A Sub-Saharan Brit Milah: Rabbi Moshe & Yocheved Raskin

00:00 Speaker 1 So I have a dental practice in Yerushalayim, and, um, I see a lot of patients

00:04 Speaker 2 That's Ari Greenspan, Doctor of Dental Medicine. He's also a mohel, shochet, and inveterate world traveler. One day his close friend, Dr. Robert Friedman, was in the office having his teeth cleaned.

00:18 Speaker 1 And he says, "Listen, I know you're nuts, and there aren't too many people that I think that I could ask to do this, but one of my life dreams is to go on a gorilla safari."

00:27 Speaker 2 Greenspan knew of a national park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo where eco-tourists willing to pay thousands of dollars can hike steep mountainsides and observe mountain gorillas in their pristine habitat. Ari and Bob went there in 2021. On the way, they decided to stop in Kampala, Uganda, where they paid an impromptu visit to Chabad emissaries Rabbi Moshe and Rebbetzin Yocheved Raskin.

00:54 Speaker 1 And we're schmoozing, and, um, I'm telling him, "I'm a shochet. If you need anything, I'm happy to do any some slaughtering for you while I'm here." And I brought with me my schritta knife, and I mentioned in passing that I'm a mohel.

01:06 Speaker 2 That got Rabbi Raskin's attention.

01:09 Speaker 3 And then I said to myself, bam, a light start to light in my head. I said, "Opa, what the chance could be that two people will come in the time of quarantine to Uganda, and one of them is a mohel?" It's a major .I have a lady, she have a baby, and we need to make a bris.

01:27 Speaker 2 But Greenspan hadn't embarked on his African journey thinking he'd do a bris, so he hadn't brought his implements, and he and Bob were scheduled to fly the next day to see the gorillas. They'd be gone for three whole days. To complicate matters even further, Uganda was under a strict COVID quarantine, and Rabbi Raskin wasn't sure the mother really wanted a bris for her Jewish baby boy.

01:52 Speaker 3 It was a challenge. It was a crazy, crazy situation.

01:55 Speaker 2 The Raskins knew what was at stake. To have a Jewish boy in their community grow up without a bris was unthinkable for them. I'm Gary Wolak, and this is Lamplighters, stories from Chabad emissaries on the Jewish frontier. Life as a Chabad emissary is often joyous, but it can be unpredictable and even dangerous. Chabad has become a ubiquitous presence in every corner of the world, but behind every Chabad house are emissaries, regular people striving to transcend their circumstances and a community that supports and relies on them. These are their stories. Here's a great opportunity for you. You rely on the Lamplighters podcast to bring you inspiring stories of Chabad emissaries all over the world. Now you can help keep our series going strong. To dedicate an episode, please email us at podcast@lubavitch.com to explore dedication opportunities. That's podcast@lubavitch.com. To subscribe digitally to Lubavitch International Magazine or to receive it at your doorstep, please visit lubavitch.com/subscribe. Moshe Raskin was born in the City of Angels.

03:29 Speaker 3 I grow up in Eretz Yisrael in a city called Kiryat Malachi. Malachi is Angeles Malachim, so I grew up in Los Angeles in Eretz Yisrael.

03:47 Speaker 2 Raskin is from a family full of shluchim. His parents were sent to Kiryat Malachi by the Lubavitcher Rebbe in the 1970s, and he has four brothers and a sister who are Chabad emissaries all over the globe, Cyprus, Germany, Hungary, Connecticut, and Miami. He'd visited all of them when he was younger.

04:08 Speaker 3 So the issue of shlichut was not something that I don't know. I went there to help them and to do good things, and after that I decided this is going to be my life, that I want to go to my shlichut.

04:22 Speaker 2 But Raskin adds...

04:24 Speaker 3 I can't say that I ever dreamed about Africa

04:27 Speaker 2 But Raskin did know what kind of place he wanted to go to.

04:31 Speaker 3 To a place in the world where there is no community, where there is no Chabad, where there is no something established, and go there and build something from nothing, something big, something nice.

