DESPITE ECONOMY, CHABAD SAYS NO CUTBACKS IN HOLIDAY OUTREACH
BROOKLYN, N.Y., April 2 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- (lubavitch.com) Some 570 rabbinical students will be leaving Sunday, April 5, to any of 285 locations worldwide where they will conduct communal seders this Passover, April 8 and 9th. New on the list of exotic locations slated for Chabad's seders is Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
At Lubavitch World Headquarters, itineraries for the rabbinical students are being coordinated with regional Chabad representatives, reflecting numbers that surpass last year's.
The comprehensive list of locations means that Jews--even those in remote points of Vietnam, China, Chile, Japan, Ukraine, Russia, Peru and Spain, as well as Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, among many other locations in Africa, South America, Europe and North America--will have the benefit of a traditional Passover seder with Chabad.
Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, Vice Chairman of Merkos, the Chabad-Lubavitch educational division, says that despite the dire economic climate, "The Rebbe insisted that every Jew be given the opportunity to participate at a Seder, and we will do everything possible to make sure that happens on the largest scale yet."
Funding for the seders comes from several philanthropists including Mr. George Rohr, a long time supporter of Chabad activities, and a gift of $500,000 from Florida energy magnate, Guma Aguiar. This is the second consecutive year that Aguiar, 31, has been a major sponsor of Chabad's global Passover campaign.
Aguiar became excited about this project last year and contributed towards Chabad's worldwide Passover seders--collectively, the largest seder in the world. As a result, he said, "Chabad leaders and I have realized what a truly sacred honor it is to partner together with each other on this project."
With seders hosting anywhere from 20-2000 (Nepal), accurate figures for the total number of participants at Chabad seders are hard to come by, but upwards of 500,000 people would be a safe estimate, say coordinators.
Conducting seders in some of the backwaters of the Far East and Africa involves often complicated logistics and requires the cooperation of local authorities. Getting vast quantities of matzah, wine, meat and other Passover staples, entails considerable preliminary work to ensure timely deliveries.
These seders are in addition to those hosted by Chabad representatives in their respective communities worldwide.
To search for the Chabad-Lubavitch center closest to you, click here (http://www.lubavitch.com/centers/)
SOURCE Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters
Showing posts with label Moshe Kotlarsky. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Moshe Kotlarsky. Show all posts
Friday, April 03, 2009
Friday, December 26, 2008
Chabad centre to stay
MUMBAI: Four weeks after the terror attack on Nariman House in which Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife Rivka and seven others were murdered by gunmen, emissaries of the Chabad Lubavitch movement arrived here to reaffirm their commitment to continuing their work in the city.
At a ceremony at the Gateway of India Rabbi Kotlarsky who is Vice Chairman of the International Conference of Chabad Lubavitch Emissaries said, “We are committed to coming back actually, we are not leaving. We are here and we are not leaving.”
With these words he invited Rabbi Rosenberg, the father of Rivka, to light the menorah. Seated in a manually operated crane, the Rabbi lit five of the oil lamps on the towering 15-foot high menorah. The number signified the fifth day of the Jewish festival, Chanukah.
At an earlier ceremony Rabbi Holtzberg, the father of Rabbi Gavriel, had lit a similar menorah installed at the Chabad centre at Nariman House.
Rabbi Kotlarsky described the Chabad centre as a “beacon of light to the whole world. It has been physically destroyed but the spirit lives on and the activities of Gavriel and Rivka will continue. We will not fight terrorism with AK-47s, grenades or guns. We will fight with beacons of light and goodness.” The Rabbi said it was too early to tell if the centre would continue to operate from Nariman house or elsewhere.
Speaking of the spirit of Chanukah the Rabbi said it was the victory of “few over many, weak over strong.” Chanukah, the festival of lights, spans eight days. On the fourth day of Chanukah two-year-old Moshe, the orphaned child of the Holtzbergs, lit a menorah at his maternal grandparents’ home in Afula, Israel. It had been a tradition with his parents to light a menorah during Chanukah at the Gateway of India ever since they came to Mumbai.
At a ceremony at the Gateway of India Rabbi Kotlarsky who is Vice Chairman of the International Conference of Chabad Lubavitch Emissaries said, “We are committed to coming back actually, we are not leaving. We are here and we are not leaving.”
