What the Rebbe wanted

Amid the silent evening streetscape of Brooklyn’s Red Hook neighborhood, the couple of blocks surrounding the entrance to the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal were bursting with traffic. Vehicles were rushing to attend the annual Kinus Hashluchim, where emissaries of the Chabad movement gathered for inspiration and celebration.

“This shluchim conference is the engine of Chabad, where we come to focus and reenergize ourselves, a reminder of our strength and learning,” said Rabbi Anchelle Perl, who is in his 21st year as the Chabad shaliach to Mineola. Rabbi Perl was among the 4,500 emissaries at the record-setting conference, where Cedarhurst-based caterer David Scharf organized a staff of nearly 350 waiters for each table within the 63,750 square foot warehouse. Joining the rabbis were some 500 guests that included noted philanthropists, community leaders and students.

The guest of honor was British Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, who spoke of his first encounter with Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson as a Cambridge sophomore in 1968. “I had no money in those days, and all I had was a Greyhound bus ticket. If you’ve ever ridden from Los Angeles to New York on a Greyhound bus… Seventy two hours nonstop I sat on this bus,” Rabbi Sacks said.

The meeting inspired Rabbi Sacks to study at Kfar Chabad in Israel after graduating Cambridge. He then returned to the Rebbe to discuss his career options, choosing between becoming a professor, an economist, and a barrister. The Rebbe instead recommended that he take up the pulpit and train the next generation of British rabbis. “They will hear you give sermons and they will learn. You will train rabbis and you will become a rabbi,” Rabbi Sacks said. “I tried to do what I know the Rebbe would have wanted me to do. To build schools, to improve Anglo Jewish education, to reach out, and to make – not followers – but leaders.”

Rabbi Sacks subsequently saw his other wishes coming true as well, in becoming a Cambridge professor, delivering economics lectures at respected forums, and holding an honorary barrister degree. “You know, you never lose anything by putting yiddishkeit first.”

While the Rabbi Sacks spoke, at table E18, Chabad Director of Social Media Rabbi Mordechai Lightstone feverishly Tweeted excerpts of his speech to the world through the handle @Lubavitch. “The kinus inspired so many back and forth discussions,” Rabbi Lightstone said. “This was my small contribution to the divine revelation.” He shared his table with shluchim from Syracuse, Bangalore, Sao Paulo, and Greenfield, Mass.

Rabbi Yaakov T. Rapaport of Syracuse said that besides the famous group photo and the dinner, the week of activities includes a variety of lectures to assist shluchim in their outreach work. “The workshops run from the mundane to the spiritual, from body language to social media,” Rabbi Rapaport said. “I learned about bookkeeping, to keep my shlichus running smoothly.” Among the topics in the news, noted psychiatrist Rabbi Dr. Abraham J. Twerski delivered the domestic abuse workshop, which Rabbi Perl attended. “He said that rabbis don’t have to become therapists. We should be aware and empathetic, but we should refer people to experts,” Rabbi Perl said. “As well-meaning as we may be, we may not have the right knowledge and could be giving people the wrong advice.”

Rabbi Perl was appointed this year to the Nassau County Domestic Abuse Coalition by County Executive Ed Mangano. He also attended an end of life seminar, seeking to apply the lessons taught for his other position as chaplain at Winthrop University Hospital. Thanks to the internet, any seminars that he missed can be watched at a later date from home. “The younger generation of shluchim has so many more tools, but none of us can say that we know it all,” Rabbi Perl said.

Sharing the table with him was his guest, Glen Cove resident Eddy Hallak, who often travels to China on behalf of his textile importing business. “This is one big mishpacha. Everywhere I go, there is Chabad,” Hallak said. “When I spent Shabbat in Guangzhou, it felt like home.” At the roll call, the shluchim stood up when their countries were announced. The newcomers were Nigeria and Kenya. The birthplaces of Chassidus were also showing a robust Chabad presence, with 164 shluchim in Ukraine, and 45 locations stretching across Russia, according to Chabad.org. Russian Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar, who arrived in Moscow in 1990, headed the Russian delegation at the kinus.

But for so many shluchim present, Rabbi Yossi Mendelson of Forest Hills said that the guest list still fell short. “There are things that are more important than the kinus. I had a pidyon haben in my shul and was late,” Rabbi Mendelson said. “When one of my colleagues had an emergency in his community I advised him to leave and return home.”