The Myrtle Beach Makeover: Rabbi Doron & Leah Aizenman

00:00 Speaker 1 In the early '80s, Rabbi Doron and Rebbetzin Leah Eisenman were very eager to go out into the world as emissaries of the Lubavitcher Rebbe.

00:09 Speaker 2 We didn't talk about where, but we talked about the type of shlichus. My husband was more interested in education. I just know that I had big ideas.

00:18 Speaker 1 Leah worked as a computer programmer at a Manhattan bank, and Doron in Crown Heights in the Israeli Department of the Lubavitch Youth Organization. The Eisenmans had several offers, and they asked for the Rebbe's approval for one of them.

00:33 Speaker 2 And the Rebbe didn't give us a blessing, and the Rebbe kept on saying I should continue in the bank. Not what I wanted to do.

00:42 Speaker 1 But the Rebbe did offer this advice.

00:45 Speaker 3 You should go to a place that has no other shluchim.

00:54 Speaker 1 I'm Gary Wolk 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.

02:12 Speaker 3 My parents both are Holocaust survivors.

02:16 Speaker 1 That's Rabbi Doron Eisenman, director of Chabad of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Eisenman grew up in Tel Aviv, raised by a Shomer Shabbat, but non-Hasidic family. Eisenman's mother, Tzipora, had lived in Poland during the war.

02:35 Speaker 3 At age 15 she came back home to the ghetto in Warsaw, and she found that the family is not there. When she asked, "Where are my parents and brother and sister?" She was told, "Run, because otherwise you'll go with them." She ran back to the Catholic family that she was working for and they hid her for the rest of the war, risking their lives.

03:03 Speaker 1 Eisenman's father, Moshe, had survived the war in Russia. When it ended...

03:07 Speaker 3 They came to Israel and got married. My father went to enlist in the military, and he served his country for 27 years as a educational officer with soldiers, because he believed in training the new generation. Sometimes at night my mother would cry, "God, why did you leave me here on this earth?" Which is a common phenomena by survivors. They have a guilt feeling for being saved, and I vowed then that I will be the answer, and I will make up the numbers that were killed, and that's a, a mission to take upon myself for life.

03:54 Speaker 1 Eisenman attended Mizrachi schools and then Bnei Akiva yeshiva in nearby Nechalim, dividing the day between secular and religious studies. The school was not a Chabad school. It wasn't even Hasidic, but it offered a class in Tanya, the foundational work of all Chabad Hasidic literature.

04:16 Speaker 3 And I loved the ideas of, uh, understanding the Torah in a much deeper way, and I liked the mission of Chabad. And I found that the outreach and the love for every person and the wanting to make up the numbers spiritually as well drives the Rebbe's shlichus.

04:37 Speaker 1 At age 16, Eisenman moved to Kfar Chabad, Israel, and began to consider how he could be a part of that outreach. Leah Eisenman also grew up in Tel Aviv. She was raised in a Frum family.

04:52 Speaker 2 In Israel I was very much into the sciences and things like that. I never imagined myself in education, honestly.

05:00 Speaker 1 She attended the same school as her future husband, but not at the same time. Later, she moved to Crown Heights, where she attended Bais Rivkah High School.

05:09 Speaker 2 And when I was in Bais Rivkah, I wanted very much to be part of the Rebbe's mission.

05:15 Speaker 1 There were many reasons for that. One big one was an experience she had her first year in Crown Heights. Leah was helping her sister prepare her home for the many guests she'd be hosting on Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot. She had spent most of Hoshana Rabbah cooking and cleaning, and she was exhausted. The Rebbe was giving out honey cake to thousands of people who wanted his blessing, so Leah finished her work and ran to the Rebbe's sukkah.

05:45 Speaker 2 So when I came, everybody else already got, and the Rebbe was going back to his office.

05:49 Speaker 1 She says she was devastated. But then she saw the Rebbe make an abrupt turn in the doorway of 770. He saw her there alone- And in tears

06:01 Speaker 2 And he whispered in the s- ear of his secretary to go back and reopen the sukkah and get more cake, and he just out of the blue turned back and gave me a piece of cake. That gesture of being done and ready to leave for the day after hours of giving out honey cake and then turning back and noticing me, it left me marked with this, like, passion.

