Saturday, May 17, 1997

Rabbi educates tens of thousands with faxed newsletter

By Cherie Henderson / Knight-Ridder Newspapers

MIAMI BEACH - Rabbi Kalman Packouz has eight children and eight computers.

He loves his kids, of course. He's not so sure about the computers.

But he's learned to live with his electronic gizmos and even, sometimes, to like them, because each week they let him educate more than 100,000 people worldwide about Judaism with his free Shabbat Shalom Fax.

The pithy two-page newsletter, also available by e-mail, delivers everything from mini-lessons on the faith to international candle-lighting times.

"It's my filter on life," says Packouz, 46. "It's what I find humorous. It's what I find important to note, what I find valuable for me. I write for myself and figure that somebody out there will find it helpful, too."

They do, judging from the flood of reader e-mail and letters.

"I have 670 letters that I haven't responded to," he says. "I'm overwhelmed."

A number of other newsletters are available by fax or e-mail, but none reach people like Packouz's folksy wisdom, says Jacob Solomon, executive vice president of the Greater Miami Jewish Foundation.

"I think what Kalman does is create for people, in an extremely accessible format, a reminder of their Jewish ancestry," Solomon says. "It's a five-minute pause that lets people feel connected in a very nice way."

Rabbi Eliot Pearlson has been reading the newsletter almost since it began four years ago, and he invites members of his synagogue, Temple Menorah in Miami Beach, to subscribe.

"I don't know of anything that reaches out on such a down-to-earth level," Pearlson says. "It incorporates humor or a good story. He reaches out to catch everyone at different levels."

Packouz never has to look far for material, he notes with a nod to the crowded bookcases that fill several walls.

He focuses mainly on five topics: how to be happy, how to find the right spouse, how to raise kids with values, how to have a happy marriage, and what to know about Judaism to be a literate Jew.

But he throws in bonuses as well, from a quote of the week ("When looking for faults, use a mirror, not a telescope") to a suggestion to liven up a Seder by tossing plastic frogs and Ping-Pong balls when the plagues of frogs and hail are mentioned.

The fax was born to help Packouz fulfill his role as chief fund-raiser for Aish HaTorah, an international group that aims to ensure the survival of the Jewish people. While the newsletter is free, a note at the end of each edition reminds readers how to send in donations, and for $360, an edition can be dedicated for birthdays, anniversaries and memorials.

"In order to be a good fund-raiser, you need to keep contact with people on a personal basis," he says. "Being a people person I prefer one-on-one, which means there are many people who I cannot call or be with. And then I came across an article about a fax modem four years ago."

He started with a subscriber list of about 50 people. Today, 20,000 faxes are transmitted each week, with an estimated readership of five per copy as they're posted on bulletin boards, passed among a family or photocopied in synagogues. Another 2,200 copies go out by e-mail.

"One time, a guy called me - he said, 'Where's my copy? I've got 21 people who I distribute it to in my office, and we didn't get our copy this week!' I love calls like that," Packouz says.

It brings up an interesting problem, though - how to distribute all those faxes.

While various Aish HaTorah branches handle a good deal of the burden, close to 5,000 of the faxes are sent from Packouz's home office in Miami Beach.

The biggest problem: His software was designed to send out faxes by the dozens, not the thousands. So subscribers must be grouped, and the faxes sent one chunk at a time.

That's when the real problems can start. "Ten percent of any list you send out will end up in errors," Packouz says. "The fax machine ran out of paper. Only the first page went through. The machines didn't tell each other the transmission was complete. People move and change phone numbers. People gave their voice number instead of their fax number."

Rather than automatically resend the newsletter and risk the annoyance of, say, tying up the phone line of a faithful subscriber for hours, each subscriber is called by one of two women who work with Packouz.

Other special considerations must be worked out as well. Some people, for example, have their fax machine in their bedroom, and they don't want a fax at night. And all long-distance faxing must be done on Fridays, when Sprint offers free service to its subscribers.

To a techno-geek, all these computers and fax machines and their various complications might present a great challenge. To a rabbi, they're a necessary evil.

"It's not like I'm Bill Gates, who understands what he's talking about," Packouz says. "I understand life. I understand Judaism. I understand people. I can say that. The rest is just a means to get it out there."

To subscribe to the free Shabbat Shalom newsletter by fax or e-mail, fax your name, phone number and either your fax number or e-mail address to (305) 531-9334. Indicate if you require daytime delivery.

(c) 1997, The Miami Herald.

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