04:43 Speaker 2 Yocheved Raskin had the same dream. The two were married in 2015. They had already begun to talk about shlichus. The young couple talked with Rabbi Shlomo Bentolila, Chabad's head shliach to Central Africa.

04:59 Speaker 3 So he told us, "Okay, so there is a place that you can go and check." And he send us to Uganda to check the place. We came here before Purim 2017, and as the airplane came down, the feeling was like when you find your wife in a shidduch, that your heart is all in. I feel this is my place. And in three days we prepared a beautiful Purim party. It was around 30 people that came, some travelers, backpackers, and it was a crazy party, a lot of fun.

05:34 Speaker 2 The Raskins returned for Pesach that year and held a successful public Seder.

05:40 Speaker 3 And then my wife, she say, "Moishy, this is our shlichas. This is our place. People need us here. We love this place. It's not going to be easy, but we're going to do it. Let's do it."

05:51 Speaker 2 The Raskins landed in Kampala permanently a week or two before Rosh Hashanah 2017. The Raskins certainly knew of Uganda's unique connection to recent Jewish history, the famous raid staged by Israeli commandos at Entebbe Airport in 1976 that freed 102 hostages from terrorist hijackers and kidnappers. The Raskins were as taken by Uganda's natural beauty as they were its history and its people

06:21 Speaker 3 Everything is so green, a lot of green in your eyes. And you see, like, Victoria. You come here, people are smiling, people happy from nothing, and we loved it.

06:35 Speaker 2 And the Raskins began to love Kampala's small but unique Jewish community. The more or less permanent Jewish residents there are mostly Israelis working in the fields of health, construction, and agriculture. Raskin estimates there are about 60 of those now living in Kampala.

06:53 Speaker 3 Most of the Israelis here, twice a year they're going back home to Israel for Rosh Hashanah and for Pesach.

06:59 Speaker 2 The Raskins began making an impact right away. Right before one Passover, Raskin remembered that he hadn't invited someone to their Seder, an Israeli man who was recently divorced and who stayed in Uganda rather than return to Israel.

07:16 Speaker 3 I called him. He said, "Rabbi, yes, I'm here in Uganda, but I'm not going to come to the Seder."

07:20 Speaker 2 It turned out that the man wanted to be alone.

07:23 Speaker 3 And he became very sad. And then the first Pesach came that he's not going to be with his family. And then he say, "I put my jacket and I was on the way to Italian restaurant, not kosher. I'm on the way to go out."

07:41 Speaker 2 With a half hour to go before sundown, Raskin persisted.

07:44 Speaker 3 "If you're not coming, can I send you matzah and wine?" "Yes, why not?"

07:50 Speaker 2 Raskin quickly found a courier who delivered the wine and matzah. After Pesach, the man told Raskin the following:

07:57 Speaker 3 "I am on the way to go out, and then someone knock on the gate. It was you guy, with the matzah, with the wine, and with the Haggadah. And then my— find myself crying, and I say, 'Hashem, I'm not going anywhere. I'm going to stay myself in my home to eat the matzah, to drink the four glass of wine, and to read from the Haggadah.' So the Rabbi send me to Uganda to help one Jew to keep kosher, to keep Pesach. I was a Jewish soul, a Jewish neshama supposed to keep the Pesach."

08:35 Speaker 2 In addition to Kampala's Israeli residents, the Raskins have also been in touch with hundreds of travelers, mostly backpackers and eco-tourists who come to view the region's pristine wildlife, especially the mountain gorillas. Ari Greenspan is a dentist living and working in Jerusalem. He's also a teacher, shochet, and mohel. He's in high demand.

08:59 Speaker 1 High demand, always, yeah, always busy.

09:02 Speaker 2 Yet somehow, Greenspan finds the time to travel the world with his friend and havruta partner, Rabbi Dr. Ari Zivotofsky.

09:11 Speaker 1 We've been traveling the Jewish world for close to forty years together.

