From 1977 to 1980 I helped participate in whatever programs Rabbi Berger was spearheading. One of those was his weekly radio show (described in detail in a separate post). Another (also another post) was the Carleton university campus group we called “Havurah 613”.
Although I don’t remember much about this, it seems (based on a brief article I found in the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin) that I was also a coordinator for a Jewish student free-loan program….
Once Rabbi Berger was settled in to Ottawa, he wanted to start a Sunday Jewish radio show. He found a small station willing to host it, but it was about a 2 hour drive each way.
For a few weeks he made the trip, but it was taxing. They offered that he could send them the show pre-taped, but he didn’t have a source to get that done.
Well…. I had some half-decent stereo equipment and a pair of stereo mikes… So I volunteered to record the show. He would come to my apartment, where I had a cardboard box set up as a table to position the microphones. I would cue Jewish music on my turntable between his talks, and record the whole thing on a cassette tape. Quite unprofessional, but it worked! We had some good laughs about these sessions.
The tape would be mailed, and aired the following Sunday.
I think we only did a few shows like this… Maybe only ten or so. Then I went looking for another option. I dropped in a few times to talk to the staff at Carleton University’s own FM radio station. They were sympathetic, especially since I worked for Carleton, but had no free Sunday time slots.
Incredibly, a few weeks after I first spoke to them, they called me to say that another “cultural” show (I believe east Indian) had unexpectedly cancelled, and they were eager to fill the slot with a Jewish show! So Motty was now able to do a more professional radio show in a real local studio.
I still have fond memories of those early recording sessions in my apartment. (In an earlier post you can see the stereo equipment that I actually used)
I came back to Ottawa in 1976, and had just become frum through Lubavitch. Working on a University Campus made me feel like I should try to do something for the Jewish students, but I had no idea how. Luckily, Rabbi Motty Berger moved to Ottawa about 6 months after I did. In time, we came up with the name Havurah 613 — the 613 playing on Ottawa’s telephone area code and the number of Torah mitzvahs.
Motty made all the speaker and program arrangements, and I made flyers, newspaper ads, campus room arrangements, etc. I also sometimes used my own phone number as a contact for information. [No cell phones yet, but I had a cassette-based answering machine on my home land line]
The very first program on campus faced difficulties. Some people in the “established” Jewish community didn’t like that newcomers were making “unofficial” programs! They tried many ways to block it, including a last-minute lounge cancellation that forced me to book a different room and quickly post signs re-directing people. Amazingly, two students who showed up that first night later became Lubavitchers!
One flyer that I made was — just for fun — designed by me on the University computer, and printed entirely on a graphics plotter. This very crude flyer by today’s standards was likely the very first Chabad ad to be completely drawn by a computer! It required equipment worth hundreds of thousands in those years!
Some of the ads and flyers are attached below. The “Chanukah Dreidel” ad is the one drawn by computer. I was especially proud of my concept of the USSR hammer&sickle design “morphing” into the bais-hay in the flyer for Dr Rabkin’s talk 🙂
