Rosh Chodesh Kislev 5771 ... Day Two, and our mind is on dreams, the attribute of the month of Kislev. What is your dream?Our dream has been to build the most wonderful Internet Radio Station, Radio Free Nachlaot. Our dream has been to bring the most awesome music, talk & Torah, the best original programming, the most original personalities and the comfiest, safest place for you to come and park your world-weary consciousness ... which, with the help of HKBH we've actually DONE.
Steve Levine and Lorelai Kude launched Radio Free Nachlaot one year ago & the two "Mad Scientists" of the internet radio waves (OK we know it's actually digital signals not waves, but let us just have some literary license here) have built a beautiful, holy, fun, friendly, open, inviting, comfortable and comfy space - on the radio, on our web site, on our Facebook Page, through our newsletter - and now through video (which you'll G-d willing be seeing a lot more of).
We're asking - l'kavod our birthday, in honor of the anniversary of our launch into this world - for a contribution to our future - If you can give us the gift of life - $18 - via the PayPal icon on this page - your gift will go towards continuing and growing the operation and development of Radio Free Nachlaot.
Why 18? "Everybody knows," as Reb Shlomo would say, that the number 18 equals "Life" in Hebrew Gematria. Maybe you also know that Lorelai's birthday is on 18 Kislev ("Chai Kislev") and that her Hebrew Name is CHAYA (Chaya Yocheved).
Because it's Rosh Chodesh Kislev, the beginning of the month of Kislev and because Lorelai's "baby" (Radio Free Nachlaot) was "born" on Rosh Chodesh Kislev 5770 ... OK, you must see by now the connectivity between everything we're doing and the number 18. Which is why we're asking for $18 - a number that wouldn't put anyone in the proverbial poor house, but a number that, when multiplied can really add up.
How do dreams come true?
Lorelai had the original dream of Radio Free Nachlaot, conceived on the lawn on Sukkot at Moshav Modiin, 5769 (two years ago). A conversation with a group of friends, reflecting on the fact that our biggest asset here in the Land of Israel is the people. "We've got it all - the highest musicians, the highest Torah, the greatest lifestyle - we've got to find a way to share it with the world ... I know," she said half-jokingly, half-prophetically to her friends, their mouths agape, "We should just start a radio station, and start broadcasting our light all over the world - we should call it 'Radio Free Nachlaot'." As always, she was going for the joke - but it was more than a joke, "Radio Free Nachlaot," like Radio Free Europe whose name and mission she was likening it to - was intended from inception to be the mouthpiece of the "Nachlaot Lifestyle" ... the place where shtreimels and shaved heads, white kippahs and black hats and tie-dye tzitzits can live together, pray together, have Shabbos together, in harmony and peacefulness unknown in ANY other neighborhood in Jerusalem - and perhaps in all the world itself.
A place where everybody can come together in peace and harmony. Through the music.
An entire year went by before she was able to do anything at all to actualize it ... but the following Sukkot (5770) she started to dream this dream out loud with her friend, Steve Levine.
Steve dreamed of being a radio disc jockey as a young child, and his dreams and aspirations of DJ-ing were put on hold for decades when the radio broadcasting school he was accepted into could only offer him classes on Shabbos. Steve had become observant at 13, so to break Shabbos even for his dream of being a DJ ... it didn't happen. Decades passed, lives were lived, and then one day in a cosmic convergence only HaShem Himself could have arranged, Steve and Lorelai met each other in Israel and began talking about their dreams ...
... And, in the words of the Frankenfurter Rebbe - "Don't dream it: Be it!" - after a month and a half of research, software trials, streaming media investigations, gnashing and thrashing with equipment and bandwidth - they "just did it." Turned on the broadcaster & started playing music.
Radio Free Nachlaot has done a lot of crazy things this past year - from the internationally-renown " 9 Days of Jerry" to the world's first "Brit-Cast" (radio broadcast of a brit milah), and more, but we can talk about that later. What we need to talk about now is going forward -staying on-line and staying alive.
CHAI - LIFE - 18 - Can you help us with the Power of Chai?
PayPal - it's the easiest way!
...and as always, we thank you for your support!
