Reflecting on 5786, a Year of Defiant Growth, Even Amid Loss

by Tzali Reicher – chabad.org

The year 5786 tested the Jewish people in ways few could have imagined—and Jews worldwide lived up to that test, again and again, with resolve, unity and a pride that refused to be diminished.

One of the most defining stories of the year was one that cut deeply: the Bondi Beach Massacre. On the first night of Chanukah, Islamist terrorists opened fire on Chabad-Lubavitch of Bondi’s menorah lighting in Sydney, killing 15 people, among them Chabad Rabbi Eli Schlanger, 41, and Rabbi Yaakov Levitan, 39, a father of four.

The overwhelming grief turned quickly to resolve. Within days the extinguished lights were rekindled at Bondi Beach, as Australian Jews found their own way to celebrate the rest of Chanukah. On the last night of Chanukah, 20,000 people “reclaimed” the beach with a defiant pledge to increase light. The heroes of that terrible morning were honored for their bravery, with the New South Wales government launching a “One Mitzvah for Bondi” campaign in response, and months later, the country marked a National Day of Mourning for the victims.

Rabbi Schlanger’s legacy continued to inspire. Harper Collins announced a posthumous book of his, which Queen Camilla accepted during a visit to New York, and American Airlines was honored for the compassion it showed ahead of the rabbi’s funeral.

Tragically, Bondi Beach was not the only attack on Jews this year. On Yom Kippur, two people were killed and three were injured in a terror attack at a Manchester synagogue. In London, British Jews stood tall after a terrorist stabbing, and days later, schoolchildren paraded undeterred on Lag BaOmer. The Netherlands saw two Jewish sites firebombed within 24 hours; local Jews rallied after the Santa Monica Pier attack in California; a Colorado synagogue found light again when a menorah illuminated the site of an anti-Jewish terror attack there; and in Montreal, two people were killed and one critically wounded in a shooting near a Jewish neighborhood.

G‑d Protects Israel

Days before the second anniversary of the horrific attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, the Jewish people closed a long and painful chapter when the last living hostages finally came home. Several made pilgrimages to the resting place of the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory, to give thanks to G‑d for their freedom. By January, the body of Ran Gvili, the final hostage held in Gaza, was recovered, bringing a two-year ordeal to its close.

Yet the relative calm was short-lived. On the eve of Purim, Iran’s chief architect of terror was killed, and the holiday itself had to be brought to bomb shelters as missiles rained down on Israeli cities, the country pausing to mourn those killed in the strikes. Weeks later, as Passover approached, Jerusalem prepared for the holiday, even as missile barrages continued. By spring, calm had returned enough that Israel could finally return to the Western Wall after wartime restrictions were lifted, although tensions have persisted.

The Rebbe’s Continued Impact

U.S. President Donald Trump, who visited the Rebbe’s resting place back in 2024, once again paid tribute to the Rebbe this year, hosting Chabad rabbis at the White House, and later proclaiming the Rebbe’s birthday as Education and Sharing Day, U.S.A., 2026. In Argentina, President Javier Milei, after two years of attending the annual tribute marking the Rebbe’s yartzeit in the bleachers, took the stage to pay tribute to the Rebbe, and more than 50,000 people visited the Rebbe’s Queens resting place in a single week around the anniversary of his passing.

New scholarship brought the Rebbe’s teachings to fresh audiences. For the first time, an archive of his English-language correspondence began being published, and after decades in the making, a “Complete Tanya” fulfilled a vision of the Rebbe’s from a century past.

The Rebbe’s network of emissaries gathered by the thousands this year, as 6,500 Chabad rabbis convened for the largest Jewish conference in the world, with more than 6,000 making the pilgrimage to his resting place at the conference’s close, while in February, thousands of women emissaries and leaders from communities around the world gathered for a conference of their own.

Chabad’s expansion reached corners of the globe that had never before had a permanent Jewish presence. Iceland got its first Jewish center, and Taiwan’s Jews got a cemetery of their own. In the United States, plans moved forward for a Chabad LA campus for Jewish life set to be among the largest in the world; the University of Kansas celebrated a stunning new Chabad center; and Washington welcomed a new Chabad center along the Potomac, minutes from the Capital.

Miami’s skyline gained a sleek new Chabad Russian center on the waterfront, Jerusalem celebrated the opening of Mayanot’s new $20 million world center, and in Sweden, an IKEA designer made a beautiful new mikvah her latest project. Northern Vietnam got a new home for Jewish travelers, Croatia’s small Jewish community marked a new chapter, and an Ontario summer vacation town discovered it now has a Jewish home for all seasons. In New York, Park East Synagogue and Chabad of the Upper East Side announced a historic new chapter together.

Standing With Their Communities

As the war between Russia and Ukraine ground into a new year, the commitment of Chabad emissaries to their communities held firm even as the danger grew. A Kherson synagogue on Ukraine’s frontlines suffered a direct hit, and later in the year, a historic synagogue in Sadigura was devastated in an arson attack. A Holocaust survivor was killed in shelling in Kherson, and in Odesa, a Jewish school and orphanage suffered a direct hit in a drone strike. Still, the school year ended safely there despite heavy fire, and in Kyiv, life continued in the most beautiful of ways when a 92-year-old husband and wife celebrated their Jewish wedding.

Natural disasters struck again and again this year, and Chabad emissaries were consistently among the first to respond. As Jamaica braced for Hurricane Melissa, its rabbi prepared to stay, and in the storm’s aftermath, the hurricane devastated Jamaica and its Chabad center. Vietnam saw record-breaking floods strike a Chabad house in Hoi An. Venezuela was rocked when a devastating earthquake struck and the Jewish community mobilized, and in Nepal twice—first providing refuge in Kathmandu amid upheaval and again as 30 Jews were counted among the missing in a disaster just before Rosh Hashanah.

Wildfires brought their own devastation. As wildfires ravaged Spokane, Chabad assisted displaced families, a California fire forced evacuations amid Shavuot preparations, and travelers found refuge when extreme winter storms stranded communities who found warmth at Chabad centers, while fire gutted a synagogue and visitors center near Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi’s gravesite in Haditch, Ukraine.

The Souls We Lost

The year brought the loss of a number of beloved figures, among them Rochele Fogelman, 98, a pioneering Worcester rebbetzin and renowned educator; Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Kalmenson, 70, remembered as New England’s softest-spoken sage; and Rabbi Chaim Brikman, 58, a beloved emissary of 34 years to Seagate, N.Y. Melbourne mourned Menachem Mendel (“Max”) New, 97, a pioneer of its Jewish community, and Cleveland said goodbye to Rabbi Leibel Alevsky, 86, the innovator who built Chabad there. Berlin lost Rabbi Avraham Golovacheov, 43, the quiet engine behind its Jewish life, while Tunisia’s community said farewell to Rochel Pinson, 102, the oldest Chabad emissary in the world.

Also remembered this year were Rabbi Sholom Ber Eber, 78, who documented the Rebbe for posterity, and Devorah Leah Reiter, 47, who battled cancer for seven years with joy, along with Rabbi Eli Schlanger and Rabbi Yaakov Levitan, whose lives were cut short at Bondi Beach.

Ushering in 5787, may the Jewish people and the entire world be inscribed for a year of peace and joy.