Colel Chabad Honors Young, Old

By COLlive reporter
Photos by Bentzi Sasson & Shimon Roumani

Colel Chabad welcomed throngs of guests during its dinner this week, which also commemorated 200 years since the passing of Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, the first Chabad-Lubavitch Rebbe and founder of Israel’s longest running charity.

Guests at Manhattan’s New York Hilton started the evening with a smorgasbord of hors d’oeuvres, sampling dumplings and sushi, stir fry and carved meat as they mingled in a foyer adorned with posters explaining Colel Chabad’s diverse projects.

The evening began with a warm welcome from Mr. Richard Born. The Rebbe’s chapter in Tehillim was read by R’ Getzy Rubashkin, an honor given in the past to his father, businessman and philanthropist R’ Sholom Mordechai Rubashkin. Prayers were said for all those who need blessings especially Sholom Mordechai Halevi ben Rivkah.

Following was a magnificent video which was produced especially for the evening, and Colel Chabad’s Executive Director Rabbi Sholom Duchman gave his annual Shareholder’s Report which was accompanied by a slideshow of pictures, facts and figures.

He reviewed the charity’s various units, including its mass Bar and Bas Mitzvah ceremony for Israeli orphans, 20 soup kitchens, subsidized dental clinics, daycare centers and the 25,000-square-foot Slager Logistics Center which distributes food to tens of thousands of families.

“We don’t judge the poor, we feed the poor,” Duchman told the applauding crowd, and went on to list upcoming plans: 8 new Day Care Centers and the Finger Multiple Sclerosis Campus in Jerusalem.

An example of how Colel Chabad’s work not only helps the needy but also touches the lives of its donors was the passionate speech by Yossi Popack, the property owner who was the dinner’s Guest of Honor together with his wife, Penina Batsheva.

Invoking the self-sacrifice of his grandfather, Reb Avraham Popack OBM for Torah when he emigrated to the United States before World War I, Popack said he is proud that his own children are charitable as well (his son Avi hosted a benefit breakfast this summer).

Popack spoke with pride about his partnerships with Colel Chabad and about the Levi Hendel Store he and his family sponsored in Tzefat and the Shmuel Issac Popack Day Care Center in Kfar Chabad that he opened last year.

The dinner chairman noted that in the day’s portion in the Torah, it describes the first Jewish leader with the words, “Moses grew up and went out to his brothers and saw their burdens.”

“Moshe’s leadership began as a young adult. True leaders begin as young adults,” he said, bestowing the Young Leadership Award on Mendel and Reut Pinson of Manhattan.

He said they are “an outstanding young couple who in addition to being young entrepreneurs, are taking an active role in Colel Chabad and many other charity institutions. We know we will be seeing them in the years and decades ahead as they grow into giants of tzedakah.”

Also honored was Russell and Ronalee Galbut with the Leadership by Example Award, Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein with the Trailblazer Award and Stephen Nitkin with the Kesser Shem Tov.

The Guest Speaker was Rabbi YY Jacobson, one of the most sought-after Jewish speakers in the world today, who mesmerized the crowd of 1000 people.

In his signature humor and oratory, he pointed out the incredible fact that it’s almost 225 years since its founding, and Colel Chabad is still active and stronger than ever before.

He said that the reason gas was used by the Nazi Germans to exterminate the Jews was because it was the cheapest. “They didn’t value the life of a Jew for one cent, the cost of a bullet,” Jacobson said.

“In contrast, the Alter Rebbe valued every single Jew infinitely and pricelessly,” he explained. “Each Jew is a direct and integral part of Hashem and Hashem has an infinite love for every Jew. We must have the same infinite love for every Jew. This is what Colel Chabad is about and this is what Colel Chabad does.”