06:24 Speaker 1 Lea knew that outreach would be her life's work.

06:27 Speaker 2 So I completed teacher seminary, but I couldn't get a job.

06:31 Speaker 1 So the young Lea trained as a computer systems analyst.

06:34 Speaker 2 And I got a job in the financial district in Manhattan, but I was not satisfied. I still wanted very much to be part of the Rebbe's work.

06:41 Speaker 1 Lea wrote to the Rebbe and told him that she wanted to work at a summer camp and then return to her job on Wall Street.

06:48 Speaker 2 And the Rebbe said, "That's gonna hurt your career," in Hebrew. It was like literally no. I was so upset. I stayed in the bank.

06:57 Speaker 1 So it sounds like you got banished to Wall Street.

07:01 Speaker 2 That's exactly how I felt.

07:04 Speaker 1 But that temporary setback was all a part of a divine providence that would land her and her future husband in South Carolina. In 1976, Doron Eisenman first visited the US. At age 16, he went to the Lubavitcher Rebbe.

07:22 Speaker 3 I joined the Rebbe's army, so really I committed to something that I believed in rather than born to.

07:35 Speaker 1 Eisenman attended yeshiva in Morristown, New Jersey, and went out on shlichus to Seattle two years later. He received his rabbinic ordination in 1983, then it was time to think about marriage. Lea was considering four candidates. She asked the Rebbe for guidance.

07:53 Speaker 3 And the Rebbe answered her, "Kedima leEisenman." And we met in New York by the Rebbe's direction.

08:03 Speaker 2 And we got married in '83.

08:05 Speaker 1 Lea was still working at a Manhattan bank as a computer programmer. Doron worked in the Israeli department of the Lubavitch Youth Organization, but the Eisenmans were eager and ready to go out on shlichus. They asked for the Rebbe's approval for one of the several outreach possibilities they'd been offered in Long Island, Los Angeles, Caracas, Venezuela, Kfar Chabad, Israel, and Vienna, Austria.

08:31 Speaker 2 And the Rebbe didn't give us a blessing, and the Rebbe kept on saying I should continue in the bank. Not what I wanted to do.

08:40 Speaker 1 But the Rebbe did offer the following.

08:43 Speaker 3 You should go to a place that has no other shluchim, and the first place that came to mind was Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

08:56 Speaker 1 Though a small resort city, Myrtle Beach had a disproportionately large population of Israeli immigrants who owned or worked in businesses there. Eisenman had connections to some of them through his work with the Lubavitch Youth Organization, and there were no shluchim there.

09:13 Speaker 3 So I wrote to the Rebbe that, uh, I have that contact in Myrtle Beach, and may I pursue it? And the Rebbe said, "V'sanenu bazeh," which means go ahead and look into that direction.

09:31 Speaker 1 The Eisenmans arrived in Myrtle Beach in 1986.

09:35 Speaker 3 We came before Rosh Hashanah. We left after Yom Kippur. We met with a lot of people, and we liked it.

09:43 Speaker 2 So they had my husband serve as a rabbi for the High Holiday service.

09:47 Speaker 1 And Lea had something else in mind. She'd heard from Jewish parents that they wanted a top-notch Jewish education for their children in a place that offered none. From her Wall Street experience, Lea knew how to write business proposals, so she called a meeting.

10:06 Speaker 2 So I sat one morning with a yellow pad, and I, I just proposed a school, that the first year we're gonna have this, and second year and third year we're gonna have a nurse's office. And I, like I, I wrote like a three-year proposal for a school. Like, I don't know, I was 23 then. I honestly wrote it with such confidence. I wrote different curriculums. It was a detailed proposal.

10:33 Speaker 1 The community responded enthusiastically.

10:36 Speaker 3 And when we returned, I wrote to the Rebbe that there is a wide field of activities that could be started right away. There are many children that are looking for Jewish education, and there's promise for financial support.

