Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty formally declared Friday, March 26, as Education and Sharing Day in honor of the 11th day of the Hebrew month of Nisan, the 108th anniversary of the birth of the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory.
Declaring that the Rebbe’s embrace of educational standards that encompassed both the scholarly and the spiritual served as an ideal for all governments and citizens to strive towards, Pawlenty signed his proclamation on March 24 with a group of local Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries in attendance.
Yossi Bendet, a S. Paul rabbinical student who attended the ceremony in the governor’s office, said that the governor’s embrace of a day that has been observed on a national level since the Carter administration in 1978 meant a lot for his state.
“Knowledge and cultural advancement aren’t enough to build a society,” said Bendet, who helped bring the issue to the governor’s attention. “Building character, ethics and morality are just as important, if not more important, than math and science.”
Annually, the U.S. Congress and various local authorities issue proclamations in honor of the birth of the Rebbe. Next year, the day falls out on April 15.
According to Rabbi Shlomo Bendet, dean of the Lubavitch Cheder elementary school in the Twin Cities, the date’s popularity is related to the Rebbe’s unique way of approaching education.
“The Rebbe believed in looking at the whole child,” said the rabbi, who presented Pawlenty with a Passover Haggadah. “This day is in recognition of the Rebbe’s work in education in the broadest sense.”
The proclamation stated, in part, that “Rabbi Schneerson understoon the importance of nurturing both the heart and mind, building character through lessons on honesty, tolerance, and citizenship in addition to developing intellect through lessons on language, math, and science.”
Other emissaries in attendance included Rabbis Asher Zeilengold, who blessed the governor in the name of Minnesota Jewry, and Rabbi Moshe Feller, director of Upper Midwest Merkos-Lubavitch House.
“We hope this will be a day of reflection and tribute, a day that will bring about good things throughout the year, and that people will use it as an opportunity to promote the values of education,” said the younger Bendet.
Start a Discussion