Miami Shliach Rabbi Alex Kaller to Address Kinus Banquet

Florida Shliach Rabbi Alex Kaller, who grew up with little knowledge of Yiddishkeit, will reveal a discovery that brought his connection to the Rebbe full circle at the Kinus Hashluchim banquet.

By COLlive reporter

Rabbi Alex Kaller, who grew up in Soviet Moscow with little knowledge of Yiddishkeit and later built a thriving Chabad community in South Florida, will share his remarkable journey at the International Kinus Hashluchim Gala Banquet this Sunday, November 8.

At the heart of his presentation will be a remarkable moment from his youth, when he was chosen to light the Chanukah menorah in Moscow as the Rebbe watched via satellite on the Chanukah Live program.

Decades later, an extraordinary discovery would shed new light on that experience, revealing a connection spanning more than 30 years and thousands of miles. Rabbi Kaller is expected to share that story with the thousands of Shluchim and supporters gathered for the banquet in Edison, New Jersey.

Born in Moscow in 1976, Rabbi Kaller was raised in a secular Jewish family. His parents were proud of their Jewish identity, but religious observance was virtually nonexistent in their home.

“Maybe the only Jewish thing in my childhood that I remember is matzah,” he recalled in a recent interview on the “Wisdom from the Field” podcast.

He was introduced to Yiddishkeit under unexpected circumstances. As a teenager, he was beaten by older students at school following an antisemitic confrontation. Some time later, the school principal gave him the phone number of a Jewish educator who taught Hebrew and Jewish studies.

That encounter opened the door to an entirely new world.

He began visiting Moscow’s historic Marina Roscha synagogue, where a chance meeting with a young man who offered to teach him the Alef-Beis sparked his interest in Torah and mitzvos. He soon enrolled in the newly established Chabad school in Moscow.

During those formative years, the Rebbe selected him to represent Russian Jewry at a Chanukah menorah lighting watched via satellite.

He says the experience’s full significance became clear to him only much later.

After continuing his studies in Lubavitch Yeshiva in London and eventually in the United States, Rabbi Kaller developed a strong desire to dedicate his life to reaching Russian-speaking Jews who, like himself, had grown up deprived of a Jewish education.

A chance encounter during a vacation in Miami led him to discover the large Russian-speaking Jewish population in South Florida. Convinced that the community needed a dedicated Shliach, he approached the late Rabbi Avraham Korf, Florida’s Head Shliach, and repeatedly pressed his case.

In February 2002, he arrived in Miami knowing virtually nobody, determined to establish a Jewish community.

Together with his wife, Chani Kaller (nee Altein), whom he married later that year, he began building that community from the ground up.

Twenty-four years later, the Chabad Russian Center has grown into a major institution, serving thousands of Jewish households and operating from the newly dedicated, six-story Leizer Verbukh Jewish Community Center overlooking Biscayne Bay.

The approximately 39,000-square-foot facility houses a shul, mikvah, simcha hall, preschool, elementary school, and a wide range of educational and community programs.

Yet the impressive building represents only one part of the journey.

In his recent interview, Rabbi Kaller spoke candidly about the difficult years behind the project, including financial setbacks, the loss of major supporters, and the personal challenges that accompanied the lengthy construction process.

At one particularly difficult point, he recalled sitting in the back of his shul, weighed down by his troubles, when an unfamiliar Jew walked in wearing ripped jeans and a T-shirt.

Despite his own worries, Rabbi Kaller got up, smiled, and welcomed the visitor, offering him a tallis and siddur.

Five years later, that same individual would provide the funding needed to begin construction of the new center. The building now bears the name of the man’s late father.

VIDEO:
Rabbi Alex Kaller speaks with Tzviki Krasniansky on the Wisdom From The Field podcast.

Looking back, Rabbi Kaller attributed much of his perseverance to his repeated visits to the Rebbe’s Ohel and his conviction that a Shliach must continue even when the path forward seems uncertain.

Reflecting on the challenges, he offered a message to fellow Shluchim: “Do your thing. Show up every day. Push, push, push. You’re going to get there.”

His upcoming Kinus address will bring the story back to where it began: a young Jewish boy in Moscow, a Chanukah flame, and the Rebbe watching from thousands of miles away.

The extraordinary discovery he made some 30 years later, which he is expected to reveal at Sunday’s banquet, promises to illuminate a bond between the Rebbe and his Shliach that spans decades and continents.

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