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20 comments on “Adventures in Kiruv: The Shabbaton is Coming”

  1. I have watched this vidoe three times since it came out, and it makes me crack up each time. AWESOME!! I love the inside joke of it all, and the intelligence involved. I loved his straight face throughout, and I loved his hat! It takes a lot of chutzpah to be in that video along with a real sense of not taking yourself too seriously. Perhaps, maybe, there will be a sequel, or one more after that? Maybe, a full-length feature. Yeah!

  3. I’m late to this discussion but I’ll add my two cents. I thought the video was clever, and if anything, self-mocking. More of an “inside joke”. Some of us need to lighten up and use an exaggerated image to allow us to examine our own interactions with the non-frum world. Besides, it was funny!

  4. Apparently, this video has been around a while. Another blogger who had seen it was upset at what he felt to be an anti-chabad tone. He wrote to NCSY voicing his concerns and got this reply:

    Thank you for your email. I’m sorry that you received the misimpression that we were referring to Chabad in the video when nothing could be farther from the truth.

    The things that the character does in the video are generally referring to non-Jewish phenomena: the guy on the soapbox shouting “the end is coming,” those who proselytize by offering food to the homeless, etc. You live in Brooklyn, so I’m sure you must have been on the subway and seen these guys.

    The tagline “We do kiruv better” was not meant to suggest “we do kiruv better than Chabad,” only “we do kiruv better than this guy, Shmulky Gebruchts.”

    The video was an advisor recruitment tool. The point was that Shmulky was acting as a daas yachid and he wasn’t particularly effective. If one wants to do kiruv, says the video, join up with a professional organization. In this case we meant NCSY, but that message could include Chabad, Aish HaTorah, Partners in Torah, etc.

    The video’s director, as well as our then-National Director and a senior staff member who were all involved in the production are also all involved in Chabad. They never would have permitted any slights to Chabad, even if we were inclined to make them, which we are not.

    Best,

    Rabbi Jack Abramowitz
    Director of National Programs

  5. Who is the guy in the video?

    That’s me, Marty. :) Maybe that’s why I find it so funny.

    I looked at the video as humorously pointing out facile kiruv techniques.

    In a way, I viewed it as complimentary to BTs since it’s basically saying that kiruv needs to be deeper and more well thought out.

  6. I think the individuals who will find this video funny will be (by and large) BTs who don’t get just who is the REAL target of the “humor.” And if the point of the video, as one blogger above has said, is to show how witty and “with it” NCSY is, then even more so, my comment about NCSY’s outdated methodology is doubly accurate. This video makes Judaism about as appealing to the masses as some Woody Allen movie – which means, it presents being Jewish as something highly undesirable. Who would want to be a “loser” like the characters Woody Allen has traditionally played in his films? And who’d want to be anything like the loser in this video?

  7. I think it’s hilarious – I didn’t find it offensive to BTs at all, maybe a little to the kiruv professionals, but in general, it was made to be comedy, and I think it succeeded with flying colors.

  8. Over the years we have been touched by both NCSY and Chabad, and while our experience with NCSY was very disappointing, we have found Chabad to be helpful and sincere, and in some cases life-saving. In addition, I feel very comforted (having wandering teenagers) to know that wherever they end up, there is a Chabad nearby.
    Truly, I didn’t make the connection in the film, but I am sorry if NCSY sought to belittle Chabad.

  10. “In the far reaches where there’s little else that goes for kiruv?” Uh, sounds more like Chabad …

    When I first saw this video long ago, I thought it was hysterically funny. Of the other people who watched it, some BT’s hated it, not getting the humor and thinking the presentation was real, and some BT’s loved it.

    If anybody might be offended, it might be Chabad because they are the ones who have been going out there for decades asking people if they’re Jewish.

    I e-mailed the person who sent it to me (a BT) and asked: Is this for real?

    He wrote back: “Yes, it’s very funny.
    However, it’s produced by NCSY, and I think they are satirizing Chabad’s “kiruv” methodology, not themselves. Does anyone from NCSY stand on the street and ask people if they are Jewish?”

    I wrote back: so who is this video for? what’s their point? can it be just to make fun of Chabad?

    He wrote: “I think that the point of it is to show how witty and ‘with it’ NCSY is. I don’t think their goal is to knock anyone else, but they are putting others down to make themselves look up.”

    The next time I watched it, I laughed all over again.

