Hundreds of invalid mezuzos were repaired or replaced; hundreds of pairs of tefillin were repaired; hundreds of sets of beautiful arbaah minim were sent to dozens of Jewish communities where kosher or mehudar sets cannot be purchased. These many activities were sponsored by the Rabbinical Centre of Europe in anticipation of the upcoming Yamim Nora’im. At the same time, the RCE also sent out a series of advertisements to hundreds of Jewish communities throughout Europe, in order to help community rabbis convey to their communities the significance of each of the upcoming Yamim Tovim.

This is the seventh year that the RCE sent a sofer STaM from Eretz Yisrael to Jewish communities in Europe for a campaign of examining tefillin and mezuzos. Last month the well-known sofer Harav Chaim Galinski made rounds through Poland, Latvia, Russia, Ukraine, the Netherlands and France, examining hundreds of pairs of tefillin and hundreds of mezuzos. Whenever he found that tefillin or mezuzos were nonkosher or that their kashrus was questionable, he repaired or replaced the scrolls.

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As part of the assistance it offers the community rabbis in Europe, the RCE’s Morasha branch, with help from the Meromim foundation, sent out an educational program, titled Fueling Up, based on a trip made by the Holiday family. This program is geared for the Yamim Tovim of Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot and Simchat Torah. Produced by Mrs. M. Mendelson, the program is accompanied by special animated videos about all the Tishrei Yamim Tovim. It has been translated into several languages, so that every Rav or rebbetzin will find in it a do-it-yourself workshop, ready to present to children. The series is intended for children in Jewish schools and Sunday schools in European cities. It enables them to learn in an enjoyable, experiential way about the Yamim Tovim of Tishrei, with each Yom Tov represented as a “gas station” for special Jewish energy, and the family receives this fuel by learning about the meaning of each Yom Tov, “filling up” with spiritual strength for the coming year.

The program comes with a series of videos, each applicable to one Yom Tov (in addition to an option of a full movie). The videos feature the members of the “Holiday family,” who go on a fascinating journey, during which they stop to refuel at gas stations that are full of surprises, where they learn what each Yom Tov is all about, and end up receiving tanks of special “Jewish fuel” that they gain from that particular Yom Tov. The program includes a range of activities for all the Yamim Tovim together and for each Yom Tov separately.

This year for the first time, this rich and varied program includes an easy, experiential workbook for each child, which serves as both a summary and a source of feedback on the material taught. There is also a “personal gas tank” that will be filled over the course of the program, as well as a variety of activities, games and creative fun, all related to the various Yamim Tovim, and which convey their message in a captivating, innovative way.

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This is the ninth year that the RCE has sent out hundreds of sets of beautiful arbaah minim to dozens of Jewish communities where kosher or mehudar sets cannot be found. The sets are packaged in a unique way so as to preserve their freshness and protect them from damage, and they are classified according to their level of hiddur. They all bear the hechsher of the EK, the RCE’s kashrus division.

Besides all this extensive, rich activity, the RCE has published a special, impressive magazine for the month of Tishrei, and sent it to all European rabbis and shuls. It includes a summary of some of the RCE’s many activities of the past year, and it features a major interview with the most elderly of the European Rabbanim, Harav Moshe David Lieberman, along with several original articles on a variety of topics.