New Torah Honors Life of Virginia’s First Emissary

Members of Richmond’s Jewish community will be commemorating 20 years since the passing of Virginia’s first Chabad-Lubavitch emissary during a ceremony timed to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

The Sunday celebration of “A Sefer Torah for a Safer World” will recall the life of Rabbi Yaakov Noach “Yankel” Kranz, who directed Chabad-Lubavitch activities in the state for 15 years.

“We specifically chose the date of 9/11 because it’s the way the Rebbe taught us to think,” explained Rabbi Yossel Kranz, executive director of Chabad of the Virginias, whose father founded the center in 1976 at the direction of the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory. “We always grow from tragedy, and there’s no better way to memorialize all those who died on 9/11 and to honour my father’s passing than by dedicating a Torah scroll.”

The actual anniversary of Kranz’s passing occurred on the sixth day of the Hebrew month of Elul, which this year began the evening of Sept. 4.

A child of Holocaust survivors deeply committed to maintaining Jewish values, the elder Kranz was among the first Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries. In 1964, after marrying the former Fay Friedman, he and his new wife immediately began their lifelong dedication to serving Jews from all walks of life.

The Kranzes made a profound difference in the communities where they lived in Michigan, California and Virginia, as documented by their daughter, Sarah Ciment, in My Father Was a Shliach, a booklet on her father’s life.

The institution of being an emissary “as we know it today was not always so popular,” Rabbi Berel Shemtov, director of the Lubavitch Foundation in Michigan, acknowledged in Ciment’s work. “Yankel was one of the first [emissaries] to dedicate his life and his entire soul to [holy work]. He did it in an enthusiastic manner, in a way of ‘that’s the way it had to be done, and there was no other way!’

Although the idea of moving into a community as an outsider was revolutionary at the time, “he jumped into it with his heart and soul. He was from the first [emissaries], and he threw himself into his work. Not only did he raise children who are [emissaries] and are examples for others today, but he also” helped locals strengthen their observance.

Today, many of Kranz’s former community members serve as Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries around the globe.

Ciment included a personal recollection by Rabbi Joshua B. Gordon, director of Chabad of the Valley in Tarzana, Calif., which captures the late emissary’s saintly character. When Gordon was seven years old, he attended a summer camp, where he met the 15-year-old Kranz.

“In the summer of 1956, a young seven-year-old boy was sent off to summer camp in the Catskills. He was afraid, lonely and homesick,” related Gordon. “No one took him seriously; no one, except a very tall 15-year-old waiter. He took the young boy under his wing, spent time with him and gave him confidence. He treated him like an equal. And when the busy, popular 15-year-old would take the boy aside and spend time with him, he would feel 10-feet tall. He felt that his friend had nothing else on his mind but the welfare of this lonely seven-year-old.”

Richmond native Shirley Brown recalled when the Kranz family moved to that city in the 1970s. Her husband ran a printing press and Kranz used to go there to print the addresses for delivery of the Richmond Jewish News, the weekly newspaper that he founded and his wife edited for many years.

Although they belonged to another synagogue, the Browns quickly grew attached to the Kranzes.

“They began inviting us to their home for Sabbath and holiday meals and we fell in love with the whole family,” said Brown. “We adore them. That’s also the way I feel about Chabad in general: the warmth, the non-judgmental attitude. Rabbi Kranz was such a genuine man. When he spoke, he made Jewish history relate to modern times.

“His son is very much like him,” she added.

The new Torah scroll was written by Rabbi Bezalal Yakont, a prominent scribe in Kfar Chabad, Israel, who happens to be related to the Kranzes. Sunday’s free event will feature an “American Pride Procession,” music, floats, and food.