New York – The world’s biggest Jewish outreach group faces a cash crisis fuelled by fears that its biggest donor, billionaire diamond mogul Lev Leviev, may slash funding due to his own financial difficulties.
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Chabad has around 4,000 emissaries in 70 countries, running 3,300 community centres worldwide.
Sources within the movement say many of the emissaries in charge of running Jewish religious activities around the globe have been told that their funding will be stopped.
Mr Leviev’s spokesman acknowledged there had been cuts but insisted they were due to a general downturn in donations to his educational charity.
In the Former Soviet Union, where Chabad dominates communal services for most of the estimated 1.5 million Jews, senior educational leaders have confirmed that many schools founded and supported by Mr Leviev’s Or Avner network have had their funding stopped or limited over the past few weeks.
The Chief Rabbi of Russia, Rabbi Berel Lazar, has been holding emergency meetings in recent days with his emissaries to discuss the crisis.
The subject will be high on the agenda next week when thousands of emissaries from Chabad – also known as Lubavitch after the Russian town where it originated – will meet at their headquarters in New York.
One philanthropist who works with Chabad said: “Dozens of shlichim are coming to me asking for help. Some of them have taken bank loans on the assumption that Mr Leviev’s funds would repay the loans and now they are distraught.”
The Or Avner network of 120 schools and 60 kindergartens in the FSU, Eastern Europe, Germany, North America and Israel – the world’s biggest private Jewish education network – was founded by Mr Leviev, who has given it an estimated £50 million a year over the past few years.
Mr Leviev is also the main benefactior for the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia, the Chabad-dominated largest Jewish organisation in Russia, of which he is president. Another major donor of the Federation is billionaire Roman Abramovich.
The turmoil in Chabad comes as Mr Leviev, in 2006 ranked as the richest man in Israel, faces financial problems of his own.
The share value of his main holding company, Africa Israel, this year dropped by 86 per cent on the Tel Aviv stock exchange and almost all its shares are now collateral to the Israeli banks, to which it owns over £2 billion.
While the 2008 Forbes Rich List put Mr Leviev’s net worth at $4.5 billion (£3bn), not including his diamond mining concerns in Russia and Africa, the Israeli business media has estimated that his worth has slumped by at least 60 per cent in recent months and he has been trying to sell off major parts of his empire.
Mr Leviev’s spokesman in Israel denied that he had cut off support for the Lubavitch organisations in Russia.
He said: “Mr Leviev sent out clear instructions to every emissary to find ways to economise without harming the core activities and instructed the headquarters to check how to keep as many operations running as possible, despite the decline in donations from philanthropists in Russia and the United States.
“Some of the emissaries are running schools with too few children and they have been told that no more funding will be forthcoming this year.”
Earlier this year, Mr Leviev moved to London after buying a £35 million house in Highgate. The British branch of Chabad is not expected to be affected by Mr Leviev’s situation as it is financed by different donors.
I guess so no more menorahs in public places, that’s sad but I guess we will overcome this
whats his name we should be mispallel for him? a man who does so much for klal yisrael…!
The American economy is so bad, for everybody not only Chabad and so much new money with no backing is being printed, that the gross national product soon won’t be enough to pay for the mere interest that America owes its creditors. Suddenly, the young people of the USA will wake up from their slumber of fun and games to realize that the country has not only mortgaged their future, but the future of their great grand children and the unborn generations for years to come.
I think that all Tzedakah org. & Yeshivas & schools will go thru very hard times
1) I think that People should cut their life style standards
2) People should cut down on expensive cars & luxeries
3) People should spend less on Weddings Bar Mitzvah & so on
This crissis can take a few years & this is just the begining
Retail stoes are feeling the problam allready alot of store fronts are for RENT
alot of stores are going out of Bussiness
May Hashem help us all Amen
“The Chief Rabbi of Russia, Rabbi Berel Lazar, has been holding emergency meetings in recent days with his emissaries to discuss the crisis.” As wonderfull as a guy as Beryl Lazar is, and he is, the shluchim are emissaries and Children, of the Lubavitcher Rebbe ZY”A. And a father never forgets his children. Yehi Rozon it should be a quick yeshua, so that these brave soldiars can carry on their true mission of fixing the world one neshama at a time.
Most Chabad -Lubavitch centrs around the world are SELF supported. Only in Russia is a large chunk of the monies coming from Mr. Leviov.
Didn’t the Rebbe give him a brocho ??
Sad.
Although, I think he only gives to Eastern Europe. I don’t see where this affects the rest of Chabad. Most of their people raise their own money.
so now hes only worth a couple of billion instead of 5-6?
The menorahs at first seem like a waste until you speak to people who live in places with no public displays of Judaism whatsoever, many people like to feel connected in some way and this helps them feel proud. Personally I don’t think a town should have to pay for any public religious displays whether they be menorahs or Christmas treas.
The public menorah in NY is not the same as the public menorah in Bozeman Montana.
We all should help this great baal chessed. We should go out and buy blood diamonds for our wives.
BS”D
His name is Levi ben Chana.
I can guarantee you, with absolute certainty, that if yidden would show a bit of achdus this would NOT be happening. Stop bickering; I love Chabad and the Rebbe – you don’t have to. But we can all agree that yeshivos and neshomos need nurturing. So let’s show a little achdus and stop kvetching.
Baruch Hashem! Shloshim Yom Kodem Lifnei Hachag, and the great Chabad Menorah debate begins!
Hey people, get a life! Chabad wants a Menorah? Let them have a Menorah!
I have never been more proud to be a Lubavitcher Chossid than I am after reading this, I realize how lucky I am to be taught by our Rebbe, the value of a Yiddishe Neshomo and the achrayus we have to every Jew to light his spark, whether he be a farmer in Wyoming, or a millionaire on Wall Stree, or a young boy touring in Nepal, by displaying public Menorahs, a Jew knows that he can be proud of his Jewish identity anywhere he is, that he can wear a kippa to a business meeting, that he can eat Kosher in Thailand, when the Rebbe became Rebbe in 1950, people were embarassed of their Yiddishkeit, people preferred to remove thier beards, after the Holocaust millions of Jews threw their Judaism in the closet, and the Rebbe immediately started with public Lag Bomer parades so children can proudly march as Jews in the streets, the Rebbe started campaigns one after the other, and the Chassidim followed, and took their families to bygone places, for the sake of another Jew, so please don’t come today and teach Lubavitchers what is important, we Boruch Hashem have a Rebbe who taught us and guided us, today we continue his vision, and even our children who were never zoche to see the Rebbe with their own eyes are being educated in his ways! Moshiach Now!
To: Unafiliated???? Says:
You talk about Achdus but you speak in a derogatory way… especially with your ” – – “. Stop preaching Achdus and start believing it