shouldn't concern anyone. But if you consider that there are other Jewish outreach groups making their homes on and around college campuses, it's something to think about. And to bring it all home, Rabbi Yossy Gordon, Executive Vice President of Chabad on Campus "shared some astounding statistics highlighting the impact that Chabad has on campuses throughout the world. He explained that any given week there are 12,000 students learning Torah, 9,000 attending Friday night Shabbat dinners, and 81,000 active relationships currently being nurtured."
    At this conference "participants were introduced to new initiatives and support in areas like Torah-study classes and event programming, in addition to marketing, branding and fundraising." Notice the use of the word "marketing." These are their words, not mine. While many in the orthodox world of kiruv may not want to admit that what they are doing is marketing Judaism, this article, written for a Chabad news organization by a well-known writer in the Chabad online community, implies that support in these areas (marketing, branding, and fundraising) are important in coordinating outreach efforts to college students on campuses. It is further stated that "immediately following the conference, Chabad on Campus International Foundation launched right into action holding two full day seminars dedicated to fundraising and marketing techniques with an expert in the field." While I understand that many regular readers of this blog will say "yes, we already know that marketing is taking place," I want to point out that when I use the word "marketing," it's not just me editorializing--it is readily admitted by some organizations, in this case, Chabad.
     Whether or not this article was meant for my eyes, or the eyes of people possibly on the receiving end of Jewish outreach, it is important to note that the friendly Chabad family on campus is not just a random orthodox family who is nice enough to welcome you to their table for challah, songs, and gefilte fish. They have an agenda and are trained specifically to engage, to teach, to raise funds, and to turn you on to a specific branch of Judaism. They attend yearly conferences and courses, and maintain an extensive network with each other in order to offer support when needed. Campus kiruv is not just an innocent dinner invitation. As my local traffic and weather station often repeats, "know before you go."    



All quotes taken from:
Crispe, Sara Esther. Chabad on Campus Poised for Expansion. Chabad.org. July 5, 2013.