The Chabad corporation managers meet in NY to plot out the strategy for the coming year.
Thousands Of Rabbis Gather To Pay Tribute To Former Leader
Thousands of rabbis came into town Friday to strategize on how to draw more members to their group and to pay tribute to one of their former leaders. NY1’s Ruschell Boone filed the following report.
Rabbis have come from all over the world to exchange ideas on how to expand the Jewish faith and connect with non-observant Jews.
The rabbis from the Chabad Lubavitch Movement and their families say they look forward to this event every year. The city, especially Brooklyn, is a major center for the group, one of the largest branches of Hasidic Judaism in the world.
“It acts as an ongoing source of inspiration for us when we leave here and go back to our own communities,” said Yisrael Deren, regional director of the Chabad Lubavitch of Connecticut.
While in New York, the group made a stop in Cambria Heights Friday to visit the grave of Rabbi Manachem Schneerson – one of the group's former leader – and a man some followers believe is the messiah. Organizers were quick to say that's the belief of only a small group of people and the rabbis came here only to pay their respects and pray that Schneerson will appeal to God on their behalf.
“Our rebbe means much to us,” said Rabbi Tuvia Teldon of Chabad Lubavitch of Long Island. “His message and everything he represents is really the motivating force behind what we do.”
The group runs thousands of Jewish community centers, synagogues, and schools all around the world as a way to reach out to the Jewish community as a whole. They are located in 72 countries.
“We are focusing on the individual,” said Rabbi Eliezer Zalmanov of Indiana. “How every single person is important, every Jew is important, and going back home, especially in small communities like mine, it's important to remember that the one person that we meet, the extra person that we find, that we have an influence on, is why we are there.”
The conference is scheduled to run through the weekend and it will end with a banquet on Sunday at Pier 94 in Manhattan.
- Ruschell Boone
"The Chabad corporation managers meet in NY to plot out the strategy"
ReplyDeleteCorporation?
Plot?
Sheesh, I bet David Berger is nicer in describing Chabad than you are.
Hi Bryce - I am starting to appreciate you.
ReplyDeleteTzvee can kid, but we don't know if this is tongue in cheek.
But your comment is valid - due to Berger's garbage attack, we have to seriously consider what we would otherwise just brush off as silly.
Perhaps instead of this, we should be planning how to save Jerusalem.
What do yo say, Tzvee?