Rival Chabad factions are fighting for control of the wealthy New York State town of Woodstock. Best quotes from a must-read article from the Woodstock Times:
"I have been very quiet about this," Yitzchok Hecht told this reporter this week. "I am not here to get into this whole thing but you are cornering me into a position. Am I not supposed to respond?"
But Hecht has made editors at Woodstock Times aware of the situation several times over the past year and as recently as a week ago.
And:
"Yitzchok [Hecht] is so upset he didn't get Woodstock," said Borenstein this week. "It is a wealthy place and he wanted to get real estate there... The Hechts are looking for power. They think they own Ulster County. They think they own Sullivan County. And, now, they think they own Dutchess County... They told me they would bury me alive. I said, if that's the will of God, I will accept it with love."
From the way Rabbi Borenstein speaks in the article, it would seem he is a messianist. The Hechts, of course, are not. Dishonest? Thuggish? You be the judge.
Cha-bad blood
Menorah lighting ceremony reveals rift in local Lubovitch communitiesby Andrea Barrist Stern
At 5 p.m. on Sunday, December 25, Woodstock supervisor Jeremy Wilber is scheduled to light the center candle on a guitar-shaped Hanukkah menorah at the Woodstock Village Green that was built by local musician Rennie Cantine. Sponsored by Woodstock Chabad, a local affiliate of the worldwide Chabad movement of Orthodox Judaism which has operated a small center on Glasco Turnpike for the past year and a half, the event will feature klezmer music and spontaneous dancing, homemade latkes (potato pancakes) and sufganiot (powdered jelly donuts).But underlying this seemingly joyous celebration is a rift within the region's Chabad movement that has pitted rabbi against rabbi from Brooklyn's Crown Heights to Albany in a struggle not just over which group has the right to have a public menorah in Woodstock, but also over who is the designated authority to operate a Chabad facility in Woodstock: Rabbi Yacov Borenstein, who opened a Chabad center in Poughkeepsie 20 years ago and has since launched smaller centers in New Paltz, Goshen and Woodstock; or Rabbi Yitzchok Hecht, the spiritual leader of the Orthodox Congregation Agudas Achim on Lucas Avenue in Kingston since 2002.
In a turf war involving a division of territory on both sides of the Hudson River embedded deeply within the ultra orthodox Lubovitch sect of Hasidism, the Jewish mystical movement founded in eastern Europe in the 18th century, each side claims the other is elbowing in on its territory in a fight for power and real estate. But the conflict has gone even further with alleged threats of arrest for trespassing and even possible physical harm.
"Yitzchok [Hecht] is so upset he didn't get Woodstock," said Borenstein this week. "It is a wealthy place and he wanted to get real estate there... The Hechts are looking for power. They think they own Ulster County. They think they own Sullivan County. And, now, they think they own Dutchess County... They told me they would bury me alive. I said, if that's the will of God, I will accept it with love."
Hecht said Borenstein was fired by the worldwide Chabad movement several years ago, a claim substantiated by Rabbi Yisroel Rubin, who oversees the Chabad operations in Albany and is generally considered to be the region's chief emissary, or schlioch, appointed by the late Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the leader or Rebbe of the Lubavitch movement of Hassidic Judaism for 44 years until his death in 1994.
"He is not authorized," said Hecht of Rabbi Yisroel Gootblatt, who Borenstein hired to run the Chabad center in Woodstock a year and a half ago. "He knows he is not authorized and is not part of the system. Anyone can call themselves Lubovitcher and say he is here to do the Rebbe's work, but that doesn't make you part of the system."
The schism has been in the making since Borenstein first launched the Woodstock center, something he told Woodstock Times he was planning before Hecht's arrival in Kingston. He said Hecht began calling himself Chabad of Ulster County only after Gootblatt's arrival. The rift came to light - literally - however, with the competition by both groups for a public menorah in Woodstock this year.
Hecht said an associate, Rabbi Zalman Teitelbaum, had made arrangements with Wilber in October for the menorah. Hecht's group had erected a public menorah on the village Green last year but didn't light it and was planning a similar display this year, with the likelihood of organizing a ceremony next year. Meanwhile, Gootblatt lit his guitar menorah last year in front of Catskill Art and Office Supply nearby on Mill Hill Road. Gootblatt said he contacted Wilber a month ago and the supervisor, who later claimed to have forgotten the Hecht group's request, authorized the Chabad of Woodstock menorah. Realizing his mistake, the supervisor proposed a solution.
