The International Gala Farbrengen

By COLlive reporter
Photos by Baruch Ezagui

Welcome to the international gala farbrengen…

An 88-acre terminal originally built in the 1960s to handle a variety of containerized and non-containerized cargo isn’t typically a location for a chassidic gathering.

The truth is that a typical formal sit-down dinner also doesn’t usually take place at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal, located along the Bay Ridge Channel in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.

Like the previous year, the terminal was transformed into a glitzy event hall with carpeting and chandeliers and drapes hanging down from the warehouse like ceiling.

This year, the gala banquet of the 5775 International Kinus Hashluchim convention felt very much like a farbrengen. With participants arriving in good spirits, bearing plenty of L’chaim bottles, the formal setting felt casual as well.

5,400 people were in attendance, most of them Chabad Shluchim from around the world. They were joined by supporters, friends and some family members, proudly taking part in the global salute to the Rebbe’s Shlichus army.

Sunday night was also Rosh Chodesh Kislev, the first time in 1977 that the Rebbe left 770 Eastern Parkway to his home after suffering a major heart attack. So a farbrengen was indeed warranted.

The keynote speaker, Rabbi Nissan Dovid Dubov, was up to the task. From the onset, the South London Shliach and author of 11 books began his speech with passion and energy.

“Like many other Shluchim, I arrive at the Kinus drained – physically, emotionally, spiritually,” he said. “But at the Kinus, we’re put through ‘wash’, ‘spin’ and ‘dry’ and out we go, fresh and energetic.”

He spoke about the convention’s theme, that the Rebbe is always with each Shliach, and shared a story of London Shliach Rabbi Shmuel Lew inspiring an assimilated woman to raise her children as Jews, and a personal experience of convincing a widow not to cremate her husband.

Dubov quoted the last address of the Rebbe to the Kinus Hashluchim in 1991 that every Shliach is charged with a message to prepare their communities and the entire world for the coming of Moshiach.

He said that in the face of rising anti Semitism and global threats, it is the task of Shluchim to “take the lead and say ‘chazak chazak venischazek’ and counter the forces of darkness with acts of goodness and kindness; One mitzvah at a time and one Jew at a time.”

The emcee of the Kinus was Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, Vice Chairman of Merkos L’inyonei Chinuch and organizer of the Kinus. He pointed out Chabad’s phenomenal growth, noting that 3,026 Shluchim attended the Kinus this year.

Tehillim was said by Rabbi Chezky Lifshitz, the Shliach in Kathmandu, Nepal, and Rabbi Menachem Kutner, the Chabad activist that reaches out to terror victims and their families in Israel.

The Dvar Torah was given by Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky, Chairman of Merkos who served as the Rebbe’s secretary for around 40 years. “During the Kinus I always felt a palpable change in the Rebbe’s disposition,” he said. “It was like a family reunion.”

A testimony to how the Rebbe’s chassidim would break through any challenges to help another Jew was given by Yuli Edelstein, Speaker of the Israeli Knesset and a former refusenik in Russia.

Speaking about sitting in Russian prison and being helped by chassidim then and Shluchim today, he said: “The real reason I’m here is because of what I owe to the Rebbe and the Shluchim: I got from them ‘Tzu zein a yid’ (to be a Jew).”

Dancing followed not long after and Shluchim young and old danced in unison, proud to be enlisted in the army commanded by the Rebbe and motivated to return home to add that extra good deed that can tip the balance of the world and bring Moshiach.