Bochurim Spread Positivity In Upstate NY

For residents of small towns and rural areas, this past year has been an especially challenging time. To help relieve the isolation, yeshiva students Sholom Lever and Azriel Laber visited Jews in rural New York, bringing them a message of positivity from the Rebbe.

This past year has been a challenging one for many and especially for those isolated in small towns, like in New York’s Rensselaer County, east of Albany. To help ease the isolation, two Yeshiva students, Sholom Lever and Azriel Laber conceived the idea of visiting the area’s Jews and gifting them the book Positivity Bias, authored by Rabbi Mendel Kalmenson.

Local residents were very uplifted by these visits and enjoyed speaking with the young Rabbis and hearing words of Torah. It turned out to be a well recieved idea and a covid-safe one as well. 

The Rebbe underlined that one’s positivity is contagious and will lead to others adding in positivity. This was clearly seen, when giving the book led to many more mitzvahs, including putting up mezuzahs in people’s homes.

The Jews visited ranged from bankers, car dealers, jewelers, lawyers, doctors, and even a meditation center leader. Dozens of people were impacted and inspired by these visits and the bochurim encouraged those they met to keep spreading the positivity to the people they know.   

The visits were under the direction of the Shluchim of Chabad of Greenbush and Southern Rensselaer County, Rabbi Avraham and Nechama Dina Laber. This was happening in conjunction with running a Pesach program on the new (JGR) Jewish Greenbush Retreat property, the home of the Jewish Girls Retreat and Jewish Girls Unite Virtual Community. 

Guests from out of town, as well as the local Jewish Greenbush community, enjoyed homemade Pesach meals, daily minyanim and Torah classes, art and soul workshops, boating and hiking around the pond, feeding the sheep and chickens, an uplifting concert with Rabbi Yossi Goldstein and nature and Torah workshops with Rabbi Laber.

The Jewish Greenbush Retreat will G-d willing be open to visitors for fun and experiential covid-safe programs, as well as an upcoming Shavuos Retreat and Jewish Girls Retreat this summer. 

For more information, visit JewishGreenbush.com or text Mrs. Nechama Laber at 5187279581

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