By COLlive reporter
They appear together on a weekly basis, but that doesn’t mean they have actually ever met…
Editors, contributing writers, graphic designers and administrators of the Kfar Chabad Magazine met last week to celebrate its 40th anniversary.
The staff of the veteran weekly walked one by one into the VIP room of the “Jewish restaurant” in Bnei Brak – and introduced themselves to each other.
“It was a very cute and very moving event,” commented Menachem Cohen, editor of the magazine. “A large part of the participants did not know each other, so it was special to have them meet.”
The magazine was founded in 1980 by Yosef Yitzchok Gopin and Aharon Dov Halperin in the Chassidic village of Kfar Chabad in central Israel as a local publication. It was soon published bi-weekly and then on a weekly basis.
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. Rabbi Halperin has merited to receive guidance and blessings from the Rebbe on his work.
In the 1980s, the magazine was a bold voice to correct the Mihu Yehudi immigration law in Israel to follow halachic conversions, and for Shleimus Haaretz – against concessions of land to Arabs. It also spoke out against the Haredi groups critical of the Rebbe and Chabad.
At the gathering last week, the Rebbe’s letter to the 500th issue was read. “Each and everyone should do what they can in all areas of Judaism, Torah and its Mitzvos and it is clear that the same is with the publishing and distribution of the newspaper,” the Rebbe wrote.
The magazine’s veteran staff reminisced about past events and discussed ways to expand the readership of the longest-running frum weekly publication in Israel.
Because the contributing writers hold different positions around Israel, it was the first time they all gathered in a single location and were able to meet face to face.
Participating were, rabbis: Yisroel Elfenbein, Mendi Bronfman, Yehuda Gozovsky, Chaim Gill, Mendy Greenberg, Yitzchok Holtzman, Mendy Holtzman, Aharon Dov Halperin, Yosef Yitzchok Chitrik, Michael Tayeb, Menachem Cohen, Itzik Levi, Yossi Levin, Binyomin Lipkin, Moshe Marinovsky, Yoske Naparstak, Yitzchok Arad, Alter Eliyahu Friedman, Mendy Kortas, Shloimy Rizel and Rami Sharabi.
Rabbi Arad, head of the Da’at Institute in Rehovot, revealed that part of the reason he actually joined Chabad was fueled by his reading of the Kfar Chabad Magazine and its scholarly articles. He now writes a weekly column for them.
VIDEO:
Amazing – such a serious and important magazine