Israel’s President Herzog Presents Chabad-Lubavitch With Katz Prize

by Mendel Super – chabad.org

Citing the life-saving activities of Chabad-Lubavitch in Ukraine as a prime example of an ongoing contribution of Jewish life around the world, Israel’s President Isaac Herzog presented Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch—the educational arm of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement responsible for the 5,000 emissary couples worldwide—the 2022 Katz Prize. The coveted annual award is given to individuals and organizations that bring Judaism into contemporary life.

The Katz Prize, awarded by the Katz Foundation established in 1975 by philanthropists Marcos and Adina Katz, sponsors a yearly awards ceremony, held this year on July 28 at the President’s residence in Jerusalem.

Committee members Professor Menachem Ben-Sasson, chancellor of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Rabbi Shlomo Dichovsky, former justice on Israel’s Supreme Rabbinical Court; and Rabbi Haim Sabato, rosh yeshivah and novelist, wrote of the immense contribution by Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries, saying that the emissaries fulfill the Talmudic dictum, “All of Israel are responsible for one another” in “a most outstanding way.”

They also commended the work of Chabad in Asia and around the world for providing material and spiritual aid and support to young Israeli travelers.

Accepting the prize on behalf of Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch—in place of his father, Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, vice chairman of Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch—was Rabbi Mendy Kotlarsky, director of Merkos’s Suite 302, which initiates and provides centralized services for Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries and organizations worldwide.

The $25,000 prize will be contributed to a central emergency fund for emissaries in need.

“I was humbled to accept this award on behalf of the Chabad emissaries worldwide,” Kotlarsky told Chabad.org. “The genuine appreciation expressed by the Katz family, the committee members and President Herzog was heartwarming.”

This article was reprinted with permission from chabad.org