At Pier 94, Chabad emmisaries celebrate a shrinking world
By Staff reports

Wellesley -

While headlines lead with depressing news about the economy, and eyes are trained in hopeful anticipation on the new leadership in Washington, the facts on the ground at the International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch representatives illuminated a dynamic phenomenon that thrives no matter the climate.

A buoyed Rabbi Moshe Bleich, returning to Wellesley from the annual International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Emissaries (Nov. 19-24), said the five-day event, capped by Sunday night's gala banquet, inspired him “to seize every opportunity to create bonds between Jewish people through their commitment to good causes.”

Emissaries, shluchim, ambassadors, leaders, lamplighters . . . A Chabad representative by any other name is still a representative of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson. Fired by their faith in a life-defining mission, more than 4,000 of them danced shoulder to shoulder at New York's Pier 94 on a cold November evening.

The pledge to reach every Jew seemed until recently a fuzzy catchphrase. But the dazzling Chabad network made up of thousands of leaders representing Jewish people across five continents and some 85 countries spanning every demographic and language, have in fact made the world smaller and the possibility for reaching every Jew greater.

“This conference is an opportunity for each of us working our own patch of the field to get a full view of the landscape,” said Rabbi Bleich.

Guest speaker, Israeli Ambassador Yehuda Avner recalled a conversation with the Rebbe who charged his Chasidim to be lamplighters. “Day by day the Chabad emissaries are handing out matches to ignite Jewish souls,” he said.

Metaphors abounded, but the matches are clearly the individual small acts of kindness and warmth by Rabbi Bleich's colleagues, like the Chabad representative in Birmingham or the one in Baku, who reaches out to the Jewish child or the Jewish woman, and makes connections that are often nothing short of life-affirming.

Avner told of his own desperation following the 1992 bombing of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, when he could not make contact with his daughter who was working in the embassy at the time. When none of Israel's government agencies could locate his daughter, Avner turned to the Chabad representative there who searched every hospital in the city until he found her.

Keynote speaker, Rabbi Moshe Bryski of Chabad of the Conejo reminded his colleagues that as big as the Chabad-Lubavitch network grows, it must never lose sight of the individual. He spoke of the Rosh Hashana he went searching, street by street, knocking on doors, for an elderly Jewish woman whom he knew wanted to hear the blasts of the (shofar) ram's horn, and the ever-widening ripples that resulted from that one act. And he talked about the grieving father whose planned suicide was interrupted by the lights of a Hanukkah menorah set up outside a movie theater, and the Chabad rabbis who pulled him into their circle of dance and life.

Avner, who served five Israeli prime ministers and enjoyed a close relationship with the Lubavitcher Rebbe, said of the Rebbe, “He had a moral vision as a statesman and diplomat. His leadership sparked a torch of Jewish renewal across all continents.”

The conference, which concluded Monday, was packed back to back with workshops and lectures to help Chabad leaders advance the growth of their communities: capital campaigns, crisis management, zoning and permits for new construction, finance management, and early childhood development were some of the offerings on a full menu of topical concerns that were examined.

The Conference also gave Chabad representatives the rare chance to catch up with old friends. Representatives mixed and mingled with hundreds of familiar faces at Shabbat dinners at the main hall at Lubavitch Headquarters, lasting all night long.

“The Conference is tremendously invigorating, intellectually and spiritually," said a visibly energized Rabbi Bleich. “It has fueled my passion for my mission and made me grateful to be part of this magnificent network.”

Rabbi Bleich says he now returns to serve his community with “greater love for every Jew, and with renewed energy towards realizing the Rebbe's greater vision.”

To learn more about Chabad-Lubavitch and the conference, visit www.wellesleywestonchabad.org.