Graduation:

Who can believe that the year is already over? It feels like its only just begun.

Many of us already had plans for next year and prepared for camp but before we all said our good-byes and fly off to the 4 corners of the world we had to have the traditional good-bye ceremony for the community (our Graduation), where we all were presented with a Sefer and certificate.

The evening started off with Penina F (the MC for the evening) introducing the speakers of the night.

After Esty F and Malki C recited Tehilim, Raizel B and Devorah Leah L shared their Ohel Chana experience with the rest of us and it was interesting to see the different perspectives they both had. We also we proud to present  Haddasah D and Etty W who delivered a beautiful Devar Torah and wished the graduating class a ‘Good Luck’ for the future.

Next to the stage was our very own Rabbi L. Tenenbaum (the best seminary principle around) who gave the Melbourne community a brief overview of what Ohel Chana entails from leaning all day to running youth programs and reaching out to the wider community. Melbourne wouldn’t be the same without us…..

He gave us the encouragement that we need to go forth and take what this year has given us and relate it to the future to come: ‘Az is gut is gut is besser nisht besser’.

At the end of his speech he gladly introduced our next speaker Rabbi Glasman (our Ma’amorim teacher). He spoke to us about the way one could overcome their ego and even though there is a dichotomy between wanting to serve G-d and having an ego, (something drawing you down into the Physical side of things), one is able to meditate and achieve that higher purpose in life. 

After his speech we had the privilege to show the OC 5770 video, on which many precious hours and dedication was given by Adina G and Devorah Chava N to produce and present to the rest of the community.

It was so nice to see a Video of the various exciting event over the apat year and a “typical day” for us OC students….

We then had Mrs. Rafael come up to the stage and present the ‘Shayna Rochwerger’ award to the girl of the year, which was unknown  till graduation evening. This award was voted for by each individual Ohel Chana girl and was presented to the student who was outstanding in all the qualities that Shayna Rochwerger (blessed in memory) possessed. This year it was awarded to Adina Graham (From England).

The award for the most passionate for learning and best involvement in class was awarded to Mushka Gordon (from Melbourne), who showed great interaction and thirst for knowledge both in class and in the dorm.

Each girl was then called up by Mrs Groner and Mrs Althause to receive her Sefer and certificate.

We got a ‘thank you’ speech from Moshe Kahn (Director of Chabad Youth), who helped us in the out-reach part of our year, which we were so glad to be a part of. Moshe and Dina Kahn are amazing people to work for, and this experience gave us a wonderful insight into what shlichus is and how it developed throughout the years. We have gained and that will surely help us in the future to come.

Last but not least our very own classmate Devorah Chava N gave the closing ‘thank you’ speech for the night.

She thanked everyone from Rabbi Tenenbaum and Mrs Groner to Moshe and Dina Kahn and all the teachers and staff. But the most important thank you’s were to the whole community, because they were the ones who opened their houses to us and made us feel at home from shabbos meals to just calling us over for a cup of tea, they were there for us.

Of course Devorah Chava couldn’t forget the most important thank you of all, the Ohel Chana Girls of 5770. Without each one of them the year wouldn’t have been the same. Each of the 54 girls B”AH had her unique talents and knowledge to share with the whole group.

With the Rebbe’s Kochos we had a successful year and couldn’t have imagined it any better. Thank you!

OC 5770.

As I make my way past hazardous piles of discarded clothing, I can’t help but feel a little empty inside- OC 5770 is over. I’ve made great friends, learnt a ton and had a blast. And now- now it’s time for home. Though I’m a little sad; I know that there’s no way I’ll forget this year and the people I’ve spent ten whole months with- and I know I’ll see them again soon in Jerusalem, with Moshiach.

Some heartfelt thoughts I’ve gleaned off harried, tired and spaced out sem girls; finishing off their packing and looking a little glazed eyed…:

I was only able to get to half the group of students as you will see below…

Shterna Perlow (Sydney, Australia): amazing!!!

