[VIDEO & PHOTOS BY HILLEL ENGEL IN EXTENDED ARTICLE]

Berel Pewzner, 26, has been to the annual Kinus Hashluchim—the International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Emissaries—before, but this year was different.

This was his first time attending the event as an official shaliach—a Chabad emissary—as co-director of Chabad of the Cayman Islands, which he leads with his wife, Rikal.

He and thousands of other participants—a total of 5,200 people, including 4,200 emissaries, and another 1,000 or so supporters and students from around the world—were seated Sunday night around round tables draped in white linen beneath elaborate chandeliers at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal in Brooklyn, N.Y. It was the culminating event of an extended weekend of learning, workshops, inspiration and camaraderie that started last Wednesday and ended on Monday.

At the gala banquet dinner, they heard from Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky, chairman of Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch, the educational arm of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement; Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, vice chairman of Merkos; Yuli Edelstein, Speaker of Israel’s parliament, the Knesset;and keynote speaker Rabbi Nissan Dovid Dubov, co-director of Chabad Lubavitch of South London.

The theme of this year’s conference focused on the concept of the Rebbe—Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory—continuing to accompany each individual emissary in his work. It also took place 20 years after the Rebbe’s passing, a significance not lost on those gathered for the annual event.

Recalling how the Rebbe’s disposition would become palpably uplifted when the shluchim would arrive for the conference each year, Krinsky said the Kinus served as a family reunion of sorts: “It was more like children coming home together to visit their father.”

As Rabbi Krinsky emphasized, “the Rebbe wanted us to change the world today. Shluchim around the world dedicate their lives to this ideal, this goal,” he said, acknowledging the important work of the emissaries and the leadership they provide to Jewish communities around the world. “The future of the Jewish people,” he declared, “is in your hands.”

‘Spreading Torah and Values’

In his introductory remarks before the evening’s speakers, Rabbi Kotlarsky explained that “we spent days and nights in seminaries and plenary sessions, strengthening our motivation and our goals and our commitment, and forging the future of the Jewish people for the next year.”

And while he recognized the ongoing work of the emissaries, he also encouraged the strong momentum to keep moving forward.

“The Rebbe wasn’t looking for complacency,” stressed Kotlarsky. “He was looking to make a radical change in the world; he was looking to reach each and every Jew; and we see now 20 years after Gimmel Tammuz, we see the effect of the Rebbe’s teachings on the world. We see how many people are yearning and striving to connect to the Rebbe’s teachings, to the teachings of Torah. We see, on a daily basis, how the world has changed.”

Such change can be illustrated by the life and background of Edelstein, the guest speaker.

Born in Ukraine in 1958, he developed a strong interest in Judaism and his heritage as a young man. In 1977, he applied for a visa to leave for Israel, which was denied, resulting in his being expelled from university, and harassed by the KGB and the local police.

He eventually discovered Chabad and joined its underground movement. In 1980, he married in secret under the chuppah; four years later, he was arrested by the KGB and sentenced to three years in the Gulag. Edelstein was released in 1987, at which time he and his wife, Tania, received their visas, left for Israel and settled in Jerusalem, where he became involved in politics and steadily climbed up the Israeli political ranks.

“The real reason I’m here,” he said, “is the debt—the debt I can never pay back, the debt that doesn’t disappear even on this shemittah [sabbatical] year, the debt I owe to the Rebbe and the shluchim of that generation, the debt for being Jewish.”

In an earnest tone, he looked at the emissaries around the room and said: “Your mission, spreading the Rebbe’s Torah and values, remains constant, remains eternal. Wherever you are in the world, you are there because the Rebbe wanted every Jew, in every far-flung location, to have access to Torah and mitzvahs. He knew that uniting Jews by connecting them to their heritage will bring redemption to this world. For the Rebbe, every Jew—no matter his background or her level of observance—was a key part in the worldwide effort to bring Moshiach now. These are lessons that you, the Chabad shluchim, have clearly taken to heart.”

The Speaker of the Knesset stated that he wanted to convey his gratitude for Chabad’s moral support to the soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces during Israel’s summer war with Hamas in Gaza. He poignantly described Chabad rabbis visiting Israeli soldiers at the border, bringing them spiritual and emotional sustenance, whether through tefillin, prayers and letters of encouragement from around the world.

“To all those who were there, I want to say thank you on behalf of the State of Israel and on behalf of the Jewish people.”

Keynote speaker Rabbi Dovid Dubov, co-director of Chabad Lubavitch of South London, grew up in Manchester, England, attending yeshivahs there and in Jerusalem. He earned his rabbinical ordination in Montreal. In 1988, Dubov and his wife, Sarah, went on shlichus to Wimbledon, England.

The author of 13 books on Jewish life, law and customs, Dubov also serves as a board member of Chabad-Lubavitch of the United Kingdom and as a director of the Gan Israel overnight-camp network in the United Kingdom. In 1991, the Dubovs built the first mikvah in South London.

He also is one of two representatives who serves the Jewish community at the international Wimbledon tennis tournament—the oldest in the world—with co-emissary Rabbi Dovid Cohen, also of Chabad of South London. And that position has led to some eye-opening observations.

