This year, for the 19th year on YWN, tens of thousands of viewers from around the world will be able to view the International Kinus HaShluchim banquet live on a broadcast made possible by the organizers of the Kinus. The live streaming webcast begins at 4:30PM on Sunday, Nov. 20, and is taking place at the The New Jersey Conference and Expo Center in Edison, NJ.
The highlight is always the traditional roll call of countries and regions which is followed by spirited dancing.
As we have done for many years, YWN will be bringing you thousands of photos, as well as extensive video and photo coverage from the massive event.
The nearly week-long event is giving most of Chabad’s 5,646 Shluchim the opportunity to meet with friends and colleagues who they have not seen for years. They are welcoming hundreds of young Shluchim who have joined their ranks over the past year, including those from the 120 new Chabads established in the past 12 months, on average one every three days.
The culmination of the activity-filled weekend is a Sunday-night gala dinner for 6,500 emissaries and guests, including dignitaries, communal and lay leaders, and supporters from communities around the world.
This year’s banquet will be highlighted by a historic Torah ceremony in which 36 Sifrei Torah will be completed simultaneously. A plan to write the dozens of new Torah scrolls for communities that were using borrowed Sifrei Torah and did not have one of their own was announced at last year’s conference by Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, the vice chairman of Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch—the educational arm of Chabad-Lubavitch. It is the first time to anyone’s knowledge that so many Sifrei Torah have been completed at the same time.
Rabbi David Lau, the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel and Rabbi Sholom Gottlieb of Nikolayev, Ukraine will open the gathering with the recitation of Tehillim followed by a dvar Torah from Rabbi Avraham Feldman of Reykjavik, Iceland. Seven Shluchim will then give reports on their activities during the seven decades from the 1950s to the present.
Emissaries are eagerly anticipating the keynote address from philanthropist and businessman George Rohr, who has been at the heart of Chabad’s growth for decades, and following the annual roll call, the event will conclude with the completion of the Sifrei Torah scrolls and a rousing celebration with spirited Chassidic dancing.
In the days following the conference, some Shluchim will remain in New York for meetings, but all will eventually return home — whether to small enclaves, remote locations or teeming metropolitan centers — with renewed energy and inspiration to spread the Rebbe’s message of the beauty, joy and importance of Jewish study and practice to the four corners of the earth.
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6 Responses
Can’t wait! What a kiddush lubavitch!! KIDDUSH LUBAVITCH WOOO!
Helping Jewish people know about there Judaism is a good thing but only if it is hard can they say it was for the sake of God and kosher sure one good Jewish soul will become great from them and a big rabbi but not only from preaching the Rebbe
I cried tears of joy watching Mr. George Rohr speak. As a frum yid living in Flatbush, I am simply amazed by Lubavitch. No words to describe the iner pride I felt watching this tremedous expression of Achdus Yisrael.
pardon me for asking, but what on Earth is a “Kiddush Lubavitch” and how is that any different from a Kiddush Hashem?
or is this some kind of cult…
I view events like this with mixed feelings. On the one hand, these Shluchim in some cases live lives of mesiras nefesh, risking their very Yahadus and the Yahadus of their families, with no mikveh, yeshiva, Cholov Yisroel, etc. They generally are (at least many of the ones I have met and had some connection with) very holy people, with sterling middos and emunah. So an event like this is very important for their lives, giving them much needed chizuk.
On the other hand, however, one needs to consider the toeles of their difficult lives, as well as whether it is even halachically permitted for them to engender these serious risks to their families’ spiritual existence. In terms of statistics, it’s hard to qualify any level of success they may be having in terms of spreading serious yiddishkeit, since Chabad as an organization and “Chabad Houses” as a group have no such embedded aspirations or goalposts in the Shluchim program. However, if you’ve ever spent some time in an area where they are all that yiddishkeit has to offer, regardless of how long they’ve been there, you will generally find that the numerics and spiritual levels in the “community” are not very convincing. You also would imagine that if they were having reasonable levels of success, they would be touting it more prominently than they do the meaningless stories they tell in silly articles on different Jewish websites.
Then again, you might posit that if they “save” just one Jew, it’s all worth it. There are maamarei chazal that seem to back up that premise, but I’m not sure. Being matzil nefesh achas m’yisroel at the expense of risking the Yahadus of your entire family may not be what chazal had in mind.
Many people will foolishly state their support for this program by citing instances where they were out someplace in FarKrochinsVille on vacation or business and if not for Chabad they would have been lost. We hopefully understand that that is not what Chabad Shluchim are there for. Obviously, once they are out there and you need their help, they will, being the holy Jews that they are, bend over backwards to accommodate you, but that’s not why there is a Chabad Shluchim program.
So if, in your mind, the fact that the Rebbe ob”m, some 30-35 years ago, sent specific people out on Shlichus then and for years prior to then is a driving force for the Chasidus to continue to send people out WITHOUT a Rebbe’s guidance, then I guess you are a full supporter and believer in the veracity of the program. I, however, am not on board.
Great! Awesome! Fabulous!
The annual Jews for Menachem jamboree!