During the past year, Chabad-Lubavitch yeshiva students in Toronto have laid tefillin on Toronto residents 13,138 times, including with 164 Jewish men who had never before performed the ritual.

Harvey Kallas, a local realtor, is among a group of businessmen who hold the work of these students – who spread out across the Canadian city’s streets every Friday afternoon – in very high regard.

"The two young men that visit us every Friday are meaningful for us," said Kallas. "It makes our Friday more significant when they come."

The students also encourage Jewish women to light Shabbat candles and distribute weekly Torah thoughts.

100 local businessmen expressed their thanks recently to the students at a gala dinner.

The initiative in Toronto is a part of a global campaign that started a few short days prior to the Six Day War at the direction of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, of righteous memory.