Regards From Around the World

By COLlive reporter
Photos by Baruch Ezagui

Even the Chief Rabbi of Great Britain Jonathan Sacks, a prolific orator and someone who always has a thought and word to share, was speechless at the gala banquet of the Kinus Hashluchim convention 5772.

“I can sum up this evening in one word: Wow!” he said when he took the podium at Pier 12 in Red Hook, Brooklyn, to deliver the guest speech.

What Lord Sacks went on to say was described by many as one of the best speeches heard at the annual Kinus banquet in years, which brought together close to 5,000 enthusiastic Chabad-Lubavitch Shluchim and supporters on Sunday.

Noting that he received many honors in his life “but none as moving and as humbling like this,” Sacks used personal stories, deep chassidic thoughts and more than a few words in Yiddish to encourage the Shluchim’s holy work.

“If a Jew is lost anywhere in the world, Chabad will find them,” he stated, after recalling a solution he suggested to his wife when they discussed the possibility of being lost while climbing the Swiss Alps. His solution for making sure they were found was to sing Chabad niggunim.

“You have been touched, as I have been touched, by one of the greatest Jewish leaders of all time,” he said. The Rebbe, he said, the the first to become Rebbe after the Holocaust.

Sacks merited to be personally directed by the Rebbe, and was motivated by him to take on the rabbinical mantle. He revealed that he consulted with the Rebbe whether to become the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth in 1991.

Among his memorable soundbites were “non-Jews respect Jews who respect Judaism” and “the best way to fulfill your ambitions is to stop pursuing them, but to let them pursue you.”

24 Hour Heroes

The sitdown dinner, described as the largest in New York City, was opened by Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, dedicated Director of the Kinus convention who welcomed the participants on behalf of Merkos L’inyonei Chinuch.

Highlighting the dedication of Shlichus, he described how “young couples travel to the farthest reaches of the world for one purpose – to bring the Torah of the Almighty G-d to others.”

Invited to read Tehillim were Rabbi Mordechai Altein, who has been a Shliach for 70 years, and Rabbi Yisrael Hershkowitz of the Israeli city of Ofakim.

The keynote speaker Rabbi Mendel Cohen, Director of Chabad of Sacramento, California’s capital city, delivered an energetic and deeply sincere message, calling on fellow colleagues to perfect themselves.

Touching on the theme of this year’s Kinus, that one should walk as a chossid, eat as a chossid and sleep as a chossid, he said Shlichus, as well, is a 24 hour job.

“There are Shluchim that live in the most remote areas; the lonelyness is hard and their children are the only ones wearing a yarmulka, and they are the heroes of the nation that will bring the ultimate redemption,” he said and concluded with a Birchas Kohanim.

As dinner was served, and Toronto pianist Gershon Wachtel and musician Avremi G. played, participants had a chance to shmooze and network. The crowd was a composition of elder and younger Chabad rabbis, educators, authors, community leaders, philanthropists and even university students.

With the Roll Call being read of all countries and states with a Chabad presence, it didn’t take long for the diverse crowd to rise to its feet and join in chassidic dancing around the hall, celebrating the far reaching vision of the Rebbe that enlightened a generation and a nation.

VIDEO: Opening clip of the banquet