“Now when playing tennis, love equals the score zero,” he noted. “However, in Chabad, love means everything.”

He went on to say that “we in Wimbledon have discovered the secret of Chabad, and it is this: If you want to raise a racket and you want to create advantage Chabad, then serve with love.

“Friends, tonight at this Kinus, look at this room. Chabad wins game, set and match!”

In a more serious turn, he urged the work of the Rebbe and the advancing of acts of kindness: “Any single good deed can be the one that tips the balance of the entire world towards redemption.”

To the colleagues who were present Sunday night, Dubov also encouraged the work they do, reaching out to Jews everywhere.

“Chazak, chazak, v’nischazek! (“Be strong, be strong, and we will gather strength!”), declared the rabbi.

“Be strong and proud Jews. Be proud of Eretz Yisroel. Be proud of Am Yisroel. Be proud of Toras Hashem, and counter the forces of darkness with acts of goodness and kindness, and with the tested ways of the Rebbe’s mitzvah campaigns: One mitzvah at a time, one Jew at a time.”

The formal program ended with the famed international roll call led by Rabbi Kotlarsky, who recognized Chabad’s presence in countries near and far around the globe.

‘A Piece of the Excitement’

All the while, Pewzner had been leaning forward in his chair, listening.

“It is very humbling to be here,” he said, taking in the podium and hordes of tables packed with men dedicated to the same cause of fulfilling the tasks set before them by the Rebbe.

Pewzner, having grown up the child of emissaries in Harrisburg, Pa., noted that he and his family used to listen to tapes of the annual event before bed.

“We would follow it before the days of live broadcast,” he said. “It was an integral part of our upbringing as young emissaries; we’d always get a piece of the excitement.”

Rabbi Yisrael Deren, regional director of Chabad of Stamford in Connecticut, was one of the organizers of the very first such gathering in the early 1980s. “The first Kinus took pace in a library on the fourth floor of Lubavitch World Headquarters, 770 Eastern Parkway” in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, he recalled.

Attending were emissaries from the United States, and they participated in a relatively informal program, where each man stood up, introduced himself and gave an overview of what was happening in his community. They shared ideas and raised questions that others might be able to help address.

Each emissary contributed $100. When the Rebbe found out, he insisted on giving each one back the $100, then to add another $100 as a gift—with the $200 not to be kept, but to be used. Then he gave each emissary an additional $2 to keep for themselves.

“It’s grown to begin to reflect the Rebbe’s vison for what he wanted, which was to transform the entire world,” said Deren at the banquet. “Perhaps in the last couple of years, the Kinus is really a reflection of that—every single place that has any form of organized Jewish community is represented in this room tonight.

“The shluchim are touching, affecting and materially changing the face of these communities, making them warmer and brighter places where Judaism flourishes, reflecting the Rebbe’s message that the world we live in is waiting to hear words of Torah, the guidance of mitzvot and the hope for Moshiach [messiah].”

‘The Message Hasn’t Changed’

Rabbi Zelig Rivkin, regional director of Chabad-Lubavitch of Louisiana in New Orleans, who was sent out on shlichus in 1973, also came to that very first Kinus so long ago. “It was very friendly and comfortable,” he said. “There was frank discussion among people with the same task; issues that were important to us all.”

Though the format has changed to accommodate a much larger group, there are still ways to meet with smaller parties throughout the weekend. And the Rebbe’s message has remained the same, he stressed: “As far as inspiring other people to do mitzvot, learn Torah, to strengthen our Jewish identities and create Jewish communities we’re all proud of—that message hasn’t changed. It’s just grown stronger and more powerful every year.”

Pewzner, who left last March for the Caymans, concurred: “We can learn from the stars and their initial challenges; they have paved the way for us.”

Now, 20 years after the passing of the Rebbe, he and the other rabbis heading out to connect with Jews wherever they are—both physically and spiritually—are taking on the Rebbe’s mission

“This is a testament to the Rebbe’s legacy and his influene on us,” said the young rabbi.

For Rabbi Alter Goldstein, co-director of the Chabad House of Ann Arbor in Michigan, the evening could be divided into two parts. “There’s what you get, and what you give,” he said. “What you get is inspiration; what you give is increased vigor to what the Rebbe established.”

He spoke to the milestone nature of the year, but also to the responsibility that comes with representing the Rebbe’s teachings. “At first, it was the idea of continuing that legacy. Now, it’s making sure we keep up with the demand of those thirsty to tap into it,” he said.

Rabbi Yoel Migdal, of Chabad Lubavitch of Argentina in Buenos Aires, never met or knew the Rebbe. But that doesn’t seem to stymie his generation of young shluchim, even those who just headed out this year—more than 90 couples so far.

“Half the shluchim here didn’t see the Rebbe, maybe,” he estimated, looking out into the sea of faces filling the Brooklyn Marine Terminal. But that’s not the point, he suggested; that fact hasn’t stopped the momentum. “The Rebbe, even though he’s physically not here, he’s still with us deeply and in the most important ways.”

(Source: Chabad.org)