Penina Forta (Michigan, USA): amazing girls, staff, community, classes...unbelievable experience.
Rickel Broh (Melbourne, Australia): we had some really great teachers, like Rabbi Glick, who taught us Tanya- and I loved Rashi Sichos as well...

Shaina Brafman (New Jersey, USA): there’s an unbelievable balance here between giving to others and receiving from our learning....it’s amazing that we can take what we learn and pass it on to others!

Mushky Myers (Bratislava, Slovakia): it was an amazing experience- I’m happy about every minute I spent here.

Pessy Spadone (Ohio, USA): flipping awesome

Miriam Goldin (New York, USA): it was amazing- I loved it.

Betty Klyne (Manchester, UK): life-changing experience…

Esty Feldman (Sydney, Australia): it was great J

Mushki Haller (South Africa): Best place eva!!!

Yocheved Eber (New York, USA): an everlasting effect- I loved it

Rochel Raitman (Melbourne, Australia): I don’t know where to begin!

Bassie Simons (California, USA): OC is the most incredible place you could ever be. I seriously loved every minute of it.

Gitty Prus (New York, USA): I love it. I’m going to miss it.

Esta Koncepolski (Sydney, Australia): Rabbi Tenenbaum gives every single girl a chance to show what she can be.

Mushky Peer (California, USA): I had the most unbelievable experience. Thank you staff- you are what make OC so amazing. And to friends: for making sem what it was- I loved it!

Mushka Spalter:(Morristown NJ, USA) A lifetime experience.

Bina Weingrow (Chicago, USA): seminary is an experience I’ll never forget!

Kaila Phillips (Massachusetts, USA): Coolest thing in way it combines intensive learning with Shlichus...set us up for life.

Chani Weinman (Manchester, UK): most amazing experience ever!

Shaina Barber (Melbourne, Australia): rollercoaster of a lifetime…

Raizel Beck (Michigan, USA): sem was a year of growth; about learning about who we are and about how much we can achieve.

Malki Lever (Melbourne, Australia): the most important lessons are not necessarily learnt in class.

Hadassah Dukes (Florida, USA): I can’t believe it’s over- sem has changed the way I think and I’m so excited to go home and use all I’ve learnt in practice!

Rivki Blecher (Melbourne, Australia): it was a great experience- something that will definitely stay with me.

Chaya Dina Aron (dorm counselor): never forget us!

So sem mates: I know that Chassidim never say goodbye- but I bless you all to have a great year, enjoy and maximize every moment of your lives, and see you soon in Yerushalayim Habnuyah!!!

 Last Week of OC…

…It was hard not to laugh (or cry) when Mrs. Groner kindly suggested we start packing at our last Friday weekly meeting this past week…who could think about packing, let alone leaving, when we still had a final jam-packed spiritually high week of OC ahead?

        Leaving Melbourne with the story of the Rebbetzin who started it all, Rebbetzin Groner’s profound, reflective farbrengen kept us spellbound to her first-hand tale of witnessing the Friedeker Rebbe leave for imprisonment in Kastroma as a 4-year-old child, her family’s escape to the US and the incredible strength and fortitude displayed by her husband and self in migrating on Shlichus to far-off Australia some sixty years ago. The Rebbetzin read with us her personal correspondence with the Rebbe after recently arriving on Shlichus, and we were greatly impressed by the extent the Rebbe cared to painstakingly answer every small question or problem the Groners presented!

          In a inspiringly spot-on and final spirit of OC achdus, a beautiful last-out-Shabbos meal Friday night turned into a surprise mock “Sholom Zochor” for D.L. Lever (Mazel tov!) and as dozens of O.C. girls poured into the house, a lively Chassidic farbrengen ensued! Over forty girls were in attendance as we farbrengened with ourselves well into the early morning hours, truly appreciating the value of each others’ presence as the time comes to part!

