By Tzemach Feller – COLlive Magazine
COLlive: When people hear the name Keren Hachomesh, some don’t realize how personal it is to the Rebbe. What is it, and why is it unique?
Rabbi Shmaya Krinsky: A few years ago, someone in the community approached me—not at a meeting, not at a dinner, just in passing—and he said, very quietly and very seriously: “I’m looking to invest in something that the Rebbe held especially close. Something particularly personal to the Rebbe.”I didn’t hesitate for a second. I told him: “Keren Hachomesh.”
Why was the answer so immediate?
Because there is nothing else like it in the Rebbe’s world. And once you understand how—and when—it was founded, you realize why.
The Rebbe personally established Keren Hachomesh in a moment of deepest personal loss, as a living memorial to the person closest to him—the Rebbetzin…
In all the years of the Rebbe’s nesius, it is the only organization the Rebbe established as a self-standing corporation, not as a fund within an existing organization.
Can you elaborate? How could it be that the Rebbe only established one organization throughout all the years of his leadership?
The premier Lubavitch organizations headed by the Rebbe were created by the Frierdiker Rebbe: Agudas Chasidei Chabad in 1939, Machne Israel in 1941 and Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch in 1942. When the Rebbe accepted the nesius, he preserved the structure the Frierdiker Rebbe established.
The Rebbe did not generally create new corporate entities. The Rebbe’s keranos—charitable funds—were typically administered within Machne Israel. Keren Hachomesh is the one exception. It is the only entity the Rebbe personally created, not just as a keren, but as an organization. And that alone tells you something about how deeply personal this was.
Take us back to the moment when the Rebbe chose to create a new mosad—a new corporation—for the first time after close to four decades of nesius.
This is something my father, Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky, often recounts. The Rebbe had just returned home from the Rebbetzin’s levaya. He davened Mincha and said Kaddish. After a brief sicha and sitting down, the Rebbe went upstairs to his office—and then asked for my father.
The Rebbe discussed several matters, and then said he wished to establish a charitable fund in the Rebbetzin’s name. It would be called Keren HaChoMeSh, an acronym for “Harabbanit Chaya Mushka Schneerson.”
The Rebbe defined the purpose of the fund: to assist in matters connected to Jewish women and girls—chinuch, mikvahs, hachnosas kallah, and other essential needs in the lives of Jewish women. This was at the very beginning of the shiva—just hours after the levaya.
Why was this such a priority to the Rebbe at such a painful time?
The Rebbe was in unimaginable pain. And yet, instead of turning inward, he was thinking about how the Rebbetzin’s life and values would continue giving strength to others.
Is that reflected in the way that Keren Hachomesh was established?
Yes. The wording in the official founding documents of Keren Hachomesh states explicitly: “The Corporation is being founded as a living memorial to Harabbanit Chaya Mushka Schneerson.”
A living memorial.
And the missions listed for Keren Hachomesh are not abstract. They are woven into daily Jewish life—and they guide every partnership and grant that Keren Hachomesh undertakes till this very day.
When people hear “Keren Hachomesh,” what should they picture?
They should picture faces. They should picture a kallah who feared her family would drown in debt—and instead walks to the chuppah with dignity and simchah. They should picture a woman in a remote city who, until recently, had to travel hours to reach a mikvah—and now has one in her own community.
They should picture a single mother or a shluchah who receives a grant after agonizing over how she’ll manage. A pre-teen girl on an outing with a Big Sister. Or a post-partum mother finding strength again through the support of a women’s center. And they should picture the Rebbe’s and Rebbetzin’s faces.
You’ve been leading Keren Hachomesh for over a decade now. What has that looked like from the inside?
It’s been both an honor and a responsibility. Over the past decade, the scope has expanded tremendously. This past year alone, we distributed over one million dollars in grants—and that number is projected to grow.
But the way that it’s structured is quite unique. Keren Hachomesh is administered by Machne Israel, Rabbi Yosi Friedman, and its in-house staff, Rabbis Moshe Liberow and Schneur Brook, running operations. That means there is essentially no separate overhead. This isn’t a fancy nonprofit. It’s a true keren tzedakah. Fundraising is constant, because our goal is that we should never have to tell someone to wait. Whatever comes in goes out.
What do you hear from recipients?
People in need often receive help from multiple organizations—a bit here, a bit there. But receiving aid from a keren established by the Rebbe is on a different level. Recipients feel that, and it affects them deeply. That’s where the keren feels personal—and to me, that’s what makes Keren Hachomesh truly unique.
How do you deal with the stigma some may feel about asking for help?
Our highest priority is to help those in need quietly, respectfully, and with sensitivity. People are grateful not only for the vital financial support, but also for the dignity of the entire process.
