Read the original story on MyShtetl and view the videos at:
SHALOM THE BELOVED COUNTRY
A TV documentary featuring the work of Rabbi Moshe Silberhaft in SA Platteland communities and in darkest Africa and even further afield was screened late last year. Last week, the Travelling Rabbi opened his own Youtube Channel where this, and over 100 other videos on the past eighteen years of his work can be found.
MyShtetl invited our users to ‘gib a kuk’ and we uploaded the five parts of the SABC’s “Shalom the Beloved Country” documentary. This went viral and Shtetlers took the number of views from 1,142 to 14,516 in a single week!
So overwhelmed have users been, that Rabbi Silberhaft is having to deal with piles of correspondence from around SA and the world – daily!
Rabbi Moshe tells us that over the past week the first segment went from 406 hits to 4,276 and that segments two-to-five went from an average 184 to 2,560.
This represents a staggering rise from a total of 1,142 to 14,516!
As each segment is between four and nine minutes, users are watching them as they can.
“I have had positive feedback from people right across South Africa, from Jews and Non-Jews,” Rabbi Silberhaft told MyShtetl today. And the responses he has received from the international community have overwhelmed him. SEE E-MAIL FROM ISRAEL BELOW.
From “right across Israel – from Eilat to Sfat,” he says. Responses sent to him from Australia originate in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth – and even from New Zealand.
“Some of the other countries people have corresponded with me from over the past week have been Canada, Mauritius, Portugal and England.”
Few Rabbis are tech-heads – it’s probably not part of the curriculum at Rabbi School. But when one has a congregation of thousands, spread over half of Africa, and reporting to two separate organisational heads, we guess that rabbi Moshe Silberhaft has little choice in the matter.
He either has to embrace as much technology as he can to reach all of those to whom he ministers - or he can just as well change his name from “The Travelling Rabbi” to “The Loony-Tunes Rabbi” because he would go off his rocker trying to keep all of his flock in all those places needing all his attention and feeling part of the community.
One of the ways Rabbi Moshe as he is fondly called by his congregants manages to keep up with it all, and keep funding coming from international donors to support his work in far-flung African communities – is to use the power of video.
“Shalom, the Beloved Country" is a TV documentary on the work being done by Rabbi Moshe Silberhaft, South Africa's Country Communities Rabbi, in Platteland communities and further afield was aired on SABC in December.
The title plays on the multiple meanings of Shalom, as a greeting, a welcome, and a farewell, as well as on the resonance of Alan Paton's famous book on our beloved country.
Here is an example of the type of correspondence the Travelling Rabbi is getting from Shtetlers gone viral:
Dear Rabbi Silberhaft,
A few days ago I received an email about the wonderful work you do for the Jewish communities who live in the countryside of S.A. One of these places is Marquard.
My mother, who is now 93, came to Marquard in 1925 from Lithuania and my grandfather was the Reverend of the community. His name was Yudel Isakov and my mother is Golda Gruebel (nee Isakov).
It was so sad to see that only one lady remains there. My mother says that she thinks she remembers her from school days.
Since my mother now lives in Melbourne, she would like to make contact with Sheryl, Yvonne's daughter, but we do not know her surname. If you could send me her name and possible contact address, I would be very grateful.
I live in Rehovot, Israel and have been here since 1975. Our family is one of many spread all over the world.
Yishar Koach. Harriet Bark
Read the original story on MyShtetl and view the videos at:
SHALOM THE BELOVED COUNTRY
ANOTHER GREAT READ:
Rabbi Moshe received a Jewish achiever award in 2010 and his acceptance speech was hailed as an expression of FRANK & BRAVE VIEWS. Click to read about that one on MyShtetl – it was one of our Top-5 reads of 2011..
