[COMMUNICATED CONTENT]

By Chaim Gold

For the past five years, the Acheinu Flatbush Event has been a community milestone featuring numerous prominent Roshei Yeshiva from the United States and Eretz Yisrael as guest speakers. Throughout the five years that the Flatbush Community Event has been held, Gedolei Yisrael have shown their deep appreciation for the special role that Acheinu plays on the Eretz Yisrael kiruv scene by going out of their way to attend and address the event. The Acheinu Flatbush event has featured as guest speakers some of the most illustrious names in the Torah world including HaGaon HaRav Yisroel Belsky, zt”l, Rosh Yeshivas Torah Vodaas and ybl”ch, HaGaon HaRav Mattisyohu Salomon, shlita, Mashgiach Beth Medrash Govoha, HaGaon HaRav Berel Povarsky, shlita, Rosh Yeshivas Ponovezh, HaGaon HaRav Shmuel Yaakov Borenstein, shlita, Rosh Yeshivas Kiryas Melech and HaGaon HaRav Yaakov Bender, shlita, Rosh Yeshiva, Yeshiva Darchei Torah of Far Rockaway.

Giving Maaser of One’s Time

This year’s event, a breakfast reception scheduled to be held at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Simcha Applegrad on Sunday December 11, promises to be no different. The guest speaker will be HaGaon HaRav Reuven Feinstein, shlita, Rosh HaYeshiva of Mesivta Tifereth Yerushalayim of Staten Island. Virtually every time that Rav Reuven has given an address of this kind he quotes inspiring vignettes and halachic insights from his illustrious father, HaGaon HaRav Moshe Feinstein, zt”l. Indeed, Rav Moshe famously said that just as a person is obligated to give maaser from one’s money for the poor, so too is a person obligated to give maaser from his time to enrich the spiritually impoverished. Acheinu’s avreichim as well as Acheinu’s supporters have done exactly that, reaching out to their brethren in Eretz Yisrael who have not had the opportunity to have an authentic Torah education and, using Acheinu’s unique, tailor-made approach to kiruv, they have reaped unprecedented results, a 93% success rate! That remarkable, 93% success rate stems from Acheinu’s desire to bring accountability to kiruv and is based upon its three-step program: 1. Mentoring 2. Enrollment 3. Follow-up. The number of kiruv activists who accompany every child from a non-religious lifestyle until he becomes a ben Torah is mindboggling. They follow each young man as he slowly becomes frum, becomes a yeshiva bachur and is eventually mainstreamed.

“Getting Children into Mainstream Yeshivos… This is so Special”

Reb Simcha Applegrad, who has graciously hosted the event for years, has been to Eretz Yisrael and observed Acheinu’s activities up close. He expressed his admiration for Acheinu and why he feels fortunate to host the annual Flatbush community event, “Just walking into Acheinu’s Battei Chizuk and Yeshivos; just seeing how they reach out to these kids with love and a sense of mission, inspired me to no end.”

The event will be chaired by Rabbi Dovid Morgenstern, Menahel of Yeshiva Darchei Torah of Far Rockaway. Perhaps it was Rav Yaakov Bender, last year’s guest speaker, who put into perspective Acheinu’s tremendous success wrought by dedicated hard work without respite. Commenting on how Acheinu mainstreams hundreds of children each year he said, “Do you know what it means to get a kid into yeshiva nowadays?! Imagine – he is a baal teshuva whose parents are not frum. Acheinu gets these kids into mainstream yeshivos! This is so special it is hard to describe!”

Acheinu’s 6 th Annual Flatbush Community Event will be held on Sunday December 11, at 9:15 AM, at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Simcha Applegrad, 1266 E.32 nd Street, (Bet. Aves, L & M).