Every year for the last seven years they came, Senators and Representatives, to a celebration hosted by the American Friends of Lubavitch to mark the birthday of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Schneerson, on the 11th day of Nissan in the Hebrew calender. They donned white kippot and lauded the Rebbe and proclaimed his birthday as “Education Day, U.S.A.”
But yesterday, on Schneerson’s 83rd birthday, only about a dozen Senators were able to attend, because of the heavy pressure of legislative business. Even Sen. Rudy Boschwitz (R. Minn.), the long-time chairman of the event who has long been close to the Lubavitcher movement, was unable to appear.
But Rabbi Abraham Shemtov, national director of the American Friends, while obviously disappointed, said that he had received an outpouring of telephone calls and letters from Representatives and Senators. More important, he added, despite the busy Congressional calender, both the House and Senate passed a resolution proclaiming April 2 as “Education Day U.S.A.” and President Reagan signed the proclamation.
Sen. Arlen Specter (R. Pa.), who hosted the event in the historic Senate Caucus Room, noted the admiration of Congress for the Lubavitcher Movement’s dedication to education.
Sen. Daniel Moynihan (D. NY) used the occasion to support the Lubavitcher movement’s effort for federal aid to parochial schools. He said that he long rejected the view that such aid is unconstitutional.
Representatives of the Lubavitcher movement from 35 states attended the ceremony. One of them, Rabbi Zalman Posner, of Nashville, Tenn., said that in his address to his followers Monday night, Schneerson stressed that Orthodox Jews are responsible for all Jews and for all humanity as well.
But the Rebbe pointed out that in order to have a universal message it first must be “rooted in something particular,” Posner related. “The more one is Jewish the more he is ready to serve people around him,” Posner said the Rebbe stressed.
Posner said that Schneerson sees those principles symbolized in a life of Moses Maimonides whose 850th birthday is Friday. The members of the Lubavitcher movement have been studying the work of Maimonides for the past year.
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