Orthodox Union Leader Writes: Chabad and the Antisemites

By Rabbi Moshe Hauer

Everyone has their favorite Chabad story. Here is mine.

A friend once approached a Chabad shaliach (emissary) who would stand at the entrance to the subway station each and every Friday morning, asking people if they were Jewish and offering to help them lay tefillin. It was exceptionally rare for anyone to stop and accept his offer and my friend wanted to understand how the shaliach kept at it week after week, despite his repeated failure. The shaliach’s response was quintessentially Chabad: “My success rate is 100%. Every Jew that walks by me is reminded that he or she is a Jew.”

Chabad’s dedicated emissaries can be found in every corner of the globe, creating Jewish presence and outposts of Jewish life and caring, reminding Jews of who they are. According to Pew, an astounding 37% of American Jews engage with Chabad from rarely to often.

Two years ago, a group of us from the Orthodox Union had the privilege of attending the dinner event at Chabad’s annual conference of shluchim (emissaries). We went to demonstrate appreciation for their lifesaving work delivering aid and support under fire to the Jews in Russia and Ukraine.

As they went through the jaw-dropping roll call of their emissaries throughout the globe, the big screen showed Russia — 222. I leaned over and whispered to a colleague. “Do you see that? We struggle to find a few people to spend a couple of years of their lives teaching Torah in communities without a kosher pizza store, while Chabad has 222 people who at around the age of 22 decided to go alone to remote corners of Russia where they will care materially and spiritually for Jews, raise their own families, and remain until they die or the Messiah arrives.”

That is what the angels of Chabad do everywhere in the world and that was the mission of Rabbi Zvi Kogan in the UAE. No movement or group even remotely approaches Chabad’s relentless dedication to mission and its reach and success in reminding Jews — wherever they may be — of who they are.

No one, that is, other than the antisemites.

The vicious murder of Rabbi Zvi Kogan painfully reminded every Jew everywhere that he or she is a Jew. It was not an isolated reminder. The tidal wave of antisemitism that has engulfed the world since October 7 has reminded countless Jews of who they are and moved them to try to find their way home to Jewish tradition and community.

Much as the Talmud notes how the empowerment of Haman stimulated more of a resurgence of Jewishness than the positive guidance of generations of prophets, we can observe how hateful antisemitism has outdone the ahavat Yisrael of Chabad in bringing Jews home.

Our hearts are broken for Rabbi Kogan’s family and for the entire Chabad community as they grieve over this devastating blow. We in the Jewish community would do well to pause and make note of the debt we owe them for their steadfast commitment to all of us, for the Jewish infrastructure they have created and maintain throughout the world, and for reminding us of who we are and the values we stand for.

The world would also do well to pause and learn from Chabad’s remarkable army of men and women who never hide or shirk their identity and values but choose instead to work fearlessly anywhere and everywhere to bring light to a darkened world. Their strength should inspire the many who continue to display weakness in their epic failure to act with moral clarity and courage and confront evil and who have chosen instead to cow to popular opinion and tie the hands of Israel. What has been done and said in recent days by the ICC, the UN, the Vatican, and by some in the United States Congress has added wind to the sails of Iran, Hamas, and Hezbollah, further fueled global antisemitism, and empowered the enemies of the Jewish people. If only they had the moral courage of a Chabad shaliach.

The vicious murder of Rabbi Kogan reminds us Jews of who we are. The life of Rabbi Kogan and of his fellow shluchim should remind all people of good conscience to act with discernment and moral clarity, standing up fearlessly to evil and lovingly offering their support for the good.