With these words he invited Rabbi Rosenberg, the father of Rivka, to light the menorah. Seated in a manually operated crane, the Rabbi lit five of the oil lamps on the towering 15-foot high menorah. The number signified the fifth day of the Jewish festival, Chanukah.
At an earlier ceremony Rabbi Holtzberg, the father of Rabbi Gavriel, had lit a similar menorah installed at the Chabad centre at Nariman House.
Rabbi Kotlarsky described the Chabad centre as a “beacon of light to the whole world. It has been physically destroyed but the spirit lives on and the activities of Gavriel and Rivka will continue. We will not fight terrorism with AK-47s, grenades or guns. We will fight with beacons of light and goodness.” The Rabbi said it was too early to tell if the centre would continue to operate from Nariman house or elsewhere.
Speaking of the spirit of Chanukah the Rabbi said it was the victory of “few over many, weak over strong.” Chanukah, the festival of lights, spans eight days. On the fourth day of Chanukah two-year-old Moshe, the orphaned child of the Holtzbergs, lit a menorah at his maternal grandparents’ home in Afula, Israel. It had been a tradition with his parents to light a menorah during Chanukah at the Gateway of India ever since they came to Mumbai.
Monday, May 26, 2008
More than 100 Chabad rabbis gather at New City conference
Ben Rubin
The Journal News
NEW CITY - Before a packed room of fellow rabbis, Avremel Kotlarsky told the audience that they had made huge strides as an organization, but that it would take far more effort to continue growing.
"There is no free ride, this does not come easily," said Kotlarsky, executive director of the Chabad Lubavitch of Rockland center.
His remarks were part of a gathering of more than 100 rabbis from across New York and New England, who came to the center yesterday for a regional conference.
The goal Kotlarsky spoke of was the central mission of the Chabad movement - to provide and expand religious experiences for Jews around the world.
The meeting was the first time that the New City center has hosted the conference in more than 15 years, or since the facility opened in the early 1990s. The building houses a day camp, a Jewish day school, a synagogue and a Hebrew school.
"I think the fact itself that we are getting together shows we have a tremendous energy," said Rabbi Yisroel Goldberg, director of community outreach and adult education at the local center.
At the conference, the rabbis discussed contemporary religious questions, ways to strengthen the Chabad organization and basic tips on fundraising, networking and growth strategies.
The Chabad movement has more than 2,000 centers around the world and holds a global conference every fall in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, where the organization is headquartered. The conference usually brings in more than 5,000 rabbis.
The movement was started about 250 years ago by Rabbi Schneur Zalman from Russia. The organization does not do missionary work or attempt to convert non-Jews.
Although the movement is considered a part of Hasidic Orthodox Judaism, Goldberg stressed the importance of not labeling it because Chabad seeks to be inclusive to all Jews.
"Our sole purpose is to bring people closer to Judaism," Goldberg said.
Rabbi Aaron Konikov from Long Island said the local conference was an important way to reinvigorate the Chabad leadership, especially rabbis who live in communities where they are the only observant Jews.
"It brings motivation and friendship and recommits us to the mission and it continues to instill in us the fact that we're in this together," Konikov said.
"I think it's a wonderful turnout," said Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, a representative from the Brooklyn headquarters. "It gives inspiration to each one of our shluchim (emissaries)."
The Journal News
NEW CITY - Before a packed room of fellow rabbis, Avremel Kotlarsky told the audience that they had made huge strides as an organization, but that it would take far more effort to continue growing.
"There is no free ride, this does not come easily," said Kotlarsky, executive director of the Chabad Lubavitch of Rockland center.
His remarks were part of a gathering of more than 100 rabbis from across New York and New England, who came to the center yesterday for a regional conference.
The goal Kotlarsky spoke of was the central mission of the Chabad movement - to provide and expand religious experiences for Jews around the world.
The meeting was the first time that the New City center has hosted the conference in more than 15 years, or since the facility opened in the early 1990s. The building houses a day camp, a Jewish day school, a synagogue and a Hebrew school.
"I think the fact itself that we are getting together shows we have a tremendous energy," said Rabbi Yisroel Goldberg, director of community outreach and adult education at the local center.
