Chestnut Hill, MA – The emergency landing of a New York to Kentucky US Airways flight last month because the flight crew mistook a passenger’s tefillin for a bomb has heightened interest in the Conservative movement’s 10th annual World Wide Wrap.
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As of Tuesday, 185 Jewish men’s clubs worldwide had committed to having 8,822 men put on tefillin Sunday.
“We never before had this number of people,” said Rabbi Charles Simon, executive director of the Conservative movement’s Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs, the event sponsor.
“We had 5,000 participants the first year and the number has been consistent ever since,” he noted.
The event began when some professors at the Conservative movement’s Jewish Theological Seminary made a video about tefillin and how to wear the ritual object. After a synagogue developed amer Hebrew Academy service in which 150 men learned how to put on tefillin, the World Wide Wrap was born.
I am up in the air bout this
lets not get wrapped up over this
Don’t conservative women also wear tefillin? Why are they excluded and why didn’t the men wear them before this event?
How can the Orthodox somehow hijack this. No reason why an this incident which happened to an Orthodox kid should now be a pr thing for conservative. I hope Kiruv organizations are paying attention and finding a way to take advantage of the publicity and use it for good.
Its probbably more like a rap event.But its better a little something of yiddishkiet than nothing.kol hakovod, hopefully this event will encourage some folks to make more use of their tefilen they wore once when they were bar mitzvah’d..
Vrui kol amai haaretz ki sheim hasem nikrah ulecha…..
Wow what a zechus for him
I wonder if you can “wrap” while driving your car to shul on shabbat, as Conservative permits.
thats incredible! this boy was zoche to have all these people become interested in putting on tefillin through his actions. mitzva gorrerres mitzva….
may u be zoche to wrap everyday
מי ביקש מכם זאת רמוס חצירי!
When I was beginning my way toward religious observance, I was given a pair of old tefillin to use by a Conservative rabbi.
I used them for several days and then started going to learn at an Orthodox yeshiva.
I told the rabbis there where I had gotten the tefillin I was using and they said the pair should be checked.
They opened the tefillin and — I am not making this up — the parchments inside crumbled to the floor like snow flakes on a cold winter’s day.
I never stepped a foot inside a Conservative place again nor did I ever have anything else to do with a Conservative “rabbi” again.
first the misnagdim made fun of chabad and their tefillin campaign/mitzvah tank and now they made it their business. conservative bashes chabad and orthodox bchlal amd now they FINALLY woke up to motzvas tefillin. we must be living in moshiach’s times
I think it’s wonderful.
B”H
have u guys heard of a mitzvah callled ahavas yisroel?
conserv jews r included in mitzvah of ahavas yisroel
be positive and find out where we can agree… have achdus…. this is what OUR (all jews) Father wants
So for all of you who said he should’ve davvenned at home… not out in the open…well look what he accomplished. Proud of you!!!
I have noticed over the years that Conservative Jews tend to wear the tefillin incorrectly, letting the Shel Rosh dangle in the middle of their forehead instead of above the hair line. Someone should teach them how to wear the tefillin correctly. Or, do they have a different “halacha” for this?
Chabad already has tefillin clubs for non-observant men that meet definitely more often than ANNUALLY. I guess for for conservative, once a year is fine.
Chabad-Lubavitch bochrim have gone to many different locations for years, asking men if they have put on Tefillin and introducing the mitzvah to thousands.
Whatever it takes to get people doing a mitzvah. And the roles are being completely reversed now; the Conservatives are advocating tefillin and kashrut while the Orthodox are advocating ethical behavior and ordaining female rabbaot.
Yes, we are in Ikvos deMoshiach!
once again chabad starts something, gets bashed for doing it, then all jews follow and claim credit for it.
Once again, ‘religious’ jews need to bash other real jews. It is time for these animals to be punished. May G-d punish them measure for measure.. May they have mouth and oral issues, and may their arms have medical problems!
Wow. Today’s comments really show a terrible lack of respect for other Jews.
1. Just because you go to an Orthodox/Chabad/Conservative shul, where most people do wear teffillin, that does not mean that the whole (male) congregation was raised in an observant home or has experience laying teffillin. Plenty of people on Orthodox shuls show up once a week when they drive to Shabbat services – not that this is the way things should be, my point is that not everybody is as observant as the rest of the congregation or is as knowledgeable as maybe they ought to be.
2. Nobody is trying to “steal” credit away from Chabad. Chabad’s inreach efforts are laudable, but that does not mean that nobody else is allowed to encourage people to observe mitzvos! I highly doubt that the Men’s Clubs of Conservative shuls are going to try to attract people from other shuls – rather they are trying to educate the members within the congregation.
3. There isn’t such a thing as a non-Orthodox Sofer, so if teffillin are not kosher, the person who acquired them is probably the victim of fraud. To condemn a whole movement based on one anecdotal account of one incident by one rabbi is unfair and mean spirited.
Also, it is a wonderfully surprise that a stupid mistake/misunderstanding/whatever by an airline has translated into greater interest in following mitzvos.