By COLlive reporter
Chabad Rabbi Shlomo Bistritzky will be inaugurated Monday, January 16, as the new Chief Rabbi of Hamburg, the second to largest city in Germany, after the position has been vacant for 3 years.
The ceremony at the Hohe Weide Synagogue will be attended by German government officials, Bernard Effertz, chairman of the board of the Hamburg Jewish Community and other community members.
A rabbinical delegation will include Israel’s Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger, Rabbi Aryeh Goldberg of the Rabbinical Centre of Europe (RCE), Germany’s Head Shliach Rabbi Yisroel Diskin and other Shluchim.
Representing Lubavitch World Headquarters will be Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky of Brooklyn who is currently holding meetings in Israel and will be flying to Germany next week, COLlive.com has learned.
Rabbi Kotlarsky, Vice Chairman of Merkos L’inyonei Chinuch and an advocator of Chabad in Germany, will be attending with his son Rabbi Mendy Kotlarsky, also of New York.
For the new rabbi, the position has “a double meaning” and inspires a great deal of emotion, Chabad.org reported.
Bistritzky’s grandfather, Rabbi Yehuda Leib Bistritsky who will be attending the event, left his native Hamburg for New York in 1937.
He and his Frankfurt-born wife have been living in Jerusalem for the past 15 years. “We are proud that our grandchild reached such a position,” he said after hearing about the nomination in November 2011.
mazel tov and lots of hayzlocha
Mazel Tov!!! THis is really great, may he have tons of Hatzlocha and happiness, osher and goodness, may he and all surrounding him be a great Nachas Ruach before Hashem!