Two weeks ago to the day, as the COVID-19 coronavirus was rapidly spreading through the Chinese city of Wuhan, Rochel Kalmenson and her husband, Rabbi Yekutiel Kalmenson, co-directors of Chabad-Lubavitch of Ningbo, China, and their three young children, boarded a flight to Shanghai and then on to New York.
“Until then, it wasn’t obvious what we should do. It wasn’t yet dangerous to remain, and we knew we had to stay as long as our community was still there,” recalls Rochel Kalmenson as she sits among 3,100 Chabad women emissaries, friends and supporters at one of the hundreds of round tables at tonight’s gala banquet of the International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Women Emissaries (Kinus Hashluchos) in Brooklyn, N.Y. Two weeks ago, on Friday just hours before Shabbat, they learned that the last Jewish family in their city—a mere three-hour train ride from Wuhan—was leaving, and made the difficult decision to head out as well, flying out of Ningbo on Sunday. A few days later, coronavirus was spreading through Ningbo, and mass quarantines began.
Honoring the Rebbetzin
With LED lights, carpets and chandeliers suspended from the rafters, the gigantic New York State Armory in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn was transformed for the evening gala banquet. Mussie Kesselman, co-director of Chabad of Greenville, S.C., emceed the event, sharing her own family’s close relationship with the Rebbetzin.
The Rebbetzin was a very private person, but, knowing that Kesselman’s mother, at the time a 17-year-old girl studying in Crown Heights, was likely feeling lonely, she called her dorm and left a message with her mother’s roommate.
“Please tell Chaya that Mrs. Schneerson from President Street called, and if she could please call me back,” the Rebbetzin said. Kesselman’s mother got the message and called back immediately.
In the call, Kesselman explained, “the Rebbetzin expressed that … my mother … might be feeling homesick and lonely, and she wanted her to know that she had a friend in the neighborhood.
“Tonight, on her yahrteziet, I reflect on the personal stories of the Rebbetzin I have heard from my parents and grandparents,” added Kesselman. “ … Every moment brings opportunity for interaction. And in every interaction, I have the ability to channel the Rebbetzin’s sensitivity and connection to be there for the person I am engaging with. And thus, I share her sensitivity further. And so can you.”
“Then I’m very happy because now I know you’ll speak in Yiddish to your children, and that’s very important,” the Rebbetzin told her. To Shemtov, having been brought up in an English-speaking home, this was a novel idea but one she committed to memory.
Years went by, and the couple were not blessed with children. Shemtov and her husband prayed, and made special trips to her gravesite. “I’m ready to speak Yiddish,” she’d say. “But where are the children?”
Twelve years later, on an evening following the men’s International Conference, her father-in-law sat at a Chassidic gathering and implored those gathered to give a blessing and say a l’chaim that his son and daughter-in-law be blessed with children.
“Three months later, I attended the Kinus for shluchos,” Shemtov told the audience, “this Kinus, having just completed my first trimester! And [thank G‑d], a few months later gave birth to our twins, Chaya Mushka and Menachem Mendel, and a few years later, to our son Yosef.
“Dear sister shluchos, family, friends,” Shemtov concluded, “This is a giant and yet intimate Chassidic farbrengen. Tonight is the Rebbetzin’s yahrzeit, and we are all her children. The incredible energy in this room is simply a manifestation of the immense power and potential we have to bless one another. May … our prayers and supplications, our l’chaims and heartfelt wishes to one another pierce the heavenly gates.”