The Question That Changed Their Shlichus: Rabbi Peretz & Chanie Chein

00:00 Speaker 1 I remember the moment that Friday night at Shabbos dinner-

00:03 Speaker 2 That's Rabbi Peretz Chein. He and his wife Chani are Chabad emissaries at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts

00:11 Speaker 1 ... and I remember the tables all in front of us filled with, you know, just leftover plates and stuff, looking at all that and saying, "Something is not working here."

00:22 Speaker 2 It wasn't really the post-meal mess that the Cheins found so distressing. It was the growing sense that they hadn't figured out how to reach their students to educate and inspire them, rather than just serve them delicious meals.

00:38 Speaker 1 Serving Shabbat dinners and having students say how wonderful you are and what a great job you're doing and, and, and posting on social media how they love Chabad and how great Chabad is, that could prevent you from actually paying attention to say, "What change am I having in their lives?" Because when you ask yourself, "What change am I having in their lives?" Then you have to confront, "Maybe I'm not."

01:01 Speaker 2 Chani says that led to even more questions.

01:04 Speaker 3 What am I doing about my own Judaism? And we said, "Something is going on that deserves greater exploration."

01:14 Speaker 2 I'm Gary Wolk and this is Lamplighters: Stories from Chabad Emissaries on the Jewish Frontier. Life as a Chabad emissary is often joyous, but it can be unpredictable and even dangerous. Chabad has become a ubiquitous presence in every corner of the world, but behind every Chabad house are emissaries, regular people striving to transcend their circumstances, and the community that supports and relies on them. These are their stories. Back to our story in a moment, but first, I'd like to tell you about a great opportunity. You can partner with Lamplighters in sharing stories of Chabad emissaries doing amazing work all over the world. Please consider dedicating an episode. You can email us at podcast@lubavitch.com to explore dedication opportunities. That's podcast@lubavitch.com. You can also let us know how we're doing and about the shluchim you think we should consider for upcoming episodes. Please rate and review Lamplighters to make it easier for other podcast listeners to find us. Lamplighters is a project of Machne Israel, the social services arm of Chabad Lubavitch. Chani Chein lived all of her early years in Crown Heights.

02:47 Speaker 3 I'm the oldest of eight, and went to the traditional Chabad schools, Bais Rivkah.

02:53 Speaker 2 Her parents weren't official shluchim, but-

02:56 Speaker 3 I grew up Chabad and didn't know anything else.

02:59 Speaker 2 Chani knew by the time she was in high school that she wanted to be a shlucha of the Rebbe. She also realized that she had a creative side.

03:07 Speaker 3 I do consider myself an independent thinker, even from a younger age. I was a very classic poster child for a good Chabad girl, but I had to keep my thoughts to myself.

03:23 Speaker 2 Chani says she could think and act more independently when she spent high school summers at Gang Israel camps in Virginia and Florida. That continued for her in seminary at Ohel Chana in Melbourne, Australia, where she helped develop programming for the school while still a student there.

03:41 Speaker 3 It was a very important year for me. There was a, a very refreshing independence and expansiveness that I had not experienced before.

03:51 Speaker 2 A little later in life, that expansiveness would serve her well. Peretz Chein also grew up in Crown Heights, and his parents also were not official shluchim, but his family had been Chabad for generations.

04:06 Speaker 1 My daddy, my granddaddy, my great-granddaddy, and my great-great-granddaddy, uh, and in the Soviet Union they were part of the underground Chabad community.

04:15 Speaker 2 When he was 14, Peretz left for yeshiva in Israel, and finished his studies in Paris and back in Brooklyn. In 1999, he earned Rabbinic ordination at the Semikhah Institute in Melbourne. He had done merkaz shlichus in Australia, Germany, Belgium, Paris, and in the US. When he was younger, he had dreamed of a lucrative career in law.

04:38 Speaker 1 And then in my teenage years, while in yeshiva, I was exposed in a deeper way to Chasidisht, the Rebbe and shlichus, and here I had the opportunity with the education that I had to share it with others. Though I will say, some members of my family said to me, "Well, when you grow up, you'll change your mind."

04:57 Speaker 2 Why do you think they said that?

04:59 Speaker 1 Because they were aware of the hardship of shlichus.

05:03 Speaker 3 I think also they assumed you'd be a really, really good lawyer.

05:08 Speaker 2 You're just working in a slightly different branch of law right now, that's all.

05:11 Speaker 1 Yes.

05:12 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm.

05:14 Speaker 2 So you met in the summer of 1999, you married the following January. Tell me about the process that led you to figuring out where you would go out on shlichus.

05:25 Speaker 3 Process seems like there indeed is a clear process.

05:29 Speaker 1 Yeah.

05:29 Speaker 3 It's a couple like us just deeply desiring to go, and you kind of put out feelers.

