How I ended up in Crimea
In 1991 the Rebbe gave me his blessings to go back, for one year, to study in the kollel in New York. I was to leave my family in Florida with my wife and oldest son to run a bakery to support the family. What was interesting in this proposal was that it was not to be considered as a “Sabbatical,” where I would take off a year from work, but rather it would be considered as part of my shlichus, as a preparation before moving on to our next mission. Besides all the tremendous blessings that the Rebbe gave us in this venture back into the world of Torah learning, the Rebbe made clear that my wife’s opening a bakery was also part of her continued shlichus. It was with this thought in mind that she used the bakery, which quickly became known as the best in quality as well as in kashrus, to teach private lessons which she used to promote various mivtzoim (mitzvah campaigns.) We saw the fulfillment of the Rebbe’s blessings immediately. My wife found a bakery for sale on a main road, right smack in middle of the Jewish neighborhood in North Miami Beach, on 163th Street and 12th Avenue. Of course, we didn’t have a penny to our name, so “out of the blue” (read G-d sent us) a wealthy guy who heard of my wife’s plan to open a bakery, and knew how great of a cook and baker she was (and still is) offered to put up the entire money needed to buy the bakery. My wife, may G-d grant her many more years of health and tranquility, worked very hard and crazy hours during that year. Especially at the end of each week (and before holidays) her schedule was insane. She would go into the bakery Thursday morning at 5:00 a.m. and work, literally, non-stop until Friday, half an hour before Shabbos. I give you my word, this is no exaggeration. Sometimes she’d lie down for a nap for half an hour on the floor behind the counter, or less often in a worker’s car. And just to make sure that my wife didn’t get bored in her “spare time,” G-d also blessed her with our 11th child (Schneur) ka”h earlier that year. I don’t know how she did it, but she even kept up her personal hachnosas orchim, by having more than a minyan of guests for Shabbos. Often she would run home, after dropping off the remaining baked goods in several locations for the needy, shower, light Shabbos candles, and conk out while feeding the baby. There were times the guests would sit around, waiting for several hours for her to wake up, to start the meal.
After the year in Kollel, I approached Rabbi Krinsky, the acting head of Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch – the Lubavitch arm in charge of shlichus, (Rabbi Hodokow was ill and was more or less leaving the daily running of the office in Rabbi Krinsky’s capable hands.) I asked him where does the Rebbe want me to go for my next mission. His response was for me to search and find places where I felt there was a need, and give him proposals. The first two proposals that I put forward were negated. I was then approached by the administrator of Ezras Achim, who asked if I would consider to go to Kherson in Ukraine. I was, at the time, planning a trip with my wife to Israel, to visit my father’s burial place, so I told them I would travel through Ukraine and stop off at Kherson to assess the practicality of our moving there, at this stage in life. We spent a wonderful Shabbos there and were impressed with what had been accomplished by two bochurim. Although the general policy of Ezras Achim was not to allow bochurim to spend more than 4 months in a city that does not have a full time shliach, I convinced them that since these bochurim were doing a phenomenal job and they were already actively looking for shidduchim, they should be allowed to develop this city as their future base for shlichus. That Friday I received a call from the Rosh Hakahal of Simferopol, the capitol of The Crimean Autonomous Republic (ARK,) asking why Chabad does not send a shliach there. We arranged for my wife and I to travel there (a 3 ½ hour car trip) on Sunday. There was no question that there was a need for a shliach there. When I returned to New York, I agreed to go to Crimea as shliach, on condition that it is directly under the auspices of Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch, which was the umbrella organization for all Chabad activities, and which was the organization under which I had been working for the past 20 plus years. After a meeting of the Board Members of Ezras Achim, they agreed to my proposal. However, for technical reasons and based on Merkos protocols, it meant that Ezras Achim had to write an official letter to Merkos stating that if Merkos is willing to accept and send me as their personal emissary to Crimea, then Ezras Achim would officially release the Crimea from under its jurisdiction and hand it over to Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch. Armed with this letter, I approached Rabbi Krinsky with this new proposal for my next shlichus. After reading the letter from Ezras Achim, Rabbi Krinsky told me, “Itche Meyer, I can tell you right now that the Rebbe’s answer will be “no,” because the Rebbe has always been against the use of the name Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch in the former U.S.S.R. However,” he continued, “if you’re not asking my opinion and just want me to present it to the Rebbe, I will do so, being that I am just a secretary. I just don’t want you to be surprised and disappointed when the Rebbe answers in the negative.” I asked him to please present the proposal to the Rebbe. Two hours later, he told me, very much in surprise, that it was a good move on my part and had worked in my favor. The Rebbe had agreed to the proposal. Thus I became officially the Merkos shliach to the Crimean Peninsula. Sometime later I heard, though I cannot verify it, that Rabbi Hodokow asked the Rebbe to also allow Riga (his city of origin) to also be directly under the auspices of Merkos, and Rabbi Krinsky did the same for Vilna when his nephew went there. In both of those cases the Rebbe agreed as well. They are both also considered emissaries of Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch, directly from the Rebbe
