Rabbi Yossi & Chana Madvig - CHABAD OF OSWEGO New YorkNeither of us come from an Orthodox Jewish background. I was raised in a Conservative/Reform home and did not have much of an education. In fact, I went through a phase of interest in Christianity in college. I may have continued to follow along with that path had I not bumped into an anti-missionary group.When I told my parents that I was involved with Christianity, they urged me to at the very least speak with their (Conservative) rabbi in LA, who said that there was a different side to th
Rabbi Mendel and Esther Lifshitz & Family of Boise, IdahoOur shlichus is not an assembly-line shlichus; it is handmade. Every neshama is hand-crafted. We wouldn’t trade it for the world. We had the incredible opportunity to build up our community from the ground up.….We absolutely won the lottery. The Rebbe chose us to be the Shluchim in Boise, Idaho. There was no logical reason for us to end up here. My wife and I have no connection to Idaho. She was raised in South Africa, I’m from Cincinnati, and had never even been here as a (bochur to visi
Moving on shlichus to Bayview, a neighborhood in Toronto about half an hour’s drive from where I grew up, was not a difficult decision to make. Although I had various shlichus offers to places as exotic as the Caribbean, soon after my wedding, Rabbi Grossbaum pulled me into his office and told me, “You’re coming home. You know what this place needs, and there is plenty of work for you to do.”Bayview is an affluent area, primarily inhabited by established Canadian families with homes averaging $7 million. It’s a neighborhood with people set in i
Rabbi Oshy and Zeesy Deren Chabad of the West Coast - Blouberg, Cape Town, South AfricaAs people in almost every significant English speaking Jewish community in the world know, South African Jews are unique. Unlike in other places, the community here hasn’t assimilated at the levels that you see in most other places. Even the non-observant Jewish people hold a very strong sense of tradition and affiliation to Yiddishkeit and Torah. When we were first approached by Rabbi Mendel and Rebbetzin Avi Popack, who started Chabad in Cape Town,
On that cold winter night in 2006, we pulled up in front of our new home. There were no bells and whistles, no welcoming committee, and no friendly neighbors bearing platters of chocolate chip cookies. It was just dark, cold, and very late. We unpacked a few things, set up the beds, and tried to get some rest. But how can you sleep if your new house is freezing cold? After tossing and turning for most of the night in the cold, I went downstairs and sighed. There were piles of boxes everywhere, we didn’t know a soul in town, and… hey, what w
In the summer of 1985, having completed a two-year shlichus internship at Yeshiva Ohr Elchonon Chabad in Los Angeles, I was invited to assist Rabbi Moshe Bryski in expanding Chabad’s activities in the Conejo Valley, an area made up of small towns 30 miles northwest of L.A. A handful of families who were part of his shul in Westlake Village were slowly becoming shomer Shabbos and asked him to start a minyan in their neighborhood. In addition to serving as their rabbi, my responsibilities also included running a Hebrew School, teaching adult classes
Rabbi Chalom & Esti Loeub - Campus Shluchim to The University of British Columbia in Vancouver. As a bochur, I volunteered at the Chabad of Florida State University. It was the first time I experienced true connection. I knew I wanted to spend my life doing this and luckily my wife held a similar dream. We spent the beginning of our marriage looking at different cities and trying to find our place. I, a Montreal native, didn’t even consider Canada. But after some time of coming up empty, we heard of an opportunity at the University of Br
The Whole World is Made of Small Shtetlach! —The RebbeIn a Southern Colorado City, a Jew gets Shmurah Matzah. Down in a resort town, a Tanya is being printed. In the aisles of Trader Joe’s, someone connects to his Yiddishkeit. Welcome to the life of Rabbi Liberow, the Shliach to Colorado Springs. Colorado attracts many tourists because of its natural beauty and sprawling mountains. One key attraction is the Telluride Ski Resort, which is a six-hour drive from us. It attracts many Yidden from the East Coast, especially during the summer mont
Mendy and I were both born and raised in Crown Heights, but our families moved during our elementary school years. Eventually, we both made it back to Crown Heights for High School and Yeshiva. In 1994, the first Chai Elul after Gimmel Tammuz, we got married. A year later, we decided to move to Florida. I wanted to be closer to my family - plus, we thought shlichus there would be an amazing opportunity. At the time, all the big cities had shluchim, but the small towns didn’t. We were offered a shlichus in North Miami Beach, where I spe
The first time I came to Montana, I was still a bochur. It was the summer of 2004, and my friend Yitzchak Feldman (today a Shliach in Bend, Oregon) and I spent a month here visiting Jewish homes across the state. At the time, I never saw this becoming my permanent home. But still, the Jews I had met remained close to me and when Pesach rolled around I sent Shmura Matza to each of their homes. The feedback I received was amazing. When summer 2005 rolled around, Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky asked me what my plans were and I told him I wasn’t sure.
