Ethan Benenson// Hunterdon County, NJ
Every year, THOUSANDS of Chabad Shluchim (emissaries) from all over the world gather together at a massive convention in New York City for five days of celebration, learning, and inspiration. Despite COVID-19’s impact in the last few years, Chabad houses from Alaska to Australia are thriving and many more are being established almost every day.
The yearly convention is a chance for Chabad rabbis to attend all kinds of workshops to learn more about how to be effective emissaries while inspiring each other as they celebrate all of their accomplishments in the past year.
I talked with Rabbi Avraham Posner, from the Chabad of Hunterdon County in New Jersey about his experience at the Convention’s main banquet:
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What was the number one highlight from your experience at the Convention?
“Once they finished dedicating 36 brand new torah scrolls that are going to be distributed to communities all around the world that don’t have their own…they started playing music as all the torah scrolls were being passed around in this huge room of 7000 people.
“There was just tremendous dancing with the greatest of rabbis and supporters… there was even one holocaust survivor there who was amazed by what was happening, and just tremendous, tremendous joy about Am Yisorel Chai; how this is a representation of every single Jewish community around the world.
“In the middle of the dancing, there was one moment where I was just with my friend’s father from Plano, Texas, a former classmate who is a Rabbi right now in North Carolina, and one or two more good friends-- All people that I really respect and who are super sincere…just completely given over to their communities, and as we were dancing together, it was a very special moment for me, because I see other Rabbis, and I’m inspired by them, but these I each knew and know how devoted they are, so that was really special.”
What was your favorite speech that you heard?
“One of the speeches was by a supporter who has given tens of millions of dollars to Chabad over the years. There are hundreds of Chabad centers that have his family’s name on their building.
“But specifically, he gives a lot of money towards Chabad on Campuses. He’s really changed Chabad’s impact for college students and he was talking about the partnership between supporters and the rabbis. At one point, he gave a shoutout and said that the big credit goes to all the shluchos/rebbetzins, and there was a roar of applause.”
Since you were at the banquet, what was the most delicious food they had?
“They had this combo of steak AND stuffed chicken and I was just switching off between one and the other…It was just amazing.”
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As you can probably tell from Rabbi Avraham’s account, the Convention (and especially the banquet) was an incredible experience. Let’s try to match their energy at the upcoming Shabbaton in February!
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