Rabbi Chanoch and Mimi Kaplan, Chabad of Franklin Lakes, NJOur Own Little Corner of New JerseyWe started 23 years ago with nothing but a pipe dream and the determination to enhance the Yiddishkeit of Jews in Franklin Lakes and neighboring towns. Although we’re just a thirty-minute-drive away from numerous large and active frum communities, Franklin Lakes was an isolated, quiet corner of Bergen County with no authentic Yiddishkeit, the perfect place for Jewish people to blend into anonymity. Geographically, it was close, yet spiritually, it felt as dist
You Never Know When Or Where You’ll Meet Another JewWe made the “mistake” of first visiting Stockholm on a beautiful summer day. The weather was glorious, the scenery picturesque, and the people, friendly and cheerful. We were taken with stunning Stockholm and quickly made the decision to make it our new home.We started our shlichus a few months later in a city that was almost unrecognizable. The cold winter weather mangled the landscape, throwing a dark, gloomy cast over the city, and sent everyone scurrying for the cozy hibernation of their homes
Rabbi Chaim and Chayala Markovits, Chabad of Rural Georgia, USAIngathering One Jew at a TimeOur shlichus is unique, since we are full-time Merkos shluchim. Over the summer, bochurim are sent out in pairs to small communities all over the world. What bochurim have been doing for the better part of the century - knocking on doors and cold calling - is what we do every day. When we were first approached, we were wary about spending so much of our lives in an RV. We agreed, but were still very nervous. Before making such a big decision, we found i
The Real Stars of the Hollywood Hills - Rabbi Berki and Rochela Rodal, Chabad of Mt. Olympus Hollywood Hills West, CAIn 1970, the Rebbe sent my in-laws, Rabbi Naftoli and Fayge Estulin, to Los Angeles. Years before the Iron Curtain fell, well before anyone even dreamed of such a possibility, the Rebbe’s instructions guaranteed a supportive infrastructure for the first wave of Jewish Russian immigrants that flocked to California later that decade.Twenty-four years ago, my wife and I moved to Mt. Olympus, in the beautiful Hollywood Hills, to serve
Rabbi Mendy and Esther Hecht, Chabad of Auckland, New ZealandThe Almost Incomplete Arba MinimWe order lulavim and esrogim months before Tishrei. It takes ages to ship anything all the way to the end of the world, and importing plants to New Zealand is a long, complicated legal process. We always breathe a sigh of relief when the shipment comes in, and we can finally hold a kosher esrog, lulav, hadassim, and aravos in our hands. Two years ago, there was a shortage of avaros. The esrog, lulav, and hadassim came, but there were no aravos to complete th
Rabbi Avi and Mina Richler, Chabad of Mullica Hill, New JerseyMy husband and I were both excited to try and refill the gaping holes the Nazis and Communists ym”s left in our families. As soon as we descended from the high of newlywed life, we found it wouldn’t be quite as easy as we had planned.I was working for a fellow shliach at that time, and although I hadn’t been there long or developed a deep relationship with the shlucha, she gave us the opportunity to be her son’s kvatter at his bris, a known segula for having children of our own.We were
Rabbi Yitzi and Rochel Loewenthal, Chabad of Copenhagen, DenmarkWhy Is the Rebbe on My TV?While some stories remain unverified, the claim that Denmark and its people went to great lengths to protect their Jewish population during WWII is an immovable, inarguable fact. The Jewish community in Denmark is an old and respected one. Two prominent shluchim, Rabbi Chaikin and Rabbi Osdoba, were sent here as far back as the 60s. They received much guidance and personal instructions from the Rebbe.The Grays, a Chabad family living in Copenhagen in the 90s,
Although Shlichus did not motivate my initial visit to Hawaii, while there, I stumbled across the beginnings of a structured Jewish community. It was summertime; I’d met a local Jew, Jim Rosen, who happened to be close to Chabad in Anchorage, Alaska, and later, Honolulu. I asked him about their plans for the High Holidays, and he said the local community would meet up every so often to hold services, using a church as their venue. Running a minyan for the Yomim Nora'im was the furthest thing from my mind, but Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur were approachi
Rabbi Yossi and Mariashi Groner, Chabad of Charlotte, North CarolinaShlichus Ripple EffectAs a bochur, I visited North and South Carolina a few times on Merkos shlichus, a shlichus for bochurim who travel to small cities during the summer. One time after I returned, Rabbi Chadakov, the Rebbe’s secretary, told me to stay in contact with the Jews I met since neither state had an official shliach yet. I continued visiting for yomim tovim and brought other bochurim with me.In 1980, when the Carolinas were ready for their own shliach, Rabbi Kotlarsky, on be
Both of us grew up in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, in the Rebbe’s neighborhood, where we could see the Rebbe often and easily attend farbrengens. But, on the downside, neither of us had any contacts in the shlichus world, so choosing a location to set up wasn’t so easy.We looked around and Spokane County, Washington caught our eye. It was a very small community and we knew we had our work cut out for us. Washington is one of the larger states, but at the time, there weren’t many shluchim. I spoke to the rabbi of the local Conservative shul. He told me
