Rabbi Paysach Krohn, the charismatic “American Maggid,” made a whirlwind trip to the UK last week as the now annual guest of Phone and Learn (PaL) the innovative telephone learning programme he helped to found.  Arriving early on Monday morning, he visited two schools straightaway, addressing 100 children at Noam Primary School on one of his favourite topics - Meah Brochos, the importance of making 100 brachos a day, followed by a trip to JFS, where he captivated 300 secondary school pupils, who participate in JFS’s texts programme, with a talk on friendship and the need for a lev tov.  In the afternoon, Rabbi Krohn spoke to the junior pupils at Beis Yaakov Primary School, about good middos and friendship, explaining that the difference between “united” and “untied” is “where you put the ‘I’.”

In the evening, Rabbi Krohn addressed about 20 boys at the Boys’ Clubhouse, in North West London, telling them that everyone has something good inside them and it is necessary to work on always focussing on positive things in life.  He later described this as the most moving of his speaking engagements.

On Tuesday morning, Rabbi Krohn spoke to over 100 boys in Hasmonean High School’s Beis programme, headed by Rabbi Yehoshua Hartman.   He then visited Hasmonean Girls’ School where he addressed more than 100 “sixth-form” girls in the recently launched Midrasha programme.

At midday, Rabbi Krohn continued his busy schedule, speaking at a lunch for the senior management of kiruv organisations PaL, seed, JLE and Aish.  He gave an inspiring talk on the privilege and responsibility of performing outreach work, stressing the importance of the various organisations working together to maximise their effect on the community.  One of the participants, himself an accomplished public speaker, said that Rabbi Krohn gave the best speech he had heard in a long time, tailored precisely to the audience, and he paid tribute to PaL for enabling all the kiruv organisations to get an important pre-Rosh Hashana boost of inspiration.

Rabbi Krohn’s final engagement was his now-traditional pre-Rosh Hashana lecture for Phone and Learn (PaL). Over 1200 people flocked to Hasmonean Boys’ school, filling both the main hall and an overflow hall, connected by a live video link-up.  PaL, the telephone learning outreach organisation,  was set up following a suggestion by Rabbi Krohn on a previous visit a number of years ago, as a tribute to his good friend, the late Sammy Homburger, z”l whose sorely missed role model as an educator and communal worker has continued to inspire PaL. Since that time, PaL has grown into an international kiruv organisation, pairing together hundreds of tutors and partners from all over UK and Europe to study the subject of their choice over the the telephone at a mutually convenient time.

PaL chairman, Dov Harris, opened the evening by describing PaL and the difference it has made to so many people’s lives in the short time since its inception. People seeking to learn more about their Jewish heritage are matched up by the PaL team, with an appropriate tutor, with whom they can study the topic of their choice in an hourly phone call.  The “Phone and Learn” idea has attracted record numbers of participants over the last year - there are now more than 450 pairs of partners learning together each week.

Rabbi Krohn held the audience spell-bound as he spoke on the topic of, “Proud of our past, Preparing for the future.”  Beginning with a vort from the Satmar Rebbe which explains that the end of the year can be as important as the beginning for setting the tone for the whole year, he encouraged the audience to take advantage of the remaining days of this year to make the whole of 5769 into a remarkable year, and suggested four steps to achieve this.  Weaving a tapestry of stories, mussar and perceptive humour, Rabbi Krohn set out a programme for spiritual growth:  taking continual advice from a rav; assuming small, manageable kabbalos such as learning a small amount of a sefer each day, or being more careful with shemiras halashon for a fixed period each day; keeping a daily record of a chesed which one has done for someone outside the immediate family; and tackling each project with a chavrusa.  

This final engagement was tremendously inspiring, leaving the large audience feeling ready to face the yomim noraim.  PaL’s follow-up co-ordinator, Mrs Tanya Hackenbroch said, “Rabbi Krohn’s trip to London gave the kehillah, from young children to rabbonim, a special boost enabling them to maximise the potential of these last days of Ellul.”