By COLlive reporter
Menachem Cohen, editor of the Kfar Chabad magazine, was reviewing photos of the International Kinus Hashluchim convention in Brooklyn, NY for this week’s edition.
One of the photos he came across was taken by Yoel Belinko and showed former U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman warmly greeting Rabbi Dovid Chadad, a Chabad Shliach in Thailand, during the gala banquet.
Cohen was curious about the image. How would an Israeli-born Shliach in the Far East become so familiar with the former Democratic candidate for Vice President, he wondered.
Seeking answers, he contacted Rabbi Chadad. This is what Chadad wrote back, as published in the magazine as part of their kinus coverage:
A few months ago I received a phone call from a woman working for the United States Embassy in Thailand. “An important person is coming to visit your synagogue,” she said. “I hope you understand that due to security reasons, I cannot disclose the person’s name.”
The person was the famous Jewish Senator Joe Lieberman, who came to our Even Chen shul in Bangkok as part of a delegation of U.S. senators to Thailand.
The embassy arranged that he should be able to come to shul even on Shabbos, without desecrating Shabbos, and obviously provided kosher food that was ordered from the Chabad restaurant in Thailand.
When Senator Lieberman came to our shul, I was surprised by his warm greeting and handshake. “Gut Shabbos, rabbi,” he said heartily, as if we shared a years-long acquaintance.
One of the congregants asked if we indeed knew each other, and the Senator replied with a smile: “We have the same Rebbe.” He went on to say that he is in touch with my colleague from Connecticut, Rabbi Yisroel Deren.
Over Shabbos the senator got to learn about the vast activities of Chabad in Thailand, and was happy to hear about the existence of a Jewish school, which I run.
Following musaf, he said he won’t be able to remain for the kiddush as others were waiting for him and that he had kosher food in the hotel. He then added, “But I’m staying to hear your kiddush, rabbi.”
So when I met him at the banquet on Sunday this week, he was very happy to see me. He said one of the things that left a good impression on him was the Shabbos davening in the shul in Bangkok.
It should be noted that the contact person from the American embassy, the lady that called me to make the arrangements, turned out to be Jewish.
When we spoke, it sounded like she knew what kosher was and as our conversation continued, she said her son will soon be Bar Mitzvah age and they are looking for a place to celebrate.
Well, now I have a place for that.
The lesson: Though they both didn’t know each other and never meet each other, what made them feel like friends for years, was, “We have the same Rebbe.”
Simply heartwarming!!!
Oy Rebbe!!!
Beautiful 🙂
Keep up the Great work Rabbi Chadad !
There is so much beautiful content you can take from 30+ years of Kfar Chabad magazines and translate into English and publish here. I’d love for our kids (and adults) to read that instead of the usual….