At the conference, the rabbis discussed contemporary religious questions, ways to strengthen the Chabad organization and basic tips on fundraising, networking and growth strategies.
The Chabad movement has more than 2,000 centers around the world and holds a global conference every fall in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, where the organization is headquartered. The conference usually brings in more than 5,000 rabbis.
The movement was started about 250 years ago by Rabbi Schneur Zalman from Russia. The organization does not do missionary work or attempt to convert non-Jews.
Although the movement is considered a part of Hasidic Orthodox Judaism, Goldberg stressed the importance of not labeling it because Chabad seeks to be inclusive to all Jews.
"Our sole purpose is to bring people closer to Judaism," Goldberg said.
Rabbi Aaron Konikov from Long Island said the local conference was an important way to reinvigorate the Chabad leadership, especially rabbis who live in communities where they are the only observant Jews.
"It brings motivation and friendship and recommits us to the mission and it continues to instill in us the fact that we're in this together," Konikov said.
"I think it's a wonderful turnout," said Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, a representative from the Brooklyn headquarters. "It gives inspiration to each one of our shluchim (emissaries)."
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Diamond Billionaire Takes New York
Lev Leviev, the Israeli diamond billionaire, had a busy schedule during his visit to New York this week.
On Sunday, he flew to New York to appear in front of 4,300 black-hatted Chabad-Lubavitch rabbis. The Uzbekistan-born Leviev, who made his fortune cracking the De Beers diamond cartel, is the most powerful lay leader of the Chabad movement’s rapidly growing branch in the former Soviet Union, and he was given a standing ovation by the gender-segregated crowd.
Two days later, Leviev was still wearing his yarmulke, but this time around he appeared in front of women in low-cut dresses who had come for the opening of LEVIEV, the magnate’s flagship American diamond retailer on Madison Avenue.
Asked by the Forward about moving between such different worlds, Leviev said: “It is nice to put these worlds together, to make money and then convert the money into the spiritual. That is why I make money.”
Leviev was born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, and immigrated with his family to Israel in 1971. He learned the diamond trade and, after coming up with an innovative method for processing diamonds, started his own diamond-polishing plant.
At the Chabad event, he spoke at length, in Hebrew, about the profound influence Chabad has had on both his personal and business philosophy. The late Chabad leader Menachem Schneerson blessed him, he said, when Leviev was a young man with no money to his name.
“I did better in every business venture since,” Leviev said.
His rise has not been without controversy. Leviev has been accused of profiting from diamond mines in apartheid-era South Africa, Angola and Burma. His closeness to Russian President Vladimir Putin has also raised some eyebrows.
This came to the fore at the store opening, when a group of protesters showed up behind the velvet rope that barred the entrance to the store. The protesters were most vocal in criticizing Leviev’s involvement in developing the Palestinian territories. But they also denounced his trade with the Angolan government, widely regarded as repressive, and his real estate holdings in New York City, which have come under fire from tenants’ rights groups.
Leviev “is destroying marginal communities in New York City the same way he’s destroying Palestinian communities in the Middle East,” said protester Ethan Heitner, who identified himself as a Jewish member of the group Adalah-NY.
A source close to Leviev said that the protesters were scapegoating the diamond merchant simply because he is an Israeli citizen. The controversies went unmentioned at the Chabad event — and they were also omitted from a lengthy recent story about Leviev in The New York Times Magazine.
“When you read The New York Times article, say a shehechianu, because this is the first time The New York Times has written an article without saying a negative thing in it,” said Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky in his introductory remarks to Leviev’s speech at the Chabad banquet.
The banquet was the final event of a four-day long international Chabad conference that brought together lay leaders and shluchim (emissaries) who work in places as far-flung as Laos, Congo and Armenia.
Earlier in the weekend, attendees discussed new Chabad initiatives, which include not only the movement’s foray into online education but also a program that will give students the tools to decipher the Talmud. Leviev is president and chief donor of the Chabad-led Federation of Jewish Communities of the CIS, the most powerful Jewish organization in Russia.