10:53 Speaker 1 That came at first from Shaul and Elaine Levi, who owned one of Myrtle Beach's biggest beachwear stores. The Eisenmans say they were absolutely instrumental in getting Chabad of Myrtle Beach off the ground and are deeply committed to their mission to this day. Support also came from members of Myrtle Beach's 50 or so families of Israeli immigrants who worked in seasonal shops.

11:17 Speaker 2 Transplanted Israelis, a lot of Israelis and also a lot of Sephardic Jews. So to us, that was the focus. We made sure that we teach in a way that would be familiar to them. It was very important to us that we're really connecting them to what they've been familiar with in their own homes, the text and the music that they know from their own countries.

11:42 Speaker 1 The Eisenmans moved permanently to Myrtle Beach with the Rebbe's blessings in February of 1987. They lived in a local hotel and got to work.

11:53 Speaker 3 And that's what we did a day after we landed.

11:56 Speaker 1 Chabad Jewish Academy began with about 15 students across different age groups.

12:02 Speaker 2 And people were eager. They were right away eager for the children to learn about the holidays. They immediately wanted to do an after-sukkot program, not just a Sunday program. They wanted every day of the week for their children to learn.

12:15 Speaker 1 Moving to a new city and establishing a school would be challenging under any circumstances. But for the Eisenmans, the real challenge was that the need always grew faster than their immediate ability to meet it. With major support from the Levys, the Eisenmans purchased their first building a little over a year after they arrived. They taught kindergarten-aged children first, and then added elementary and middle school kids.

12:43 Speaker 3 Quickly after, two years, the building was not sufficient, and we had to build another wing to it.

12:50 Speaker 1 The Eisenmans also opened a shul, where they ran full holiday programs for Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Purim, and Pesach.

12:58 Speaker 2 For Pesach, we had 200 people for a community Seder, you know, things like that, right away. Like, we couldn't have enough.

13:04 Speaker 1 Somehow, the Eisenmans found the time and resources to purchase their own home, and five years after they arrived, they built another school wing with eight more classrooms. The Jews of Myrtle Beach clearly wanted what the Eisenmans were offering. That must have made you feel really good about the choice you made to go to Myrtle Beach, right?

13:29 Speaker 2 If we had a second to pause and think, we probably would think that we made a good choice.

13:35 Speaker 1 Leah Eisenman says that Myrtle Beach's Israeli immigrants, though spiritually sensitive, weren't at that time a strictly observant community. But they did insist upon a thorough Jewish education for their children. She remembers the reaction of one student's father the first time he dressed like an observant Jew.

13:56 Speaker 2 And he's, like, very burly and big man, and he was, like, screaming with excitement, "I can't believe it. My boy, I'm so proud of him, with a kippah and a tzitzit." They're very emotional about their Judaism, and very proud.

14:12 Speaker 1 Now, Chabad Jewish Academy has an enrollment of 150, supported by a staff of about 20, including Rabbi Yossi and Rebbetzin Chana Naparstek, who arrived in Myrtle Beach shortly after the Eisenmans. Leah says their work helped them through every challenge. Four years ago, they were joined by Rabbi Menachem Mendel and Michalle Raskin, who Leah says made their preschool the state-of-the-art school it is today. And the growth was not limited to the school. The community now includes a mikvah, and a large, completely renovated building, with a new shul, deluxe kosher kitchen, and social hall. The Jewish community and infrastructure is inspiring local Jews to take on more Torah observance.

15:00 Speaker 2 Now there is, like, a very, very active synagogue, but more than that, the whole community's aware of holidays. It became the standard for them. Shabbat, Friday night, high percentage observes Friday, candle lighting Friday night, kiddush. The impact is dramatic.

15:17 Speaker 1 And not just among the permanent residents. As mentioned, Myrtle Beach is a very popular tourist destination.

15:24 Speaker 2 And then we noticed that we are getting tourists from all over the world, and we have a shlichus with them. We have, definitely have a mission with them. They just enjoy having that warm place to be.

15:37 Speaker 1 While the Eisenmans catered to the Jewish needs of tourists and residents alike, they were also raising 10 children. Tall tasks, for sure, but it was all part of the generational continuity that continues to make Chabad of Myrtle Beach a resounding success.

