ב״הIyar 20, 5712

I am gratified to learn, periodically, of the growth and development of your activities. I trust that this growth is both in quantity as well as in quality.

Obviously, one hour a week of released time for religious instruction¹ does not give an adequate education by far. The release hour should be considered as a stimulant for both the children and their parents, to the end that the children should be induced to seek an adequate religious Jewish education in Yeshivos, Talmud Torahs, etc. I am glad to note that you are working along these lines, and I wish you great success in this, too.

Yours is a youth organization dedicated to Jewish youth.

Youth has special qualities of untapped reserves of energy and enthusiasm. In addition, being still on the threshold of life, youth has a greater measure of goodness and purity, not having had too much contact with the negative aspects of life. All these qualities of youth are extremely important in all youth activities, especially with regard to the education of growing children. Youth responds more readily to youth, as it is more readily influenced intuitively than through the medium of reason. Consequently, the character, feeling and idealistic approach of the instructors and teachers is a decisive factor in the children’s education.

I wish you to use all your youthful energies in this most important cause in human life – the upbringing of a new generation on firm and proper foundations.

I send you my prayerful wishes and blessing that your enthusiasm and efforts be crowned with unqualified success.

I want to remind you of the words of my saintly father-in-law, the founder of your movement, to the effect that although the religious hour is primarily for the benefit of the children attending same, there is at the same time an additional purpose for the benefit of the men and women instructors, since their work in the release hour program elevates them spiritually and morally, and leads them on the road to perfection.

I should like to extend this thought also in relation to the supporters of the movement, who will undoubtedly derive personal inspiration from their association with this holy work.

Paraphrasing a saying of our Sages,² I may say that as much as they help the movement, the movement helps them even more, aiding them in elevating themselves on a higher spiritual plane. It gives them also an opportunity to transform quantity into quality, for by their generosity in both money and effort, they enable the movement not only to increase the number of children in the program, but also to enlarge and extend its curricular activities. In addition, it is most certain that their work for so noble a cause will bring them, and all theirs, Divine blessings in abundant measure, both materially and spiritually.

With blessing,

M. Schneerson