Nearly 2,000 people, including hundreds of Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries, attended the 10th annual Beth Loubavitch gala dinner on Wednesday night in Paris.
The evening was dedicated to Rabbi Shmuel “Moulé” Azimov, the former leader of the Chabad community in Paris, who passed away in November 2014 after serving as head shaliach there for more than 40 years. The event was held in a new venue this year in the 19th district, closer to the area where anti-Semitic attacks have taken place.
It was a strong show of community in this Hakhel year.
The city’s mayor, Anne Hildalgo, spoke about the violence that has rocked both the Jewish and general communities in the past year, naming in particular the hostage situation last January at the Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket and the four Jewish men killed there.
The mayor emphasized the necessity and right for Jews to live proudly in Paris, and noted Chabad’s vital presence and extensive network in the city.
The guest speaker of the evening, which emphasized the theme of “spiritual mobilization” in these turbulent times in the French capital and cities elsewhere in France, especially Marseille, was Rabbi Adin Even-Israel (Steinsaltz) of Jerusalem. Attendees of the event received a gift copy of his 2014 book about the Lubavitcher Rebbe—Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory—titled “My Rebbe.”
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