09:15 Speaker 2 Greenspan's website, Halachic Adventuring, chronicles their many journeys to Bahrain, Bulgaria, Portugal, Italy, Tunisia, India, and many other countries.

09:27 Speaker 1 We'll go to Jewish communities. We'll teach. Sometimes we'll do circumcision. We can do shechita. Trying to discover old Jewish traditions, visit ancient Jewish communities, modern Jewish communities, and do mitzvot.

09:40 Speaker 2 Greenspan first traveled to Uganda about fifteen years ago to study a small but fascinating group, the Abayudaya.

09:49 Speaker 1 When I first went there, there was no Chabad house. There was no Chabad rabbi in Uganda.

09:53 Speaker 2 Fast-forward to twenty twenty-one, and Greenspan was on his way to Congo with his friend, Dr. Robert Freedman, to see up close the mountain gorillas of Virunga National Park. But this time, there was a Chabad house in Uganda, so on the way to the mountains, they paid a visit to the Raskins in Kampala. Rabbi Raskin remembers that Ari and Bob pulled into their parking lot and tooted the horn twice.

10:22 Speaker 3 And then I see two Jews from Jews. One is in the sixties, one in the eighties, coming from Israel. I say, "Oh, shalom aleichem, how are you?"

10:34 Speaker 1 And they were super hospitable, and we had a really nice dinner.

10:37 Speaker 3 And one of them, Ari Greenspan, tell me, "Listen, I'm a shochet."

10:42 Speaker 1 And we're schmoozing, and, um, I'm telling him I'm a shochet. "If you need anything, I'm happy to do any some slaughtering for you while I'm here." And I, I brought with me my shechita knife, and I mentioned in passing that I'm a mohel.

10:54 Speaker 3 And then I said to myself, bam, a light start to light on my head. I say, "Opa. What the chance could be that two people will come in the time of quarantine to Uganda, and one of them is a mohel?"

11:11 Speaker 1 And he goes, "You're a mohel?" He says, "We have a boy here that needs a bris."

11:16 Speaker 3 And then I told him, "Listen, it's a major . I have a lady, she have a baby, and we need to make a bris."

11:24 Speaker 2 The baby was about two months old, well past the customary eight days. The Raskins had gently suggested that the mother should consider having her boy circumcised according to Jewish law. But the father is not Jewish, and the mother was afraid he'd object. Raskin and Ari Greenspan feared that the odds were against them.

11:46 Speaker 1 Uganda, let's just say it is not a huge Jewish community, and it's certainly not a Jewish community where you have lots of shomrei mitzvot that are part of, uh, the community. Once the baby gets to be a little bit older, it's a whole different story, and then the parents are not interested in doing it.

12:03 Speaker 2 Raskin was concerned that his English wasn't good enough to convey the importance of making a bris to the mother, an English speaker. Raskin asked Greenspan if he could explain that to her.

12:15 Speaker 3 He say, "Let me speak to her. Should we call her?"

12:18 Speaker 2 The mother's response was swift and unequivocal.

12:21 Speaker 3 "Okay, let's do it. Let's do the bris."

12:26 Speaker 2 But there was another potential problem, a big one

12:29 Speaker 1 So I said to him, "You know, I didn't bring my Mila equipment."

12:32 Speaker 3 And then I tell him, "I'm going to do the Bris. You don't have the tools." So he tell me, "Listen, I'm a dentist, and a- as a dentist I know that the dentist have all the tools for doing the Bris. So if you have a good dentist, and he will help me and give me what I need, we can do the Bris."

12:52 Speaker 2 Rabbi Raskin began calling around Kampala to see which dentist would be willing and able to help. Greenspan and his friend Bob left the very next day for a three-day trip, their gorilla quest 300 miles away in Congo. They were excited but also hopeful that Raskin would track down the implements needed to make the Bris.

