How the Rebbe Saved ‘Olomeinu’

By Dovid Zaklikowski, Hasidic Archives

Around the time when Rabbi Berel Levy joined Torah Umesorah, Olomeinu – Our World, the organization’s student magazine, was faltering. The magazine had been started in 1945, shortly after the organization was founded, and included stories, holiday supplements, Hebrew pages, cartoon strips, puzzle pages and short biographies of Jewish greats.

“We have discontinued publishing Olomeinu – our children’s magazine,” Dr. Kaminetsky wrote in February 1960. “I have talked to our people about going into the publishing business again, by they are very reluctant. We have lost a great deal of money on our publications and have had to curtail matters drastically.”

He continued to push for the magazine, with little success. “We have to see that the magazine continues to appear. It is not an easy job!” he wrote in November 1960.

Rabbi Levy also believed the magazine was important and made every effort to convince the board to reestablish it, which it finally did the next year. “Olomeinu was in deep trouble,” Mr. Bunim recalled. “Rabbi Levy put all his strength behind it to raise the funds to keep it alive.”

The publication continued to flounder, however, pulling the entire publications department down with it.

“A study of the publications department’s financial status was made,” Rabbi Levy wrote in a January 1961 report on the organization’s financial health, noting that the situation there was not good.

Rabbi Levy wanted a new chairman for the department. “This department is very vital because there is a great need for many more publications. It is also of utmost importance that this department is run with maximum efficiency,” he wrote.

The report suggested further study on the budget and a closer look at the department’s accounting books. Rabbi Levy also wanted Olomeinu to have its own chairman. “There is much work needed in order to secure its existence,” he wrote.

The efforts turned out to be in vain, and the magazine once again found itself on the brink of closure, recalled Mr. Bunim. The lay-board of Torah Umesorah “had no financiers to go on with it [the magazine] and threatened to close it,” he said.

It was then that Rabbi Levy decided to bring Mr. Bunim to the Lubavitcher Rebbe to discuss what to do with the magazine.

Chabad had its own set of publications, among them several magazines for children—the beloved and long-running Talks and Tales appeared monthly. They also published, years before Torah Umesorah, history books and books on Jewish holidays in English. Torah Umesorah schools, not on policy, rarely utilized these publications.

Chabad officials noticed, and complained about it. “I wonder how many principals and teachers are thoroughly familiar with the publications of [Chabad],” wrote Dr. Nissan Mindel, chief editor of Chabad’s children’s books, in a chapter published in Torah Umesorah’s Hebrew Day School Education: An Overview, “and to what extent they are availing themselves of such publications as our monthly Talks and Tales, our Festival series, our textbooks on Jewish history and other literature?”

From the tens of hours that Rabbi Levy spent with the Rebbe discussing Jewish education and Torah Umesorah, he knew that to the Rebbe, all that was beside the point. To reach and inspire more Jewish children was the Rebbe’s passion, which Rabbi Levy wanted to materialize.

“[The Rebbe] was an advocate for what was going on [in Torah Umesorah],” Mr. Bunim said in a 2002 interview, “even though he was not involved in Torah Umesorah. He might have been…in the ‘other camp,’ but he still had the integrity to understand how important it was.”

The Rebbe told them that under no circumstances should Olomeinu be allowed to die. “The magazine must go on, this is very important for the children,” Mr. Bunim paraphrased the Rebbe.

“He gave a very strong bracha for its future success and then handed Rabbi Levy a substantial amount of money, adding that from this sum should grow the financial support needed to restore the magazine to its proper vitality.”

Two days later, Rabbi Levy and Mr. Bunim went to see a good friend of the Bunim family, Mr. Arthur I. LeVine, a very successful businessman who owned a large, well-known printing company, Ad Press Ltd. Rabbi Levy impressed the importance of the magazine on Mr. LeVine, who agreed to print quite a number of issues of Olomeinu gratis.

This gave Rabbi Levy the time in which to raise the money to put the magazine back on its feet. “If it wasn’t for what he [Rabbi Levy] did, I don’t know if Olomeinu would be in existence today,” Mr. Bunim said.

Dr. Kaminetsky acknowledged the Rebbe’s generosity: “Such a sum was significant. This was an especially generous gesture, considering that the Lubavitch movement had its own children’s publication.”

Torah Umesorah’s parent magazine, the Jewish Parent, could not be saved, however, and succumbed to financial struggles. “I could not challenge the Torah Umesorah board, and we suspended the publication,” Dr. Kaminetsky wrote. “It was a great loss to Torah Umesorah.”

Reflecting on the Rebbe’s role in saving Olomeinu, he wrote, “Had there been more such instances of good will and understanding between Lubavitch and Torah Umesorah, the Hebrew day-school movement would have been the real winner.”

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