The newly published Effective Shlichus: A Ten-Stage Journey brings a popular, practical guide to the Rebbe’s vision of leadership and shlichus to the English-speaking world, giving shluchim, educators, and lay leaders a robust set of tools for unlocking their leadership potential.
With a Ph.D. in leadership and management and experience as the founder of the Center for Leadership at Neot Kedumim in Israel, Dr. Simcha Assaf Leibovich was an ambassador for the World Zionist Organization when Rabbi Dubi Rabinowitz of the Rohr Jewish Learning Institute asked him to conduct leadership seminars for Chabad on Campus.
The seminars brought him in close contact with Chabad shluchim worldwide. “I wondered, ‘What motivates these shluchim?’” Dr. Leibovich says, “I read about the Rebbe, and wow, he understood leadership as few people do. He delegated to shluchim; he empowered them, he trusted them.”
Working with JLI’s Rabbi Efraim Mintz and Rabbi Rabinowitz, Dr. Leibovich dove deeper and discovered the Rebbe’s address at the Kinus Hashluchim in 1990. “I read it, and I was astonished,” he says. “This was what I had been teaching for years, but I hadn’t had those words, shliach oseh shliach.”
Soon, his workshops began unpacking the Rebbe’s vision of shlichus as a leadership role. He shared his newfound insights at retreats and Chabad houses in Israel, North America, and as far afield as Thailand. “The Rebbe didn’t do the work for you. He handed you the key,” he summarizes. “That’s the key to shlichus: we can’t do it all ourselves. We need to empower the people around us to act as shluchim as well.”
After attending his seminars, Georgia-based philanthropist and activist Eyal Postelnik told Dr. Leibovich, “You have to write a book.” During the height of Covid, Rabbi Dov Greenberg, shliach to Kochav Yair, Israel, came aboard as editor, and Masa Leshlichus was born. The Hebrew book is in its third printing in three years, having become a popular guidebook among Israeli shluchim, and impacted untold outreach and business groups.
Building on the success of the Hebrew edition, JLI’s Rabbi Menachem Klein led the production of an English version translated by Ms. Chani Ashkenazi, Rabbi Shmary Brownstein, Rabbi Zalman Denburg, and Rabbi Ephraim Rubin. “Dr. Leibovich succeeds at expressing the Rebbe’s vision in the language of management and leadership,” says Rabbi Boruch Werdiger, the new edition’s editor. “His language allows us to unpack the practical program for changing the world the Rebbe gave us.”
Now available in hardcover, Effective Shlichus: A Ten-Stage Journey offers a ten-stage manual for implementing the Rebbe’s vision.
“You have to empower your environment,” Dr. Leibovich says, “This book gives you ten practical keys to achieve your mission in life, to make a positive impact on the people around you.”
“People write me to say the book changed their lives,” Dr. Leibovich says, “I receive so many letters saying the book elevated someone’s relationship with their communities, employees, students, even their children.”
To purchase Effective Shlichus: A Ten-Stage Journey, click here.
Every chossid can be a shliach in his own life