         Surveys, questionnaires and all our thank-you speeches could never do justice to the enormous hakaras hatov we OC girls owe our dear Ohel Chana Hanhala, Rabbi Tenenbaum and Mrs. Groner, but following the Rebbe’s dictum “az gut iz gut iz beser nisht beser,” we sadly filled out several survey questionnaires Monday morning. Concerning every aspect of the amazing OC year, we took the chance to thank OC for the personal care and concern for each girl, from our first-class teachers to stocked cupboards and five-star living space! We realize our feedback is very valuable and essential to OC, as everything is only to make our program stronger, bigger and better (though we can’t imagine OC much better-!)

          It was a packed room Monday night at our last weekly Hiskashrus shiur – thank you Rabbi T. for inspiring us with fascinating directives and initiatives of the Rebbe for the past 10 months!! As we worked out our last aerobics session Tuesday night, we would also like to extend a special thank-you to Shevy Lieder for faithfully keeping us so fit this year!

          Wednesday night came and what would have been a typical Hadracha at Moishie and Dina Kahn’s home became a black-tie Chabad Youth red-carpet thank-you bash! Ending off our last classes of the year with Practical Shlichus and Tanya, we dashed across the street just in time to present a gorgeous photo-imprinted Chabad Youth board to Moishy and Dina Kahn in appreciation, and receive thank-yous with (very useful!) iPod speakers emblemned with the ChabadYouth logo we will never forget! But our night was far from over- we put down our diet coke cocktails and joined a dynamic and rousing final farbrengen with HaMerkaz Shelanu’s shliach Rabbi Motty Liberow, who through incredibly miraculous Rebbe stories drove home his timeless message that we must hold onto the Rebbe’s coattails, no matter what, and when you wholeheartedly demand brachos from the Rebbe, we can see our answers materialize beyond our imaginations. We also got the chance to handle a sixty-year-old personal letter signed by the Frideker Rebbe only 3 weeks before Yud Shvat 1950, as well as two writings signed by the Rebbe before he accepted the Nesius!

    Walking to our last morning classes in a display of OC unity, morning traffic was (as usual) quite confused as 53 sweatshirts-clad girls single-filed down Balaclava, crossed Hotham and the four blocks down to 118. After giving a rousing standing applause to Rabbi Greenbaum for passing us on his exam, we all piled into the big classroom for the final Asifah of OC 5770...emotions ran high as Rabbi Tenenbaum presented gifts to Chaya Dina and Chaya P. on behalf of OC, thanked Mrs. Groner for truly exemplifying her “aim habayis” role quite literally, and with emptied lockers, slowly made our final walk back home to OC, laughing and crying as we hurried off to prepare for graduation.

       The graduation itself was beautiful- the Werdiger hall was filled with mothers, sisters, friends, teachers and school students. Penina F. was the MC, two girls recited tehilim, several girls spoke about their year, two others shared divrei Torah and we were addressed by Rabbi Glasman, our maamarim tacher and Rabbi Tenenbaum- for the last time. Everyone's inspirational words really affected us and we all appreciate the 'el nshei ubnos chabad' sefer we recieved as a graduation gift from Ohel Chana. Adina G. won the Shaina Rochwerger award to an earsplitting round of applause and congratulations and Mushky G. won the Rabbi Groner learning award for her outstanding involvement in every one of our classes and learning in general. We watched a beautiful video put together by our very own Adina G and Devora N (ask us to see it- we all own a copy) The night closed with thank yous from the communtiy and from us to the community and, naturally, a lot of hugging and picture taking and tearful goodbyes. We will miss Melbourne so much!!!

        We (naturally) made history by having Rabbi and Mrs. CT Groner’s first Shabbos visit to the dorm, and they made our final In-Shabbos Achdus Friday night meal an electric atmosphere which turned into a personal farbrengen lasting until 3 a.m.! The theme was Gimmel Tammuz, and the tables were decked out in plant branches full of photos of the year, symbolizing our experiences in OC were there to give us strength for ‘branching out’ into our future lives of seminary and Shluchos, iy’’h.

