The Winners of the Gimmel Tammus Campaign
In honor of Gimmel Tammuz, JNet held a learning campaign.Participants were asked to study a sicha (talk) of the Rebbe in English, Spanish, or Yiddish and then answer three questions related to the material for a chance to win prizes. Three winners were chosen.
Congratulations to:
First prize – $250.00 Cash: Brian Ari Hutchison (Houston, TX)
Second prize – Tablet: Yehoshua Einbinder (Brooklyn, NY)
Third prize – $100 to www.kehot.com: Avremel Raskin (Brooklyn, NY)
Participants were asked to share the most powerful new lesson they took from the sicha. Here are some selected answers:
What lesson/message did you take from this Sicha (talk)?
· “We need to be strong and indestructible… the only way to do this is through binding ourselves with Hashem’s Torah and Mitzvot which are everlasting because they are truth.”
· “Just as the Torah is eternal, true in all times and all places, so (too) Moshe is eternally present”
· “The lesson I take is that we can continue to live through our children just like Jacob continues to live thought his. It is crucial to teach Torah to our children.”
If you would like to have a part in the merit of all the learning by helping to cover the cost of the project, please go to www.jnet.org/donate and mention Yud Shevat in the “In honor of” section.
JNet is a project of Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch and was established with a generous grant from the Rohr Foundation
Gimmel Tammuz JNet Learning Campaign
In honor of Gimmel Tammuz, this year marking the twentieth anniversary of the Rebbe’s histalkus, Anash and all Jews worldwide are invited to participate in a learning campaign, with a chance to win great prizes.
JNet, the Chavrusa matchmaking website, provides a sicha of the Rebbe about the “True life of Moshe” to be learned b’chavrusa, followed by a short online questionnaire.
Filling out the questionnaire enters participants into a Duch and three raffles for $250 cash, a tablet and $100 gift certificate to Kehot or kehot.com.
The winner will be announced on 5 Tammuz, July 3rd at 3:00 PM
JNet membership is not required to participate.
May the merit of our learning strengthen our commitment and connection to the Rebbe and his directives, and bring Moshiach speedily in our times.
JNet is a division of Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch and was established with a generous grant from The Rohr Foundation.
Give the gift of learning to the Rebbe!
Following the success of previous learning campaigns, JNet is having a Mivtza for people all over the world to learn a sicha in honor of Yud Alef Nissan and “Give the gift of learning to the Rebbe”.
To access the sicha, simply go to the website www.jnet.org/eleven to download the booklet which has the Sicha in both Hebrew and a new adaptation in English or go to www.jnet.org/once for the Spanish Mivtza. You can also look out for the booklet in local Shuls in Crown Heights.
After learning the material click on the link to answer the questions and your name will be entered into a Duch and prize drawing.
The winners will be announced on our website Sunday, the 13th of Nissan, April 13th.
May the merit of our learning strengthen our commitment and connection to the Rebbe and his directives, and bring Moshiach speedily in our times.
JNet is a division of Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch and was established with a generous grant from The Rohr Foundation.
Saluting the Crown Heights JNet Volunteer’s
It was an evening of appreciation all around.
More than 100 JNet volunteers gathered at the Jewish Children’s Museum on Sunday night for an event in their honor that featured a welcome by Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, a keynote address by Rabbi Levke Kaplan, and a delectable dinner.
As they enjoyed sushi and a hot buffet in the elegantly lit room, dozens of volunteers stopped for video interviews to voice their appreciation for JNet and reveal the gains from their involvement in the program. “I look forward all week to speaking with my chavrusa,” one guest said. “My weekly JNet session has enriched my own personal learning,” said another. “I love being involved in shlichus from Crown Heights,” they all enthused.
JNet – the Jewish Learning Network – was launched eight years ago by Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch with the aim of making personalized Torah learning available to everyone, everywhere, at every level. Volunteers are matched with chavrusas and learn the topic of their choice once a week on the phone or Skype. Under the direction of Rabbi Yehuda Dukes, JNet has grown to include thousands of chavrusas learning every week and has expanded to online courses, learning campaigns, and a “JNet en Espanol” branch that has more than 220 chavrusas learning in Spanish every week.
