Chabad wonder women converge on New York

Posted Thursday, February 23, 2012 12:00 am

Former Miss South Africa, Ilana Skolnick, discusses her spiritual journey.

By Shevi Katzman kinus.com

Myrna Zisman, Chabad supporter applauds the women.

Six emissaries from different continents conducted the international roll call as women cheered and raised flags at the banquet.

Photo by Shevi Katzman, kinus.com

Sisters, Nechama Greenberg and Ari, Nomi Kotlarsky, Sara Benjaminson, Chanie Wolowik reunite at the Kinus.

Photo by Shevi Katzman, kinus.com

3,000 women packed the grand ballroom at the New York Hilton Sunday night at Chabad’s annual Kinus

Photo by Shevi Katzman, kinus.com

By Karen C. Green

Imagine a grand ballroom the size of a football field — alive with palpable, unparalleled energy. Candle-adorned round tables are set to accommodate 3,000 women and behind a massive stage, a backdrop displays a giant projection of portraits of the Rebbe Menachem Schneerson and Rebettzin Chaya Mushka along with Yiddish words that translate as, “There goes a chosid, there eats a chosid, there sleeps a chosid.”

The words echoed the theme of a Sunday evening event that served as a crescendo for the five-day annual Chabad International Women’s convention from Feb. 15 to Feb. 19.

Hosted by Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch, the educational arm of Chabad-Lubavitch, the conference offered several days of workshops, group programs, study sessions, and networking opportunities timed to coincide with the observance of the twentyfourth anniversary of the passing of Rebbetzin Chaya Musha Schneerson A’H, wife of The Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, A’H.

Participants at the banquet, who came from as near as the Five Towns and as far as Southeast Asia, felt right at home among their peers at the New York Hilton hotel as they were guided through the evening’s festivities by their emcee, Rebettzin Shterni Gruzman, a Shlucha in Vienna Austria who chaired the event.

Chanie Wolowik of the Five Towns Chabad described the five day convention as “an opportunity to recharge, to connect, to be inspired from the older and younger generation. Women in their seventies and girls in their twenties sharing stories and exchanging ideas, we generally feel like sisters with common goals — for me, personally, it’s literally a family reunion, seeing cousins that live in Shanghai, Milan, Paris, Panama, Ohio, Kansas, Sao Paulo, Brazil, it’s amazing.”

The enormity of the event was difficult to fathom. “Each person sitting here represents a community… to see all the places around the world represented, Singapore to Nepal. The same things that we do here in the Five Towns are mirrored in the smallest and remote places worldwide,” added Wolowik.