‘Soul Trip’ Visits Crown Heights

Jews from across Atlanta have just returned from a one-day pilgrimage to Jewish New York with Chabad of Georgia. They were on the yearly Soul Trip, a journey for renewal, understanding, and good kosher food!

Rabbi Yossi New of Sandy Springs and Rabbi Ephraim Silverman of Cobb County guided the group through the streets of Queens and Brooklyn. The first stop was the Ohel, the gravesite of Rabbi Schneerson, who is the last Rabbi leader of the Hasidic movement, Chabad. The group wrote notes to the Rebbe and dropped them at his grave at the famous Moneifiore Jewish Cemetery. This was the highlight of the trip for Rhonda Robinson of Toco Hills. Robinson said, “I walked right behind the grave markers of the Rebbe and his father–in-law, where there was an opening. I stood there and felt a lot of energy and it felt really wonderful. It was a powerful place to be.”

The whirlwind tour also took the group to the world headquarters of Chabad Lubavitch, referred to simply as “Seven-Seventy.”

Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky expressed how it felt working for 40 years as the assistant and right hand man for the Rebbe.

The group got the rare privilege of going into the Rebbe’s study where he worked and lived for many years before his death in 1994.

That was a very moving event for Rayna Solomon of Atlanta. Solomon says, it was “Everyone deserves to experience this extraordinary day. One that feeds not only the soul, but the body in the most profound way.”

It wouldn’t be a trip to the big city without some shopping and food!
The Soul Trippers explored the bustling streets of Boro Park, where you can still hear Yiddish spoken by many. Judaica shops and kosher cafés are on every block. It is the home of the largest concentration of Orthodox Jews outside Israel.

A kosher feast sushi and other Asian dishes topped off the long day’s journey into night.

Now the group is back in Atlanta ready for a fresh, soulful new year.