The evening’s program opened with a video of the Rebbe speaking of the shlichus that every Jew is entrusted with – that of spreading Torah and mitzvos – and the level of devotion that it entails.
“When the shliach is dedicated fully to his mission, he is indeed one with the Rebbe, but there are two halves here,” the Rebbe said. “The shliach’s part is crucial. The shliach… must devote himself as much as humanly possible.”
Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, Vice Chairman of Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch and Chairman of JNet, praised the volunteers for that level of devotion they show to JNet and warmly blessed them to see the fruits of their efforts. Such fruits were very apparent as Rabbi Dukes described the impact that JNet volunteers have had on the people they study with.
“A young man who had drifted away from his Modern Orthodox upbringing was set up with a JNet chavrusa, but lost touch after only one conversation,” Rabbi Dukes said. “I called him to ask if there had been a problem – perhaps he hadn’t connected well with the chavrusa? The young man told me that actually, since that conversation with his chavrusa – that one conversation! – he had started to once again put on tefillin every day.”
Amongst other anecdotes, Rabbi Dukes described a Jewish rice farmer in Thailand who learned to read Alef Bais and a 65-year old man who celebrated his bar mitzvah after learning his Haftora with his JNet chavrusa.
“You may not realize how much of an effect you have, since you don’t actually see your chavrusa in person,” he said, “but every conversation can make a difference in their life.”
The event’s keynote speaker Rabbi Levke Kaplan, a veteran educator and himself a JNet volunteer, spoke candidly of having felt lost as a young bochur in yeshiva. “One night I was walking through the Zal, and a bochur was sitting by himself and learning,” he related. “The bochur looked at me and said, ‘Come, learn with me.’ That evening began a three-year long partnership of nightly learning, and remains to this day my most treasured memory of Yeshiva. When the bochur left Yeshiva, it was then my turn to find a young bochur and tell him, ‘Come, learn with me.’ And that chavrusa continued for three years as well.”
“I’ve found that when someone truly has a love of learning, it’s almost always been sparked by someone else,” Rabbi Kaplan said. “It’s up to us to transmit that love to others.”
The crowd listened intently and many took notes as Rabbi Kaplan shared practical tips on how to get the most out of learning sessions. Cards on the tables displayed highlighted points of the Rabbi’s speech, titled “Five Ways to Enhance Your Chavrusa Experience”.
Rabbi Dukes thanked his hardworking team, JNet’s women’s coordinator Mushkie Shemtov and Spanish coordinator Rabbi Chai Kohan, as well as Chava Namdar who coordinated the evening.
As the guests left, they received a parting gift from JNet – the book “Seeds of Wisdom”, a collection of short stories and encounters with the Rebbe.
“To our volunteers,” the in leaf read. “A token of appreciation for your dedication to this Shlichus.”
Visit http://www.JNet.org to sign up as a volunteer today. JNet is a division of Merkos L’Ionyonei Chinuch and was established with a generous grant from the Rohr Foundation.
Photos by Bentzi Sasson
Anash of CH Conclude a Year of Mivtzoim
More than 100 members of Anash gathered this past motzei Shabbos for a special farbrengen and Melava Malka at the home of Rabbi and Mrs. Moshe Kugel to conclude a year full of growth in the Rebbe’s mivtzoim and strengthen each other for the upcoming year.
At the farbrengen were Anash of Mivtza Mezuza who visit Jewish homes throughout the New York area affixing mezuzos. Also present were Anash of JNet, as well as Anash who, throughought the yeaer, have joined many different mivtzoim projects by the Lubavitch Youth Organization, visiting hospitals, senior centers, and more.
Rabbi Kugel spoke about the hashgacha protis of his JNet chavrusa from Canada meeting his son in Ukraine.
Guest speaker Rabbi Berel Lazar shared many of his mivtzoim/shlichus experiences. He said that we need to try and seize every opportunity we have to share the Rebbe’s and Yiddishkeit’s message with the people with whom we come into contact that they are waiting to hear it. He concluded by saying that, at the same time that we need to understand our zechus that the Rebbe lets us be his representatives, we must also fulfill our responsibility.
