I sometimes wonder, no, often wonder, why I continue with this blog. I know it won't go on forever, yet I continue as if there's an unknown force that compels me to continue. Maybe there's a need for it as long as there are others that take the other side. They say that when Olomeinu was about to go under due to a lack of funds the Rebbe made a very, very large contribution to get it back on it's feet. Yes, the Lubavitcher Rebbe saved one of the only frum publications for Jewish youth that was supposedly run by his "adversaries," the leadership of Torah Umesorah. The reasoning was as follows: There was another publication, published by MO-Mizrachi circles, that had a similar format, and attracted the same readership. Obviously it had a different slant, one somewhat foreign to frum, Charedi kids, and that would've been the only one left.
The Rebbe is said to have said then: "As long as there's the other publication there needs to be an Olomeinu to counter it." That doesn't mean that it didn't have an intrinsic value as well; it most certainly did. But were it to go down it wouldn't be as bad if there wasn't the other magazine to fill the void. Efsher ken men zoggen that we too serve a similar purpose here. Recently we may have slacked off due to personal reasons and lack of time and energy available, but we realize the need to push along as long as the others are still out there filling the world wide web with hate and pure gibberish.
Please explain the picture! It seems that using gedolim for advertising purposes is not a new practice.
ReplyDeletewell, what's to explain? It seems to be a picture showing religious Jews, some of them Rabbinic looking, "blessing" the Matzos. I don't recognize any of them as Gedolim, do you?
ReplyDeleteThe picture is from Adar 5681.
As a plain ol'jew of hungarian extract (no chasidus, no litvak) I would like to express my appreciation for you blog. It is quite informative.
ReplyDeleteA suggestion: Please moderate the vituperative, hate filled comments. They add nothing.
Ha, I thought the middle fellow was R' Moshe! Maybe I've been conditioned to expect that...
ReplyDeleteJust a little reminder lest we be ungrateful: Right after WWII Manischewitz Matzos were very cherished in the DP camps and used by people whose decendants wouldn't dream of eating these matzos even during the rest of the year.BTW, I make it a point to keep one package of their matzos in the house during pessach.
ReplyDelete1. It was common for American Matzo companies to publicize the rabbis both supervising and baking in their plants until the late 1960's. These pictures appeared in the TOg-Morgen Journal and the Forverts . Even HAPARDES had some manischewitz group photographs.Thus Goodmans had pictures of its rav Hamachshir Reb Mendele Chodorov the Talner-Vishnitzer rebbe of the Bronx, Streits had picures of Rav Aaron Soloveitchik supervising and Rav Moshe and rav Yoshe Ber baking. Manischewitz was supervised by Reb leizer Silver, Rav Riff and others and their pictures were multiple.
ReplyDelete2. Just for the record what was the name of the competing magazine. I grew up in that time period and I do not recall an Orthodox competitor. World Over was not Orthodox.
3. Lubavitcher schools also benefited from Olamainu as it was used in Lubavitch schools, bedidi have Uvda.
4. I never saw anything anti-Lubavitch in Olamainu and I challenge you to got through old issues and show us what you felt was anti-Lubavitch. As a matter of fact Tore VaDaas and its alumni were most active in Tore U'Messorah in those days and most of them were semi-Chassidic themselves under the influence of rabbi Mendowitz.
schneur
ReplyDelete2) come to think of it it WAS world over.
4) where did I say that Olomeiu was anti-Chabad? farkert! I remember readig the story of Yud Beis Tammuz there as a kid, although these days I doubt they'd publish it.
In the "old days" many of the Tore VeDass mechanchim were themselves close to Chabad . The new Yeshivishe Hashkofe people wre not yet in notice.
ReplyDeleteBichlal there was no yeshiva world or community until the 1980's You had Chabad , Satmar (how many Bobover were there in 1960 maybe 70 families,) how many Poper were there ? How large was Skvere then ? , MO , Young Israel, Shearith hapleitah jews (Greeners) and a small American yeshivish community and a lot of residually orthodox jews.
Now you need to belong to a political party either Yeshivish, Chabad , Chasidishe, MO or Sephardic.
Didnt the Rebbe have issues with Mendel the Mouse?
ReplyDeleteI apologize for my too quick conclusions about Olamainu. Indeed you are correct, you siad nothing negative about Olamainu.
ReplyDeleteI am sorry.
apologies accepted.
ReplyDeletebtw, who published "World Over?"
and let's not draw conclusions about Lubavitch and the BR based on a small New England town.
HT-
ReplyDeleteYour blog is k'dai for the pictures alone. They are precious and IMO peerless in the J-Blogosphere.
The Rebbe did speak againt chidlren having/seeing Treife animals and the one example that teh Rebbe did bring was teh American hype about a mouse (I presume Mikey Mouse?)
ReplyDeleteFrom what I understood the Rebbe saved Olemeinu b/c it reached a readership that Chabad's own talks and tales didn't and thus could help those children.
ReplyDeleteThe old Rav in the center is Rav Avrohom Aharon Yudelovitch z"l(http://web.archive.org/web/20040819073255/www.hebrewbooks.org/yudelovitch.html).
ReplyDeleteAt his right is Rav Mordechai Aharon Kaplan z"l, who was Rav in various Shuls in Brooklyn and Manhattan.
Chaim G
ReplyDeletecompliments are always welcome, belated or not. Thanks.
Sngas say that the Rebbe asked them to stop Mendel the Mouse because he thought az m'hut gemeynt em. Nu, Nu.