COUNTYWIDE : Rabbis Take Holiday Spirit to Jews Who Can’t Celebrate

A sheriff’s deputy led Rabbi Yakov Latowicz through a maze of heavy security doors and down an empty hall toward the visiting cell at Ventura County Jail where convicted child killer Greg Smith waited.

Latowicz, dressed in a navy blue suit and black tie and wearing the traditional yarmulke, entered the drab concrete room and greeted the inmate, “Happy Hanukkah.”

Smith--who pleaded guilty in October to kidnaping, molesting and strangling 8-year-old Paul Bailly of Northridge, then setting fire to his body near Simi Valley in 1990--smiled hesitantly and returned the greeting.

Latowicz, regional director of the Ventura Chabad, was visiting the County Jail as part of Chabad’s countywide effort to bring Hanukkah celebrations to Jews who are unable to celebrate the holiday.

“Every Jew is important, every Jew counts,” Latowicz said. “I go to the aid of any Jew who calls. It’s not up to me to decide whether (Smith) is guilty or not. It’s up to the courts and his conscience.”

Latowicz and Smith sat across from each other at a small metal table for nearly an hour, talking about religion and world politics. Then the conversation turned personal.

“I’m very worried,” Smith told the rabbi. “I’m afraid that I’ll get the death penalty.” On Tuesday, a jury is scheduled to begin a trial that will decide whether he should be executed or sentenced to life in prison for the crime.

Latowicz tried to comfort the 23-year-old, telling him to put his faith in God. Smith seemed relieved.

“He’s very lonely in there and he needed someone to talk to,” Latowicz said after the visit. “There are lots of people who are like that, people who are deprived of celebrating Hanukkah, so I bring the celebration to them.”

Hanukkah occurs in December and is observed for eight days by Jews worldwide.

The holiday celebrates the recapture of the temple in Jerusalem from the Syrian Greeks in 139 B.C. According to legend, the Jews found only enough oil to keep the eternal light in the temple burning for one day, but the oil miraculously lasted eight days.

In the east county, the mood was a little brighter as Rabbi Yitzchak Sapochkinsky, associate director of Chabad of Conejo, visited patients at Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks.

Carrying a box of menorahs, candles and Jewish literature, Sapochkinsky visited maternity patient Judith Benes, whose baby, Alexandra, was born on Hanukkah.

“It’s nice visiting someone who isn’t in the hospital because they’re sick or hurt,” Sapochkinsky said.

Benes was a little apprehensive about Sapochkinsky’s sudden visit, but quickly warmed up to the rabbi.

Sapochkinsky also visited a Jewish patient in the critical care unit. The man was unconscious, so the rabbi left a menorah with the attending nurse and quietly wished him a happy Hanukkah.

“I really enjoy bringing the holiday spirit to people,” Sapochkinsky said. “A few weeks later, I receive letters from people saying, ‘You may not remember me, but you visited me in the hospital and I want to thank you.’ It gives me a great feeling.”