Donors Come to Honor Friend

By COLlive reporter

The Israeli chassidic village of Kfar Chabad celebrated Sunday the memory of one of its distinguished residents who passed away at an early age, but nevertheless made an impact on all who met him.

The Yossi Raichik Shul, named after Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Raichik OBM, was inaugurated by his wife Dina Raichik, her children, his brothers and guests who came from around the world.

Honored with cutting the ribbon were Israel’s Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger, Kfar Chabad Rabbi Mordechai Shmuel Ashkenazi and Raichik’s close friends Jay Schottenstein and Robert Book.

Schottenstein, a businessman from Ohio who donated the Artscroll Talmud translation, Bob Book and Crown Heights businessman Sam Malamud were avid supporters of Chabad’s Children of Chernobyl rescue project, headed by Raichik and now run by Rabbi Yossi Swerdlov.

Raichik’s colleagues of the Lubavitch Youth Organization (Tzach) in Israel, chaired by Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Aharonov, were present as well.

A new Torah, donated by Book, was donated to the new shul which will be serving the young adults in the village.

After reading a letter from the Rebbe sent to a past celebration in Kfar Chabad, participants led the Torah in song and dance through the streets and concluded with hakafos.

At the fully catered meal in the Talmud Torah hall decorated by Fleishman Productions, Raichik’s twin brother Rabbi Shimon Raichik, Rabbi of Beis Levi Yitzchok in Los Angeles, was one of the speakers who shared treasured memories of the Chabad activist that will not be forgotten.