By COLlive reporter
Mazal Tov – in print.
The Kfar Chabad Magazine, the legendary Hebrew weekly Chasidic publication, has printed issue number 2,000 this week, reaching a milestone that its founder and editor admits he hasn’t envisioned.
The magazine was founded as a local publication in 1980 by Yosef Yitzchok Gopin and Rabbi Aharon Dov Halperin in the Chassidic village of Kfar Chabad in central Israel. It was soon published bi-weekly and then on a weekly basis.
After printing its 7th issue, Rabbi Halperin was instructed by Rebbe to leave his job as a teacher in the local Talmud Torah and dedicate himself full-time to the magazine.
Halperin became its editor-in-chief and saw its growth to become the mouthpiece of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement in Israel and even a transmitter of messages from the secretariat of the Rebbe at 770 Eastern Parkway.
The Rebbe was a regular reader of Kfar Chabad and has edited Sichos specifically for publication in the magazine, and even suggested sections and interviewees.
In the 1980s, the magazine was a bold voice to correct the Mihu Yehudi immigration law in Israel and follow halachic conversions, and for Shleimus Haaretz – against land concessions to Arabs. It also spoke out against the Haredi groups critical of the Rebbe and Chabad.
Rabbi Halperin has merited to receive guidance and blessings from the Rebbe on his work. When the Rebbe was once asked whether he was satisfied with the magazine, the Rebbe crossed the word “whether” and wrote, “very much” (satisfied).
The 2,000 issue celebrates special moments in the magazine’s history, many of which tell the story of Chabad in the last century.
In an interview this week, Rabbi Halperin recalled how Israel’s former chief rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu OBM called him over after Gimmel Tammuz 5754, encouraging him to continue publishing.
“He told me: I would like to offer an important suggestion – every week, before you send the magazine to print, close your eyes and think that the Rebbe will be reading what you are printing.”
Rabbi Halperin said that this guidance had followed him ever since and is a directive he and the current editor Menachem Cohen and the editorial staff follows on a weekly basis.
“Everything that is written in the magazine and every title we write, we think whether we would be writing this way before Gimmel Tammuz,” Rabbi Halperin said. “We may err sometimes, but that is the spirit of our work.”
To celebrate the occasion, Kfar Chabad is holding a concert with Jewish music star Avraham Fried this Thursday at Tel Aviv University’s Smolarz Auditorium. Tickets are available at https://kfar2000.tickchak.co.il/40632
How to subscribe?