Animated Video Stars Gabi, Rivki

By COLlive reporter

There are plenty of memorials – buildings, organizations, programs and even children around the world who are a living testimony to the short lives of Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife Rivka, HY”D.

You can now add to the list “Gabi and Rivki and the Mitzvah Team.”

Delivering 45 minutes of original animation, song and entertainment, Mitzvah Team utilizes the highly-praised interactive methods familiar to fans of videos such as Dora the Explorer.

Key characters in the video bear the nicknames of the Chabad Shluchim murdered by terrorists in their Chabad House in Mumbai, India, in 2008.

In fact, all of the Mitzvah Team characters carry the names of those who lost their lives in that horrible attack, like Rabbi Bentzion Chroman, Rabbi Leibish Teitlebaum, Yocheved Orpaz and Nechama Shvartzblat Rabinovich – HY”D.

The plot begins with Gabi’s uncle (resembling Mrs. Holtzberg’s father Rabbi Shimon Rosenberg) in a chase against time to complete a children’s Sefer Torah in time for a celebration in Jerusalem.

Little Gabi and Rivki’s “Mitzvah Team” come to the rescue and with teamwork, song and a can-do attitude they whisk the viewers along in their fun journey of Chessed.

Along the way they pick up adorable Yiddish expressions, learn to value and respect fellow Jewish children of various backgrounds and even learn a few verses of Torah.

“It’s a real breakthrough in Jewish educational entertainment in terms of its interactive quality and even in terms of animation,” says Peretz Schmukler, creator of Mitzvah Team who lives in Montreal, Canada.

Schmukler said the development of the film started before the Mumbai massacre.

“At the time the title was ‘Mitzvah Team’ but the names of the characters were different,” he said.

“I found myself in a crowd of several thousand at a memorial for Gabi and Rivki Holtzberg and all the other Kedoishim of blessed memory, then and there I resolved to name the characters in their honor.

“Jewish children would thus associate these names with Torah, Tefillah and Tzedaka, as they take lessons of Yiddishkeit in a fun and entertaining way.”

Gabi and Rivki and the Mitzvah Team is recommended for children aged 3 to 8 years old.

The DVD will be coming soon to your local Judaica store, or purchase it now online at www.MitzvahTeam.com. (Free shipping is being offered for a limited time.)

VIDEO: Trailer