The Tale of Two Ambassadors
December 1990. A young Jew in Moscow lights a menorah. Thousands of miles away in Brooklyn, the Rebbe is watching him on a screen, and for a moment, the Rebbe looks right at him.
It was Chanukah Live, a satellite broadcast that connected public menorah lightings across the globe to the lighting in Brooklyn with the Rebbe. For Moscow’s Jews, after decades of Soviet repression, it was something their parents never dreamed of.
Thirty-six years later, at last night’s banquet of the international conference of Chabad emissaries, that young man, Rabbi Alex Kaller, stood before a packed hall and told us that moment changed his life. He was one of two ambassadors who spoke that night. As I leave the conference today, both of their speeches are still on my mind.
He grew up in a Russian Jewish home with almost no Jewish practice. That night in 1990, he lit a menorah. And that started a process that over the next few years, he became one himself. Inspired by that evening, Alex reconnected to his Judaism, started studying Torah and doing Mitzvot.
Soon thereafter, he moved to Sunny Isles, Florida, and started a community for Russian-speaking Jews in his living room. Today it’s a six-story, $21 million center on the water. Thousands of Jews walk in every year, and they leave committed to live a more Jewish life. He is an ambassador of light.
Then Israel’s ambassador to the United States took the podium.
His Excellency opened graciously, then turned to what he called our job today: know the enemy and fight the enemy. He told us about going to The New York Times to take on their theories with facts.
He’s a gifted speaker, and no one doubts how much he cares about our people. But I was hearing the old playbook of the Jewish establishment, where fighting darkness becomes your whole identity.
I get the instinct. It is just that History doesn’t back it up. There’s no magic fact that finally makes darkness go away, and no perfect retort that will make the haters stop hating. Yes, we most work with law enforcement to make sure we are physically safe. But in the war of ideas, old habits die hard.
Much of the establishment is still fighting the same fight and wondering why fewer people are listening. Well-meaning people have come up with blue squares and hashtags against Jew-hatred. They make us feel good, but beyond that, they don’t accomplished much. Meanwhile, the Rebbe’s approach is so simple it’s easy to underestimate, and it keeps changing the world in ways most Jewish leaders never imagined.
In a way, the ambassador gave me the clearest lesson of the night. Hearing him right after Rabbi Kaller, I saw the two approaches side by side. One is focused on the enemies. The other is the Rebbe’s way: share your love for a fellow Jew and your love for Judaism with everyone.
That’s the message I’m taking with me: be a menorah, and let the light speak for itself.
Now I’m heading back to my post as one of the Rebbe’s ambassadors. I’m not doing it alone. There are 6,500 of us around the world, 6,500 branches of the Rebbe’s menorah, each one shining wherever he sent us.
And I know the Rebbe is watching, as he watched a young man in Moscow light his.
