July 15, 2003

Orthodox Union Tisha B’Av Program to Feature Emotional New Jerusalem Video and Live Webcast of Fast Day Elegies, With Commentary by Rabbi Weinreb, OU Leader

The centrality of Jerusalem in the Jewish experience will provide the theme for this year’s multi-part Orthodox Union program in observance of the Three Weeks and Tisha b’Av. The commemoration will feature a deeply moving video about Jerusalem, a joint project of the Orthodox Union (OU) and the Rabbinical Council of America (RCA); the video, The Jerusalem Connection: In Our Hearts and Minds, will be shown in hundreds of synagogues in the three weeks preceding Tisha b’Av and on the day itself.

On the morning of the fast day, the OU will present Living and Reliving the Experience of Catastrophe, a live broadcast on the OU website of Kinot, the elegies recited on that day of mourning, as explained by OU Executive Vice President Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb.

Tisha b’Av, the ninth day of the month of Av, which commemorates the destruction on that date of the two Temples in Jerusalem 656 years apart, as well as other Jewish tragedies that occurred on that day, falls this year on Thursday, August 7. Besides the recitation of Kinot and the Book of Lamentations, Tisha b’Av is observed by a sundown-to-sundown fast beginning on the evening of August 6, and other aspects of mourning. The three-week period of sadness which culminates in Tisha b’Av begins with the Fast of the 17th of Tammuz, July 17.

During this period, hundreds of OU synagogues across the United States and Canada will make available to their communities the new Jerusalem video. The presentation will have three components – historical, spiritual and personal -- according to Rabbi Moshe D. Krupka, OU Executive Director for Programming.

“By featuring personal interviews with leading rabbis, Israeli government leaders, former military personnel and ordinary citizens, the video will deeply reflect the love they share for Jerusalem and the significance of the City to them as Jews,” declares Rabbi Krupka. “Through looking at Jerusalem through the ages as well as by focusing on the present day, the presentation will make clear the essence of Jerusalem and the essence of the kedusha, or holiness of the City.”

For those who see the video, Rabbi Krupka says, the “Kinot will resound ever more deeply in their Jewish souls. On Tisha b’Av, it is incumbent on us to emphasize what we have lost. That is the goal of this video. For viewers, Tisha b’Av will be more than a fast day; it will be an experience to be shared as we mourn and as we look forward to the redemption.”

The video will feature many outstanding personalities, including the Bostoner Rebbe, R’Levi Yitzchak Horowitz; Rabbi Pinchas Sheinberg, Rosh Yeshiva, Yeshivat Torah Ohr; Rabbi Avraham Avidan, Rosh Yeshiva Yeshivat Sha’alvim; Minister of Tourism Rav Beni Alon, and Clara Hammer, known fondly as the “Chicken Lady,” because of her mission to feed hundreds of people in Jerusalem every Shabbat.

Among those to appear is Dr. Yitzchak Yifat, a physician today, but in 1967 the youthful Israeli paratrooper who in the classic Six Day War photo, surrounded by older and more grizzled troops, holds his helmet in his hands as he looks in awe at the Kotel after the Temple Mount was liberated and restored to the Jews. Now, sitting in a comfortable armchair, the Doctor reflects on that moment of victory and its significance to him and the Jewish people to this day.

For information on when the video will be shown, contact your local Orthodox synagogue.

On Tisha b’Av itself, Rabbi Weinreb will return to Congregation Shomrei Emunah in Baltimore, the synagogue he served as spiritual leader for 12 years before assuming his OU position, to delve deeply into the meaning of a selection of the Kinot to be recited that morning. Sitting on the floor of the sanctuary, in one of the traditional signs of mourning, the Rabbi will provide in-depth introductions to the elegies prior to their recitation by congregants.

The broadcast on the OU website, www.ou.org, will begin at 9:15 a.m. EDT and will last approximately four hours. It provides an opportunity for those unable to spend the entire morning in a synagogue to participate in the day’s liturgy through the Internet. Launched for the first time last year, this webcast received very favorable reactions from many homebound individuals and from people who logged on while at work.

For more information contact Rabbi Mayer Waxman at the OU, 212-613-8285.

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The Rabbinical Council of America is a dynamic professional organization serving over 1,100 Orthodox Rabbis in the United States of America, Canada and Israel. Membership is comprised of duly ordained Orthodox Rabbis who serve in positions of the congregational Rabbinate, Jewish education, chaplaincies, and other allied fields of Jewish communal work. While many of its members received their smicha from Yeshivat Rabbenu Yitzchak Elchanan (affiliated with Yeshiva University, New York) and Bet Midrash Letorah (Hebrew Theological College, Skokie, Illinois), a large number were ordained from other major yeshivot in the United States, Israel and Europe and by recognized Rabbinic Torah authorities.

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