Kinus Speaker: Bibi Netanyahu

By COLlive reporter

Here’s the good news: Shluchim are out of the woods.

Since the recession hit the U.S. and global market, a chunk of the workshops at the annual Kinus Hashluchim convention focused on financials and fundraising.

Balancing each Chabad center’s budget is of course not a task that began in 2008, but it certainly got more difficult once people were cutting back on all things leisure and luxuries.

In the past few years, more than a few sessions at the conference have dealt with the challenges of financial responsibility, yet it seems like the focus has shifted this time around.

Over the days of the kinus, a total of 6 sessions in English were dedicated to “finances” in contrast to 8 concerning “Adult Education.” Add to that many other discussions around “Practical Rabbinics,” children’s education, campus and youth outreach.

Based on what adult education guru Rabbi Moshe Bryski told fellow colleagues, “the time you spend preparing the shiurim and giving them will be well worth your effort.”

The Agoura Hills Shliach who is known for his acclaimed Conejo Jewish Academy said that the bond created between the teacher and student cannot be matched by other programs.

He gave an example of what happened 4 weeks ago when he decided to go back to the material he learned in school as a boy and teach it to his community.

Instead of using his regular marketing methods, he sent a simple email inviting men to indulge him by learning Bava Metziah with him. The result: 50 people showed up.

Another example was a woman who would religiously attend his classes, yet kept asking the same question of “how does free choice and Divine Providence coincide?”

He never answered her, but was always polite in his response, and she soon moved away. Rabbi Bryski later visited Miami and learned that the woman has become frum and her children are Shluchim.

He said that stories are key to a powerful presentation, whether it’s a class or sermon. He cites a talk by Dr. Yehuda Landes which led to the founding of the Chabad center he runs today.

“He told how stressful it was to see his children becoming frum and how he once forced his son into the car on Shabbos. When he finally came around, he demanded that a Shliach come to Palo Alto so that his family could walk to shul.

“After hearing the speech, a group of community members from Agoura came to me and said if he can demand that, so can we. ‘We want a Chabad center close to home,’ they demanded,” said Bryski.

At a workshop titled “The Craft of Public Speaking,” Shluchim were shown video clips of speeches given by world renowned figures, and then analyzed what they just watched, with Dr. Tzuriel Rashi, Associate Director at Bar-Ilan University, Center for Media and Religion, School of Communication.

Speakers highlighted were Israel’s eloquent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (at any given time), U.S. President Ronald Reagan (for his humor), and Israeli President Shimon Peres (dramatically saying Kaddish in the German Bundestag parliment).

Dr. Rashi said Netanyahu is fond of illustrating his points with stories and anecdotes and has shown the speech in which he recalls speaking to the Rebbe during Simchas Torah about his role as then-ambassador to the United Nations.