Rabbi Kasriel Kastel, Program Director of the Lubavitch Youth Organization and an organizer of the event, spoke of some of the directives that he received from the Rebbe in the early years of mivtzoim, and he encouraged the participants to join in as many mivtzoim as possible.
Rabbi Yehuda Dukes of JNet spoke about the effect that Anash can have with just one phone call and thanked the more than 350 Crown Heights residents who already have JNet chavrusas.
With more than 50 members of Anash participating, Mivtza Mezuza, run by Rabbi Shmuel Kesselman, sends out members of Anash every evening to prearranged locations throughout New York to affix mezuzos and speak about Yiddishkeit. If you would like to participate, call the Mivtza Mezuza office at 718-774-1780.
This year, the Lubavitch Youth Organization has arranged hundreds of mivtzoim locations every yom tov for Anash and their families, in addition to helping Anash with their own mivtzoim needs. For example, hundreds of packages of matza were shipped nationwide this year on behalf of Crown Heights Anash. To join the Anash mivtzoim list, call 917-439-6646 to reach Tzali Laufer at the Tzach mivtzoim office.
JNet gives Anash the opportunity to give a shuir on the phone or online for half an hour a week. More than 1,300 people are learning every week, and 100 have been set up last month alone. JNet is always looking for more volunteers, both men and women. To get more information or to volunteer to learn with someone, call 718-467-4400 or visit www.jnet.org.
JNet a Hit at Lag B’Omer Parade
Setting up a Mivtzoim booth at a fun fair is commonplace among Lubavitch Bochurim. A Mivtzoim booth in Crown Heights, however, is quite unheard of. Yet amid the crowds of children dragging their parents from ride to ride at Sunday’s Lag B’Omer fun fair, bochurim were seen asking fellow Chassidim to take part in Mivtzah Torah.
The question from those manning the JNet booth at the fair wasn’t, “Excuse me, are you Jewish?” but rather, “Excuse me, will you spend half an hour a week learning with someone?”
“The response was great,” says Yossi Zeidman, who manned the booth along with Dovid Yiftach and Ari Rubin. “Dozens signed up as volunteers for the JNet program, and we had productive conversations with more than 400 people.” The group also distributed monogrammed glasses cleaners, which proved popular among the parade goers.
“We already have more than 520 weekly chavrusas,” says JNet director Rabbi Yehuda Dukes. “We’re constantly striving to grow and set up new partnerships, which makes this Lag B’Omer influx very exciting.”
JNet’s mission is to allow business people, homemakers or students to learn Torah at their leisure. “People are often too busy to attend shiurim, or don’t have access to local shiurim that interest them.” JNet pairs them up with a volunteer who will learn with them over the phone what they want, when they want it.
Under the auspices of Merkos L’Inynei Chinuch’s Chabad House HQ, JNet offers an easy solution to Shluchim who have difficulty finding agreeable times to learn with their community members. Efforts are made to match people up according to interests and other matching areas.“What begins as a chavrusah often turns to real friendships,” says Rabbi Mendy Kotlarsky of Merkos. “People are able to connect to their Yiddishkeit in a meaningful and personal way.”
With Shavuos approaching, a time when the Rebbe strongly encouraged Chassidim to increase Torah learning, Dukes says this is an opportune time to join the program. “It’s a relatively simple commitment, and can be done at your convenience.”
Did you get the call?
JNet’s Phone-a-thon is in full swing! Hundreds have already received phone calls asking them to donate now to sponsor a chavrusa on JNet.
Answer the call. Actually, don’t! Take the initiative and go to www.jnet.org/donate and be a part of this amazing Mosad!
Video: Finding Matches for People in Our Community
JNet has been finding matches for people who want to learn for 5 years now and has setup almost 2000 people to learn once a week on the phone and has over 25,000 sessions a year!