15:54 Speaker 4 My name is Sara Rader. I'm called Sarale here by the community. To the children, I'm known as Mora Sarale.

16:01 Speaker 1 Sarale Rader, nee Eisenman, was born in Myrtle Beach, population 41,000.

16:07 Speaker 4 If I come into a store and people are like, "Oh, so where are you from?" I'm like, "I was born here." They don't believe me. "Oh, that's unique."

16:14 Speaker 1 Rader is not only a second-generation Myrtle Beach Jew. She grew up watching her parents go to great lengths to provide Jewish support for its residents.

16:24 Speaker 4 My parents were 100% invested in their shlichus. They were very passionate. And growing up, that was our life. It was the main goal always. The mood in the house was connected to what was happening in the shlichus. It was the air we breathed.

16:41 Speaker 1 Sarale moved out of Myrtle Beach when she went off to seminary at Beis Rivkah in Crown Heights, and Maayanot in Jerusalem. She's taught since then. In 2013, she married Rabbi Eli Rader. At one time, Sarale didn't think she wanted to move back to Myrtle Beach, but the Raders became acutely aware of the need for more teachers in the rapidly growing Chabad Jewish Academy, which was educating the third generation of Myrtle Beach Jews.

17:10 Speaker 5 And we do our best to serve this community and bring the Rebbe's message to them.

17:17 Speaker 1 The Raders also began a C teen program, and began to raise a young family of their own. But then, about seven years ago, the Raders, along with the Eisenmans, saw an opportunity for something else entirely, a minyan in another part of Myrtle Beach. In Myrtle Beach, there's not an overabundance of housing near the shul. So many Jews began buying and renting homes in an inland real estate development called Carolina Forest. It's only about a 20-minute drive from the synagogue, but a several-hour walk across a highway through difficult terrain and private property. That made it nearly impossible for observant Jews to attend shul on Shabbos, especially in the summer, when high temperatures and humidity make even a short walk extremely uncomfortable. A few weeks after the Raders moved to the Carolina Forest development-

18:13 Speaker 5 There was one particular member of the community who grew up in Myrtle Beach, and he lived in this neighborhood in Carolina Forest. And he was speaking to Rabbi Eisenman, and they were speaking about the possibility of someone moving to this area in Carolina Forest and opening up a minyan for all those that live in this area And ideally would be able to walk to a Shabbos minyan.

18:36 Speaker 4 My husband said to them, "You know, we might be able to start the minyan house there."

18:41 Speaker 1 The Raders already had a heavy workload, and were probably looking forward to quiet Shabbos mornings and afternoons in their own home. But they willingly took on the task of creating the Carolina Forest minyan. They began in their living room on the second day of Pesach in 2015.

18:59 Speaker 5 People were excited about it. They were like, "Oh, we have a minyan, and we have, you know, it's beautiful. Let's get together."

19:05 Speaker 1 Soon the Raders were hosting on Shabbos, on Friday nights at first. But the word spread through Carolina Forest that something good was happening at the Raders' rented home.

19:16 Speaker 5 Within the next couple of years, more young families were moving to this neighborhood. At that time, there were already three or four families that started keeping Shabbos and becoming regulars, and from there it grew even more.

19:31 Speaker 1 About seven years ago, the Raders purchased their own home with more space to accommodate members of the 40 or so Jewish families in Carolina Forest who enthusiastically embraced Shabbos observance.

19:45 Speaker 5 Our children were getting older, their children were getting older. We were starting to see toddlers and some three, four, five-year-old children playing together. We started seeing that the children were enjoying it, and the parents were enjoying seeing that their children were involved and happy coming to minyan, coming to shul.

20:02 Speaker 1 Including not only second-generation Myrtle Beach residents, many of whom Sarale had known for years, but their children, the city's official third generation of Jews.

20:13 Speaker 4 We're a very child-oriented minyan. We have, on average, more children than adults, and we're very proud of that. Nobody tried to make the kids quiet or silent. It was a front and center of what we were doing, and I think that's what brought the people around. They wanted their children to have a sense of identity and belonging.

