Thousands attend Chabad emissaries’ gathering

November 15, 2009

NEW YORK (JTA) -- Thousands of Chabad emissaries converged on New York for their annual meeting.

Representatives from around the world involved in the Chasidic movement's outreach program gathered last Friday for a three-day event in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, the site of Chabad-Lubavitch world headquarters.

"This is a significant year for us, a time to take a look at where we are as a movement and where we should be," Rabbi Yehuda Shemtov, a Chabad official and the keynote speaker at event's banquet, was quoted by Chabad.org as saying. “We will also address the down-to-earth, practical side of how we’re going to get there."

Participants were set to visit the grave of the rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, attend a banquet and pose for a mass picture including all 3,000 emissaries.

The emissaries, known as schlichim, also are scheduled to unveil a Torah scroll in memory of Rabbi Gavriel and Rivkah Holtzberg, who were killed by Muslim terrorists last year in Mumbai, India, where they headed the Chabad mission.

Outposts of Chabad's outreach program span the globe, from the Congo to Canada, offering local and traveling Jews with a place to worship and connect with their Jewish identity.

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Thousands attend Chabad emissaries’ gathering

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