In 1991 the Rebbe gave me his blessings to go back, for one year, to study in the kollel in New York. I was to leave my family in Florida with my wife and oldest son to run a bakery to support the family. What was interesting in this proposal was that it was not to be considered as a “Sabbatical,” where I would take off a year from work, but rather it would be considered as part of my shlichus, as a preparation before moving on to our next mission. Besides all the tremendous blessings that the Rebbe gave us in this venture back into the world of Torah learning, the Rebbe made clear that my wife’s opening a bakery was also part of her continued shlichus. It was with this thought in mind that she used the bakery, which quickly became known as the best in quality as well as in kashrus, to teach private lessons which she used to promote various mivtzoim (mitzvah campaigns.) We saw the fulfillment of the Rebbe’s blessings immediately. My wife found a bakery for sale on a main road, right smack in middle of the Jewish neighborhood in North Miami Beach, on 163th Street and 12th Avenue. Of course, we didn’t have a penny to our name, so “out of the blue” (read G-d sent us) a wealthy guy who heard of my wife’s plan to open a bakery, and knew how great of a cook and baker she was (and still is) offered to put up the entire money needed to buy the bakery. My wife, may G-d grant her many more years of health and tranquility, worked very hard and crazy hours during that year. Especially at the end of each week (and before holidays) her schedule was insane. She would go into the bakery Thursday morning at 5:00 a.m. and work, literally, non-stop until Friday, half an hour before Shabbos. I give you my word, this is no exaggeration. Sometimes she’d lie down for a nap for half an hour on the floor behind the counter, or less often in a worker’s car. And just to make sure that my wife didn’t get bored in her “spare time,” G-d also blessed her with our 11th child (Schneur) ka”h earlier that year. I don’t know how she did it, but she even kept up her personal hachnosas orchim, by having more than a minyan of guests for Shabbos. Often she would run home, after dropping off the remaining baked goods in several locations for the needy, shower, light Shabbos candles, and conk out while feeding the baby. There were times the guests would sit around, waiting for several hours for her to wake up, to start the meal.
After the year in Kollel, I approached Rabbi Krinsky, the acting head of Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch – the Lubavitch arm in charge of shlichus, (Rabbi Hodokow was ill and was more or less leaving the daily running of the office in Rabbi Krinsky’s capable hands.) I asked him where does the Rebbe want me to go for my next mission. His response was for me to search and find places where I felt there was a need, and give him proposals. The first two proposals that I put forward were negated. I was then approached by the administrator of Ezras Achim, who asked if I would consider to go to Kherson in Ukraine. I was, at the time, planning a trip with my wife to Israel, to visit my father’s burial place, so I told them I would travel through Ukraine and stop off at Kherson to assess the practicality of our moving there, at this stage in life. We spent a wonderful Shabbos there and were impressed with what had been accomplished by two bochurim. Although the general policy of Ezras Achim was not to allow bochurim to spend more than 4 months in a city that does not have a full time shliach, I convinced them that since these bochurim were doing a phenomenal job and they were already actively looking for shidduchim, they should be allowed to develop this city as their future base for shlichus. That Friday I received a call from the Rosh Hakahal of Simferopol, the capitol of The Crimean Autonomous Republic (ARK,) asking why Chabad does not send a shliach there. We arranged for my wife and I to travel there (a 3 ½ hour car trip) on Sunday. There was no question that there was a need for a shliach there. When I returned to New York, I agreed to go to Crimea as shliach, on condition that it is directly under the auspices of Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch, which was the umbrella organization for all Chabad activities, and which was the organization under which I had been working for the past 20 plus years. After a meeting of the Board Members of Ezras Achim, they agreed to my proposal. However, for technical reasons and based on Merkos protocols, it meant that Ezras Achim had to write an official letter to Merkos stating that if Merkos is willing to accept and send me as their personal emissary to Crimea, then Ezras Achim would officially release the Crimea from under its jurisdiction and hand it over to Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch. Armed with this letter, I approached Rabbi Krinsky with this new proposal for my next shlichus. After reading the letter from Ezras Achim, Rabbi Krinsky told me, “Itche Meyer, I can tell you right now that the Rebbe’s answer will be “no,” because the Rebbe has always been against the use of the name Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch in the former U.S.S.R. However,” he continued, “if you’re not asking my opinion and just want me to present it to the Rebbe, I will do so, being that I am just a secretary. I just don’t want you to be surprised and disappointed when the Rebbe answers in the negative.” I asked him to please present the proposal to the Rebbe. Two hours later, he told me, very much in surprise, that it was a good move on my part and had worked in my favor. The Rebbe had agreed to the proposal. Thus I became officially the Merkos shliach to the Crimean Peninsula. Sometime later I heard, though I cannot verify it, that Rabbi Hodokow asked the Rebbe to also allow Riga (his city of origin) to also be directly under the auspices of Merkos, and Rabbi Krinsky did the same for Vilna when his nephew went there. In both of those cases the Rebbe agreed as well. They are both also considered emissaries of Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch, directly from the Rebbe
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