Opening Session of the International Kinus Hashluchos

The opening session of the 22nd International Conference of Shluchos took place Thursday night in the main ballroom of Oholei Torah.

Chairing the evening, Mrs. Matty Bryski spoke about the privilege of being able to address the thousands of shluchos who have come from around the world. Mrs. Bryski explained that she had missed last year’s opening session while celebrating the wedding of Lieutenant Laurie Zimmet, whose deep commitment to Yiddishkeit and to her country helped spread the light of Yiddishkeit even in the darker corners of our world. While serving in Iraq, Laurie managed to keep practicing Judaism and, among other things, she helped arrange a Chanukah lighting in one of Saddam Hussein’s palaces after he was overthrown. And it was there in Iraq that she later met her husband whom she married last year.

The evening then continued with the recitation of Tehillim by Mrs. Nechamie Greenberg from Pudong, China.

In a moving talk, Mrs. Chavie Bruk from Bozeman, Montana gave the main address of the evening. Speaking on the theme of, “The salvation of Hashem can come in the blink of an eye”, Mrs. Bruk spoke about her and her husband’s personal hardship in trying to have children. She described how Hashem’s salvation – in the form of an adopted child – came in the blink of an eye. Mrs. Bruk also gave an encouraging and supportive word to those shluchos who find themselves in a similar predicament.

The conference was then officially opened by Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, Chairman of the International Conference of Shluchos. Rabbi Kotlarsky gave a resounding blessing to Mrs. Bruk, in which he said, “The doctors of this world have no rulership on the souls of above. May you still merit to give birth to healthy children.”

Rabbi Kotlarsky then went on to speak about how we await the coming of Moshiach every day and how it is in everything we do.

Rabbi Kaplan from Toronto, Canada, then spoke of the privilege we all have of being shluchim of the Rebbe and how the Rebbe charged us with the final mission of bringing Moshiach.

The evening concluded with Mrs. Ella Vorovitch from Richmond Hill, Ontario, who spoke about the three RE’s: Reencounter, Reaffirm and Reunite, and explained how we have to implement them into our daily lives.