And beyond the focus on matan b’seser—giving discreetly—there is something else: the feeling of being helped by the Rebbe and Rebbetzin themselves.
The Gemara teaches that “whoever receives a coin from Iyov is blessed,” and the Rebbe explained that receiving support from a fund founded by a Rebbe carries a special brachah. Recipients sense this instinctively. We hear it again and again—not only what the money enabled them to do, but what it meant emotionally. The timing. The feeling that someone was thinking about them. That they weren’t alone. We hear this often: “It felt like a personal brachah from the Rebbe.”
Can you share an example of the type of grants issued by Keren Hachomesh?
Let’s talk about the mikvah in Mobile, Alabama. Until it was built, women in that region had to travel hours—sometimes an entire day—just to use a mikvah.
The shliach, Rabbi Yosef Goldwasser, shared with us that the mikvah now serves Jewish women across a wide region—people living hundreds of miles from Mobile. It changed the equation for those already committed to mikvah, and for those on a journey toward that commitment. Taharas Hamishpachah suddenly became attainable.
Tell us about some of the other mikvaos Keren Hachomesh has helped construct.
Keren Hachomesh has helped build mikvahs from Nigeria to North Dakota, from Barbados to Saskatchewan. Places you wouldn’t normally associate with Jewish infrastructure—but there are Jews there. And Keren Hachomesh steps in to help make building a mikvah financially viable even for smaller, remote communities.
And now there’s a new mikvah initiative.
Yes. Anyone who has ever built a mikvah knows that beyond the cost, it’s a uniquely complex project. An engineer or architect may have built many buildings, but often has never built a mikvah—and is unfamiliar with its specific halachic and technical requirements.
Communities can spend tens of thousands of dollars—and lose years—just developing plans before construction even begins. So under the joint direction of our team members, Rabbis Brook and Liberow, we’re launching a new program that provides professional templates, designs, educational materials for construction professionals, and ongoing halachic guidance—completely free. This removes enormous barriers and makes building a mikvah achievable for many more communities.
Let’s talk about Hachnosas Kallah, and the initiative that Keren Hachomesh just announced.
With pleasure. The joy of making a wedding today is often accompanied by real financial strain. Families are under tremendous pressure, and many parents find themselves taking on serious debt just to marry off a child.
For years, Keren Hachomesh helped fund Hachnosas Kallah on an individual basis. But this year, we decided to change the equation by launching an all-inclusive wedding initiative.
After a lengthy process, we assumed operation of the Oholei Torah Ballroom and partnered with many of the top wedding vendors to create a beautiful, elegant all-inclusive wedding package—for $29,500. That’s roughly half the average cost of making a wedding in Crown Heights today.
How is that going to affect the average Lubavitcher family?
The savings for families is astonishing. Families are often forced into high-interest debt when making a chasuna. This initiative can save tens of thousands of dollars—giving parents peace of mind and allowing a simcha without panic.
Put simply: if we host just 70 weddings a year, it translates into more than two million dollars in savings for anash each year.
And in keeping with our goal of preserving dignity, there are no income requirements. Any member of anash, and any shliach, can use this package—no questions asked.
The weddings will be fully beautiful and top-tier, with top-level musicians, caterers, photographers, and florists. It will not feel like a “discount wedding.” It will feel like a Crown Heights simcha the way it should be.
And it aligns directly with the Rebbe’s wishes.
Absolutely. The Rebbe encouraged weddings to take place in Crown Heights, and strongly encouraged avoiding overspending. And Hachnosas Kallah has been one of the core missions of Keren Hachomesh from the very beginning.
What other avenues of help does Keren Hachomesh provide?
Mothers. Mothers in financial need, and mothers in emotional and physical need. For example, Keren Hachomesh supports the Miriam Motherhood Center, which provides a space and community for Jewish mothers in Crown Heights.
How is Keren Hachomesh active when it comes to education?
Keren Hachomesh supports nearly every after-school program for girls in Crown Heights: Neshamos, Big Sister, Friendship Circle, Living Chassidus, Mogineinu, The Space—and many more. And it supports learning initiatives far beyond Crown Heights as well.
For example?
We support programs that enable hundreds of girls and women to participate in learning initiatives, chidonim, halacha courses, and beis medrash–style learning—in person and remotely. Jewish girls of all ages are joining Keren Hachomesh–funded programs that build character, strengthen identity, and help shape a more ruchniyus’dike life.
When you step back from the numbers, the programs, the logistics—sum up Keren Hachomesh.
It’s the Rebbe and the Rebbetzin taking care of their people in a deeply personal way—one kallah, one family, one community at a time. It truly feels like this is the Rebbe’s heart in action.
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Partner with Keren Hachomesh today and help the Rebbe’s fund continue saying “yes” to urgent needs—immediately at kerenhachomesh.org/donate
