One seat at this year’s Kinus Hashluchos banquet will be empty.

For over three decades, it belonged to Shlucha Luba Schtroks. On Erev Yud Shevat, her neshama departed her body, taking her from her grieving husband and devastated children.

In the first half of the ’90s, she and her husband, יבלח״ט, Rabbi Mendel Schtroks, settled in Cologne, Germany. The isolation in those early years was extraordinary. The challenges placed before them were severe. Yet none of this diminished the joy she had in being a Shlucha. For Luba, being mekushar to the Rebbe was her core, and its fullest expression was being his Shlucha.

She was otherworldly. She lived a life of the neshama, where materialism and personal needs simply fell away. Only Yiddishkeit, Chassidishkeit, Rebbe, Shlichus, and Ahavas Yisroel mattered. In her presence, you felt that you mattered—that she cared for you entirely. Whether you were her child, a community member, or a stranger, her smile and her words invited you to feel better about yourself and to believe that you could deepen your connection with Hashem.

Throughout fourteen years of illness, even as her body severely deteriorated, her soul and spirit seemed to exist on a different plane, as if disconnected from the suffering. The pain was happening somewhere outside of her. She continued to radiate warmth, wisdom, and love. The only time she complained was the moments before her body finally gave way.

Today, her eleven children are orphans. They will no longer have their mother’s nurturing love. Eight of them will not have her at their chuppah.

Luba gave everything for others. Now her family carries the weight of the significant medical debt and the ongoing burden of providing for her children.

We can ease that burden. Over two thousand people have already contributed to a fund dedicated to her children—a testament to the lives she touched—but much more is needed.

The empty seat at the Kinus banquet is a gaping hole for her family. While you and I can’t give Luba back to her family, we can help provide the much-needed financial support that will carry them forward. 

Please support Luba’s husband and children during this most difficult and painful time.

https://www.charidy.com/keren392

AUDIO

A voice note that Mrs. Schtroks a”h sent a community member about living with bitachon: