“Bring Your Kids to the Rebbe”

By COLlive reporter
Photos by Shneur Schiff

Participants of the International Kinus Hashluchim were treated to a lavish lunch at the Bedford Union Armory in Crown Heights on Thursday afternoon, following the morning sessions.

Waiting for them on the tables were various presentations of programs being launched this year in honor of the Hakhel unity year.

“2gatheras1” is based on the Rebbe’s directive in 5748 that there be a central Hakhel office whose purpose is to continuously organize programs around the world.

Among the initiatives planned are monthly themed publications, retreats in Crown Heights, JLI classes open to the wider community and more.

“Reaching every Jew is a mission that is possible and that we have started to achieve – as the Rebbe instructed,” Rabbi Yosef Greenberg, Head Shliach of Alaska, said in his remarks.

Rabbi Shmuel Greisman of Jerusalem described the Children’s Sefer Torah campaign he heads as the best method to unite Jewish people this year.

“The Rebbe began Mitzvah Sefer Torah to unite Jewish children and protect Eretz Yisroel,” he said and noted that the next scroll is nearing completion. Dedication of letters for children is still possible.

Another initiative is the traveling of the “Hakhel Torah,” a scroll that was rescued on the night of Kristallnacht in Germany in 1938 from the ashes of the Nazi fires. It will be traveling around to Chabad centers this year.

After describing the Hakhel year’s proceedings with the Rebbe, Rabbi Greenberg pointed out that Shluchim ought to unite internally as well and suggested that families come together to New York.

“For Israel there is the Taglit Birthright trips,” he noted. “I suggest that we open a Shluchim Birthright fund that subsidize the trip of every child to come to the Rebbe this year, to be at the Ohel, the Rebbe’s room and 770.”

Rabbi Greenberg added: “Everything that’s happening in the last 20 years is part of the Rebbe’s plan and under his leadership. We have to educate our children in that spirit.”