Tuesday, May 23, 2023
In Morocco, conference brings together rabbis from three continents
Dozens of rabbinic families affiliated with the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement gathered in Casablanca, Morocco, last week for a conference aimed at Chabad leaders serving small Jewish communities across Africa, the Middle East and Europe.
They came from 40 different countries, some making the short hop from mainland Spain or its Canary Islands, others coming from as far as Zambia.
"A criteria to come to participate in this conference was to come from a community where you've had to schlep kosher food in a suitcase," Rabbi Mendy Chitrik, a Chabad rabbi based in Istanbul and the director of the Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States, joked to Religion News Service.
In truth, the gathering had no such entry bar, but it is a reality that strictly Orthodox Jews like Chitrik and his colleagues face when based far outside of large traditional Jewish communities.
That's Chabad's modus operandi.
The Hasidic sect has made a name for itself traveling to wherever Jews may be to provide outlets for Jewish life there.
For some rabbis that means spending much of their time catering to Israeli tourists or business travelers in far-flung locales. For others, it means settling in a Jewish community that may once have been historically vibrant, but today is aging and in decline after a century of upheaval for the global Jewish community.
Such rabbis are called "shluchim," or emissaries, and their wives, who serve an essential role in the movement, are called "rebetzins." Both gathered together in Casablanca to discuss the issues they face.
"When a Chabad rabbi moves to a country, it's a permanent station," Rabbi Levi Duchman, who came to the conference from the United Arab Emirates, told RNS.
Comments:
Post a Comment
