By COLlive staff
A group of Crown Heights residents involved with outreach to fellow Jews gathered this past Motzoei Shabbos for a special farbrengen and Melava Malka.
Hosted at the home of R’ Zalman Moshe and Esti Kugel, the evening concluded a year full of growth in the Rebbe’s mivtzoim.
Attending were the Lubavitchers who visit Jewish homes throughout the New York area affixing mezuzos, and visit hospitals and senior homes as part of Lubavitch Youth Organization (Tzach Hamerkozis).
Also present were volunteer learners of JNet, who pairs Lubavitchers as learning partners with Jews who don’t have the ability to attend Torah classes or want a more personalized setting.
Kugel opened by welcoming the participants and told how his Jnet chavrusa Canada was visiting Ukraine and met there Kugel’s son.
The guest speaker was Russia’s Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar who shared many of his mivtzoim/shlichus experiences.
He said, “we need to try and seize every opportunity we have to share the Rebbe’s and Yiddishkeit’s message with the people with whom we come into contact that they are waiting to hear it.”
He concluded by saying that, at the same time that we need to understand our zechus that the Rebbe lets us be his representatives, we must also fulfill our responsibility.
Rabbi Kasriel Kastel, Program Director of the Lubavitch Youth Organization and an organizer of the event, spoke of some of the directives that he received from the Rebbe in the early years of mivtzoim, and he encouraged the participants to join in as many mivtzoim as possible.
Rabbi Yehuda Dukes of JNet spoke about the effect that Anash can have with just one phone call and thanked the more than 350 Crown Heights residents who already have JNet chavrusas.
With more than 50 members of Anash participating, Mivtza Mezuza, run by Rabbi Shmuel Kesselman, sends out members of Anash every evening to prearranged locations throughout New York to affix mezuzos and speak about Yiddishkeit. If you would like to participate, call the Mivtza Mezuza office at 718-774-1780.
This year, the Lubavitch Youth Organization has arranged hundreds of mivtzoim locations every yom tov for Anash and their families, in addition to helping Anash with their own mivtzoim needs. For example, hundreds of packages of matza were shipped nationwide this year on behalf of Crown Heights Anash. To join the Anash mivtzoim list, call 917-439-6646 to reach Tzali Laufer at the Tzach mivtzoim office.
JNet gives Anash the opportunity to give a shuir on the phone or online for half an hour a week. More than 1,300 people are learning every week, and 100 have been set up last month alone. JNet is always looking for more volunteers, both men and women. To get more information or to volunteer to learn with someone, call 718-467-4400 or visit www.jnet.org.