“It was most gratifying to finally have the opportunity to publicly recognize Mr. Leviev for catalyzing Jewish renaissance in the former Soviet Union, as well as for his trailblazing work in other parts of the world,” Kotlarsky said in an e-mail to the Forward. “The philanthropic philosophy that he lives by, which he presented at the banquet, was deeply inspirational to both rabbi and layman alike.”
While a few Hasidic men attended the store opening several days later, the crowd was dominated by celebrities like Isabella Rossellini and Susan Sarandon. In a nod to both sets of guests, the organizers served nonkosher hors d’oeuvres but warned the Jewish attendees.
In one effort to synthesize his two worlds, Leviev employed a running metaphor during his speech at the Chabad banquet. “Every Jew is a diamond,” he said.
On Sunday, he flew to New York to appear in front of 4,300 black-hatted Chabad-Lubavitch rabbis. The Uzbekistan-born Leviev, who made his fortune cracking the De Beers diamond cartel, is the most powerful lay leader of the Chabad movement’s rapidly growing branch in the former Soviet Union, and he was given a standing ovation by the gender-segregated crowd.
Two days later, Leviev was still wearing his yarmulke, but this time around he appeared in front of women in low-cut dresses who had come for the opening of LEVIEV, the magnate’s flagship American diamond retailer on Madison Avenue.
Asked by the Forward about moving between such different worlds, Leviev said: “It is nice to put these worlds together, to make money and then convert the money into the spiritual. That is why I make money.”
Leviev was born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, and immigrated with his family to Israel in 1971. He learned the diamond trade and, after coming up with an innovative method for processing diamonds, started his own diamond-polishing plant.
At the Chabad event, he spoke at length, in Hebrew, about the profound influence Chabad has had on both his personal and business philosophy. The late Chabad leader Menachem Schneerson blessed him, he said, when Leviev was a young man with no money to his name.
“I did better in every business venture since,” Leviev said.
His rise has not been without controversy. Leviev has been accused of profiting from diamond mines in apartheid-era South Africa, Angola and Burma. His closeness to Russian President Vladimir Putin has also raised some eyebrows.
This came to the fore at the store opening, when a group of protesters showed up behind the velvet rope that barred the entrance to the store. The protesters were most vocal in criticizing Leviev’s involvement in developing the Palestinian territories. But they also denounced his trade with the Angolan government, widely regarded as repressive, and his real estate holdings in New York City, which have come under fire from tenants’ rights groups.
Leviev “is destroying marginal communities in New York City the same way he’s destroying Palestinian communities in the Middle East,” said protester Ethan Heitner, who identified himself as a Jewish member of the group Adalah-NY.
A source close to Leviev said that the protesters were scapegoating the diamond merchant simply because he is an Israeli citizen. The controversies went unmentioned at the Chabad event — and they were also omitted from a lengthy recent story about Leviev in The New York Times Magazine.
“When you read The New York Times article, say a shehechianu, because this is the first time The New York Times has written an article without saying a negative thing in it,” said Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky in his introductory remarks to Leviev’s speech at the Chabad banquet.
The banquet was the final event of a four-day long international Chabad conference that brought together lay leaders and shluchim (emissaries) who work in places as far-flung as Laos, Congo and Armenia.
Earlier in the weekend, attendees discussed new Chabad initiatives, which include not only the movement’s foray into online education but also a program that will give students the tools to decipher the Talmud. Leviev is president and chief donor of the Chabad-led Federation of Jewish Communities of the CIS, the most powerful Jewish organization in Russia.
“It was most gratifying to finally have the opportunity to publicly recognize Mr. Leviev for catalyzing Jewish renaissance in the former Soviet Union, as well as for his trailblazing work in other parts of the world,” Kotlarsky said in an e-mail to the Forward. “The philanthropic philosophy that he lives by, which he presented at the banquet, was deeply inspirational to both rabbi and layman alike.”
While a few Hasidic men attended the store opening several days later, the crowd was dominated by celebrities like Isabella Rossellini and Susan Sarandon. In a nod to both sets of guests, the organizers served nonkosher hors d’oeuvres but warned the Jewish attendees.
In one effort to synthesize his two worlds, Leviev employed a running metaphor during his speech at the Chabad banquet. “Every Jew is a diamond,” he said.
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