Reaching for the wisdom of Solomon, the supervisor determined this week that Gootblatt could have his menorah and ceremony at the Green as scheduled on Sunday evening. Wilber also promised to light the shamesh, or central candle from which the other candles are lit, as requested. And Hecht could have his unlit menorah at the Green as well. If Hecht prefers not to erect his menorah, he will have the option of having the sole menorah there next year and the two groups can alternate each year after that.
"I just want to see a menorah, period," said Wilber on Monday, refusing further comment.
SWEET, HOME BASED
Borenstein is no stranger to Woodstock. In fact, the concept of a public menorah in town originated with him in 1997 when the rabbi, who had no Woodstock presence at the time, threatened to sue the town and the Woodstock Reformed Church (the owner of the Village Green) for discrimination if he was not permitted, with barely a week's approval time, to set up his nine-foot aluminum menorah. The following year, a hastily-assembled group of members of the Woodstock Jewish Congregation put up the town's first community-sponsored menorah, singing, "Not by might, and not by power, but by spirit alone shall we live in peace," lyrics that seemed intended to send a message that the local community would not be bullied. In retrospect, Borenstein said this week that the word discrimination was a poor choice, selected in the heat of the moment, and he never really intended to sue anyone.
By last year, however, the Woodstock Jewish Congregation members, who had put up their menorah each year since 1998 as an individual activity, not as a synagogue-sponsored event, had apparently lost interest. "When we did it, it was because we wanted to resolve a very messy thing," said the Woodstock Jewish Congregation's spiritual leader, Rabbi Jonathan Kligler, on Tuesday. "I have no objection - nor does anyone on the synagogue board - to any public form of religious expression. It was the threatening tone of that particular rabbi [Borenstein] that made us feel obliged to step in, because we love our town, in such a way that would prevent him from threatening lawsuits. When that threat had subsided, we stopped lighting the menorah."
Kligler said the Woodstock Jewish Congregation does "not think the holiday is about big public displays." Said the rabbi, "Hanukkah remains a sweet, home-based Jewish holiday in winter during which candles are lit, and because it has had either the good or bad fortune to be so close to Christmas, it has suffered from serious inflation."
WHAT IS TOGETHER?
Is there any possibility of the two Chabad groups working together on a public menorah lighting? "What does together mean?" asks Hecht, responding to the question with a question.
It is virtually impossible for an outsider to draw accurate conclusions about the closeted and tightly knit world of Chabad Hasidism that is governed by its own religious courts known as Beth Dins. Rabbi Joseph Isaac Schneerson brought Chabad to America from Russia in 1940 and was succeeded by Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, under whose leadership the movement established a system of religious and educational institutions, including children's camps. The movement's chief objective was to reach out to American Jews who had grown up without any exposure to an observant form of Judaism. One of its chief vehicles was, and continues to be, its Chabad houses, independent centers set up in thousands of communities around the world.
Towards the end of his life, Schneerson suffered from a series of strokes and was unable to communicate directly with his followers. According to different reports, various factions of the movement began to make statements in the name of their Rebbe at this time. A movement which had earlier refrained from active involvement in Israeli politics, for instance, suddenly became critical of the Israeli government's willingness to withdraw from occupied territories as part of a peace settlement. While many Lubovitch are convinced their Rebbe was the designated Messiah, there appears to be some question about his designated successor, since his wife died before him and the couple had no children.
Rabbi Shea Hecht, Yitzchok Hecht's father, said Schneerson designated two rabbis to be in charge following his death, Rabbi Avraham Shem Tov and Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky, who is said to largely run the organization today. Krinsky did not return repeated calls from Woodstock Times, but Michelle Tuchman, the former president of the Jewish Federation of Ulster County, said this week that after her own lengthy conversation with Krinsky a year ago, she has come to believe that Borenstein is operating outside the Chabad system.
"Rabbi Hecht is the official Chabad representative in Ulster County," said Tuchman, who is also a member of Hecht's Agudas Achim synagogue. "It would be as if someone came into town and said there is a federation but I am going to be the associate federation. It isn't against the law, but you can't just do that."
Borenstein counters that Krinsky lost a piece of paper handed to him directly by Schneerson after the religious leader was already ill that was intended as a codicil to his will and named a different rabbi as his successor.
Borenstein and Gootblatt have a letter from the Beth Din (court) of Crown Heights dated August 13, 2004, stating that Borenstein is Chabad's recognized emissary in Ulster County. Hecht produced another letter that he believes discounts this.
