July 30, 2004

‘Uplifting, Awesome, Inspirational, Wonderful, Amazing,’ are Descriptions by Viewers of Rabbi Weinreb’s Tisha B’av Broadcast on OU Website

Once again this year, in what has become one of the Orthodox Union’s newest but most admired traditions, OU Executive Vice President Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb added meaning and depth to the observance of Tisha B’Av and its 25-hour fast by utilizing modern technology to bring the wisdom of the ages to a worldwide audience.

For the third consecutive year, Rabbi Weinreb spent Tisha B’Av morning in an OU member synagogue in front of a camera. This year he traveled to the Young Israel of Woodmere on Long Island, NY, where for more than four hours -- in a program carried live by the OU website, www.ou.org -- he commented on, explained and interpreted many of the Kinot, the elegies recited on Tisha B’Av, the day of mourning commemorating the destruction of the two Temples in Jerusalem and other Jewish calamities.

The purpose of the webcast was to make the elegies more meaningful to all viewers, but it was directed in particular at those who had to go to work or mothers at home with their children, who could not recite the Kinot themselves in the synagogue.

Reports flowed in of many thousands of individuals who logged in for an hour or two, or often for the entire morning, transfixed by the immediacy and impact of the Rabbi Weinreb’s presentation.

Spread in front of him were the commentaries of the sages, but in addition there were a score of other sources of much more modern vintage -- as recent as a newspaper article from May. As the hours went by, Rabbi Weinreb covered a wide range of catastrophe, from the destruction of the Temples, to the Crusades, to the expulsion of Jews from Spain, to the Holocaust, to the current Intifada against Israel.

Rabbi Weinreb made clear that individual deaths are as meaningful as national tragedies. He mourned the passing of two teen-age boys – a former congregant when he was a pulpit rabbi in Baltimore, who died two years ago on Tisha B’Av of cancer at 18; and the death only weeks ago of a 16-year-old member of his own family in an automobile accident. Rabbi Weinreb related how he had to break the news of the death to the young scholar’s nieces and nephews, his own grandchildren.

Rabbi Weinreb displayed newspaper coverage of the massacre in May of Talia Hatuel, eight months pregnant, and her four young daughters in Gaza. And with his voice breaking with emotion, wiping the tears from his face, he read the eyewitness account of how a father tried to save his three-year-old daughter during the Holocaust by depositing the child in front of a crowd emerging from church on a Sunday, only to have a storm trooper shoot her dead on the spot. “Forgive me,” the father whispered to his daughter, as he carried her bloody body to the spot where he and his wife would themselves soon be executed.

“Images of the Kinot written 2,000 years ago by Rabbi Elazar HaKalir (a great composer of liturgical poetry) were still with us 60 years ago and are still with us now,” Rabbi Weinreb declared, with the death of the three-year-old and of Tali Hatuel and her children resonating in his mind.

In the beautiful sanctuary of the Young Israel of Woodmere, the sounds of mourning resembled those at a funeral, a response undoubtedly duplicated wherever viewers were tuned to www.ou.org. Comments sent in by email immediately after the webcast reflected the impact of Rabbi Weinreb’s tour de force.

“We are wowed,” wrote Sarah Alpert of Beit Shemesh, Israel. “We are living in the heart of Israel, and in our ‘down’ time this afternoon, we were able to see and listen to the most meaningful material from Rabbi Weinreb.”

From Rabbi Weinreb’s former community of Baltimore, Nama Frenkel wrote: “It was a great pleasure to hear Rabbi Weinreb again. I watched him on a big screen at the Aish Center here in Baltimore with an audience of about 100 people. My guess is that as years go by, those broadcasts will be SRO in Baltimore, as were his sermons when he lived here. Many of my friends also tuned in at home or in Israel, where we have a large Baltimore contingent.

“THANK YOU VERY, VERY MUCH for arranging the webcast of Rabbi Weinreb’s Kinot shiur (class) for Tisha B’Av,” declared Barbie and Yitzchok Siegel of Silver Spring, MD in capital letters. “It was very moving and made our fast all the more meaningful. We were especially moved by Rabbi Weinreb’s bringing in ideas, poetry, music, words from so many varied Jewish cultures – Eastern European, German, French, Spanish, Israeli, male, female – as always, he leads us in the path of achdut (unity).

From Arthur Palgon of Brooklyn, New York came this: “I am nearly 80 years old and never have I been so moved with the Kinot as today. Is one allowed to say that he enjoyed the Kinot? I think that may be the wrong adjective. However, if there is such a thing as ‘hope in despair,’ it was from today’s broadcast. Rabbi Weinreb was inspiring, informative, uplifting, awesome. The choice of material was not to be believed. It kept my wife and me glued to our seats.”

Dubby Balter of Baltimore agreed. “It’s always easy to entertain people and make them laugh,” Mrs. Balter wrote. “People get paid and spend a lot of money to laugh. It’s not popular to get people into a sad sort of mood. There was nothing more appropriate to create that sort of mood for Tisha B’Av for me this year than Rabbi Weinreb’s webcast presentation.”

And from an anonymous writer: “I found this year’s webcast to be incredibly inspirational – not to mention professionally executed and user-friendly. Many thanks to everyone who made it possible.”

From Hillel Cohen: “I’m home recuperating from a broken ankle. The broadcast, and Rabbi Weinreb’s meaningful comments and wonderful explanation made this a memorable and appropriate Tisha B’Av morning.”

“It was wonderful,” agreed Peshy Kurz of Kew Gardens Hills, Queens. “It gives me a chance to really study the Kinot so that when I say the words, they have wonderful meaning for me. It is extremely meaningful and Rabbi Weinreb is so wonderful to listen to.”

“Rabbi Weinreb did an amazing job. It was very touching with his stories and it really helped get through the morning,” wrote Gila Natan from Chicago.“I want to express my thanks to the OU for providing so many with the opportunity to be part of the valuable words and insights of Rabbi Weinreb,” declared Nechama Schwartz.

And from Shaarey Zedek Congregation in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, came this message from Rabbi Joseph D. Krupnik: “If all who mourn are meritorious, all the more so those who bring the true feeling of appreciation of the tragedies and the redemption to a little town. We cannot thank Rabbi Weinreb enough for allowing us to join in.”

* * *

The Orthodox Union, now in its second century of service to the Jewish community of North America and beyond, is a world leader in community and synagogue services, adult education, youth work through NCSY, political action through the IPA, and advocacy for persons with disabilities through Yachad and Our Way. Its kosher supervision label, the , is the world’s most recognized kosher symbol and can be found on over 275,000 products manufactured in 68 countries around the globe.

www.ou.org

Comments? Requests? Questions?

Orthodox Union Department of Communications and Marketing David Olivestone Director Stephen Steiner Director of Public Relations Main Office: 11 Broadway, New York, NY 10004 Phone: 212.613.8318 Fax: 212-613-0763 E-mail: steiners@ou.org  |  media@ou.org

OUPR Archives Recent statements to the press: 2003  |  2002  |  2001  |  2000  |  1999  |  1998