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Pesach at Ft. Bragg Expenses |
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From: Levy
Sent: Sunday, April 19, 2009 3:39 PM
To: Aleph Institute
Subject: Pesach at Ft. Bragg expenses
Tuesday, April 7th
Today we began to bring supplies from the base to Smith Lake, where the Passover religious retreat was being held. We also stopped in Wal-mart to buy vegetables, while we were searching the produce selection and deliberating on where we would get our sustenance from, a woman who had noticed our Chassidic garb, which stuck out like a sore thumb in Wal-mart, approached us. She introduced herself as Reeca Levine and said she was Jewish. We happily introduced ourselves and asked her about herself. She said she was part of a community of about 109 Jewish families in town and said that Lisa Glazier was the best community organizer. That evening we delivered Shmurah Matzah, grape juice and other Pesach foods to Chanah Strangeways, the wife of a deployed soldier, on base. We spoke with her at length and offered our help with anything she might need , especially because she was pregnant and due in June. we encouraged her to come to the Passover Seders with her two young daughters.
Wednesday, April 8th
This morning we ran an early Minyan followed by Birchas HaChamah( Blessing of the sun once in 28 years) with the arriving soldiers. We danced and sang and made it into the big deal in deserved to be. We met and put on Tefillin with many soldiers and with Steven (Rashi) Edelman, who had not put on Tefillin on over 40 years but owned a pair and said he would try to put them on once a week. We then cooked and prepared for Yom Tov. We went to the Mikvah in a swamp (we didn't know in was a swamp until we were ankle deep in it...) and helped the soldiers get comfortable. Dovid , a soldier from a Russian and Israeli background arrived. He had served for 3 years in the Israeli Airforce and was now in the US Army. He was fairly knowledgeable about and interested in Yiddishkeit and spoke at length with us about it. Aryeh , arrived and we acquainted ourselves with him. He had been in the Army on and off since 1986 and had most recently served in Afghanistan with the Special Forces, where he wore a kippah, put on tefillin and was shomer shabbos and had picture to back up the story. Besides the soldiers, the family came to stay for the retreat. Kevin , a soldier who seems to have had a Reform conversion discussed his life issues with us (he has plenty) and seemed to be happy to meet us. Yonason and Susan , and their daughter Sophie, live in Fayetteville and teach Chemistry and History respectively at Fayetteville State University were fairly strongly religious and we spoke about Jewish life (or the lack there of) in town and the seeming need to eventually live in a place where Sophie (who is 5) could get a Jewish education.
Thursday, Friday and Shabbos April 9,10 and 11
We ran our own smaller, slower, more intimate seder the first night while the chaplain ran the larger standard one. We had about 10 guys and the larger one had another 50. Both were well liked by the attendees and those who could not stay until the end because they had to report for PT in the morning were able to squeeze in all the mitzvos. The second night we had one big seder all together with the same number of total people and that one also went well and was positively received. For Shachris Mincha and Marriv we had minyonim with all the appropriate Torah readings and with explanation of what was happening as we proceeded. We had nice communal meals for breakfast and lunch all three days and for shabbos dinner. These were attended by several local community members, including Marie , a French Holocaust survivor. and her daughter and grand daughter. She was very happy to be able to speak with us and hear our stories, and have us listen to hers, and she cried when she was leaving and told us she loved us. The Rothstein family also came for part of shabbos. Manfred is a local dermatologist and his daughter Nitzah is the local District Attorney. They were both interested to speak with us and to learn about Lubavitchers in general. After shabbos we packed up, helped clean up and prepared to leave. We expressed our gladness for having been able to help with the whole program and the people, soldiers and the chaplain and his family thanked us. We have begun correspondence with several soldiers and will, G-d willing, maintain it.
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