Jewish business and communal leaders from across the globe are heading to New York this weekend for the annual Chabad-Lubavitch International Lay Leadership Conference.
The Sunday meeting at a Brooklyn hotel runs concurrently to the International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Emissaries, a five-day series of workshops, classes and inspirational gatherings for the approximately 4,000 emissaries serving Jewish communities from New Zealand to Nepal to Hawaii and all points in between. Participants from both events will gather Sunday night for a gala banquet known as the largest sit-down dinner in New York City.
Featured speakers at the lay leadership conference include Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky, chairman of the educational and social service arms of Chabad-Lubavitch; Russian Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar; Rabbi Shraga Sherman, a graduate of the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania who went on to found the Chabad Center of the Main Line in suburban Philadelphia; Rabbi Dovid Eliezrie, director of Chabad of North County in Yorba Linda, Calif.; and radio host Dennis Prager.
“The lay leadership conference is a way for local leaders to come and share in the emissaries’ conference and, at the same time, derive inspiration from each other,” says Eliezrie, who is chairing the Sunday event with the cooperation of Rabbi Mendel Kotlarsky at Lubavitch World Headquarters.
“This year we really have a stellar program lined up,” he stresses.
The conference will commence with a Chasidic philosophy class and progress through a series of speakers, panels and networking opportunities for the approximately 400 lay leaders attending. Sherman will discuss his metamorphosis as a graduate of one of the United States’ most prestigious business schools to local rabbi, and how his background informs his management of a growing Jewish organization.
“Complex problem solving is required in anything dealing with budgets and financial management,” explains Sherman. “Business people in the community have wonderful ideas and it helps to be able to converse in their language.”
Jeffrey Cohen of Potomac, Md., will join philanthropist George Rohr, Argentine businessman and chairman of the governing board of the World Jewish Congress Eduardo Elsztain and Brazilian businessman Meyer Nigri to discuss the primacy of local support in enabling emissaries to help strengthen Jewish life. The dialogue is called “Venture Capital and Sweat Equity.”
Cohen says that over the past 28 years, Chabad has been vital in educating him about Jewish practice and Chasidic philosophy. Today he backs local programs under the direction of Rabbi Shmuel Kaplan, director of Chabad-Lubavitch of Maryland; the Jerusalem-based Mayanot Institute of Jewish Studies; the social service organization Colel Chabad; Jewish Educational Media; and the Jewish website Chabad.org.
“I’ll be stressing how we need to really push ourselves harder to give generously during the recession,” says Cohen. “It’s during times like this that our values and priorities are most tested, and our partnership is vital now more than ever.”
In explaining his passion to support Chabad-Lubavitch outreach to Jews worldwide, Cohen refers to the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory.
“I feel that in my own way I’m part of the Rebbe’s work, contributing my part to the Rebbe’s staggering vision for the Jewish people,” he says. Especially when seeing up-close how his “emissaries commit their lives to serve Jewish people, putting everything else aside, they deserve our support.”
Steve Goodman is the owner of the Nestegg Group, an investment firm in Lincolnwood, Ill. He and his wife Sharon Raskas Goodman founded the Chicago branch of the Friendship Circle, and support other local and international programs, such as Mayanot in Jerusalem and the Shluchim Office in New York. This will be his third lay leadership conference.
“My wife and I feel we’re emissaries to the emissaries. We serve them,” says Goodman. “It’s incredibly reinforcing when you see the efficacy of what’s going on in Chabad worldwide in order to make the world a better place, to have Jews shed light and do a mitzvah.”
Lazar will lead a plenary session about the future of Judaism in the former Soviet Union, and roundtable discussions will allow lay leaders to exchange ideas.
After concluding at 4:00 p.m., participants will then head to the banquet at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal. New Jersey businessman Jeffrey Lefkovits will be there, his third banquet.
“There’s tons of energy,” he relates, “and it’s just an incredible gathering of people. You really get to see how successful Chabad is, and it inspires me to be a partner with them for the next year.”
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