13:14 Speaker 1 Let me describe the gorilla safari for you, okay? We flew down to remote areas in the mountains of these African extinct volcanoes. It was mind-bogglingly beautiful. We hiked into the jungle. We walked up these trails. I think we w- must have gone for about an hour and a half, and all of a sudden the guides say to us, "Okay, we're coming to them. They're around the next corner. Okay, look there." And a- pretty much all you see is a wall of green shrubbery, and then you see something move. And one of the guides slowly moves up towards the wall of green and begins to peel away the shrubbery, and all of a sudden you see in front of you a gorilla. And then you're looking, and you realize that there are 10, no, there's 20 gorillas with little baby gorillas jumping around. And you move closer and closer, and at some point you're 10 feet away, 15 feet away from them, no more than that. And then all of a sudden the silverback male, which is a humongous creature, he could weigh 600 pounds, sort of lumbers into place and plops himself down, and the little babies are jumping on top of him. And you are just sitting there, and you think, "Ma rabu masach Hashem," how great are your deeds, oh, God.

14:40 Speaker 2 Ari says that trip was one of the most sublime experiences of his life, but he couldn't help thinking about the baby boy in Kampala who needed a Bris. So Ari asked Bob if they could leave a day early.

14:53 Speaker 1 Bob was really very gracious and said, "You know what? We can come back a day early. We can stay one day less in the countryside."

15:01 Speaker 2 They forfeited hundreds of dollars in guide fees and the chance to spend one more day in a natural paradise

15:09 Speaker 1 Because how often do you have the opportunity on the fly to do a Bris?

15:17 Speaker 2 Ari and Bob flew back not knowing if Raskin had managed to find a dentist willing to help, but he had.

15:24 Speaker 3 So I find a car. I went there. I brought the tools, came back.

15:28 Speaker 1 And, uh, he arranged everything that was needed, and I had it all sterilized by the dentist, and I got it in sterile packs.

15:35 Speaker 2 It hadn't been easy because although tourists could rent and drive vehicles, the quarantine restricted Ugandan residents from travel.

15:44 Speaker 3 Even to go to the dentist for my own, it was a challenge. It was a crazy situation.

15:48 Speaker 2 Now the challenge was to find yet another mode of transportation for the Raskins.

15:53 Speaker 1 I kept saying to the rabbi, "How are you going to get there?" He says, "Don't worry. We'll be okay."

16:00 Speaker 3 So I have to find two cars for four people. Okay, they have one car. What for us? We'd drive ourself crazy to find another car.

16:07 Speaker 2 But Raskin somehow found transportation. He didn't say how.

16:12 Speaker 1 And he arranged for us to go to the house of the mother of the baby.

16:16 Speaker 2 Ari and Bob took a taxi. The Raskins traveled by pickup truck borrowed from a local NGO. They stopped at a drugstore for medical supplies and then once more for a police shakedown, which they bribed their way out of. Finally, they arrived at the house. The mohel, Ari, and the sandek, Bob, had been in the wilds of Congo just the day before marveling at the beauty of creation. Now they were standing in awe of, and even participating in, the beauty of a mitzvah.

16:52 Speaker 3 And I say, "Hashem, the Rebbe send me and my wife to Uganda maybe for this moment that we are standing up here in the middle of nowhere, and we are doing a Brit to a Jewish child, and we do it on a beracha and everything." I make the blessing on the wine, and, uh, we did the Bris, and she gave the name Aviv to the child.

17:17 Speaker 2 Rabbi, you said the mother was afraid to do a Bris on her baby boy. She was concerned about how her non-Jewish husband would feel about that. So how did they each feel once it was done?

17:29 Speaker 3 Both the father and the mother were so happy. The mother was happy because now is, uh, no covering, and everything is shining.

17:39 Speaker 1 And I have to say the father was amazing. The father was so into it and so proud that his son could have his Jewish heritage.

17:49 Speaker 3 He was so happy because he understood on his head that this is the right thing for his son because he's a Jew, and that's what the Jews need to have.

18:00 Speaker 2 Then it was time to celebrate.

18:02 Speaker 1 The rabbi's wife baked some, uh, cakes and made a little bit of, of food so we could have a seudah, we could have a little meal after we did the mitzvah of Mila.

