Kosher Corned Beef On The Emerald Isle: Rabbi Zalman & Rifky Lent

Kosher Corned Beef On The Emerald Isle: Rabbi Zalman & Rifky Lent

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“The Jewish community here had been kind of hemorrhaging people. There was a bit of panic. They'd sold one of the beautiful old shuls, the Adelaide Road Synagogue. There was an amalgamation of communities. And they said, “Okay, let's do something to stop the hemorrhaging."- Rabbi Zalman Lent

“There're non-Jews who come in every single day. One of our hopes when we opened the Deli was that this would be a place where non-Jews could actually kind of be exposed to Judaism.” - Rebbetzin RIfky Lent

“It seemed like, no matter how many people went, the space grew to accommodate. Chairs would come from nowhere.” - Simon Harrison

Produced by: Gary Waleik & Shneur Brook for Lubavitch International/Lubavitch.com - A Project of Machne Israel

Available on all major podcast platforms - and online at Lubavitch.com/podcast

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:00

So we're on the main road and I have like a PA system with a microphone.

SPEAKER_01 0:04

That's Rabbi Zalman Lent Chabad Schlioch along with his wife Rivki to Dublin, Ireland.

SPEAKER_04 0:10

And they said, if anybody needs a Hanukkah Menorah kit, just step forward and we'd be happy to give you one.

SPEAKER_01 0:17

As the Lent distributed menorah kits, that Khanukkah in 2005, a stranger approached.

SPEAKER_04 0:23

And he's all like shaken and and and I says, Is everything okay? He said, You don't understand what just happened. I only landed this morning from the States. He said, I was walking down the street and I was just thinking to myself, are there Jews in Ireland? How on earth am I going to find a menorah?

SPEAKER_01 0:40

You, dear listener, already know the answer to that question. What the man hadn't known is that the Lents are always ready to provide for the needs of every Jew in Dublin, be they resident or visitor. I'm Gary Wallach, 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. Back to our story in a moment. But first, I'd like to tell you about a great opportunity. You can partner with lamplighters in sharing stories of Chabad emissaries doing amazing work all over the world. Please consider dedicating an episode. You can email us at podcast at lubavic.com to explore dedication opportunities. That's podcast at lubavich.com. You can also let us know how we're doing and about the schluchem you think we should consider for upcoming episodes. Please rate and review lamplighters to make it easier for other podcast listeners to find us. Lamp Lighters is a project of Machne Israel, the social services arm of Chabad Lubavitch.

SPEAKER_02 2:24

Yeah, I always wanted to go in Schluchas.

SPEAKER_01 2:26

Rifki Lent grew up in London's Stamford Hill neighborhood. Her brother Yitzi is Chabad Schleach to Copenhagen, Denmark, featured on an earlier lamplighters episode. Their parents, Tali and Miriam Lowenthal, are well-known Chabad Schluchem and academics. Rabbi Tali has taught Torah for decades.

SPEAKER_02 2:47

When I was about 14 or 15, I would go with him to the west end of London, to this person's home, where he would give a class every week. That was probably my first exposure to Schluchus thing. Although, of course, my parents also had a very open home, and we always had guests for Shabbasim and for Yamtiv meals. You know, the example that my parents set. This is what I wanted to do.

SPEAKER_01 3:08

Rivke attended Base Rivka in Crown Heights, and she worked in Chabad houses in New York and London, assisting Chabad Schluchem there. Zalman Lent is from Manchester, England, a former industrial city located about 200 miles to the north of London. Lent says he had a wonderful childhood.

SPEAKER_04 3:29

I was living in the present. I wasn't one of those kids that my dream was to be a rabbi or a schliach. No, that wasn't something I was thinking about.

SPEAKER_01 3:39

But Lent says it was assumed that he'd attend Yeshiva, which he did in Montreal in Melbourne, Australia. He went on to Mercosli in Melbourne, Brisbane, New Caledonia, and New Zealand, where one experience cemented his resolve to become an official Chabad Schliach.

SPEAKER_04 3:58

We were in Wellington in New Zealand, and we'd given out these really nice silver Shabbas candlesticks to the women and to the girls. We went back the next year, and this little girl comes running down the street. She must have been six or seven, and she saw us walking and she comes running down and she said, You know, I'm still lighting that Shabbat candlestick that you gave me last year. And a year later you realize this has changed this little kid's life. And uh yeah, I think it's a bit addictive.

