Moshe Kotlarsky
American Chabad-Lubavitch rabbi (1949–2024), vice-chairman of Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch and chairman of the annual conference of Chabad emissaries
| Moshe Kotlarsky
| |
|---|---|
| Born | 1949 Crown Heights, Brooklyn, New York |
| Died | 4 June 2024 Brooklyn, New York |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Rabbi; vice-chairman of Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch; chairman of the International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Emissaries |
| Known for | Running Chabad's worldwide network of emissaries and its links with major donors |
| Parents | Hershel (Tzvi Yosef) and Golda Kotlarsky |
| Spouse(s) | Rivka Kotlarsky (née Kazen) |
| Children | Nine, including Mendy Kotlarsky |
Moshe Kotlarsky (1949 – 4 June 2024), also Moshe Yehuda Kotlarsky, was an American Chabad-Lubavitch rabbi. As vice-chairman of Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch, the movement's educational arm, he ran much of the central administration of its worldwide network of emissaries (shluchim).[1][2] He chaired the annual International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Emissaries and led its roll call of countries. He also brought major donors to the movement, among them the Rohr family.[3] JTA reported that he led Chabad on Campus International, the Rohr Jewish Learning Institute and several youth networks.[2] Chabad on Campus is one of the three main recipients of the Israeli government-backed Mosaic United programme.[4]
Early life
Kotlarsky was born in Crown Heights in 1949 to Hershel and Golda Kotlarsky. JTA reports that his father, a Holocaust survivor, "helped establish Chabad communities in New York and Montreal". He was educated at yeshivas in Crown Heights and Montreal.[2] Ami magazine wrote that his father, Tzvi Yosef (Hershel) Kotlarsky, came from Otwock in Poland and worked for over 40 years in the administration of the central Lubavitch yeshiva, Tomchei Temimim.[5] He married Rivka Kazen, daughter of one of Menachem Mendel Schneerson's first emissaries. They had nine children.[3]
Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch
Joining headquarters
Lubavitch.com, the movement's official news site, says that on his marriage in 1968 he "entered the employ of Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch". It says he joined the Merkos board in 1998 and was later made vice-chairman.[1] Sue Fishkoff gives a different date: "Rabbi Kotlarsky began working at Chabad headquarters in 1971, a year after his marriage."[6] Merkos 302 says the Rebbe kept him at headquarters although the couple were willing to go out as emissaries. From 1968 he travelled "extensively to outlying Jewish communities, identifying needs, and planning new Chabad centers", including in the former Soviet Union, East Asia and the Caribbean.[3][2]
Running the emissary network
Fishkoff described him in 2003 as the man who "administers the movement's worldwide network of shlichim", including its summer volunteer programme and Passover Seder project. "When a Chabad House in Shanghai needs money for a down payment on a new building, or when a regional head is clashing with a younger shliach or with a local Jewish community," she wrote, "Kotlarsky is the one who flies in, writes the check, or picks up the phone". He told her the Rebbe had set four rules for entering a new city: "Don't cause friction, make sure you have a financial base for the first year, build a mikvah if none exists, and avoid countries on the verge of revolution."[6] Before opening a centre, he said, he would meet "the Federation, the Jewish Community Center, local rabbis, and potential donors".[6]
Heilman and Friedman call him "vice-chair of the shluchim". They describe a couple who chose the US Virgin Islands as their posting on his advice, after consulting him and Yehuda Krinsky.[7] George Rohr told Ami that he was a founding partner of the Rohr Jewish Learning Institute "together with Reb Moshe and Rabbi Efraim Mintz, whose brilliant brainchild JLI was".[5] Merkos 302 credits him with expanding the "Roving Rabbis" summer programme and founding Merkos 302, the division now led by his son Mendy Kotlarsky. It runs CTeen, Chabad Young Professionals and CKids.[3]
The Kinus Hashluchim
Fishkoff opens her book at the banquet of the International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Shluchim. She describes Kotlarsky, "conference chairman and director of development for Chabad's international emissary network", reading out the names of more than 61 countries where Chabad had permanent centres.[8] Merkos 302 describes the banquet as "the largest sit-down dinner in New York's history".[3] Heilman and Friedman describe him opening the 2006 conference with a melody the Rebbe had taught, while a video of the Rebbe played on the screens.[9] They quote him telling the emissaries that "a shaliach reflects his Rebbe", and reminding them at the 2006 conference of the need "to inspire, encourage and bond with one another". They read the second remark as a way of keeping emissaries from "an inventiveness that could lead to their crossing some red lines".[10][11]
Donors and state contacts
Lubavitch.com says that, "Concerned about fostering the economic sustainability of Chabad centers", he "developed and nurtured relationships with many philanthropists and Chabad's major supporters, acting as the liaison between them and Chabad centers".[1] Merkos 302 lists among them Sami Rohr, George Rohr and Pamela Rohr, Lev Leviev and Olga Leviev, Moise Safra, Moris and Lillian Tabacinic, Gennadiy Bogolyubov and David Slager.[3] George Rohr, who chairs the Chabad on Campus International Foundation and the Rohr Jewish Learning Institute, said he had worked with Kotlarsky "for over forty years".[1] Ami wrote that he "played a pivotal role in securing funding for Chabad's expansion on college campuses and in Eastern Europe".[5]
JTA lists Israeli President Isaac Herzog, former Dominican President Leonel Fernández and former UN General Assembly President Csaba Kőrösi among the leaders he met.[2] After the 2008 Mumbai attacks, in which the Chabad emissaries Gabi and Rivky Holtzberg were killed, he travelled to India with the families.[2] In 2016 Chabad on Campus International, one of the groups he led, became one of three main grantees of Mosaic United, set up by Israel's Ministry of Diaspora Affairs. JTA reported grants of $22 million each over two years to Chabad on Campus, Hillel International and Olami.[4]
Death
He died at home in Brooklyn on 4 June 2024 (27 Iyar 5784), shortly before his 75th birthday, after what JTA called "a three-year battle with pancreatic cancer".[1][2] Thousands joined the funeral procession past 770 Eastern Parkway on its way to Montefiore Cemetery in Queens, where Schneerson is buried.[2] Ami reported that a letter he wrote, read at the funeral, asked that his son Mendy take over his responsibilities.[5]
See also
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Chabad Lubavitch HQ, Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, 74, Vice Chairman of Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch Lubavitch.com, 4 June 2024, accessed 10 November 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 Luke Tress, Crown Heights mourns Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, a pivotal figure in Chabad's global outreach New York Jewish Week (Jewish Telegraphic Agency), 5 June 2024, accessed 10 November 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 Merkos 302, Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, Chabad Leader and Global Jewish Ambassador Passes Away at 74 Merkos 302 News, 5 June 2024, accessed 10 November 2026.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Josefin Dolsten, Open Hillel calls on Hillel to reject funding by Naftali Bennett project Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 3 November 2016, accessed 10 November 2026.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Ami Magazine, The Rebbe's Shliach Ami, 10 June 2024, accessed 10 November 2026.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Sue Fishkoff, The Rebbe's Army: Inside the World of Chabad-Lubavitch, New York: Schocken, 2003, p. 113.
- ↑ Samuel C. Heilman and Menachem M. Friedman, The Rebbe: The Life and Afterlife of Menachem Mendel Schneerson, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010, p. 8.
- ↑ Fishkoff, The Rebbe's Army, 2003, pp. 9–10.
- ↑ Heilman and Friedman, The Rebbe, 2010, pp. 24–25.
- ↑ Heilman and Friedman, The Rebbe, 2010, p. 255.
- ↑ Heilman and Friedman, The Rebbe, 2010, p. 270.