The effect people are having on their chavrusas is amazing. Here are a couple of examples:
“Thank g-d your program connected me with Tzippy. This learning and our friendship has illuminated my life. She is wonderful. I have learned many things about chassidus and about yiddishkeit as well. She is a blessing. Thank you.” Rivkah. Lakewood, NJ
“My JNet partner Chaim is a wonderful teacher. His teaching and inspiration in helping me to learn Tanya has definitely contributed to my growth in becoming step by step a more devout Jew. While my own progress in understanding Tanya can be challenging at times, I am actually making some surprisingly good progress in other areas of my spiritual life due to studying Tanya.
I’ve begun reading the Gutnick Chumash, praying with the Siddur, and am even often wearing a kipa at home. For me, that’s big progress. I’m even starting to use the Siddur. Chaim is great at explaining the Tanya.
While the book, ‘Opening the Tanya’, does expound upon the teachings of the Tanya I am increasingly finding the book challenging in terms of mentally organizing the principles or concepts. Fortunately, Chaim does a fine job at clarifying the areas of the book that I am having trouble with. The Holidays were great. This past Yom Kippur was the first time that I attended in years (actually 20+ years) and the first time that it was really ever meaningful to me. I journeyed over to the Chabad House on Friday and Saturday for Sukkoth and Shabbos. Thank you so much for providing this service” Aaron, Portland, OR.
This Tuesday and Wednesday JNet will be having a phone-a-thon. Sponsor a match like one of these for $18 a month and any donation will be entered in a raffle to win cash prizes of up to $10,000! Answer the call! Or click here to donate now.
You can also sign up to “be a match” at our website www.jnet.org
Mans Video:
Womens Video:
After reaching 780 cities JNet takes on social media
Become a fan!
After almost five years of operation and over 3500 members you probably have heard about JNet by now. With members in over 780 cities worldwide JNet has decided to take Chavrusa learning to social media. With the launch of their new facebook page JNet hopes to reach even more people with the opportunity to learn one on one over the phone with a chavrusa.
“It was inspiring to me how much my chavrusa wanted to learn and got me to look forward to preparing something on the parsha every week.” says Shternie J.
At only half an hour a week for a three month study term JNet makes doing shlichus easy and it adds up quickly. “We have over 25,000 sessions a year now” Says program coordinator Rabbi Yehuda Dukes.
“JNet is always looking to expand. We want people to be able to learn Torah no matter where they are or what their schedule is like.”
To help get the word out about the facebook page JNet is having a raffle for anyone who “like”s JNet.org by July 15th.
“The effect our volunteers are having on people is amazing.” Says Rabbi Dukes. Here is an email we just got.
“I am extremely pleased with Rabbi Yehuda A. as a teacher. I am a more Torah conscious Jewish man and feel I am progressing not only in my learning as a Jew, but also in my concern for being religious.” Dr. Charles R. Fripp Island, NC.
You can help get the word out by “liking” JNet.org and sharing it with your friends. To volunteer or donate go to our website www.jnet.org
JNet is a division of Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch and was established with a generous grant from the Rohr Foundation.
Learn with David…Make JNet YOUR Yud Alef Nissan Hachlata
JNet’s over the phone one-on-one chavrusa program is designed to cater to the individual by offering a Torah subject of choice at a time and place that is convenient for both teacher and student.
As Chassidim of the Rebbe we are always on the lookout for ways to fulfill our shlichus. This Yud Alef Nissian, JNet is giving you the opportunity to give the Rebbe a beautiful birthday present, by volunteering to learn with someone on JNet.
For half an hour a week over the phone with a topic you are comfortable with and at a time that is convenient for you, you can literally have an enormous and life-changing impact on a fellow Jew. As Gil Binder from North Bend, Oregon writes, “I want to thank you again for the learning, you have absolutely no idea how much it has influenced my life. I talk to my children and grandchildren about their Jewish heritage all the time. Since I have started learning, I bought for them all Shabbos candle holders, candles, prayer books, Mezuzahs and more. You will also be happy to know that I share with them what I learn with you”.
Volunteer today at www.jnet.org or call 718-467-4400. begin_of_the_skype_highlighting
If you do not have the time to learn with someone yourself you can help support JNet by sponsoring a chavrusa for $18 a month or $180 for a year. Simply click on the Donate link on our website or call us for additional opportunities.
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