Do A Mitzvah In Honor Of Max Chiswick, DDF Travel Enthusiast, And One Of Our First Tefillin Recipients

Never Miss Another Deal - Follow DansDeals on Facebook

Within 14 minutes of our first Tefilin Campaign post looking for 30 men to commit to wrapping tefillin daily, Max Chiswick was signed up!

He filled out his Jewish name Mordechai Ben Shmuel, and gave his shliach, Rabbi Yosef Moscowitz from Chicago, as a reference.

2 weeks later, he received one of the first 30 pairs of tefillin that we sent out.

Max was inspired by the events of October 7th and wanted to do something for Israel and the Jewish people. He attended a DansDeals Seminar in Jerusalem in March 2015, and has been a follower since.

When he saw our post offering free tefillin to the first 30 men who commit to wrapping them daily for life, he jumped on the opportunity.

Unfortunately, we just learned that Max has recently passed away after contracting cerebral malaria from a recent trip to Senegal. He was just 39 years old.

Max was a travel enthusiast and loved to visit Chabad Houses around the world when he traveled.

He started a website to allow people to track which Chabad Houses they visited, called Chabad.Earth. He shared that site on the DansDeals Forums just last month, where he wrote that Chabad and DansDeals had a big impact on his life and travels. You can see Max’s map at Chabad.Earth/Max.

Chabad.org wrote a beautiful tribute to Max here. They share how Max loved doing mitzvos and how much it would mean for people to do a mitzva in his honor. You can read more about Max’s life in these obituaries.

He was always ready to wrap tefillin wherever he traveled, before getting his own pair and wrapping them daily.

Since Max received his pair of tefillin, we have been blessed to distribute over 2,500 more pairs to men across the world.

We have received countless touching and meaningful stories, and it’s clear how much these tefillin mean to each recipient.

The Rebbe often spoke about how even a donation of any amount towards tefillin from as many people as possible makes the mitzvah even more precious.

If you’d like to donate tefillin for Jews around the world who are committed to wrapping daily but can’t afford their own pair, you can do so here.

Chabad.org quotes a friend of Max as saying she hoped people would be inspired to take on the mitzvah of Tefilin in his memory. If you have Tefilin, make sure to pray in them daily and have Max in mind. If you want to wear Tefillin daily and can’t afford your own pair, you can request one through our Tefillin site, TefillinConnection.

May it be a zechus for the neshama of Mordechai Ben Shmuel.