"Do they have jurisdiction beyond Crown Heights?" asked Shea Hecht, suggesting the court does not. The elder Hecht said his own father, J.J. Hect, founded Camp Emunah in Wawarsing, the only overnight Chabad camp for girls in the United States, something that gives his family earlier claim to Ulster County.
Jason Stern, president of Luminary Publishing which publishes Chronogram and Upstate House magazine, has been invited to light the first candle on the Chabad menorah in Woodstock on Sunday night after Wilber lights the shamesh. Stern said he "made a connection" with Gootblatt during the past two years, initially while his office was in New Paltz and Gootblatt would visit to teach him how to wrap tefillin, the small leather cases containing texts from the Hebrew scriptures that are worn by Jewish men during prayer. More recently, the men have spent time together following Stern's move to Woodstock.
"I have been impressed with his sincerity and his commitment to his mission," said the publisher, who as the son of a baalchuvah, an individual who has returned to observance of the Jewish religion, "grew up around Chabad." Stern finds the Chabad practices and devotion to be "some of the most vibrant, mystical and meaningful Judaism" he has encountered. "The practice is constant and it takes a great deal of effort to practice in that way," he said. "...You go to a deeper level."
HATFIELDS AND MCCOYS
The disagreements between the two Chabad groups appear to be the stuff of the Hatfields and McCoys. Both sides claim that representatives of the other are in contempt of Jewish court. Shea Hecht maintains that three of Borenstein's four centers, including the one in Woodstock, have been removed from the Chabad.org Web site for the movement. (Borenstein's center in New Paltz is still reportedly considered part of the Chabad system because its rabbi, Moishe Plotkin, received Rabbi Rubin's blessings.) Borenstein contends the Web site is "propaganda" and said a new Web site is being developed.
From Albany, Rubin said that Borenstein had been fired, adding, "He was doing things that were unbecoming to the organization and we felt we couldn't take responsibility for him... I can't tell Woodstock what to do, but there is one duly appointed representative in Ulster County and that is Rabbi Hecht."
In spite of this, Borenstein said he was brought to Poughkeepsie two decades ago with "the Rebbe's blessings" and he can only be fired for breaking Jewish law, something he claimed he has not done. Gootblatt said Rubin called him a week after his arrival to "welcome" him. Added Borenstein, "The same way Rabbi Rubin brought me to Pougheepsie 20 years ago, I have the same [authority] to bring Rabbi Gootblatt to Woodstock. I will protect Yisroel [Gootblatt]. He is a good friend and a dear boy... He is the most beautiful person and he fits into Woodstock like a diamond. What kind of jealousy could he [Hecht] have that he wants to take this away?"
Borenstein said he has known Yitzchok Hecht for years and offered him a Chabad House before the rabbi took over Agudas Achim in Kingston several years ago, but Hecht refused.
Borenstein said Hecht later suggested another rabbi for the Woodstock center, but he was already in discussions with Gootblatt.
Shortly after his arrival, Gootblatt was planning to attend services at a Hecht-family operated facility in Napanoch to receive a blessing following the birth of a child. Borenstein claimed one of Shea Hecht's sons called Gootblatt and told him to stay off the property or he would be arrested.
Since that time, another of Hecht's sons, Hanoch, has opened a center in Dutchess County that Borenstein said is half a mile away from his facility in Poughkeepsie. Hanoch is under 21 and neither married nor engaged. It is customary for married couples to run Chabad Houses.
"Shea Hecht left a message for my brother that if I take Rabbi Gootblatt out of Woodstock, he'll take his son out of Dutchess County," noted Borenstein, who said of the rift, "It is not a split. It is corruption by a few individuals." Borenstein claims that there are hundreds of rabbis like him within the Chabad movement who "do not believe in the way the system is running" but are "too afraid to speak" or "just prefer to remain quiet."
"I have been very quiet about this," Yitzchok Hecht told this reporter this week. "I am not here to get into this whole thing but you are cornering me into a position. Am I not supposed to respond?"
But Hecht has made editors at Woodstock Times aware of the situation several times over the past year and as recently as a week ago.
Shea Hecht concedes he has urged his son to go to the media for the past year and a half even though he believes, "The truth always shows itself." Said the senior Hecht, "If you don't follow what the Rebbe put into place... you don't represent the company. You have to go with a company policy."
Borenstein was unmoved. "I will always stand for the truth. I will not be afraid. That is the lesson of Hanukkah. The Rebbe always said the baseline is Jewish law. There are not two sides. If you follow Jewish law, you are following the way of the Rebbe."