Teens Inspired by US Visit

It may be summer in Brazil, but for 25 lucky Brazilian teenagers this was a winter to remember. This is the thirteenth year that Rabbi Noach Gansburg, a shliach of the Rebbe to Brazil, organized a trip during the Brazilian summer vacation to visit North America. The purpose of this trip is for the teens to have a positive jewish experience, keeping kosher, davening and learning, and connecting to the Rebbe, while having an amazing time.

First the teens got to spend a week in Rabbi Chriqui’s Hotel in Ste. Agathe, Cadana. They went snow tubing, paintball shooting, skiing and enjoyed many other winter activities in the snow. For most of the kids it was the first time they ever saw snow, as it never snows in Brazil.

One of the most memorable moments was the horse and buggy ride in the forest on motzaei shabbos. “It’s one thing to hear a Baal Shem Tov story, but these kids felt like they were inside one,” says Rivky Muller, who joined Rebeca Serur as the girl’s counselors. Mendy Gansburg and Michel Gruenberg led the boys.

All this is finished off with a week in Crown Heights, where the children got to see a chassidic neighborhood, getting to know some of the families, visiting the Ohel and spending a very uplifting Shabbos together.

“For many of the kids it was their first or second time that they ever kept a complete Shabbos,” said Pessy Gansburg, the camp director.

“It was very inspiring to see how children who grew up never having seen or heard of the Rebbe, crying and daavening at the Ohel,” was Yisroel Shomer’s impression when he drove the boys van to the Ohel.