20:32 Speaker 6 They offer a space that all the kids can be together and spend some time and have fun.

20:37 Speaker 1 That's Ana Moshe. She and her husband, Dvir, moved to Carolina Forest about 10 years ago. Dvir is a second-generation Myrtle Beacher, having studied at Chabad Jewish Academy. They're now minyan regulars, along with their four kids.

20:54 Speaker 6 We have Shabbat, and we are together. For me personally, and for my family, it's very important to respect Shabbat, to keep Shabbat, to keep the Hagim.

21:03 Speaker 1 Ana is originally from Colombia. Dvir is from Israel. Whatever potential there might be for cultural difference is utterly nullified by the Shabbat experience, especially Sarale's Sephardi delicacies.

21:17 Speaker 6 She make every single Friday, bourekas. Bourekas for everybody. And everybody's looking for the bourekas and for the makbucha. My kids are like, "Ima, we have to go. There is bourekas, there is cooking." And they bring everybody together.

21:32 Speaker 1 With all success stories come challenges. In the case of the Raders, it quickly became, "Where are we going to put everybody?"

21:41 Speaker 5 And about two years ago, we saw that we're outgrowing our living room, and we had a large three-car garage that we completely renovated and turned into a beautiful minyan area.

21:52 Speaker 1 Now the Raders host about 50 people per week on Shabbos, and up to 100 for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Sarale Rader says it's a lot of work, but definitely well worth it.

22:05 Speaker 4 There's new families that are coming every week this year, and I feel like it is a direct result of making space for them, and showing them that you have energy and positivity, that you're welcoming them.

22:15 Speaker 5 It's almost like people just getting together for a, uh, July 4th barbecue every single week, or a Super Bowl party every single week.

22:25 Speaker 1 Sarale Rader is very quick to point out that the Carolina Forest minyan would not have been possible without her parents.

22:33 Speaker 4 Our community members are working upon what our parents have built. I feel like it's a progression.

22:39 Speaker 1 From just down the road, Rabbi Doron and Rebbetzin Lea Eisenman are proudly aware of what the Raders have accomplished, especially with locals experiencing Shabbat for the first time.

22:51 Speaker 3 People today are being driven crazy by life and its demands. And when you come home, and you can close the phone, and know that you're not available, and nobody will run after you, and you are only walking from here, and only eating what you prepared, this is sanity. It's not a religious act. It is something that is healing. Shabbat is an island of tranquility. It's an island of sanity.

23:28 Speaker 1 But the weekdays always intervene. During those, the Eisenmans and the Raders, the Neparsteks, and even Ana Moshe, teach at Chabad Jewish Academy. The school will continue to grow, but Eli Rader says that might not necessarily be the case for the Carolina Forest minyan.

23:46 Speaker 5 It's hard to build on a future, because we're literally a minyan running out of our house. This is not a place where we can really build a, a shul within the neighborhood. We're comfortable the way we are right now, and we'll see what happens in the future.

24:05 Speaker 1 After 37 years in Myrtle Beach, the Eisenmans have the gift of generational perspective, or more accurately, three generations of perspective.

24:16 Speaker 3 And thank God, today we have a whole community of alumnis, leaders in their community. Some of them stayed here and have their children in our school, so it's third generation, and it is very rewarding.

24:38 Speaker 4 There's 37 years of salaries that never missed a week. There's 37 years of minyanim every day, and every week that were never missed. There are 37 years of school that opened year after year. Providing, in the best way we can, a Jewish experience for children, a positive experience of Shabbos, raising proud Jews who have a very healthy and positive experience of Judaism. And that they should get together when they're adults and say, "How do we express that Torah is the central part of our being?"

25:13 Speaker 5 We're helping and supporting the next generation Beach.

25:16 Speaker 6 Rabbi Doron and Morah Leah, they came here when they were very young, and to see what they build, everything is changing and growing. It's like, who's gonna think that this is gonna be this good?

25:34 Speaker 7 I'm Gary Wollek. 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.