By the Grace of G-d 18th Day of the Omer, 5724Brooklyn, N.Y.

Greeting and Blessing:

On the occasion of your forthcoming Dinner, I send prayerful wishes to the honored guests and all friends of Camp Gan Israel. May this Dinner be a memorable and successful event for the Camp and for all concerned.

We are now in the period of Counting the Omer, which links Pessach, the Festival of Our Liberation, with Shovuoth, the Festival of the Giving of Our Torah. Describing the origin of this period of Counting, our Sages explain that when the Jewish people were informed by Moshe Rabbeinu that their miraculously-won freedom was a prelude to the receiving of the Torah at Mount Sinai, they began to count the days and the weeks in eager anticipation of that great event.¹

Our Sages also emphasize the central role of the Jewish children in Egypt as well as at Sinai. It was the young generation, born and bred in Egypt under the most difficult conditions, who were the first to recognize G-d.² This is why Moshe insisted that the children lead the rest of the people out of Egypt - "With our youths (first, and then) with our elders we shall go" (Exodus 10:9). Again, at Sinai, it was only after the children were made the guarantors for the preservation of the Torah that the Torah was given to our people.³

Such a generation of faithful flock is raised when their Torah-true education begins at the earliest childhood, and kept up throughout the year, and year after year, to maturity.

Camp Gan Israel plays a vital role in helping provide this kind of education for the Jewish children of your community. It deserves every support. I hope and pray that this support will be forthcoming with sustained and growing generosity, to enable Camp Gan Israel expand its activities to meet the growing need.

Wishing each and every one of you to have true Yiddish Nachas from your children, in good health and happy circumstanced, materially and spiritually,

With blessing

M. Schneerson