Shliach Shares Magic, Message

By COLlive reporter

The original plan of Rabbi Victor Atiya was to fool his audience. He ended up enchanting and mesmerizing.

The 49-year-old Director of Chabad of Kiryat Arba in Chevron succeeded in impressing a television audience when he appeared on the Israeli reality show “Who Will Fool The Master?”

But he did not fool the show’s judge, master magician and mentalist Max Maven, a prolific author and innovator of many of the magical and mentalist effects that are used by other magicians.

Career and amateur magicians appear on the show trying to perform an act Maven has not seen before, or cannot figure out how it was done.

For Atiya, this was a chance to do some good on prime-time television. “Hashem gave me talent in other areas as well,” he said.

“When you do “magic”, or a trick, everyone’s attention is on you,” he says about the candid street performances he puts on while on Mivtzoim in the volatile city populated by a majority of Arabs and a steadfast minority of Jews.

Born in Bat Yam, Atiya said he was a popular athlete in his youth. “I was great at sports and known as a good-looking athelete, but inside I was searching for something more real; something that would fill my heart,” he said about becoming a Baal Teshuva and later a Shliach.

He remains a positive person, even after he lost his daughter Chaya Mushka to a fire 5 years ago. The new Chabad center in Chevron was inaugurated in her memory last month.

“The belief and the knowledge that there is something beyond our material life is what gives me strength” to overcome such a tragedy, he told the audience.

His act, later described by the host Eli Yatzpan as “fascinating” and one which “unites hearts,” was telepathic and included a reference to “Chabad Houses around the world.”

He first asked a guest from the crowd in the studio to choose a postcard from a stack of flags from many countries. He then brought up 3 random people each holding a piece of a large puzzle on stage.

The performance went without a hitch and drew a round of applause after Rabbi Atiya made all the pieces fall into place.

“It was fun,” commented Max Maven, a New York native whose real name is Philip Goldstein. “This is the first time I saw a Chabad performance that did not have dancing in it.”

Maven immediately identified the roots of the trick, but said he liked the twist Atiya gave it which make the act “most effective, entertaining and gave it meaning.”

Atiya responded that it was an honor to perform in front of Master Maven, yet added: “In my eyes, the biggest master is the Creater of the world that gives us life every second. He is the real magician.”