Rabbi Settles in Maryland After Traveling the World

Rabbi Boruch Labkowski used to spend his summers with a suitcase full of crackers, canned tuna and religious articles, traveling to countries such as Australia, Ecuador and Peru.

He and colleagues of Chabad Lubavitch, a Jewish organization open to all sects, would spend six weeks in a country traveling to its remote parts and visiting with small Jewish communities to teach about the faith.

“It’s not just teaching and helping,” he said. “By helping others, educating others, it enhances our personal lives as well in many, many different ways.”

The son of a rabbi and one of 11 children, Labkowski, 30, now lives in Frederick with his wife, Frumy, and three children. His six brothers are all Chabad rabbis as well.

Labkowski formed Chabad of Frederick in 2009 and provides one-on-one and group teaching sessions at his home.

In the dining room of his home is a portrait of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, a leader of the Chabad movement. To the left of that photo is Labkowski greeting Schneerson when Labkowski was a boy.

“(Schneerson) really infused in all of us this passion to not just live our lives for ourselves, but to make this world a better place for God,” he said.

It was during his childhood that he began teaching.

As a 12-year-old growing up in Brooklyn, N.Y., he would travel every Friday afternoon into the jewelry district of Manhattan on 47th Street to meet with Jewish businessmen and teach them about Judaism and their heritage.

“Instead of taking the time to worry about ourselves and take care of our physical needs, the Rebbes taught us we have to utilize our time with our neighbors and friends,” he said.

He began traveling overseas to teach at age 19, with five colleagues, to Sao Paulo, Brazil, where he spent two years working with smaller communities and teaching Judaism.

“It was an amazing experience,” he said.

After returning home to Brooklyn, Labkowski continued his travels via the student summer visitation program beginning with a trip to Sydney, Australia. In following summer trips, he taught in Bolivia, the Canary Islands, Ecuador, Peru, Portugal and Spain.

Through his trips he has learned Portuguese and Spanish, two of the five languages he can speak. The others are English, Hebrew and Yiddish.

Labkowski believes his travels to small Jewish communities around the world prepared him for the Jewish community he now serves in Frederick.

“It’s not a large community, but we believe every individual is important and we focus on individual by individual,” he said. “We don’t take anybody for granted.”

While he admitted to missing his summer travels, Labkowski said it’s just not practical to take his family on a six-week trip to South America.

“Traveling as a student is easy,” he said. “Traveling like that with a young family is not easy. We just came back from a trip to Brooklyn. That wasn’t that easy, either.”