100 Shluchim Reconnect at New York-New England Kinus

Over 100 Shluchim from across the New York–New England region gathered at the Suffield Yeshiva campus for a Shabbos Kinus Hashluchim, drawing emissaries from Manhattan to rural Vermont.

How do you compare a Shliach in Bangor, Maine, with one in Brooklyn? Or rural Vermont with Manhattan? The New York-New England region is a study in contrasts: Shluchim whose daily realities couldn’t look more different, yet who share an identical mission.

That paradox became the defining theme of the regional Kinus Hashluchim, held over Shabbos Parshas Naso at the Suffield Yeshiva campus in Connecticut, where more than 100 Shluchim came together for a Shabbos of learning, farbrenging, and reconnection.

“The Rebbe emphasized to my father, a”h, that these regional Kinusim are essential to the infrastructure of Shlichus itself,” said Rabbi Mendy Kotlarsky, director of the International Kinus Hashluchim. “That’s what drove him, and that’s what drives us to continue them.”

“Some Shluchim can talk about maintaining a daily minyan, and others will tell you about the struggle to put together a minyan on Rosh Hashanah,” said Rabbi Yosef Wolvovsky of Chabad of Glastonbury, CT. “Some deal with kashrus standards; others have no infrastructure at all and ship food in from hours away. You’d think, how can we give each other chizuk when our experiences are so different?”

The answer, Rabbi Wolvovsky explained, lay in the Kinus’s return to first principles. “We went back to the core, to the Rebbe’s teachings about Shlichus. We learned together, davened together, farbrenged together—and by the time we sat down one-on-one, the conversation was on a completely different level. Whether you’re in a town where you search every day for another Yid, or in a city where Yidden are being pulled in a dozen directions, the drive is the same: to bring the Rebbe nachas and to bring Moshiach.”

The Kinus began Friday afternoon with a shiur on a sicha from Rabbi Peretz Chein of Chabad at Brandeis University. The Friday night meal, emceed by Rabbi Wolvovsky, featured a distinctive format: rather than formal speeches, nearly every Shliach shared a personal story or moment from his Shlichus. The farbrengen that followed, led by Rabbi Yisroel Deren, Regional Director of Chabad of Connecticut, Rabbi Noach Kosofsky of Chabad of Greater Springfield, and Rabbi Simon Jacobson of the Meaningful Life Center, stretched into the night.

Shabbos morning opened with a shiur on a maamar from Rabbi Mendel Rubin of Albany, followed by a Dvar Torah at krias haTorah from Rabbi Bentzion Krasnianski of Chabad of the Upper East Side. The meal, emceed by Rabbi Kotlarsky, continued the format, with each Shliach sharing from his experiences, and Rabbi Kotlarsky leading a round-table in the style of his father’s signature format.

As Shabbos drew to a close, Rabbi Sholom Ber Baumgarten of Crown Heights led a Seder Niggunim and Rabbi Dovid Olidort, Senior Editor of Kehot Publication Society, delivered a Chassidishe maamar, flowing straight into Maariv and a lebedike Havdalah.

The Melaveh Malka, emceed by Rabbi Lavy Kosofsky of Longmeadow, Massachusetts, featured a video of the Rebbe and a live recording of the Derher “Among Chassidim” podcast: an interview with Rabbi Jacobson hosted by Rabbi Yossi Kamman, director of A Chassidisher Derher. The Shluchim also paused to say L’chaim for colleagues in the region who have recently experienced personal tragedies, calling them to offer chizuk and solidarity.

The Kinus produced results that outlast a single Shabbos. Friendships deepened, new ones formed, and learning chavrusas established at the gathering continue weeks later. “By the time Shabbos was over, a Shliach had made a shidduch between me and another to learn together daily,” Rabbi Kosofsky said.

“The Kinus focuses on the power of farbrengen,” Rabbi Wolvovsky reflected, “and how the achdus we have together is our biggest kli for brachos. The Rebbe once explained that in a time of divisiveness, you don’t need a reason for a farbrengen. It’s a necessity in and of itself. The best way we can bring the Rebbe nachas is by being together and being there for each other. And there’s no greater farbrengen than a Kinus over Shabbos.”

The Kinus was dedicated l’ilui nishmas Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, a”h. Rabbi Gershon Eichhorn hosted the event at the Suffield Yeshiva, where bochurim joined the Shluchim for impromptu farbrengens late into the night.

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