YWN regrets to inform you of the petirah of Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky z”l, the director of the International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Emissaries and Executive Director of Merkos L’lnyonei Chinuch, which oversees more than 5,000 Chabad centers and educational institutions worldwide. He was 74.

Rabbi Kotlarsky, a globe-trotting ambassador for the Lubavitcher Rebbe and the Chabad movement, played a pivotal role in revitalizing Jewish communities and growing Chabad institutions worldwide.

Rabbi Kotlarsky was born in 1949 in Montreal, and spent most of his life between travels and working at Lubavitch World Headquarters in Crown Heights. He was a dedicated chossid, master networker, and skilled fundraiser who worked tirelessly to identify the needs of outlying Jewish communities and plan future Chabad centers.

In his youth, R’ Moshe learned in the Chabad Yeshivos in Crown Heights. He married Rivka Kazen, daughter of R’ Zalman and Shula Kazen, while they ran a girls’ school in France and later moved to Cleveland, Ohio, as one of the Rebbe’s first Shluchim.

After his marriage, Rabbi Moshe and Rivka Kotlarsky settled in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, where they raised nine children.

Shortly after his marriage, Rabbi Kotlarsky began working for Merkos, one of the 3 central organizations of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement operating under the direction of the Rebbe and his chief of staff, Rabbi Chaim Mordechai Hodakov.

Over the years, he became intimately involved in the happenings of many communities, playing a vital role in the revival of Jewish infrastructure in the former Soviet Union and other underserved areas – enlisting the financial support of significant tycoons and philanthropists to achieve this.

Rabbi Kotlarsky presided over the International Kinus Hashluchim, the annual convention of Chabad Rabbis, and the Kinus Hashluchos of Chabad Rebbetzins. He led a “roll call” of the number of Shluchim worldwide, which currently stands at over 6,000.

He also ran the Merkos Shlichus program, sending out Yeshiva bochurim to remote areas for outreach activities. These young rabbis-in-training would visit homes and organize programs for the Yamim Noraim, Pesach, and summer months.

Rabbi Kotlarsky is survived by his wife Rivka and their nine children.

(YWN/COL)