Riches to Rags - The Uri Zohar story

Uri Zohar and Son debate religion amongst the palm trees in Jaffa where Uri lived before finding G-d. He was tired of the partying, the drugs, and the need to belong, so he gave it all up for a small apartment in Mattersdorf. It seems like the son has issues with Yiddishkeit, and his father tries to reason with him. Watch the video, it's a recording of a broadcast that was shown on Israel's Channel 2 TV.

I never liked Uri Zohar. I found him to be "the answer" to Chabad Kiruv activities, and therefore an affront to Chabad. In 5748-49 he was paraded around as the solution to the Chabad "Kiruv" problem. They had him speak at the Degel HaTeyreh conventions telling the people not to be impressed by Chabad's Shluchim and Kiruv, because they did it all wrong. He instead had all the answers. That at a time that he was Frum for all of maybe 13 years.

More on Uri from Wikipedia Hebrew.



Over the years I believe he lost much of his anti-Chabad rhetoric and has begun to focus on true issues, namely that of Jewish education. He does run Lev L'Achim, which was originally set up to push out Reb Sholom Lipshitz from Yad L'Achim because he wouldn't be Mekabel Morus of מרן in B'nei Brak, but even LL has branched out into other activities. He was Aryeh Deri'i's main defender during his trial and subsequent jail time, and even would sit with him at the Yeshivah that they set up for him in prison for long periods of time.

I have since been able to overlook his past indiscretions (I Mean as a Frum Yid...) and see him as a great asset to the Jewish community. Lubavitch cannot appeal to all Jews, so he does fill a great need. He has the know-how to reach the masses with his acting and directing background, and he does it quite well, using both humor and the mass media to appeal to an Israeli public that still loves him after all these years.