Summer Isn’t Vacation For New Hampshire Shluchim

By COLlive reporter

It starts in April, as the Pesach festivities come to a close, when the first calls come in to the office of Chabad of Manchester in New Hampshire.

From then, it picks up speed and becomes emails and Whatsapp messages. What are all these people looking for? The southern New Hampshire Chabad center has become the first point of contact for frum travelers looking to visit the Granite State.

As vacationers from all over the east coast, and from throughout Canada, think about their upcoming summer travels, New Hampshire’s scenic White Mountains have become a popular destination with a record number of visitors in recent years. The mountains are full of beautiful hiking trails, thrilling alpine sliding, quaint attractions like Clark’s Trading Post or natural wonders like Mount Washington are some of the top attractions that draw people to the area.

For the past five years, Rabbi Levi Krinsky of Chabad of New Hampshire has spent countless hours of his summer organizing and implementing many minyanim for frum visitors coming to the area. Residing an hour or so from Lincoln and Bethlehem, the main attractions, Rabbi Krinsky works from afar, spending hours on his phone organizing people for each minyan.

Chabad rents an entire event center for July and August equipped with Sifrei Torah, and many seforim of both niglah and chassidus are provided along with plenty of both hot and cold refreshments. For logistical purposes the shabbos minyanim are held at different locations, allowing families staying at various hotels in the area to have a shul nearby.

This summer, following Tisha B’Av, Chabad organized 10 shabbos minyanim situated throughout the area. Each of them were well attended by visitors of all sects of Judaism, of all ages and origins.

As Camp Gan Izzy is in full swing during the summer months, Rabbi Krinsky hires a young couple to reside in Lincoln for a few weeks, to deliver inspirational words of Chassidus between Mincha and Maariv every night.

Although Chabad of Manchester is located about an hour south of this resort town, Rabbi Krinsky sees this as an extension of his shlichus. He believes that every shliach is required to greet every yid b’seiver panim yafois, which is of course included in the mitzvah of Hachnosas Orchim.

This endeavor has taken on a life of its own, and takes up hours of his time each day, but Rabbi Krinsky believes it’s well worth it. A visit to upstate New Hampshire during the summer months may leave one feeling like they were in a flourishing Jewish community, but as the summer ends, the calls dwindle, allowing Chabad of New Hampshire to focus on the many other Chabad activities.

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Rabbi Krinsky would like to publicly thank Rabbi Yisroel and Chani Glick, Rabbi Yankel and Chaya Mushka Raskin, Rabbi Moshe Silver, Schneur Zalman Fellig and Dr. Barry Weissman for their invaluable efforts in creating this most remarkable Kiddush Lubavitch and Kiddush Hashem.

Rabbi Krinsky would like to thank Schneur Zalman and Mimi Fellig for providing many new seforim on Chasidus.

Additional thanks is given to those who generously loaned their Sifrei Torah for the use of these Minyanim all summer:

Chabad of Dartmouth College and Hanover, NH – Rabbi Moshe Leib and Chani Grey

Chabad of UNH – Rabbi Berel and Rochy Slavaticki

Chabad of Merrimack Valley and Andover, MA – Rabbi Asher and Faigy Bronstein

Chabad of Brandeis – Rabbi Peretz and Chani Chein

HaSofer of Brooklyn – Rabbi Moshe Klein

Conference room shul – Rabbi Hillel Dovid Krinsky