At the Global Women’s Chinuch Event held two weeks ago, Rabbi Mendy Kotlarsky, executive director of Merkos 302 and chairman of the Merkos Chinuch Office, delivered an address on the centrality and urgency of chinuch.

Rabbi Kotlarsky shared a story from a Lag BaOmer parade one year when the Rebbe did not attend the main rally on Eastern Parkway. Yet, on the way to the Ohel, the Rebbe asked that the car pass down Empire Boulevard, where the children were enjoying the rides. As the Rebbe slowly drove by, the entire Ferris wheel stopped. A young child at the very top, not understanding what was happening, became afraid and said Shema Yisroel.

A few days later, when someone questioned the expense of these parades, the Rebbe responded that hearing a child say Shema with such sincerity – for that alone, it’s worth it.

Rabbi Kotlarsky recalled a story from his father, Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky a”h, who brought the president of the Peruvian Jewish community and his wife to the Rebbe for dollars. The couple asked the Rebbe how to help their children, who were struggling and drifting. The Rebbe answered simply, “There is one way… by being an example.” If parents live the way they want their children to live, the children will follow.

Rabbi Kotlarsky stressed how essential teachers are – calling them “the first and tallest order in any community.” Early documents of Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch show how the very first shluchim were sent across the world to open schools and teach children. Because the foundation of everything is the teachers, the classrooms, and the schools, and everything else is built on that.

“The fact that hundreds of women came together tonight to recommit themselves to the Rebbe’s vision of chinuch is how we can prepare the next generation.” We need to raise children who “see the world through the Rebbe’s glasses,” who can stand strong against cultural pressures because they’re built and infused not only with Jewish pride but with the knowledge and ability to continue.

He concluded with heartfelt hope that this renewed effort in chinuch should be “the last frontier,” and that through strengthening it, we will merit to march to the Geulah with Moshiach – and as the Rebbe would say, “with all of our kinderlach.”

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