NY Post: Shliach Who Was Shot Attends Kinus

The New York Post today profiled Rabbi Ovadia Isakov, the Shliach who was shot and seriously wounded in the Russian region of Dagestan last July by suspected Muslim extremists. Rabbi Isakov attended the Kinus Hashluchim grand banquet on Sunday, where he was honored with reading the Rebbe’s Kapital.

From the New York Post: 

A Hasidic rabbi nearly killed by an Islamic terrorist in Russia three months ago has made a remarkable recovery — even attending the annual Chabad Lubavitch pilgrimage in Brooklyn on Sunday.

Ovadia Isakov, 40, was returning from a ritual slaughter in his native Dagestan on July 24 when a gunman opened fire on him in what authorities called a hate crime. The bullet pierced the rabbi’s liver and right lung.

“My doctor thought it would be a good idea to [attend the Chabad event] after hearing how inspiring it was for me,” Isakov told The Post at the gathering in Sunset Park, which draws thousands of Orthodox rabbis.

“Thank God I can say that I’m doing very well,” Isakov said. “If I strain myself too much, I have pain. But I rest as much as I can.”

More than 5,000 emissaries from all over the world gathered Sunday night at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal near Crown Heights for the event.

Thousands of rabbis posed for a group photo in front of Chabad-Lubavitch headquarters.

Isakov said he has attended the pilgrimage many times before — but this year, he was surprised to find that he himself was a source of encouragement for others.

“I came to gain inspiration from them,” Isakov said about the other attendees. “But I found that rabbis from around the world were putting their arms on my shoulder and telling me I was inspiring them — something I never expected.”

The fiend suspected of shooting Isakov was finally hunted down by Russian security forces and killed in late September.

The Dagestani warlord, Sherif Akhmedov, was believed to have been involved in more than 20 terror-related incidents, according to the Russian news agency Ria Novosti.

“I believe that there is a God, and that good overpowers evil,” Isakov said about the capture and killing of his assailant.

“Hopefully, we’ll come to a time when God will eradicate all evil and we’ll live in a perfect world.”