This past weekend, the Orthodox Jewish community homes in Crown Heights were flooded with female Chabad emissaries from all around the world.
Girls of all ages bustled up and down Kingston Ave, stopping at the kosher ice cream store Sweet Expressions to grab a bite to eat. Women filled the shops, looking for Tznius (modest) clothing to bring back to the little ones at home.
The Kinus Hashluchim is an annual international conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Women Emissaries, an initiative started by the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
Chabad Shluchim (Emissaries), as they are widely known, are sent to various different parts of the globe to build and foster a Jewish community in places that may lack one. Many of the Emissaries are sent when they are newlywed in their young twenties, some being sent to places where they have no familiarity with the language or ever stepped foot in before.
Dini Freundlich from the Chabad Emissary to Bejinig since 2001 made that clear in her keynote speech to the crowds at the evening banquet this past Sunday, “It was very very far, and almost nobody in Beijing speaks English till today. It was different to everything I grew up with and everything I’m used to, but slowly with time, we have felt welcomed there and have learned to make Beijing our home.” she said.
Making foreign places feel like home is a necessity to many of the Emissaries, no matter how difficult it is. A big part of the Chabad-Lubavitch’s MO is making those who don’t regularly frequent Jewish synagogues or have much familiarity with Judaism feel as though they are at home when they step foot into Chabad synagogues. That is largely a reason why Chabad temples all around the world are known as “Chabad Houses”- to imbue the atmosphere with a feeling of warmth, a place where you can be accepted just as you are.
At the conference, Mushkie Hecht spoke about her Chabad House in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico and about a traveler named Maya Weiss who stopped at the synagogue for the holiday of Hanukkah. Maya explained that, “at the end of that week, I felt like I was a part of the community.”
But as Maya continued her journey to Yelapa through the Puerto Vallarta jungle she became disoriented as rain poured around her. Lost and anxious, the days stretched before her and she became close to just giving in. Finally spotting a river, she was able to find service for her cell phone- and the first one she thought to call was Mushky from Chabad of Puerto Vallarta.
“I remember when I left Chabad they had told me, ‘you’re a part of the family now so if you need anything we’ll help you.’” Maya said. She was rescued after insistent urgings from the Chabad.
The Kinus, happens once every year. All the hardworking women emissaries get to unite with their fellow women who understand the hardships that come from this line of work. But more importantly, they can unite over the joy that it brings, and the family and friends they have been able to build through being a Chabad Emissary.
