A Word from the Director: 2/25/2011

The week started with excitement with the NBA All Star Game on Sunday shown at Aish. Rabbi Neuberger opened early and stayed until closing. I told him to close after the game since he had been there for so many hours. His response was that if there are guys here, we will stay open for them. We thanked him for his commitment. Over the past two months, we have opened our doors on Saturday nights from 9:30-11:30, per request from the boys. Presently, we are open two Saturday nights a month.

In other news, the gym room looks different every day. This week they painted and put in carpeting. Next week we will be getting some exercise machines delivered. The boys are excited about its opening as are we. We, Baruch Hashem, have a beautiful building and the more we can provide here in our environment, the less they have to look for elsewhere. Again, we want to thank David Hagar and Elliott Dolin for helping make this project possible. We are still looking for an Elliptical and a Flat screen TV. If you are interested in donating, please be in touch with me.

This Saturday night is the Aish Tamid Minyan's first dinner. The Minyan is a very warm and accepting place to daven at, which provides awesome chizuk from Rabbi Leibovic in a laid-back environment. While we encourage all those to attend the Minyan and their dinner, the Aish Tamid Minyan and the Aish Tamid organization are two separate entities. We wish them much Hatzlacha.

This Shabbos, I will be attending the Yula Shabbaton in Woodland Hills. I was asked to participate on a panel discussing boy-girl relationships. My introduction is going to revolve around self-esteem and how in order for us to have healthy relationships, we must first have a self. And to have a real relationship, we have to have self-respect to feel that we are worthy of being respected for who we are and not for what we can provide. Unfortunately, a large majority of our boys and girls suffer from a lack of self-worth and low self-esteem. Many of our boys don’t always excel or fit in at school. They feel that they have no strengths and when you sit with them, they are completely hopeless. My first question to them is “what do you like to do?” and “what are your strengths?” Usually, they don’t know. If we can find an activity or skill that our children and students can excel in, which can be uniquely theirs, that could make a tremendous difference in their lives and help to develop a healthy self-esteem.

Have a beautiful Shabbos!

Gavriel Hershoff