        Sitting down for a closing Motzei Shabbos pizza party and raffle organized by our beloved Chaya Dina A. and Chaya P., we were shocked to see a crazily dressed entertainer bounce in! She kept us laughing right until the raffle was held, when our laughter turned into standing applause for Devorah N. for winning a laptop! Mazel Tov Rochel R. for winning an iTouch for getting the most points from our Gimmel Tammuz Hachana Program 5770!

And so our year of Ohel Chana 5770 has come to a close. We are off to the Melbourne airport, charged with our mission to bring everything we’ve learned, gained, and grown to our Shlichus and future years, IY”H. Thank you Ohel Chana! We will never forget you!

After Shabbos we all got excited for Shavuos in Australia- which was beautiful. On Monday morning, a grand ice cream mission was held at Beth Rivkah primary. The girls had to answer questions in order to receive cones, scoops of ice cream, sprinkles and syrup. Fun and sticky faces were had by all- including usJ!

On Shavuos itself, Melbourne families graciously hosted girls for all four meals, and on the first day of Shavuos OC girls went all over Melbourne to run ice cream parties at Chabad Houses for the Aseres Hadibros. Leil Shavuos was jam-packed with learning programs and guest speakers for primary and high school, Shiurim at various Shuls and an exciting Farbrengen at Merkos. There was an endless amount to do before seven in the morning! (Don’t worry, not too many girls actually stayed up that late.)

Friday morning after Shavuos, we left for a beautiful Shabbaton in a suburb about an hour and a half away from East S. Kilda. The Australian countryside is famous for its beautiful sheep farms and lush hillsides…we spent two days and nights living in pure country air, surrounded by kangaroos, our teachers’ cute kids and glorious star studded skies. Rabbis Tenenbaum Farbrenged for many hours on Friday night as a fitting touch to the end of the year and Rabbi Glasman Farbrenged Shabbos afternoon. We also had many Divrei Torah at our meals. Mrs Tenenbaum gave us a beautiful Pirkei Avos Shiur on Perak Aleph. Benny Goldman, our cook, told us amazing personal stories about his youth around our Motzai Shabbos bonfire and Chaya P. our program coordinator and Chaya Dina A. our dorm counselor, worked workshops and arranged the whole thing with Rabbi Tenenbaum, from the bus rides to the Sunday ropes course activity. A big Yasher Koach to everyone involved in planning, chaperoning and helping and a huge thank you to Rabbi Tenenbaum! We had a blast. We all agreed it was a most incredible inspiring Weekend and a spiritually jam packed 3 days!!

Tuesday we all managed to finish recuperating from our amazing jam packed weekend. We started out the day with our regular morning classes, but when it came to afternoon classes, we were in for a big surprise. We were invited to Mrs. Nechama Werdiger’s house, (which looked more like a museum than a house). First she taught us everything we have to know about preparing a house for Shabbos, and setting a table correctly. Even though in America they don’t use nearly as many as utensils as in Australia, we still learned how to properly set a table with 6 glasses, 2 plates, and 7 pieces of cutlery. After we finished with that, Mrs. Werdiger was kind enough to give us a grand tour of her Judaica collection. It was a beautiful and educational tour, and each piece that we saw had a miraculous story behind it.

Wednesday we were privileged to hear from Mrs. Rochwerger; she spoke of her late sister in-law Shayna Rochwerger. After hearing the inspiring story of Shayna Rochwerger’s battle to become religious and her courage and determination in life, we all had to make the difficult decision on voting who in our O.C. group most resembled Shayna, who passed away well in to her 30s. Her sister-in-law and her friends came up with an idea to remember her in a positive away and established an award to be given to one OC girl every year. This girl has to have the same amazing qualities as she had, which were determination, caring, inspirational courage, and self sacrifice. I would tell you who won but… we don’t find out till graduation,L so stay tuned to find out!

Thursday we were barely able to focus in class, because we were really excited about the farbrenegn that night with Rabbi Ceitlin from Tzfas. Rabbi Ceitlin discussed how everything is hashgacha perotis, even if we may not see it at the time. He also mentioned how seminary is coming to an end, and that we can’t procrastinate anymore if we want to make a change… we have to do it TODAY. The farbrengen lasted well past 2:00AM, but with all the amazing stories and singing of nigunim, and hachlatos being made, no one even realized the time.  

               On Sunday we went to Moishy and Dina Kahn’s house for a not so pleasant but very informative slide show and presentation about child abuse. It really scared us when we realized how kids can be showing the signs, and it’s so simple for us to not recognize them. On Monday we had a continuation of that, only this time, there was no slide show. Mrs. Shainy New came to speak to us about domestic abuse that goes on between married couples. We never realized how many Jewish people out there suffer from one of the many types of abuse by the one person they thought would never hurt them.

            To put a pleasant end to our Bayis Yehudi class, we were privileged to have an exclusive tour of the local woman’s mikvah. A tour is nothing without an amazing tour guide, and with Timmy Rubin giving the tour, not only was it educational, but very entertaining as well.

On Tuesday we were privileged to yet another incredible speech. Our speaker was Mrs. Chaya New. She told us a few amazing stories, but I think we all knew which one was our favorite. She told about how just by her tracing down a very distant relative… she was able to set up for a minyan to come to her relative’s funeral.

It was an amazing 2 weeks, and we know the last few weeks will be even more amazing…!!

The past three weeks have passed by like a rollercoaster- we literally had no time to breathe!!!

Week #1-

An amazing Hachana program was started by our program coordinator, Chaya P. on Pesach Sheini. We have checklists, Rebbe times, extra learning….and the prize, to be drawn the last week of seminary, is a laptop! An ipod touch will go to the girl with the most points. This entire program is focused on Gimmel Tamuz- it’s our present to the Rebbe. Every Rebbe time (two nights a week), 6 girls present something they’ve prepared that has to do with the Rebbe and the theme of that week. It’s really nice to be able to contribute and to enjoy other people’s contributions.

 The well known Shliach from Chevron, Danny Cohen, came to speak to us and tell us about the amazing Shlichus he and his family do in Chevron. He brought a visitor Mr. Meir Rhodes along with him, who added stories of his own. It was incredible to see how much dedication the Rebbe’s Shluchim have- actual Mesiras Nefesh! He invited us all to stay for a Shabbos in Chevron… and as many Aussies will be there next year for their year of sem, they will im”H have a chance to do so!

Also new this week- As our Developement of Halacha teacher, Rabbi Gutnick, is an army chaplain and had to go in for training, we have a replacement teacher, Rabbi Elisha Greenbaum. He has a lot of chayus and keeps us on our toes as we learn all about takanos and gezeiros.

The second week-

The Lag Beomer parade was absolutely beautiful- floats, marching school children, cars, bands….we had it all. All the lucky madrichot got to walk their grades all the way up to Orrong Road, where they boarded buses and headed to Princess Park (we know this means nothing to you, but you can always googlemap it if you want J). A full-on carnival, with rides, jumping castles, food, fun activities and shows awaited everyone there, and Ohel Chana had the awesome opportunity to get covered in fairy floss and popcorn salt as we helped out.

On Wednesday evening, Mrs. E. Althaus came to speak to us about financial planning and the importance of budgeting. The following evening we had a real down to earth, practical and inspirational Farbrengen with Mrs. Brocha Kantor, a Colorado native. She led us through some of the ups and downs (and the ups in the downs) of growing up, leaving the bubble called seminary and becoming wives and mothers. It went until about 1AM and we enjoyed every moment of it!

That Shabbos was an out-Shabbos (thank you Melbourne for hosting us yet again…only five more weeks of out-Shabbosim left!!!) and Bnos and Shabbos programs were back in full swing, along with Mishmor on Thursdays, Cheder on Sunday mornings, and private Shiurim with Beth Rivkah girls and Friendship Circle meets all week. We were busy busy busy- Baruch Hashem!!!