SPEAKER_01 4:29

Lent earned Smicha almost 30 years ago. He met Rivke in London shortly afterward.

SPEAKER_02 4:35

He's from Manchester, and I'm from London, two very different places, but despite those major differences, we still met.

SPEAKER_04 4:44

And they hit it off right away. We actually got engaged one week after meeting for the first time.

SPEAKER_01 4:50

Zalman and Rivke Lent were married in 1998. They moved to Crown Heights, where he studied in Kolel, and she taught at a Persian school on Long Island. Zalman had been talking about relocating on Schlichus to a faraway place, maybe New Zealand, Thailand, or Singapore.

SPEAKER_02 5:09

And I said, well, you know, if we go to those places, it's going to be like really far from our families, and I'm not very good at learning foreign languages.

SPEAKER_01 5:17

Rifke wanted an English-speaking destination closer to family.

SPEAKER_04 5:21

Then one day, when Zalman was in Kolel, someone came in and said that there's some kind of opportunity in Ireland.

SPEAKER_02 5:31

Okay, that's great. They speak English there.

SPEAKER_04 5:33

That's for us. And I just jumped up and I ran to Red Moyesha Kodlarsky's Alba Shalom's office, and I said, tell me about Ireland.

SPEAKER_01 5:41

The Lance learned that Dublin's Jewish community needed help.

SPEAKER_02 5:45

Dublin is a really beautiful place. It's not a very big city. There's maybe two million people in the wider Dublin area. So it's a small community of like maybe a couple of thousand Jews, and they were mostly descended from people who had fled from Lithuania in about 1870. So these were the descendants and probably kind of a slightly aging community.

SPEAKER_01 6:06

Many of Dublin's younger families were leaving for bigger cities.

SPEAKER_04 6:10

The Jewish community here had been kind of hemorrhaging people. There was a bit of a panic. They'd sold one of the beautiful old shoals, the Adelaide Road Synagogue. There was an amalgamation of communities, and they said, okay, let's do something to stop the hemorrhaging.

SPEAKER_01 6:27

What the greater Jewish community of Dublin wanted was for a young couple to work with then chief rabbi Gavin Broder, focusing on the city's youth. So we came for an interview, they liked us, and we liked them.

SPEAKER_04 6:40

I still don't know why, but immediately felt like it was the right thing for us.

SPEAKER_01 6:45

The Lentz arrived in Dublin in the summer of 2000 as junior rabbi and rebbitsin of the Dublin Hebrew Congregation.

SPEAKER_04 6:53

Both representing Chabad as Schlochim, but also working for the community.

SPEAKER_02 6:58

Basically, our salary was paid by the community. They provided us with a house and a car and a budget, so we could basically just do whatever we wanted without really worrying about raising any money.

SPEAKER_04 7:10

Our intense focus was activities for the children, for the students, for anyone, you know, under 50 or under 40 anyway, doing as many events as we could for the young people.

SPEAKER_01 7:21

Some in the community had questioned why Dublin needed Chabad emissaries, fearing that the Lentz might have their own agenda.

SPEAKER_04 7:28

You know, this kind of mystery. What is Chabad really doing it?

SPEAKER_01 7:32

But the Lentz saw things differently.

SPEAKER_04 7:34

You know, it's just a young couple who are 24-7 available as a contact point for Jewish people looking for anything to do with Yiddishkind. It doesn't matter whether it's a study class or a Shabbos meal or it's a fill-in or a brisk, it doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_01 7:49

Dublin's Jewish community already had strong infrastructure. There was a schul, a Jewish school, an old age home, charitable organization, Hevra Kadisha, and other resources. They had a strong relationship with Rabbi Yaakov Perlman, who had assumed the role of chief rabbi shortly after the Lentz arrived in 2000. Over the next eight years, the Lentz inspired the city's Jews to engage.

SPEAKER_02 8:17

We ran summer camps and we ran programs for Yamtev and Hebrew school, they got all sorts of different things.

SPEAKER_04 8:23

More events for the wider community and just things like Purim events and Hanukke events would have been maybe sometimes handful of people, but once they were organized properly, you know, you could have a couple of hundred people coming.

SPEAKER_01 8:38

One of Zolman Lent's roles was rabbi of Dublin's main synagogue, which put him right at the nexus point for all of Dublin's Jews.

SPEAKER_04 8:47

So I saw it as this like amazing synergy that you have, you know, people contacting the Shule and then people also contacting Chabad, and everybody's brought together into the same community, which is what happened. Everyone benefits.

