In 5721, the Rebbe encouraged Reb Yitzchok Dovid Groner to transform Australia into “Bnei Brak, Williamsburg, and Crown Heights.” As an American born, without an accent, the Rebbe explained, he had the power to influence people.
Originally sent on a short-term shlichus to Melbourne Australia, Reb Yitzchok Dovid Groner returned to New York in 5721 to be with the Rebbe. In a 7 Cheshvan yechidus, the Rebbe encouraged him to return for a permanent Shlichus.
“It can become like Bnei Brak, Williamsburg, and Crown Heights,” the Rebbe outlined a fantastic vision for the spiritual desert.
The Rebbe then told Reb Yitzchok to look at the country of Georgia as an example. How it was desolate of Yiddishkeit, and what Reb Shmuel Levitin accomplished there as a shliach of the Rebbe Rashab.
“As an American born, without an accent,” the Rebbe continued, “you have the power to influence people to lay tefillin.
“Australia can now be totally conquered!” the Rebbe declared.
Reb Yitzchok returned, and indeed the Australian landscape was transformed.
(Teshura Groner Weingarten 5771)
From The Weekly Farbrengen by Merkaz Anash
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