Dinner used to mean hotel rooms and canned meals for Benjamin Fishoff.
“I remember the days I used to take out of my briefcase tuna fish and
a little bit of cold cuts bought in New York,” he told the crowd of 220
gathered at the S. Regis Hotel in New York Wednesday night. “The world
changed 25 years ago.”
That’s when the first Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries, Rabbi Mordechai
and Goldie Avtzon, arrived on the continent, welcoming travelers to
their home in Hong Kong, and making Jewish resources available to their
growing community. Today, more than 30 families at 26 Chabad
Houses work around the clock serving Israeli backpackers, local Jews,
and throngs of businessmen and tourists from India to China, Japan,
Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Nepal. Between them, they offer
among their services everything from crisis relief to Hebrew school and Bar Mitzvah classes, as well as adult education.
“You can’t imagine what you do for people,” Fishoff said. “You bring us together.”
The night was part of a larger celebration of Chabad’s quarter
century of service in Asia that began last month when hundreds gathered
at the Aberdeen Marina Club in Hong Kong, home city of Chabad of Asia’s
headquarters.
Attendees shared stories about how Chabad Houses throughout the
continent touched their lives and honored those who made it all
possible. People mingled over elegant hors d’oeuvres such as sushi, duck
rolls, carved meat, dumplings and fried rice. Later, they moved into a
ballroom and filled 21 tables sporting tall orchid centerpieces. Seated
under candelabra chandeliers, they faced a podium flanked by two large
video screens that played videos highlighting the honorees.
With life clocking along at such a busy pace, “we need time to pause
and reflect, to appreciate what we have and understand how it came to us
so we can formulate an appropriate response,” Avtzon, director of
Chabad of Asia, related. “So for us, the event was primarily an
opportunity to reconnect and say thank you.”
The rabbi noted that collective efforts made the expansion of Jewish
life in Asia possible, and praised the vital role lay leaders play in
the process. He added that he hoped attendees went away seeing the
larger picture and understanding that if everybody does their part,
everything is possible.
“A person is not molded by the place he’s in, but has the opportunity
of influencing the environment,” he said, speaking of the sense of
family that he hopes he, his wife, and their seven children have helped
bring so that people can have meaningful and positive Jewish experiences
while away from home.
Avtzon set out for Hong Kong when Jewish leaders regarded the then-British protectorate as “very far” away, Rabbi Levi Shemtov, Washington, D.C., director of American Friends of Lubavitch, said. “There was no Skype, there was no e-mail, there weren’t the other things that are so instant and connected.”
But today, Asia looks much different from a Jewish perspective.
Changing a Continent
Mordechai Max Azria, Chairman, CEO and Designer of BCBG Max Azria
Group, was cheered at the podium for his dedication to establishing new
Jewish centers in Asia. Responsible for the establishment of Chabad
Houses in Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou, China, he said he feels it
is important to provide Jews a place to feel at home away from home.
“A lot of Jews from around the world come to China to work and they
don’t have a house,” he said. “So we are building the house for them.”
He makes a point to go to China every year to visit the spaces he has
helped create, and feel the positive energy created by bringing Jews
from Brazil, Argentina, New York and Paris together.
“From the dream, I go and I see it, I touch it, I see how much
happiness we bring to these places,” he said. “So really, it has all
paid off, all that. I feel good.”
Yossel Wolhendler considers Avtzon part of his family. He started
going to Hong Kong for his import business, and remembers flying from
his obligations in Taiwan to Hong Kong for Shabbat, “because [he] wanted to feel shabbos the way shabbos was supposed to be felt.”
He recalled the warm, welcoming environment the Avtzons created,
which brought him back as he traveled through the continent four times a
year for more than 23 years.
Motioning across the ballroom at the crowd, he marveled at the quarter-century milestone.
“There’s people [here] from different countries, different cultures,” he explained. “Really, it’s powerful.”
Mary Kamhazi, a widower from Venezuela, accepted with her children a
Living Legacy Memorial Tribute on behalf of her husband Cholomo Kamhazi.
In addition to Azria, other honorees included Isaac and Julie Gniwisch of Montreal, and Mel and Marcia Waxman of Cleveland, Ohio.
Living in Hong Kong for 10 years, Kamhazi and her husband became
close friends with the Avtzons. Every morning, she shared, the rabbi
surveyed how many Jews were in the Furama Hotel to see if there were
enough to satisfy a quorum for public prayer services.
“He used to call my husband every morning,” said Kamhazi.
Though her husband was not religious, he started learning with the rabbi.
“It changed him; he became religious,” she stated. “He was very happy.”
As attendees enjoyed dessert – a spread that included gelato cones,
chocolates, fortune cookies and skewers of fruit – the Shloime Friedman
Band struck up and the crowd took to their feet. The men began to dance
in circles; up went Mel Waxman in a chair.
The evening made Howard Perl, of Lawrence, N.Y., very happy. The
organization’s been there for him for more than a dozen years as he’s
traveled through Asia for his import business. Somehow his trips always
find him there on his birthday, and Chabad’s helped him celebrate.
“You feel nostalgic, homesick, sentimental on your birthday,” he
said. “Chabad always had a birthday cake for me. It’s something I’ll
never forget.”
Shemtov noted that such stories can be found all over Asia.
“There’s nowhere in the Orient,” he said, “where a Jew is lost or where a Jew who wants to get lost can lose himself.”