SPEAKER_01 9:01

Soon the Lent's work as community Schluchem began to reverse the trend of young Jews and families leaving Dublin. And they were bringing back members of the older generation who had drifted away. Zalman and Rivki learned that just a kind word or gesture could make all the difference.

SPEAKER_02 9:23

And her sister, who was very unaffiliated with the community then at that point, she came to Schul with her two small children. And she was trying to listen to her nephew lane his piece from the tira, and the baby started making a noise. She got some unpleasant looks and comments from different people, but I came up to her just to make her feel better about the situation.

SPEAKER_01 9:43

Rifke doesn't remember exactly what she told the woman, but years later, she learned from her what would have happened if Rifke hadn't spoken a few kind words to her.

SPEAKER_02 9:53

She would have left and she would never have come back.

SPEAKER_01 9:57

That woman currently serves on the board of the Lent's Chabad House. Until recently, Dublin was a very popular tourist destination, but it wasn't exactly the first on the list as a destination for Frum Jews. Sometimes that didn't matter. One day in 2008, Rabbi Lent took an overseas call.

SPEAKER_04 10:22

From a young man from Porto, Portugal, and he said he's uh he's looking for a shirdach. He was like a traditional, like a frum boy, and uh he realized there was not much opportunity for him in Portugal, and he was coming to Ireland. So I said, Well, if you're looking for a Frum like Shomer Shabbat, Jewish girl, maybe Dublin is the wrong place for you. There's a very, very, very small community here. It's only like a couple of thousand people. So why are you planning to come here? He said, Well, it was the cheapest plane ticket I could find. 60 euros to be exact. So he arrives in the middle of that week, and at the time we were running a student center, like an accommodation center for students. So I said to him, Look, take the bus, go to the student center, and come for showers. And then that Friday afternoon, we get a call from a young woman from the States who had been doing a tour of Europe.

SPEAKER_01 11:12

She was on her way back to the US, but during the flight, an engine fire forced the plane to make an emergency landing in Dublin. Can you see where the story's going?

SPEAKER_04 11:22

I said that's fine. Go to the student house, come for Shabbas. The two of them came, they were at the Shabbas table, and a couple of months later I was at their wedding in the States.

SPEAKER_01 11:31

Stories like these confirmed to the Lance that their decision to locate in Dublin was a good one because helping just one Jew, or in this case two, could make a major impact in the wider community.

SPEAKER_04 11:44

So there was definitely a great sense of life and reinvigoration and rejuvenation, and we're super grateful that we were a part of that.

SPEAKER_01 11:55

In 2008, Rabbi Yaqov Perlman retired, and the Lentz assumed the roles of Chief Rabbi and Rebitzin of the Dublin Hebrew Congregation for about 14 years. But even though the Lentz had enjoyed a certain latitude to operate as they wished, their roles as community rabbi and rebbitsin had come with some restraints.

SPEAKER_02 12:17

I think the thing that we didn't really have was just kind of like independence to do like very big projects.

SPEAKER_01 12:23

Budget committees had sometimes limited some of the activities the Lentz had pushed for. But about four years ago, with the blessings of the community, the Lentz left their official posts as community rabbi and Rebitzin. Rabbi Yoni Weeder took over as chief rabbi, and the Lentz were free to emphasize a fully chabad approach to community building. So the Lentz created their own kosher store featuring meats, wine, cheeses, and dry goods from Israel and around the world. It's the only kosher shop in Ireland.

SPEAKER_02 13:10

People come in, maybe they've come to buy chala, or they've come in to buy some bamba or some falafel, but we can then talk to them and say, you know, we have a Hebrew school, would you like to come to that?

SPEAKER_04 13:20

And suddenly we're making contact with them, which I would never have met as rabbi at the shop. They just would never step into the shop, but they're happy to come in and buy a chal of shabbas and chat with the rabbi and put on to fill in.

SPEAKER_01 13:30

And the Lentz opened Delhi 613. It's been a success from the outset, offering eclectic kosher food from Ashkenaz to Mizrachi.

SPEAKER_04 13:40

It's powerful when you see someone completely disconnected from the Jewish community for maybe 50 years, and then they come in and they taste something, they say, Oh my gosh, this is exactly like the food that my baby used to make, and we used to have a Shabbos, and people almost with tears in their eyes. It just awakens that spark, and the hope is that it's not just food, that they start with the food and then they come inside and they get comfortable coming back into the Jewish community.

