Bracha Gillmeister, in her broad hat and even broader smile, spent Sunday evening at the Bedford-Union Armory in Brooklyn, N.Y., together with some 3,000 Chabad emissaries from around the world and another 1,000 or so supporters and guests.
Gillmeister, who lives in Wrentham, Mass., came for the annual Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Women Emissaries (Kinus Hashluchos), which started on Thursday and finishes up today. She joined Rochy Kievman, co-director of the Chabad House Jewish Community Center in Milford, Mass., for multiple days of talks, tours, study and workshops organized for the emissaries and guests.
“I’m old enough to be her mother, but we’re really like sisters,” she said, one arm thrown round her shluchah. Gillmeister stayed at the rabbi’s sister’s home and spent Shabbat dinner with many of their relatives. “It was so wonderful; it feels so much like family. It was so warm and welcoming.”
The four-day program as topped off with the gala banquet on Sunday, an annual dinner event that recognizes the work that the emissaries—in partnership with their communities in more than 85 countries across the globe—do throughout the year. It celebrates camaraderie and strength, and friendships made in the most unusual places and under all kinds of circumstances.
The evening also marked and honored the 28th yahrtzeit (anniversary of passing) of the Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka Schneerson, of righteous memory.
‘The Hakhel of Hakhels’
It started out with the lovely voices of the youngest emissaries, singing “Together as One” as their mothers moved around the room, embracing friends, taking selfies, greeting others at their tables and waiting for the proceedings to begin.
Batsheva Cohen, who co-directs Chabad of Hebron with her husband, Rabbi Danny Cohen, served as the master of ceremonies, describing in detail their family’s unique role in serving and supporting groups of Israeli Defense Forces soldiers stationed year-round in the ancient city. On any given Shabbat, she said, about 80 soldiers are cared for and fed by Chabad.
This year’s theme focused on the Hakhel year and Jewish unity. It was introduced by a short video of women emissaries around the world—from Austria, Argentina, India, China, Israel, Peru, England, France, Denmark, Sweden, Singapore, Hawaii and more—exemplifying the extensive reach of Chabad around the globe. In Hakhel years past, the Lubavitcher Rebbe—Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory—would urge Jews worldwide to assemble and inspire one another to increase in Torah observance and study.
Indeed, it was the “Hakhel of all Hakhels,” announced Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, vice chairman of Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch—the educational arm of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement—“a Hakhel which encompasses the whole world.”
“As the shluchim and shluchos have shown, we are capable of going out and reaching the masses as no other group in Jewish history has been able to,” he said.
“And it is not a numbers’ game. We hear about the mega-challah bakes and mega-Hakhels and thousands of people getting together, but when you sit down with one or two women and you give a class, that’s a Hakhel. And if you’re living in a community of 1,000 Jews, 500 Jews, 300 Jews, and you gather together—you and one other person—that is a major Hakhel. It is not [just defined as] strength in numbers because we have to go to each and every Jewish individual, and that is how we will be taken out of golus [‘exile’].”
So he stressed: “Is there one Jew left in your community that you don’t know about?”
“The Rebbe spoke at great length about gathering everyone together,” said Chavi Rosenblum, program director of Friendship Circle at Chabad of Livingston in New Jersey. Her husband, Rabbi Yisroel Rosenblum, is director of the “Living Legacy” program there. “The message was one of each person inspiring another, getting women to light Shabbat candles or to go to the mikvah. It’s one by one, encouraging the individual,” she explained.
As for Gillmeister, it was her second year attending the Kinus as part of a special guest program. “There’s always something new to learn and people to connect with.”
When she returns home this week, she plans to tell her friends about “the vibrancy of Judaism that Chabad emits—how it makes Judaism a way of living. You don’t get it anywhere else. The joy, the optimism is incredible.”
Debra Ellis, who lives in Southampton, N.Y., after a decade in Tennessee, was seated next to her at the banquet and heartily agreed with that notion. “Your whole life can change because of it. It can change in increments. You decide what you want to do, and you do it.”
‘A Sense of Sisterhood’
It’s not just the community members who came away inspired. For the emissaries themselves, listening to others’ stories—and just being with fellow shluchos day after day—was a reward in and of itself.
