New York – More than four hundred people turned out last Thursday night for a Volunteers Appreciation Banquet held by L’asurim, a not for profit organization founded approximately three years ago to advocate for the needs of incarcerated Jews in addition to providing prisoners and their families with moral support.
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L’asurim is staffed completely by volunteers and the dinner provided an opportunity for those volunteers, who hail from all across the area including Brooklyn, Lakewood, Monroe and New Square, to meet for the first time in addition to raising awareness for the organization.
Among the speakers at the dinner, held at The Renaissance Ballroom in Borough Park, were Rabbi Mendel Katz of Florida’s Aleph Institute, well known community activist Zvi Gluck, Rockland County legislator-elect Rabbi Aron Wieder, deputy mayor of New Square, Rabbi Israel Spitzer, and Williamsburg philanthropist Mr. Yidel Lichtenstein, and several former inmates who praised the L’asurim volunteers for their efforts.
“The goal is to keep people out of prison, both by educating them about crime prevention and by helping people who were released from prison to find their place in society so that they don’t find themselves in jail again,” said L’asruim volunteer, Chaim Hollander, whose brother, Israel Hollander runs the organization.
In fact, Chaim Hollander, who was imprisoned for seven years after being convicted of a white collar crime, knows firsthand the importance of moral support for prisoners and their families.
“We need to keep prisoners connected while they are incarcerated,” Hollander told VIN News. “We try to set them up with visitors, pen pals, make sure their religious rights and needs are met and then upon their release, we need to help them acclimate so that they can become productive members of society.”
Hollander stressed that L’asurim was founded to provide assistance to prisoners and their families and is careful never to pass judgment on anyone.
“You feel for these people when you visit them,” said singer Srully Williger who has both sung in prisons and made lengthy trips to visit the incarcerated. “No matter what someone did, they are still a yid, still a person, and they need to know that there are people on the outside who care and are willing to take the time to offer their support.”
L’Asurim hopes that the dinner will raise awareness for their organization which, until now, has endeavored to stay out of the limelight.
“I am always hearing from inmates that the letters that come to them from L’asurim volunteers and the visits that they get, really help them get through their tough times, and helps them with the rehabilitation process,” said Zvi Gluck. “I truly hope that more people get involved in such a worthy cause.”
Zvi Gluck speaking at L’asurim Appreciation Dinner
Shloime Taussig sings at L’asurim Appreciation Dinner
Srully Williger sings at at L’asurim Appreciation Dinner
Michoel Streicher sings at L’asurim Appreciation Dinner
מי כעמך ישראל.
Nothing makes u appropriate life more then visiting prisoners if ur able to make it your business We need Moshiach Now
We all (to be honest, just about every other group does, too), like to believe that our friends and families are better than others. And this unfortunately leads to spots of blindness in regards to distressing issues like the criminals and prisoners in our community.
All too often I’ve had discussions with fellow Jews who claim that “we” don’t have these problems. Or if we do then it’s just white collar crooks.
When I’ve replied that yes, indeed, we do have Jewish muggers and rapists and car thieves… the response is often that I must be making this garbage up. “No way”, they claim.
And then I point out that my late grandfather was the chaplain at Rikers…
Very sad commentary on our times that there are so many frum Yidden locked up in prisons now. Rabbosi, our yeshivas are failing us.
Those who victimize their children, their wives, or other people’s children should not be included within the ones helped. Their wives should be encouraged to rid themselves of these vile husbands and protect themselves and move beyond the scandal.
any organizations to compensate or help the victims?
how do you go about visiting . whom do you contact.do you need to have a special skill , such as being an entertainer or can any regular guy visit.
#6 [Please say “no” to the molesters] Says:
“Those who victimize their children, their wives, or other people’s children should not be included within the ones helped. Their wives should be encouraged to rid themselves of these vile husbands and protect themselves and move beyond the scandal.”
PSNTTM, you are confounding two separate issues.
It is absolutely appropriate to encourage the wives to dump the vile husbands and protect themselves and move onward.
And it is absolutely appropriate to lock up those who commit major crimes. [I shall not now get into the issue of capital punishment, though in other forums I have supported it.].
