{"id":83,"date":"2010-11-09T15:15:49","date_gmt":"2010-11-09T15:15:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/rabbishmuleyunleashed\/2010\/11\/an-outsider-comes-home-to-5000-chabad-colleagues.html"},"modified":"2010-11-09T15:15:49","modified_gmt":"2010-11-09T15:15:49","slug":"an-outsider-comes-home-to-5000-chabad-colleagues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/rabbishmuleyunleashed\/2010\/11\/an-outsider-comes-home-to-5000-chabad-colleagues.htm","title":{"rendered":"An Outsider Comes Home to 5000 Chabad Colleagues"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n

7 November 2010 – Tonight I attended the international Chabad emissary conference – the Kinus Hashluchim HaOlami – for the first time in sixteen years. When I was the Rebbe’s emissary at Oxford University I came annually. But with my split from Chabad over my inclusion of non-Jewish students at Oxford, I stopped.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

A lot has changed in that time. The man responsible for my firing from Chabad was himself fired. My close friend Cory Booker, whom I made president of our organization and who became the symbol of the non-Jewish outreach that cost me my position in Lubavitch, has become an American political superstar and one of the most sough-after speakers in the American Jewish community and will be the guest of honor at next month’s Colel Chabad dinner. Most significantly, the Rebbe passed away a few months after the last conference I attended.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n


\n<\/p>\n


<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

So it was with some trepidation and more than a little lingering
\npain that I joined my former colleagues in Chabad’s annual celebration of its
\nglobal network of Ambassadors.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

How did it feel? Like being reborn. Like coming home and having a
\ncentral riddle of one’s life make sense again.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

What motivated a modern-orthodox boy of eight to fall in love with a
\nHassidic Jewish group who in the 1970’s was largely dismissed as a cult? More
\nthan anything it was this: Chabad made me feel like my life mattered. In a
\nprivate audience the Rebbe told me I was born for great things. I was part of
\nan eternal people who had vastly contributed to the dissemination of G-d’s
\nlight in an otherwise dark world. Through persecutions and holocausts,
\nassimilation and intermarriage, materialism and ignorance, that people were now
\nendangered. And there was a sage who lived in Brooklyn whose English was broken
\nbut whose determination was resolute. He would, before he died, breathe new
\nlife into a fading nation. He beckoned me to join him as an agent of Jewish
\nrenewal.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Chabad became the passion of my life. Defying my parents’ strong
\nobjections I left home at fourteen to be part of the Rebbe’s dream of a global
\nJewish renaissance and never looked back. A few years later I was his official
\nrepresentative at an important center of higher education, surrounded by
\nimpressionable young minds who thirsted for spiritual purpose.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I knew then in theory what I witnessed tonight in practice: Chabad
\nwould one day take over the Jewish world. Why? Because of the grandnest of
\ntheir vision and the passion with which they executed their mission. Other
\nJewish organizations sought to educate the people about their tradition. But
\nChabad sought to raise the earth’s inhabitants to a higher G-d-consciousness
\nand to make Judaism the driving force in every decision of daily life. The
\npassion and dedication of Chabad emissaries was infectious. They did not preach
\nthe Torah. Rather it coursed their veins, seeping out of every pore. Hassidic
\nteachings about the approachability of G-d and the accessibility of a higher
\nspiritual reality was grafted onto the average Chabad activists’ very DNA,
\nbecoming an inseparable part of their character and personality.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Witnessing the fulfillment of that premonition tonight at the
\nconference was an awakening. Chabad is no longer merely a Jewish movement.
\nIt is<\/i> Judaism. I find it astonishing that Prime Minister
\nNetanyahu flew in from Israel to attend the Jewish Federations Annual General
\nAssembly but bypassed the Chabad Shluchim conference. If an Israeli Prime
\nMinister wants to be part of the gradual unfolding of modern Jewish history
\nthen he has to address Chabad. No other organization even comes close to its
\nglobal reach and grass roots impact. And it is growing exponentially.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

When I last attended the Chabad Shluchim conference there were a few
\nhundred of us from about twenty countries. We all fit into a small ballroom. A
\ndecade and a half later there are 5000 from 80 countries. No doubt, with its
\nstaggering birthrate and about half of all its members dedicating themselves to
\na lifelong posting, by the year 2020 Chabad will be fielding more than 15,000
\nemissaries in nearly all the world’s nations and will be the mainstream Jewish
\nbranch in most. In countries like France, Russia, Australia, and Britain this
\nhas largely happened. But even in countries with robust and highly developed
\nJewish communities like the United States and Canada the smart money will be on
\nChabad to emerge as leader.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, it is not just Chabad which has changed so dramatically
\nover the past 16 years. I have changed as well. My love for Chabad is just as
\ndeep, but I am past my infatuation. I see flaws that need to be corrected. The
\nleadership must strive to be more democratic. A growing nepotism must be
\nreversed in favor of the meritocracy which was responsible for Chabad’s
\nastonishing cultivation of entrepreneurial talent. Most of all, if it is to
\nimpact the mainstream rather than just the Jewish world Chabad must finally
\novercome its Jewish insularity and embrace the Rebbe’s collective vision of a
\nglobal Messianic awakening.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Indeed, what was most missing from the gathering tonight was the Rebbe’s
\ntangible presence. Chabad was never about money. Indeed, for me it was a refuge
\nfrom modernity’s corrosive materialism. But a global movement with an enormous
\nbudget must honor the heroic philanthropists who make their work possible. But
\nit must be done in a manner that never compromises the Rebbe’s defining
\ncharacteristic of treating paupers and billionaires as being of equal and
\ninfinite value.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

But whatever my reservations, the electrifying spectacle tonight
\nmore than compensates. Not long ago the Jewish people were made to believe that
\nif they were to succeed in the modern world they would have to make
\naccommodations with strict adherence to tradition. Scraggly beards would have
\nto be shaved off. Large families would have to give way to two kids and a dog.
\nNames like Elazar and Tova would have change to Leo and Tiffany. Yeshiva and
\nsmicha would have to be forfeited in favor of  Wharton and a Masters.
\nEven orthodox Jews embraced this vision, if not in the name of progress than at
\nleast in the name of survival.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

And yet, the movement that has superseded them all is that which
\ncontinues to believe that Judaism is so potent that the world will slowly bend
\nto accommodate it rather than the reverse.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


<\/i><\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

7 November 2010 – Tonight I attended the international Chabad emissary conference – the Kinus Hashluchim HaOlami – for the first time in sixteen years. When I was the Rebbe’s emissary at Oxford University I came annually. 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