Beth Jacob Adopts The Orthodox Union

Rabbi Steven Weil is leaving Beth Jacob to run the OU.

Moses emails: "In a shul that generally limits its kiruv effort to machers, it is interesting that it has thrown its Israel campaign dollars behind the OU’s campaign for spiritual ammunition for soldiers."

Rabbi Weil has always excelled at fundraising, particularly for Israel. It’s helped that he hasn’t always been too picky about where he gets the money from.

Not that I am either.

Here’s the press release:

When the Israel Defense Forces went into combat against Hamas in Gaza, they were armed with the highest level of military equipment that Israel could provide them. Some soldiers, in addition, were armed with “spiritual ammunition” provided to them on Sunday by the Orthodox Union, when it delivered 102 packages consisting of tefillin, tzitzit and a siddur with tehillim prepared especially for soldiers on the battlefield.

The materials were brought to Gaza by Rabbi Avi Berman, Director of OU Israel, and represent the first disbursement of the special fund created by the OU to provide these items to soldiers who wanted to add a component of kedushah to their armament. Funding for these packages was provided by Beth Jacob Congregation of Beverly Hills, CA. In the next few weeks, hundreds more of these packages will be provided by the Congregation to soldiers returning from Gaza.

“The IDF arms the soldiers with their military weaponry. The OU’s mission is to arm them with spiritual ammunition as they put their lives at risk,” explained OU Executive Vice President Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb.

The fundraising campaign is taking place in OU synagogues across North America. The tefillin delivered to the 102 soldiers on Sunday cost $33,000. Another 70 soldiers are on the waiting list and receive their holy items.

“Commanders who have been with the IDF for a long time were telling me that they didn’t remember such a spiritual high in the army since the day after the Six-Day War,” Rabbi Berman declared. “These tefillin represent Jews in America whose heart is with the soldiers who are risking their lives in Gaza. The soldiers are putting the tefillin on at a critical time in their lives, and the people who contributed are hoping that they will continue to do so forever and ever.”