Community Outreach Service
By the early 19th century emissaries of the fifth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Shalom DovBer of Lubavitch, had reached the furthest corners of the Czarist Empire, offering counseling, spiritual guidance and desperately needed financial support to communities in Bukhara, Georgia and Dagestan, to name a few. Today, Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries reach out to communities worldwide through its network of over 4,000 community centers, schools and synagogues from Austria to New Zealand. The men and women who are the emissaries of Chabad-Lubavitch are experienced and highly motivated assets to the community they serve. Whether they are hosting a community seder, visiting an elderly person in a care facility, offering guidance to a young man in prison, helping a family to observe a kosher home, or counseling a teenager or an estranged couple—the Chabad-Lubavitch emissary is a community resource in every sense of the word. In Europe since the early 1900s, and then in North America since 1953, a cornerstone of Chabad-Lubavitch community outreach has been its mitzvah awareness campaigns. The Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, developed a series of practical mitzvah campaigns as a tangible way for individuals and communities, regardless of their background, to experience a Jewish connection. Championed by Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries worldwide, these practical mitzvahs, or “good deeds”—whether it is affixing a mezuzah, lighting the Shabbat candles, donning teffilin, or performing an act of kindness— offer people a foundation to spark a connection with his or her Jewish heritage. Throughout the world, communities, students, business travelers and tourists know they can rely on Chabad-Lubavitch for Shabbat hospitality, a place to study and pray, help finding local kosher meals, or care and assistance in a time of crisis. Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries are there to help people through Jewish life cycle events, from the circumcision of a son, to a birthday celebration for a daughter, to weddings and bereavement. Emissaries are fluent in English, Hebrew,Yiddish, and the language of the country in which they live. The warm, caring atmosphere consistently found at Chabad-Lubavitch centers worldwide is why more than 450,000 travelers per year consider Chabad-Lubavitch their “home away from home.” • Since its establishment in the United States in 1942, the publishing arm of Chabad-Lubavitch has become one of the largest religious publishing organizations in the world, printing and distributing more than 30 million Jewish texts in 17 languages, including English, Hebrew, Russian, Spanish, French, Farsi, German, Yiddish, Portuguese and Arabic. • In 2002 Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries assisted over 32,000 families in North America with the Jewish practice of observing a kosher home. • Since 2000 Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries have visited and counseled an estimated 720,000 hospital patients worldwide. Take a Closer Look:
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