SPEAKER_01 14:02

Delhi 613, with its welcoming indoor and outdoor spaces, also serves as a nexus point for anyone curious about Jewish food, culture, and worldview.

SPEAKER_02 14:14

Yeah, I mean there's non-Jews who come in every single day. One of our hopes when we opened the Delhi was that this would be a place where non-Jews could actually kind of be exposed to Judaism.

SPEAKER_04 14:24

Let them come in and taste Jewish food, meet some Jewish people, kind of break down some of those barriers.

SPEAKER_01 14:30

Among those enjoying the salt beef sandwiches, corned beef, for those listening outside of Ireland, have been a former Irish Prime Minister and several famous actors. The Delhi and store also cater, providing Dublin's Jewish school and Jewish visitors with kosher meals. And there are plans to open a bakery. The Lentz use the proceeds to fund some of their programs, but they say they're not yet turning a profit. Part of the reason is the backlash against Ireland's Jewish community and Jewish communities everywhere after October 7th.

SPEAKER_04 15:06

It became so strong in Ireland, this kind of like a force feel that you had to be say negative things about Israel that the two merged together and it was okay, we can't go to the Jewish deli. We may be seen as doing something Israeli. Yeah, so that's had a massive effect.

SPEAKER_01 15:22

But despite the relatively recent anti-Israel backlash and Ireland's reputation as one of the most anti-Semitic countries in Europe, the Lent say they haven't experienced much negativity.

SPEAKER_02 15:35

I've experienced a lot more anti-Semitism in Crown Heights than I have ever in Ireland. Very occasionally people will shout stupid things like free Palestine, but mostly it's just people not coming in because they can't go to that place that uh supports Israel or whatever.

SPEAKER_04 15:50

I walk around with a Yamuk and a beard and hat and jacket, and there's very, very little negativity. If people do come over, it's often supportive and positive. Being here, I think, has been very wonderful.

SPEAKER_01 16:02

Since the Lent's arrival in 2000, they've helped reverse the flow of Jewish youth out of Dublin. They recently purchased a building that will soon become a new center for students and young professionals. Now the Jewish community is holding steady at about 3,000. And in the last 10 years or so, there's been an influx of hundreds of young Israeli families and singles, a large percentage of whom work in the tech industry.

SPEAKER_00 16:30

I was born in Jerusalem, raised in Jerusalem.

SPEAKER_01 16:33

That's Sharon Hamoff, a user experience user interface professional working in the field of public safety. She's raising a family with her Israeli husband, also a tech specialist.

SPEAKER_00 16:46

And my husband Roy. He works here in Dublin.

SPEAKER_01 16:49

Rory? That doesn't sound like an Israeli name. Roy, Roy. Roy, oh, okay. I thought you said Rory.

SPEAKER_00 16:56

No, Rory, it's an Irish name.

SPEAKER_01 16:59

Sharon and Roy have been married for 10 years. They moved to Ireland five years ago. Did you move to Dublin with the idea that you'd go looking for a Jewish experience there?

SPEAKER_00 17:11

No, not at all. I actually thought that it will keep me even away from my religious experience because I didn't think that there is even a community here. You know, you don't hear much about Jewish-Irish people.

SPEAKER_01 17:27

Rowie comes from a religious background, Sharon Lessso. She says that in Israel, she always felt like Judaism was pushed on her, and she didn't like that.

SPEAKER_00 17:37

But one day, I was eating my sandwich and started to speak with Rifki, and she was amazing. We spoke about spiritual things that made me understand that our religion can be very beautiful without forcing you to do things that you're not comfortable with, and what Rifki did made me feel most Jewish now that I ever felt.

SPEAKER_01 18:44

And Sharon recently did a first-time mitzvah, which dispelled the myth that in Judaism, women are second-class citizens.

SPEAKER_00 18:53

That was the first time I ever in my life had the blessing on the Lulavendiatog. And it was so amazing to understand that I can do that as a woman. And I think that here I got a sense of how the Jewish religion respect women. So if you ask me a salted beef sandwich without the Russian dressing, but with the pickles and everything. I'm telling you, it's it's a very good food. It's a special food.

SPEAKER_03 19:58

And they do the best chips, would you believe?

SPEAKER_01 20:00

That's Simon Harrison, a native Dubliner with a taste for chips, also known to North Americans as French fries.

