For 51 weeks a year, being different is a fact of life for 10-year-old Tzali Myers. He is the only Chassidic boy his age in Bratislava, Slovakia, where his parents, Rabbi Baruch and Chana Myers, have been Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries since 1993.
While there are a few other Jewish boys in Bratislava (the Jewish population of Slovakia numbers less than 3,000, and is tilted heavily towards the elder set), he and his siblings (12 of them, though most are grown) are the only ones to cross the border on a daily basis to attend Jewish school in Vienna.
But this week is different. This coming Shabbat, Tzali will spend a weekend in Brooklyn, N.Y., with nearly 1,000 boys like himself, the children of Chabad emissary families from all over the globe.
The boys—hailing from places like China, Ukraine, Germany, Brazil, Romania, Mexico, Thailand, Scotland, South Korea, Poland, Australia and Norway—will be participating in the annual Conference of Young Chabad-Lubavitch Emissaries (Kinus Tzeirei Hashluchim), which is held in tandem with the International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Emissaries (Kinus Hashluchim).
A parallel program for girls takes place alongside the conference for female emissaries in the winter.
Since the program was founded by the Shluchim Office with several dozen children in 1995, it has grown to include separate divisions for children who speak Hebrew, French and English, each one including youngsters who are also fluent in a plethora of other languages, depending on their country of residence.
“This is a time for him to feel normal,” explains his father, who also serves as the country’s chief rabbi. “For once, he’s just like everyone else, among kids who share his challenges, his joys and his aspirations.”
‘A Beautiful Excitement’
While there, Tzali may bump into Tzvi Perlstein, an 11-year-old from Salem, Ore., where his family has been heading up Chabad activities since he was an infant.
His father, Rabbi Avrohom Y. Perlstein, says that a highlight for Tzvi will be spending time with his cousins, whose families run Chabad centers in Alabama, California, Pennsylvania and Tennessee.
“Our goal is for these boys to take pride in who they are and what they do,” explains Rabbi Berel Bendet, who coordinates the program, directing a staff of nearly 200 volunteer yeshivah students. “There is a lot of high energy, singing, dancing and just letting the boys be thrilled about what their families do for the Jewish people.”
The program begins on Friday morning and concludes on Sunday evening after a grand banquet modeled after the vaunted gala banquet that their fathers will attend with some 5,600 fellow rabbis and guests.
Highlights include field trips, games and touring. Shabbat will be all about spirited prayer and meals, punctuated by stirring singing and storytelling.
For many children, the experience of walking into a store and being able to purchase kosher ice-cream and pizza is reason enough for excitement. Doing so on a scavenger hunt with a pack of like-minded playmates sounds almost too good to be true.
Rabbi Perlstein (whose parents are Chabad-Lubavitch educators in Chicago) recalls when, at age 12, he first attended the conference for boys: “The staff made me so proud of who I was and what my family was accomplishing; they instilled such a beautiful excitement for sharing Judaism everywhere. And that is something they still do.”
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