BUT …
The Jewish inmates do need to have support from their fellow Jews on the outside. The goyishe inmates — and, no less significantly, the goyishe corrections officers — need to know that someone cares about the Jews behind bars. Because the more those people abuse Jews behind bars, the greater the odds are that they will abuse and attack Jews when they get to the outside.
Yes, even those Jewish scumbums at Otisville and Sing-Sing and Attica and Dannemora need our help from the outside. For our own sakes, if not theirs!
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I guess I can see the importance of taking care jews who ended up in prison. But somehow I just feel like our money and time could be going to people who didn’t steal a car or make a ponzi scheme to get where they are. Like an almana, or a yasom, or a family that can’t afford to pay for cancer treatment for their kid.
Again, I hear that these people need help but this really just rubs the wrong way……
As a Lasurim volunteer, i have been visiting inmates for almost a half year, lets say that these people violated the law and are sitting for white collar crimes, but one cannot imagine what these people are going through sitting in jail and getting the same treatment as mass murderers, when we go to visit them they see a heimish face and it keeps them going until our next visit i encourage people to go visit jewish inmates, for more information you can contact the lasurim office
By supporting inmates we are ultimately doing a chessed that creates the domino effect! When we yidden support an inmate and his/her family we are in essence assisting the local community with dealing with these almana/divorcee/single mom as well as the children that can be compared to orphans/children of divorced parents. In fact, the spouses and children at home suffer even more due to people’s lack of sensitivities which typically orphans don’t encounter on a daily basis. Not to say that orphans shouldn’t be assisted in whatever way possible. Statistics show that majority of prisoners end up in jail a second time unless they have family and community support. Suffice it to say that we wouldn’t want any yidden sitting in prison and definitely not a second time! Helping the prisoner & family aleviates the burden on klal yisroel in general and the local community in particular. Please do not take this chessed lightly and join the crew of loyal volunteers! Tizku L’Mitzvos!
I believe that everyone deserves emotional support from their family and select members of their community- even murderers and rapists. However, this type of organization should be kept on the ‘down low’. This sort of publicity sounds uncomfortably close to condonation. Just my thoughts…
I think we also need an organization “L’Issurim” to educate people about avoiding that which is forbidden – an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Also, grammatically, should it not be “LA’asurim?” I know, I’m missing the point, but still….
No matter what he did he is still a brother & there is a mitzveh to support him…regardless if he desereves it……if u do this great mitzveh hashem will repay you even if (god forbid) you might not deserve it……
I know that many of us will not understand the support given to the inmates, weren’t they indicted for crimes? one would ask, but after understanding the system and the kind of justice that awaits a Jew under our system, I purpose you might change your mind. First, there is an old saying, that an average jury consists of people so dumb them didn’t even know how to get off being on jury duty, and the average uneducated person believes, that Jews are to blame for all their troubles, imagine the justice when it’s upon them to fix the problem when it’s their choice. Secondly, a judge by dropping his hammer and sentencing someone to 20 years does he have the slightest clue of what he’s done to that human being? A judge that was sentenced to six months in prison said afterh 2 weeeks that no one shall be able to impose jail before tasting it for atleast a few weeks.
The Aleph Institute also does wonderful work in assisting those of the Jewish faith incarcerated. Not to knock the wonderful work L’asurim does, but they were around long way before them.
Also, instead of lamenting over the fact that there are Jewish people in prison and wondering why or how they got there, just give them your support if you can. When you get it into your heads that oh, they’re Jewish, they could never do that, you miss the basic force of what human nature is. People can choose the way they want to live their life; they can go down the wrong path or down the right path. Stop pointing fingers at those who have gone down the wrong path and give them support. Who knows what a difference that might make to them.
Prevention! Prevention! Prevention!
If we — both the parents and the yeshivos — would educate our children about the halachic chiyuv to observe the laws of the land (dina demalchusa), the severe aveirah of Chillul Hashem, and the issurim involved in stealing, lying and cheating from both yidden and goyim (as stated explicity in Shulchan Aruch), then the problem could be almost eliminated in one generation.
The article did mention prevention. I would like to know what concrete steps L’Assurim is taking in that direction.