    Once the Chabad connection was made, it was so obvious, Lubavitchers “accost” people, asking them if they’re Jewish, wanting to give them brochures, tell them about mitzvos, tell them how their soul yearns for mitzvos …

  12. I am waiting for 55-gallon drums of cholent to be dropped onto the Hezbollah bunker complexes. The unimaginable impact will send these thugs straight downward to their flaming hot new home.

  13. Ed-Instead of claiming “that NCSY’s methodology is dated”, why not speak to some NCSY alumni or some NCSYers and see what is doing on across the width and breadth of the US, South America and Israel? WADr, as an NCSY alumnus, I think that your comments are inaccurate, especially with NCSY’s role with both public high school and yeshiva high school youth.

  14. It is offensive because it belittles the kiruv process, making it look moronic and shallow. While the silliness you saw in the video is being done by the “kiruv professional,” it is nevertheless associated not with the professional, but with the BT himself. It’s so very important that the BT, who is often ignorant of the way things are done by the mainstream, not succumb to such pathetic silliness.
    I noticed at the end of the video that NCSY put it out. That doesn’t surprise me, for it seems that NCSY’s methodology has become rather dated, and is nowadays probably most effective only in the far reaches of this country, where there’s little else that goes for kiruv.

  15. I also can’t see how the video could be construed as offensive to BTs. If a kiruv professional was saying it was offensive to him, I could understand that a bit more.

  16. I believe most frum people accept the idea of being mekarev in some form, although we may criticize individual strategies. I don’t think it’s offensive to laugh at ourselves on occasion, and I also didn’t see where the clip was offensive to BTs. In fact, I didn’t notice any BTs in the film!!
    I thought the effect was to elicit sympathy for the guy who genuinely wants to be mekarev, but is very clumsy in his efforts.
    BTW, along these lines, I heard a tape by Rabbi Paysach Krohn recently on the topic of kiruv. I believe it was delivered to Aish Professionals, and was meant to encourage those involved in kiruv, but also sensitized any listeners to the plight of those trying to be mekarev non-believers. One of the interesting points was how frum people will sometimes try to discourage another frum person from kiruv, as though he is wasting his time.

  17. It’s not funny, it’s letzonos. It trivializes baalei teshuva. It should be removed.

  18. I think the guy that did this presentation has a really good sense of humor.Its really funny, especially the part with overzealous cholent disher outer trying to make cholent imbibers out of jaded NYC subway riders thats a classic , & handing out cholent right in tune to the subway hall musicians makeshift drum beat- and Times Square backdrop for “shabbaton is coming” preaching with signs – definitely really funny . Its a new blackcherry smirnoff twist on the endless stream of messiahs and messiah representives and coordinators preaching with manic I am the messiah or hes definitely coming and u better start believing now speeches up and down the NYC subway line/ corridors and avenues w/ literature for future reference & the heartwarming backdrop of aspiring musicians with aspiring instruments and talent in progress .

    I guess New Jersey Transit or Path train pretender riders (among other suburbanite travelers i’m only familiar with Jersey though ) may not fully appreciate the humor as the traveling/existing experience is way different .On New Jersey Transit you got like the friendly jolly conductors waking you up when its your stop in addition to letting you become part of the one big happy train family where everyone shares and cares like the care bears . there arent too many colorful characters preaching religion and messiah updates .and Hoboken Train station doesnt have much in the way of traveling musicians with makeshift instruments and lost manic preaching messiahs .It does have a little pub for channeling of the jaded energies and a convenience store / a liquor store for the hard core ambitious and flowers for that forgotten someone in case you missed the train and need to spend money on conveniences as opposed to sitting and waiting and making friends with train station bench inhabitants .but not much religion preaching and messiah enlightening .

    NYC is a whole different travel/living experience.And a little more tolerant of every enlightened messiah and ambitious “followers coordinator” , which is why this clip is way funnier if you actually live in NYC and understand the energy and actual place settings the clip is doin a spoof of . I think its just a humorous spoof on NYC preaching religion tactics in addition to bringing across the its exceedingly difficult connecting jaded jews with mainstream judaism point with some real humor for presentation .

  19. Our intention in posting this video was certainly not to offend. We thought it was funny and also tied into the fact that our “Shabbaton is Coming!” Did anyone else find it offensive?

  20. This video, which has been out for a while, is supremely unfunny, and offensive to BTs everywhere. Please remove it.

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