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Monroe, NY – Pesach and Chana Burston just want to produce better Jews. Their movement is as outward-looking as the Satmar Hasidim of Kiryas Joel are insular. They want to inspire fellow Jews, whatever they call themselves. “Our philosophy is, we’re there to serve Jewish communities, regardless of background,” says Pesach, a 29-year-old rabbi. “Why create barriers and distinctions when people have so much in common?”
In their short time in Orange County, he and his wife have built a dedicated following with weekly “Kabbalah and Chicken Soup” gatherings at their spacious Monroe home.
Now they want to establish an even larger Chabad presence in Orange County. They’re planning on a 20,000-square-foot building off Gilbert and High Streets in downtown Monroe that would become a permanent home for their expanding activities. It would also hold a synagogue.
Thus far, the only friction the Burstons have encountered is with a rival Chabad group in Goshen, led by Rabbi Yakov Borenstein and his nephew, Meir.
The elder Borenstein, who has represented Chabad in Poughkeepsie for about 20 years, claims he placed his nephew in Goshen to do outreach and that the Burstons are usurpers with no right to the Chabad name. Both groups, the Burstons and the Borensteins, hold similar activities and call themselves Chabad of Orange County.
Occasionally, this otherwise obscure rivalry has spilled into the pages of the local news papers, where the Borensteins have placed ads asserting their legitimacy and distancing themselves from the Burstons’ building plans in Monroe.
Chabad headquarters in Cown Heights, Brooklyn, NY sides with the Burstons in this turf battle. “We are particularly pained that a small, irresponsible group is subjecting the good people of Orange County to unnecessary confusion,” said a spokesman for the movement. “The only authorized Chabad-Lubavitch representatives in Orange County are Rabbi Pesach and Chana Burston.”
The Burstons’ success and expansion plans probably also cause a twinge of anxiety within Monroe’s Reform and Conservative temples, whose leaders would rather not lose members and donors to Chabad. Some of the couple’s most fervent admirers – those who go to the “Kabbalah and Chicken Soup” dinners and underwrite Chabad holiday parties – belong to Congregation Eitz Chaim and Monroe Temple Beth-El.
The rabbis from those two temples preferred not to speak for publication about Chabad.
borenstine U R THE NAN!!!!!!!!!!!
keep it up
burston get out of there ASAP
rabbi borenstien keep up the good work
the time will come where hashem will show the truth and you as a chosid and a shliach will
win
whoever wrote this in hebrew should learn english bec that is so not what is written in the article
קונפליקט בעיירה מונורו – מחוזה של חסידות סאטמר, הגיעה השבוע, לכותרות המקומונים בעיירה. כששליח חב”ד הרב פסח בורשטיין עבר להתגורר בעיירה לפני זמן-מה, ממש מתחת לאפם של חסידי סאטמר ובנה לעצמו קהילייה שהתחילה עם שיעורים של “קבלה” על ספל מרק חם.
היוזמה הביאה לפתחו של בורשטיין יהודים שאינם שומרי תורה ומצוות שמתגוררים בעיירה ובסביבותיה. הפרויקט של חב”ד עבר מפה לאוזן ופרח.
יותר ויותר אנשים החלו להגיע לשיעורים ולפעילויות של בורשטיין. המקום נהיה צר, ובורשטיין רכש לאחרונה מבנה גדול בעיר התחתית של מונרו ברחוב גילברט שישמש כבית-חב”ד וכבית-כנסת פעיל בכל ימות השבוע. מלבד המאבק שמנהלת חסידות סאטמר נגד הקמת בית-חב”ד, מנהל אדם שאף הוא נקרא בשם בורשטיין, המתגורר בעיירה גושן שנמצאת לא-הרחק מהמקום, מאבק נגד השליח.
מרכז חב”ד בקראון-הייטס תומך ברב בורשטיין במונרו. הרב פסח בורשטיין מוצא את עצמו במאבק מבפנים ומבחוץ, כשהלחומים החזקים ביותר נגדו, הם דווקא בתי-הכנסת הרפורמים והקונסרבטיביים בעיירה מונרו.
אלה האחרונים חוששבים “מנדידיה ונטישה” של מתפללים לכיוון בית-הכנסת של חב”ד. “אנחנו עשויים להפסיד מתפללים והרבה כסף”, אומר רוברט אחד מעסקני בית-כנסת רפורמי בעיירה מונרו.
מרכז סאטמר ממוקם בפרברי העיירה מונרו אבל בעיירה עצמה ריכוז גדול של יהודים שאינם אורתודוקסים ואינם שומרי תורה ומצוות, פניו של הרב בורשטיין מיועדות אל אותם אנשים והוא מתכוון להמשיך בפרויקט שהחל, ולקדם אותו ללא פחד וולא מורך לב.
GOOD WORK RABBI BORENSTIEN YOU ARE A GREAT MAN AND LEADER KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK
stay in monroe do what you want there but dont step foot into goshen
pesach burston u dont belong in orange county the boresntiens were there for the past 20 years
rabbi meir its great to see how well u guys are doing
no shliach in their first year has 300 people at a purim event or 100 at a pesach seder a minyan with over 30 people every shabbos a nice big building a pre school 3 camps and the list goes on
hatzlocho rabah yelchu mechayil el choyil
pesach and fam paid 25,000 dollars to have this article in the paper
rabbi meir and rivki borenstien keep up the good work ver nisht nispoel
keep up the great work
rabbi burston
stop the chilul hashem and chilul lubavitch move out
thank you very much rebbe pesaach for your great job in the town of monroe may hashem give you and your wife koach for many long years to come to do this great mitzvah thanks again from a kj resident………..
the the peopel of chabad monroe may hashem give youo koach to go on for years and years to come you are doing the bigest mitzvah in the intire world i am suer that in your zchus we will be takin out of this golus thanks for your work from a kj resident
that picture is really offensive and taboo in mainstream chabad…you gotta switch it
C’mon – can’t you find a more normal picture????
pesach stop the machlokos
there is a simple way to make peace upstate between burston
he lives 20 minutes away all he should do is work where he lives and not go into any other area where there are already shluchim
the others dont go into his taking the first step towards peace he should do the same
this turf battle is somethoing that is rattling all of Chabad unfortunatly perhaps growing pains.
Same problem in Park Slope and Prospect Hts between two fine Shulicim.
770 Should have better control, it is confusing to all the residents and counterproductive.
I’m shocked too that you’d put such a dumb picture of Chabad. You surely know these few are shunned by most in Chabad and totally rejected period.
Maybe they dont know he is DEAD!
it is very intersting to see that you couldn’t find any nice’r pictures to discribed chabad then putting a picture of a bunch of wierd’os convincing them selves that the rebbe is givinng them “kois shel brochu”