While Rabbi Yanky Kahn has collected — and distributed – hundreds of thousands of dollars, clothing and badly needed equipment and mental support to Israelis during his six trips to Israel, he lives far from the Jewish State. So a month before Rabbi Kahn’s seventh wartime trip to Israel (accompanied this time by Rebbetzin Hindy Kahn and two of their sons) the rabbi spoke about keeping current with events.
Conditions constantly are changing in the 14-month-old war, he explained, as soldiers shuttle in and out of the army. But keeping abreast of the needs and news is not complicated, he said. “If you want to be part of the war, speak to the connections you have in Israel, keep in contact, hear what the needs are.”
Sometimes the news arrives at the Kahn home in the center of the San Fernando Valley. Rabbi Kahn and Rabbi Mayer Greene are longtime colleagues at Chabad of the Valley in Encino. In a recent skirmish in Lebanon, five or six Israeli soldiers were killed. One survived, “which was a miracle.” The survivor is a first cousin of Rabbi Greene’s daughter-in-law, Shaina. He’s hospitalized in Nahariya. Rabbi Kahn was asked if he could get someone to visit.
At the rabbi’s shul, Chabad of the Valley, on Burbank Boulevard, led by his father-in-law Rabbi Mordy Einbinder, people are getting a little war-weary after 14 months. They want to move on, but they can’t, knowing the urgency of Israel’s needs. “Tragedies are happening every single day,” Rabbi Kahn said, “striking close to home, people we know.“ This is why he is returning to Israel in January, and why he is calling people for money.
Keeping interest in the war alive and headlining the urgency of Israel’s needs drive him every morning. “As we speak,” he said, “there are tens thousands of Israeli families where the husbands are fighting, the wife is home alone, cooking, taking the kids to school. So many families are struggling because the husbands can’t do the extra side jobs they normally do.”
“In Israel,“ he said, “so many widows are struggling. As long as our brothers and sisters in Israel are struggling, we are going to do whatever we can to take care of them and give them the support they need.”
He takes pride in the way American Jews have responded. “Any Jew you meet,” he said, “you feel like a brother or sister. Even if you have a difference of opinion in politics, we do feel a connection. We feel we have each other’s back.” That very morning, Rabbi Kahn noted, he had met with a mother and her 14-year-old son “who are going to Israel on us. Life is very busy here.”
Every family in Los Angeles has its own struggles. The rabbi mentioned a Holocaust survivor who died, and another family who urgently needed aid for their son. All in a community rabbi’s day. “But our heart still is in Israel,” he said. “As long as the war goes on and the hostages are not home, we have to keep what is happening (in and to] Israel alive in the minds of the people in our shul and community – and by praying. One way to maintain this thinking at a high level is by going to Israel and bringing equipment, clothing, money.”
On each of his six previous trips to the war zone, Rabbi Kahn has been accompanied by family, old friends, new friends, and last-minute friends. An anonymous donor recently approached Rabbi Kahn with a large gift toward a food truck for the soldiers. “But that is one person,” said the rabbi. “We still need many more people to do what he did.”
On his most recent trip, the rabbi was in a Lebanese war zone and an older soldier asked him to buy a food truck for the soldiers. “It struck something in me,” the rabbi explained, “to give someone a warm burger, a hot dog, a smile — and I took on myself to do it. G-d willing, we will.”
Success is within reach. The rabbi has ordered the food truck already. When he returns to the war zone in January, “we are going to go up there [to Lebanon] and do the dedication.”
Addressing the question of whether he occasionally needs to do something to motivate himself all over, the rabbi said: “When you check the news on your phone, you don’t feel it so much. We get comfortable by ourselves. Then when you speak to the soldiers over there, you feel you should be doing a lot more.“ When you hear news directly from the people, he said “it is different. A father is away in the army. He misses his children, and they miss him.”
“When you check the news on your phone, you don’t feel it so much. We get comfortable by ourselves. Then when you speak to the soldiers over there, you feel you should be doing a lot more.”
Rabbi Kahn mentioned an army husband who sent flowers to his wife. But he did not go home because he was killed. “I am talking about every army family,” said the rabbi. “Imagine you are working and you come back from being away for three months, and you have to go back to being a husband, a father — every family has changed. It really has.”
In the army, he said, “they are fighting as a team. Then they go back home and it’s up to them.” The rabbi spoke recently to a soldier who is unable to sleep. “At two in the morning he wakes up screaming. He has to pick up 20, 30, 40 dead bodies from Oct. 7 to make sure they won’t be kidnapped into Gaza. It’s crazy,” the rabbi said, “especially if they have PTSD.”
Readers interested in joining a Rabbi Kahn mission, contact chabadofthevalley.com/israelmission. Those who wish to contribute: chabadofthevalley.com/israelrelief
Fast Takes with Rabbi Kahn
Jewish Journal: How have you changed in the last 14 months?
Rabbi Kahn: I really see and feel the message of the Lubavitcher Rebbe that every single Jew is a brother and sister, and the impact of what we do in California has impact on our brothers and sisters in Israel.
J.J.: Your favorite family activity?
R.K.: Family trips to national parks.
J.J.: How has the war influenced your family?
R.K.: If you want to make a difference, you can.
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