Malcolm Hoenlein
Malcolm Hoenlein
Malcolm Hoenlein
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks at a previous Kinus
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks at a previous Kinus
Senator Joseph Lieberman
Senator Joseph Lieberman

By Larry Gordon

This used to be Jewish-organization dinner season–the weeks following the Jewish holidays up until approximately the occurrence of the non-Jewish holidays and vacation or break time toward the end of December. But now, due to the existence of an abundance of such organizations, that season essentially extends through most of the year.

Your humble editor is accepting an award in recognition and in memory of my father, Rabbi Nison Gordon, at a dinner for the benefit of the Bet El community just outside of Jerusalem on December 4 at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in Times Square. This is traditionally one of New York’s most well-attended and biggest dinners, with attendance usually topping 1,500 attendees.

The vastness and the numerical as well as other significance of this event is a tribute to the many decades of personal involvement and commitment of Eugen Gluck, a philanthropist and activist involved in a great number of aspects and causes in Jewish life, some known, like Bet El, and many others unpublicized.

Before that dinner, however, on November 27–at the tail end of the Thanksgiving weekend–Brooklyn will play host to what has long been considered the granddaddy of all organizational dinner events. Chabad emissaries, or shluchim as they are known internally, gather in Crown Heights for the annual Kinus, or get-together, that brings mostly men and some of the women (the women have their own gathering later in the year) together for a long weekend and Shabbos of inspiration.

The vision and mission of the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, zt’l, who passed away more than 22 years ago, has changed the world–and more specifically, the Jewish world–in a unique fashion.

Next Sunday, on a redecorated-for-the-night Brooklyn pier, about 5,000 shluchim and their supporters from around the world will gather for the indisputably largest conventional Jewish organizational dinner in New York and possibly the world. There are many high points during the year in the world of Chabad shlichus, but this is probably the summit, so to speak, of the myriad inroads, accomplishments, and small and not-so-small miracles that have become somewhat routine in this unusual world within the larger world in which we reside.

Just over the last few years, in attendance at these dinners, we were privileged to hear insights and stories from featured speakers about their personal relationships with the Rebbe and how it steered them in certain directions that altered their lives, their communities, and, in some instances, the Jewish world. Three of the most riveting presentations over the last few years were by Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, former Senator Joe Lieberman, and Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein. When they were in their respective offices, unbeknownst to many of us, consulting with the Lubavitcher Rebbe for guidance on any number of issues was possibly uncharacteristic but also a common and routine practice.

At this coming Sunday’s dinner for 5,000, the keynote speaker will be Executive Vice President of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations Malcolm Hoenlein. For more than 25 years, Mr. Hoenlein has been at the center of power and the man charged with communicating the consensus opinion and position of the organized American Jewish community when it comes to the matter of Israel policy. Hoenlein often represents the beliefs and policies of Israeli leaders to U.S. officials as well as the other way.

Hoenlein is Orthodox, a Yeshiva graduate who resides in Brooklyn. He is perhaps the most knowledgeable person on the scene today who is most trusted everywhere from the White House to the prime minister’s offices in Jerusalem. Hoenlein, over these two-and-a-half decades, has been involved in some controversial matters in the highs and lows of U.S.—Israel relations. For the purposes of this essay, however, as we head into the Kinus Hashluchim and his keynote address Sunday night, we talked about the role and influence the Rebbe has had in guiding him in his decision-making process over all these years.

“The last time I met with the Rebbe was in 1991 about the matter of Soviet Jewry,” Malcolm Hoenlein says. “It was as if it was just the continuation of a conversation that we had held months prior on the subject,” he says. And that is apparently a recurring theme of many in these high-profile leadership positions who from time to time would make the trip to Crown Heights to meet with the Rebbe. I heard it from Rabbi Sacks as well as from Speaker Edelstein. The Rebbe possessed this powerful ability to recall details of conversations or correspondence regardless of how much time had elapsed in between meetings.

“The Rebbe kept the plight of Soviet Jewry on the map through a period in time when it may not have been forgotten but certainly may not have been a high priority in the Jewish community,” Hoenlein says. Hoenlein speaks reflectively and fondly about the effort to manage to get the Soviets to release Professor Herman Branover, a Russian physicist and Hebrew teacher who became a chassid of the Rebbe while still inside the Soviet Union. According to his online biography, “Branover was born in Riga, Latvia, into an atheist Jewish family. His father was killed in World War II by Latvian Nazi collaborators, but his mother managed to escape with him to Russia and survive. He earned his Ph.D. from the Moscow Aviation Institute specializing in magnetohydrodynamics, and completed a D.Sc. degree in physics and mathematics at the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute. Concurrently, he spent a substantial part of his time in the National Library of Russia where he learned Hebrew from whatever books he could find there. After finishing his studies in Saint Petersburg, he returned to Riga and started working in several scientific institutions while also making inroads into the Chabad movement. When he had first applied for permission to immigrate to Israel, he lost his academic job and made his living by selling clothing.”

“We raised the money to be the Soviet exit tax,” Hoenlein recalls. And he adds that this was a case that had the Rebbe’s attention and was a high priority in the Lubavitch headquarters in Brooklyn.

“The Rebbe’s views were way ahead of his time,” Hoenlein says. He says that once he joined the Presidents Conference there were numerous times when he had the opportunity to consult with and discuss matters with the Rebbe. “There were few things that were more important to the Rebbe than protecting the wholeness and the integrity of the land of Israel.” He adds, and it is known from other sources as well as recordings of farbrengens and books that have been written, that in the aftermath of the Six Day War in 1967, the Rebbe spoke consistently and forcefully against Israel surrendering any land to the Palestinian Arabs or any neighboring Arab country.

More than just a few times, Prime Minister Netanyahu has spoken glowingly about his personal encounters with the Rebbe and the Rebbe’s reference to Bibi when he was Israel’s UN ambassador, about the mistruths that are the hallmark of the UN, and how Israel and he, as the Jewish state’s representative there, is the beacon of light that will illuminate an otherwise dark anti-Israel arena.

When we spoke on Sunday, Malcolm Hoenlein, who has spoken in forums around the world, said that he was not yet certain what he would speak about or which direction his remarks would be focused. I suggested that they will certainly be about his relationship with the Rebbe and I assured him that most of our readers will not be amongst the 5,000 attendees of the dinner so he does not have to be concerned about me revealing too much.

He listened to what I was saying and then spoke about his early years as a young child and young adult being raised in Philadelphia and his relationship with the Rebbe’s shaliach in that city, Rabbi Avraham Shem Tov, who today is one of the senior leaders of the Chabad organization.

“He brought me to Crown Heights on a number of occasions as a young teen along with others from our community and those meetings were memorable as well as meaningful,” Hoenlein says. As the years passed, Malcolm says, he consulted the Rebbe about career changes he was contemplating prior to joining the Conference of Presidents. It looks like the Rebbe advised him to take the job where he has played such a vital role in the U.S.—Israel relationship and in matters that impact world Jewry.

It will be a big night for Chabad on so many levels, as two entities that have accomplished so much cross paths once again. That is Mr. Hoenlein and the Lubavitcher Rebbe, represented by his emissaries who, with inspiration that emanated from one man, stirred the world, changed lives, and has even shaken the planet. v

Comments for Larry Gordon are welcome at editor@5tjt.com.

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