Weather Leaves Shluchos Stranded

By COLlive.com reporter
Photos by Ettie Klein

Merkos L’inyonei Chinuch reports that over 600 Chabad Shluchos have arrived in Brooklyn and stopped at the registration desk for the International Kinus Hashluchos convention which began Wednesday night.

But the fate of the other 2,100 rebbetzins that are expected to arrive from 70 countries is not clear.

The New York area’s three major airports, among the nation’s busiest, are seeing hundreds of delayed or canceled flights as another snowstorm sweeps across the Eastern U.S.

CNN meteorologist Sean Morris said New York is expected to receive 8 to 12 inches of snow starting about Wednesday midnight.

The Kinus had planned a group visit to the Rebbe’s Ohel in the Old Montefiore Cemetery in Queens and buses departing from Crown Heights are scheduled for Thursday 8:45 AM.

Realizing that many Shluchos will not make it, the Kinus office is also making buses available for Shluchos from the Ohel every hour from 1:00 to 4:00 PM.

“Shluchos can travel straight to the Ohel from the airport, and buses will be waiting at the Ohel to transport Shluchos and their luggage back to Crown Heights,” Rabbi Schneur Nejar notified and asked them to fill out a form at Kinus.com/travel.

Workshops, seminars and farbrengens will continue as usual even if a few of the speakers are not present, COLlive.com was told.

The Kinus staff, headed by Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, are working round the clock to accommodate the guests.

A special crew is currently at work at the 69th Regiment Armory on Bedford Avenue between Union and President streets, which will be hosting the grand gala banquet Sunday – a highlight of the kinus which is shared by the Shluchos and their supporters and friends.