SPEAKER_03 20:08

My kids would say so as well. But I think honestly, I think it's all great. My daughter loves the soap beef. We go most Sundays and sit out and eat, and it's lovely, it's really, really nice.

SPEAKER_01 20:17

Simon is a program manager for an American tech company. He was born and raised in Dublin and grew up in a traditional Jewish family and attended the Jewish school there. He said he was always involved in Jewish life in Dublin, but felt the community wanted to keep its Jewishness a secret.

SPEAKER_03 20:35

Everything was insular. You know, we didn't really display our Judaism publicly.

SPEAKER_01 20:39

Simon says he hadn't been very familiar with Chabad until some 25 years ago when he first met Rabbi Lent.

SPEAKER_03 20:47

One of the things I admired about Rabbi Lent is his just unshakable confidence and commitment.

SPEAKER_01 20:55

One of Lent's demonstrations of Chabad Chutzpah came not long after Simon met the Lentz.

SPEAKER_03 21:01

The concept of a public menorah lighting caused a huge discussion within the community. I was quite nervous about it, but I remember he was just absolutely dogged and determined that nope, this is what we're going to do, and we're going to be proud, and we're going to be loud, and we're going to go out there. And I went, and it was fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 21:19

The Lent's approach to Judaism inspired Simon to attend Shabbos meals, holiday celebrations, and Torah learning classes. That continued through college, marriage, and the raising of two daughters. But Simon says Jewish Dubliners really began to come together when the Lentz opened their Chabad house a few years ago.

SPEAKER_03 21:41

It seemed like no matter how many people went, the space grew to accommodate. Chairs would come from nowhere. It was miraculous in some senses.

SPEAKER_01 21:50

You just gave me a possible title for this episode and maybe even for a book about Chabad. Chairs Came from Nowhere.

SPEAKER_03 21:58

Did they do? Do. Actually, I was in their house for Shavuus recently. It was the same thing.

SPEAKER_01 22:04

Now, Simon says he can't imagine life in Dublin without Chabad of Ireland.

SPEAKER_03 22:09

It's just become part of the fabric of the community. It's not just a Jewish institution, it's a Dublin institution, an Irish institution.

SPEAKER_01 22:17

As the Dublin community grows and engages, the Lents are busier than ever. They've already run successful paysach seders in Cork, and they're looking into programs for Belfast.

SPEAKER_02 22:29

Maybe we'd like to hire more Schluchem because you know there's a lot of things that need to be done and not enough hours in the day. Feels like there's Yamtiv every few weeks and then the summer camps and then this and that, so there's always like something to do.

SPEAKER_01 22:44

Twenty-six years into their Dublin adventure, the Lents occasionally have the time to look beyond the details of running a Chabad house and raising a family to reflect on the big picture of what they and their community have accomplished together.

SPEAKER_04 23:00

There's been an enormous surge of people needing to reconnect. Students and young professionals wanting to come back. This is their safe space. They can come on a Friday night to the Chabad house and they can have a wonderful Shabbos meal and they can just feel the joy of being Jewish in a Jewish environment. Coming to a Jewish venue and eating Jewish food and chatting.

SPEAKER_01 23:20

Zalman Len says that when it comes to building their community, Rifke and he have no magic formula. On the contrary, what they do is quite simple.

SPEAKER_04 23:30

Some of the most inspirational moments are by not trying at all, just walking in the street, looking visibly Jewish, or approaching someone at the supermarket checkout and saying, Oh hi, are you Jewish? Would you like to come for a Shabbos meal? It's just about being available. And this I always see as the Rebbe's vision that if you just plant a couple that are warm and open and have Avas Yisrael in every corner of the world, there's just going to be an enormous success rate of people looking to make contact.

SPEAKER_01 24:00

That approach certainly worked to help Sharon Hamoff adopt her new view of Yiddishkeit.

SPEAKER_00 24:06

I never thought I will find my identity as a Jewish person in Ireland. I think I found the exact Judaism that I was looking for because of the lens. If Chabad will continue doing what the Lent does, that's when the Mashayach will come.

SPEAKER_01 24:27

When you'll find your true Jewish self, that's when it happens.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 dot com. To subscribe digitally to Lubavitch International Magazine or to receive it at your doorstep, please visit Lubavitch.com slash subscribe. Lamp Lighters is a project of Machne Israel, the social services arm of Chabad Lubavitch.