Lubavitch

From: Martin Grossman 
Newsgroups: rec.music.dylan
Subject: Re: Chabad Telethons
Date: Sat, 01 Mar 1997 19:43:55 -0500

Ronnie Schreiber wrote:

> As for their  "being a organization devoted to keeping Jews from
> becoming Christians", this is only a small part of their focus albeit
> one with a strong emotional attachment. They are primarily a Jewish
> outreach and education organization. Like most Jewish outreach
> organizations, they are deeply opposed to missionary and cult activity
> that targets Jews. Some Chabadniks, most notably R. Emmanuel Shochet,
> the late R. Shiah Hecht and R. BenZion Kravitz have been very much
> involved in counter-missionary activities. Dylan could hardly be
> unaware of this.

I don't have time at the moment to respond to all of the messages re:
Chabad, but do want to add to Ronnie's insightful posting that Rabbi
Immanuel Schochet, with whom I have corresponded, was deeply involved
int he effort to bring Bob back to Judaism. Ronnie is quite right when
he says that Bob "could hardly have been unware..." In fact, he was very
much aware. By all reports, his son Jesse and son-in-law Peter Himmelman
are very involved with Chabad. Other sons have connections, too, one
hears. 

For now, I'll re-post the following oldie, which some of the newbies
evidently haven'e seen. I hope it will answer some of Paul Bullen's
questions in particular.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is from The New York Daily News of June 8, 1986. 

It was written by Mike Santangelo with whom I exchanged a series of phone calls, 
which provided confirmation and additional information. I remember exchanging some
letters with him, too. Conversations with some Chabadniks provided further details.

Later appearances by Dylan on Chabad telethons (including the one on
which he says, "Chabad is my favorite organization in the whole world, really" and the
news that he has underwritten a documentary on the Rebbe called "Windows to
the Soul" show his connection to Chabad is now more than twelve years old.

My apologies if any of this is repetitive. I'm trying to fill several
requests -- on several online services -- simultaneously.This is new for some
readers.

TIMES A-CHANGIN' FOR BOB
1960s Superstar Dylan is Worshipping with Hasidic Jewish Group in Brooklyn/
By Mike Santangelo/DailyNews Staff Writer

	Bob Dylan, the reclusive pop superstar of the 1960s, has spent parts of
the last four years living and worshipping with the ultra-orthodox Hasidic
Jews of Brooklyn's Lubavitch community.Members of the community say that
Dylan, 45, has been taking instruction from Talmudic scholars and
listening to talks by Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Schneerson. 
	His latest visit took place during Passover and he is expected to return
when he comes to New York for a concert in Madison Square Garden July 17,
community members said.
	Dylan declines to discuss his religious activities. 
	
	 "We do not talk about him here," said Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky, spokesman
for the Lubavitch community who has become a confidant of the singer.
"He is a very private person and we respect his wishes to remain so. You never
know when he will drop in -- he can come or go at any time."
	 Dylan, born Robert Zimmerman of Hibbing, Minn., wears black boots, black
trousers and a black shirt open at the collar when he is in Crown
Heights. He reportedly stays at the home of a Hasidic friend, Mayer Rhodes. 
Rhodes would not comment. When in Brooklyn, the singer may be seen walking along
President St. to shabbes (sabbath) services at Congregation B'nai Shlomo Zalman, known
locally as Frankel's Shul, where he chants prayers in Hebrew and wears a
yarmulke instead of the floppy slouch hat that once was his trademark.

	Dylan has made a long spiritual journey that began with the protest and
drug culture and included a flirtation with fundamentalist Christianity in
the late 1970s. Now he attends farbrengens, gatherings where Schneerson
speaks to followers for hours. 

	Dylan studies Jewish scripture at the main Lubavitcher synagogue on
Eastern Parkway, community sources said."He does not mingle much; he is a
very quiet person," said Rabbi Yisroel Rosenfeld,head of the Crown Heights
Jewish Community Council, who has worshipped with Dylan at Frankel's
Shul. In 1983, word spread around Crown Heights that Dylan soon would
marry a Hasidic girl. The upcoming wedding was a major topic of conversation 
at 770 Eastern Parkway -- world Lubavitch headquarters.
	That September Dylan went to Israel for his son's bar mitzvah. He did not
go back to Brooklyn for months and when he did there was no more talk of
marriage. About the same time, letters signed "R.Z., Hibbing, Minn.," appeared in
issues of a Lubavitcher religious comic book series, "Mendy and the
Golem."

> 
> >Are (generic) Jews for
> >Jesus especially prone to drug addiction?
> 
> I've been a volunteer with Jews For Judaism for the past decade or so
> and I've had contact with hundreds of so-called Messianic Jews and
> Hebrew Christians and I'd say that they don't seem any more
> predisposed to substance abuse than any other people involved in an
> emotionally intense religious experience.
> 
> >If Chabad is devoted to stopping
> >Christian evangelism among Jews, one would think that the Dylan of 1979-81
> >(at least) would view them as agents of Satan--what else could they be from
> >his perspective at that time?
> 
>  As someone who has been regularly accused of being an agent of Satan
> I'd have to agree with you.  Although the Dylan of Infidels might be
> more sympathetic to Chabad's point of view.

-- 
Martin Grossman
Principal
The Grossman Group
171 South Remington Road
Bexley, OH 43209

Phone  (614) 338-0471
Fax      (614) 338-0472
E-mail   tgg@bronze.coil.com

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