Shluchim Make Summer Plans

Snow still covers the ground and the summer is months away, but JLI’s National Jewish Retreat is already laying the groundwork for its upcoming retreat in August 2013.

Although this annual celebration of the mind and body caters to Jews from across North America and beyond, the organizing committee adopts a more provincial approach to building the 5-day retreat. By consulting with shluchim who operate in the region of the retreat, the committee hopes to harness their localised knowledge and needs to the Retreat’s sprawling organizational apparatus.

A JLI delegation, headed by Retreat chairman Rabbi Hesh Epstein, Retreat director Rabbi Boruch Cohen and JLI’s executive director Rabbi Efraim Mintz, recently travelled to the host venue for the coming retreat, the Hilton in Alexandria, VA, where they met for talks over dinner with 25 shluchim from the surrounding areas.

Rabbi Boruch Cohen says that “this is the second time we’re doing the retreat here. One of the reasons we’re coming back to Virginia is because of the support we enjoyed from this group of remarkable shluchim last time we were here”.

The gears behind the 800-person convention have already begun to whir, powered by the strategic cooperation with the corps of local shluchim, headed by Rabbi Sholom Deitsch, Rabbi Shmuel Kaplan and host shliach Rabbi Mordechai Newman– which was a factor in choosing the Retreat’s location.

It seems that this year will be no different. Rabbi Leibel Fajnland, nearby shliach and Retreat presenter, left the meeting with the sense that “we are doing this with a bottom-up approach. JLI put itself out there to us [shluchim], and we are creating a vital partnership.”

Over the course of the discussions held in the hotel’s conference room, it became clear that the collaboration between JLI headquarters in New York and shluchim on the ground is of benefit to both parties. The JLI team solicited ideas from the shluchim to incorporate into the Retreat’s offerings, and at the same time, shluchim discussed how to position the Retreat to better promote their local Chabad House or center.

Rabbi Hesh Epstein explained that “the retreat is not just a destination, but a vehicle for us to enhance the shluchim’s activities and benefit their baalei battim”, so that “shluchim and their communities continue to benefit even after we leave.” He also praised the “trust and spirit of cooperation” that mark the relationship.

The shluchim also view things this way, at least according to Rabbi Mendel Bluming, who attended the meeting in his capacity of shliach in Potomac MD and instructor of the largest JLI chapter in the region. As he sees it, “24-hour immersion in the retreat’s atmosphere will do for our baale battim what sporadic visits to our Chabad House can not necessarily do.”

For the moment, the Hilton in Alexandria is once again empty of Jewish leadership faces. But come August next year, they will be back amidst the sounds of learning and laughter to witness the fruits of their efforts one cold winter night.