COMMUNITY

Moshe Kotlarsky

Vice chairman, Chabad’s Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch

As vice chairman of Chabad’s Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch, which supervises the work of shluchim (emissaries) all over the globe, Moshe Kotlarsky oversees one of the most successful Jewish outreach programs in the world.

As it is often said, wherever you find Coca Cola you also find Chabad. The shluchim constitute a global network of emissaries that help Jews in often remote places to practice their faith, and seek to encourage a return to religiosity among the secular.

“I think that a Chabad shaliach has a sense of purpose, a sense of belonging,” Kotlarsky says as a way of explaining the project’s success. “Every one of our shluchim has a DD degree — not a Doctor of Divinity but a Doctor of Dedication and Devotion. When you go out with that degree and you’re bound to an ideology and you’re inoculated by the teachings of the Rebbe; that is the sole root of the success that is going on.” (Photo credit: YouTube screenshot.)