18:11 Speaker 3 We prepare some bread and cake and the grape juice.

18:15 Speaker 1 They were really in heaven. The rabbi in particular was in heaven that he was able to facilitate the Brit, and that he could have a Brit in his own community. And quite honestly, who knows if it would've ever happened. Because, you know, once the baby gets to be a little bit older, it's a whole different story. Everything fell into place at the right time and the right place.

18:35 Speaker 3 He have a breeze. He, he, he got everything. Like, she proud on him

18:39 Speaker 2 These days, the Raskins are busy homeschooling their three children. Rabbi Raskin runs a weekly men's Hasidus class, and Rebbetzin Raskin holds classes for the women. They run a Jewish camp twice a year, and two years ago they began offering kosher catering. Rabbi estimates they shechted over 3,000 pounds of chicken every year or year and a half.

19:03 Speaker 3 Baruch Hashem, busy.

19:04 Speaker 2 But Kampala isn't the easiest place to keep busy. The crime rate there is high.

19:10 Speaker 1 Everyone is surrounded by high walls and barbed wire and/or electric fences. Kampala is a dangerous city. You don't walk around in Kampala.

19:17 Speaker 2 Still, Rabbi Raskin prefers to dwell on the positive.

19:21 Speaker 3 The people here in Uganda, most of them love Israel and support Israel very much, and when they understand that you are a Jew, they feel very lucky that they meet you. They tell me, "Wow, you are the chosen nation. You are a Jew. Yo, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, you, you, you born in Israel."

19:41 Speaker 2 And of course, the Raskins are always working on building their Jewish community, the permanent residents and the Israeli tourists who stopped coming after October 7th.

19:52 Speaker 3 People are not yet flying, but they think people going very soon to come back big time.

20:00 Speaker 2 Ari, what would the Jews of Uganda and Kampala in particular be missing if the Raskins weren't there?

20:07 Speaker 1 Uh if, if they weren't there, there'd be no s- Jewish spiritual life here. Absolutely nothing. No, no opportunity for anything. Without them, there's zero Jewish life. With them, there's a Jewish community. Had they not been there, this Jewish boy would never have had a circumcision. When you have a leader in a Jewish community, things like this can happen. Jews are needed in Uganda. Jews are needed in India. Jews are needed in Indonesia, and that's where Baruch Hashem the shlichim are.

20:38 Speaker 2 Rabbi Raskin agrees.

20:40 Speaker 3 With a real emunah in your rebbe, in your powers, you can go to any place in any situation and create big something. Make a Jewish environment, spread Judaism, open a synagogue, bring Jews and non-Jews close to Hashem.

20:59 Speaker 2 The Raskins' arrival in Uganda seven years ago prompted a significant headline, "Uganda becomes 100th country with a permanent Chabad presence." Raskin thinks that's nice, but like the Lubavitcher Rebbe who serves as his mentor, he sees no reason to rest on that laurel.

21:19 Speaker 3 It was nice for the headline, but now we need to continue. Think how the Rebbe teach us, think far, think far.

21:26 Speaker 2 Ari, do you have plans to return to Kampala anytime soon?

21:30 Speaker 1 Not in the short term.

21:31 Speaker 2 Okay, but when you do, you'll remember to take your milah kit, right?

21:36 Speaker 1 Milah and schita kit, I never travel without 'em anymore.

21:49 Speaker 2 I'm Gary Wolik. Thanks for listening to Lamplighters: Stories from Chabad Emissaries on the Jewish Frontier. We welcome your questions and comments about what you've just heard on Lamplighters. Please email us at podcast@lubavitch.com, and if you know of a great story involving Chabad emissaries or the people they inspire, please let us know about them. That's podcast at L-U-B-A-V-I-T-C-H.com. To subscribe digitally to Lubavitch International Magazine or to receive it at your doorstep, please visit lubavitch.com/subscribe. This is a Lubavitch International podcast.