Educator Sara Tova Yaffe traveled all the way from Australia to New York City with her husband, Rabbi Daniel Yaffe, administrator of Young Adult Chabad in Bondi, and their two young children in tow. Of the Kinus, she said: “It gives me a sense of sisterhood, a connection to something much greater and a sense of purpose.”
Miriam Porush of Chabad of Turkey in Istanbul with her husband, Rabbi Mendy Porush, agrees with that sentiment, saying she came in spend time with other emissaries, “to see people like me.”
Speaking to her fellow emissaries, keynote speaker Risha Slavaticki—who with her husband, Rabbi Shabtai Slavaticki, has run Chabad Lubavitch of Antwerp, Belgium, for 40 years—reminded those present and all those joining online that they have whole communities behind them, that “the whole world is here.”
During Hakhel in the days of the Beit Mikdash, the Holy Temple, she explained, “everyone stood together to hear the King read portions of the Torah ... to reignite the spirit of awe and commitment to G‑d. Today, we are here united from around the world, standing together, to delve into and connect with the Rebbe’s teachings ... to reignite our commitment to G‑d that we will transform this world into a place where His light shines everywhere.”
She continued: “Tonight, we are here to connect with who we are beyond what we do, and we are shluchos. On the surface, shluchos are leaders; we are women who make great things happen. But inside, in our essence, we are followers. We follow the Rebbe’s guidance, we follow the Code of Jewish Law—the Shulchan Aruch—and that’s who we are.”
Slavaticki went on to describe some of the challenges and successes in Belgium over her four decades there to an audience that seemed to hang on to every word. During that time, the Chabad House has grown seven times its original size, and the same government that the couple had to “beg for permits” initially to hold a public event now asks when their next celebration will be.
But like those women who filled the Armory floor, she wanted to stress the real sustainers of their work. “To you, honored guests, who are here with us tonight,” she said, “your partnership fuels our work. All that you share—physically, emotionally, practically, financially—we so appreciate your support. We love sharing the journey with you. Thank you so much, and may the Almighty bless you and your families.”
The room burst into applause.
Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky, chairman of Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch, offered some reflection after dinner, starting off by saying that the shluchos create “wonders every day.” He noted the profound nachas that the Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka Schneerson continually derived from the activities of the shluchim and shluchos—that it was immeasurable.
“You mean so much to so many people, of the multitudes that you reach. You are the paradigm and the path finders. ... You are teachers and therapists, you are bookkeepers and editors, community leaders and activists ... and the list goes on. I stand here before you, literally, honored, humbled, thankful and truly amazed.”
An Empowering Experience
Chana Gurevitch flew in for the Kinus from Frankfurt, Germany, where she serves as a teacher at Chabad of Frankfurt with her husband, Rabbi S. Zalman Gurevitch, who directs the Chabad House. She was joined at the gala dinner by her sister, Kayla Goldring of Borough Park, N.Y.
“It’s nice to be ‘part of,’ ” noted Gurevitch, “instead of ‘the only,’ ” referring to the presence of the emissaries who filled the room.
Goldring said she has a lot of respect for the work of her sister and all the others: “What they do is indescribable. I can’t put into words the awe that I hold for them because how many people would do this—pick themselves up and start lives anew in a foreign country, raising children there, helping others there.”
She tries to attend the Kinus whenever her sister does. “I wouldn’t miss it,” she insisted. “The presentations are amazing, and the banquet is beautiful.”
Bracha Heintz, co-director of Lubavitch of Utrecht in the Netherlands with her husband, Rabbi Aryeh Leib Heintz, arrived at the banquet after traveling to and from Kingston, Pa., for the bris of her grandson (her 14th grandchild). She wouldn’t miss either event, even though it meant a lot of back and forth while here in the States. “I’m a shlucha,” she said. “I’m part of the club. I belong here. This is my home.”
Devorah Elkan, co-director of Chabad at Oberlin College in Ohio, will return to her home tonight after some jam-packed days in New York, including a morning trip to the Ohel—the resting place of the Rebbe and his father-in-law, the Previous Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, of righteous memory—and a special program about the Rebbetzin on this yahrtzeit day.
But she doesn’t want to keep all she learned to herself. She said she’d like to bring students with her to the gala one year; it’s a good age for them to soak it all in at a time in their lives when they’re just starting out, just discovering their potential.
“I think it would be an empowering experience for some of these students,” said Elkan, “to see what Jewish women are capable of doing.”
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