The following week, parshas Bamidbar, we were treated to four guest speakers!!! Rabbi Immanuel Schochet spoke to the community about chinuch on Motzai Shabbos as the guest speaker for the main Siyum Harambam and then gave us a private Q& A session (see following article) on Monday morning.. Dr D. Herbst spoke to us about taking care of our health on a safe, balanced level. We really enjoyed their talks, which were all professional and helped a lot!

Rabbi Lerner visiting from New York gave us a Shiur on Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochbai. It was refreshing to hear a proper American accent again; and he gave over a lot of interesting information.

Penina F. and Riki A. organized a beautiful Mother and Daughter learning program for Shavuos. The moms came into an (almost) neat dorm, learnt with their daughters and had yummy ice cream made by Mrs. Lever! It was a beautiful event and was enjoyed by all.

On Thursday, Mrs. Chana Loebenstein, a local Shlucha, came to speak to us about youth programs. It was a pragmatic and resourceful session and really thought us about organizing and running Shul youth programs. We then had an in-Shabbos with the Jablonskis, a family that lives right here in Melbourne. They had us spellbound with their stories about becoming Baalei Tshuvah- they told us about a journey from Israel, to Australia, to Thailand, India, Belgium and then back to Australia…the food (thanks to some very dedicated girls, Mushky G. and Devorah Chava N.) was absolutely phenomenal (spinach pie, tasty chicken soup, dips, salads, homemade berry ice cream…and all this for ~60 people) and it was really nice to sit down with everyone at a Shabbos meal once again.

As a thank you for our hard work for the Lag B’omer parade and for all the programs we do, Moshe and Dina, our Chabad Youth Shluchim, took us out on Motsei Shabbos to Side Tracked, which is an arcades, go carting and laser force center. We spent an entire hour running around with laser guns and had a blast! We really appreciate their appreciationJ.

On Monday Chof Vov Iyar, Ohel Chana had the privilege of having Rabbi Immanuel Shochet give a session whilst on his busy trip to Australia.

Rabbi Shochet answered questions on topics such as what is Judaism, the originality of the Torah and how we are different to other nations. He offered humorous stories along the way and addressed the idea of a Nasi and a Tzadik Hador, sharing beautiful stories of R’ Chanina Ben Dosa and R ‘Zushe M’Anipoli.  He shared the story of how a man went to R’ Zushe for a Bracha, and he then found out that R’ Zushe would go to his Rebbe, the Maggid of Mezritch to receive his Brochos. The man was so upset that he went straight to the Maggid of Mezritch to ask for Brocho, however nothing was fulfilled and he couldn’t understand why. So he went back to R’ Zushe and asked him why the Brochos weren’t being fulfilled if he went straight to the source. R Zushe replied that the very fact that he went straight to the source, did not allow the Brochos to be fulfilled. Rabbi Shochet made the point that it is through the great Tzadikim of the Dor that Hashem’s light and power can be revealed and made more accessible. He then discussed the power of Chassidus and that it came at a time were there was a ‘spiritual cancer’ and it gave inspiration and was a source of enrichment to all those who accessed it.

The session went overtime as Rabbi Shochet Farbrenged with us girls, sharing stories of his experiences with the Rebbe and the very special relationship they had, as well his childhood in Switzerland. A very memorable story he shared was that one time as a young Bochur having just arrived in Lubavitch, he was walking towards 770, and the Rebbe was coming towards him from the other direction, any other Bochur would quickly cross the road but he said “What do I need to cross the road for? So I went over said to say Good Shabbos, but I had enough respect to know that I should wait at the gate while the Rebbe walked up the path into 770. The Rebbe walked up the path and held the door open until I went in. To this day some 50 years later I cant walk out of somewhere without looking to check if people are behind me to let them through.” These were some of the lasting impressions on Rabbi Shochet that he recounted to us. Rabbi Shochet concluded by saying that Chassidus enhanced his life to a tremendous degree, giving the analogy of a cake and the icing on top was Chassidus which enriched all that he knew prior. His heartfelt words left a great impression on us all.