Responding to a call for acceleration from the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, Shlita, the Lubavitch Youth Organization, distributed over half a million Purim kits on a national level. Rabbi Shmuel Butman, director of the youth organization, reported that these kits were distributed in elementary schools, high schools, youth groups, colleges, army bases, hospitals and nursing homes all over the United States.
Lubavitcher Hasidim even went “behind bars” to bring Purim observances and holiday spirit to the Jewish inmates, Butman reported. Special dietetic kits were prepared for hospitals and nursing homes, accompanied by a letter of a physician stating that the food contained in the Purim kits is not only kosher but also dietetic. Thousands of people also received their Purim kits though the 25 colorful Mitzvah Mobiles or “tanks against assimilation.”
Purim programs with the actual reading of the “Megillah” (Purim scroll) are also conducted in numerous metropolitan and rural areas including: Fort Bragg Army Base, North Carolina; the Green-haven Prison in Stormville, New York; the Harlem Valley Psychiatric Center and Senior Citizen Centers in Brownsville, Butman said. The Purim campaign was also carried to thousands of people who were unable to go to synagogues.
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