05:35 Speaker 1 I mean, you just look around, you ask around, and both of us not having grown up on shlichus didn't have those family connections in the world of shlichus, so we had a number of interviews for a number of places, but none of them panned out, weren't a good fit for us.

05:50 Speaker 2 And then the Cheins heard of an opportunity, Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. On the one hand, Brandeis had a large Jewish community. On the other hand, they weren't sure if there'd be financial support. But staunch philanthropist and Chabad supporter George Rohr stepped up with seed money to cover their first three years, and Machne Israel also provided a major grant. A visit in 2001 sealed the deal.

06:21 Speaker 1 We came to campus. We walked around for 35 minutes, said, "All right. We're coming."

06:24 Speaker 3 It was a new frontier. There were very few Chabad on campuses then, and we got excited about the idea of working with young adults.

06:34 Speaker 1 And then we arrived a few months later with our stuff and informed the administration that we're here.

06:40 Speaker 2 Brandeis was founded in 1948 as a non-sectarian university, but it's also known that much of its original funding came from the Jewish community in response to quotas that limited Jewish access to other elite American universities. Paradoxically, that worked against the Chaynes at the outset. When they arrived in August of 2001, they were excited and terrified.

07:07 Speaker 1 And I'd say more terrified than excited.

07:11 Speaker 2 Those were emotions many shluchim experience when they arrive for the first time to the place they've committed to for life. But the Chaynes were also dealing with resistance. Some students, and even the administration, questioned why they were there.

07:26 Speaker 1 There is no need for Chabad at Brandeis. The resources exist. There's a wonderful Jewish community. There's a kosher cafeteria. There's a schedule that is supportive of Jewish holidays. So what's the need for... What are you offering that isn't already here?

07:43 Speaker 2 The Chaynes sensed that acceptance would take time, so they began where most shluchim do.

07:49 Speaker 3 A place for students to experience Shabbos in a family environment. You offer students a family. You offer students home-cooked food. There are inspiring words. There's humor. There's song. It's a two, three-hour experience. And so that quickly, quickly gathered momentum, and also eased some of our anxiety of, "Oh, look. It's working. The students are coming, and they're coming back, and they're coming with friends."

08:19 Speaker 1 I mean, within three years, we created deep connections which really gave that sense of support and validation to what we're doing.

08:27 Speaker 3 But the anxiety that also began to build at this time was not just about are we necessary at Brandeis.

08:36 Speaker 2 In just three years, the Chaynes had taken on more responsibilities: raising children, keeping up with alumni, and fundraising, which for campus shluchim is challenging, because most of their financial support doesn't come from students themselves. The Chaynes maintained their energy and idealism, but there was also a lot more stress. And then, just a few years into their work at Brandeis, there was a pivotal moment.

09:06 Speaker 1 It was December 2006. That Friday night, at Shabbos dinner, and I remember the tables all in front of us filled with, you know, just leftover plates and stuff. Looking at all that and saying, "Something is not working here."

09:21 Speaker 2 The Chaynes were having a hard time planning for Shabbos meals because there were so many late walk-ins, many of whom would save seats for friends who might or might not show up. The Chaynes shared their frustrations with fellow shluchim. Chanie says some of her colleagues told her that she should simply accept her role as the Rebbe's caterer. Then, exactly one student showed up for a class Rabbi offered.

09:47 Speaker 3 And Peretz and I looked at each other, and we said, "Hmm, shlichus cannot just be about Shabbos dinners." They're obviously easy and accessible and wonderful, however, if only one person comes to class to learn about a subject, there's a gap.

10:06 Speaker 1 Serving Shabbat dinners and having students say how wonderful you are and what a great job you're doing and, and, and posting on social media how they love Chabad and how great Chabad is could prevent you from actually paying attention to say, "What change am I having in their lives? Maybe I'm not."

10:25 Speaker 2 So the Chaynes brainstormed, and they realized they needed to make a change.

10:30 Speaker 1 And we came up with this idea of a learning program that would offer a wide range of topics that no one can say, "Well, this topic isn't interesting for me."

10:40 Speaker 2 By the fall of 2007, the Chaynes had developed a new curriculum that offered 12 classes a week on 12 different topics. Now every student could find something they felt was relevant to them.

10:54 Speaker 1 And we gave it a name. We called it iLearn. And we asked students to pay a fee. It was a $25 one-time fee. And then we also said that Shabbat dinners alternate between participants in iLearn and the rest of the student body, making the point that the Shabbos dinner is about the learning experience, is about the growing experience.

11:16 Speaker 2 The Chaynes stuck to their principles, not knowing how students would respond, but iLearn worked.

11:22 Speaker 1 And that first semester, close to 100 students joined.

11:28 Speaker 2 Though neither holds a degree in marketing, the Chaynes nevertheless have a flair for it. After iLearn, they came up with another innovative campaign. They called it RSMeP, a play on RSVP.

11:44 Speaker 3 So it was a revolutionary technological RSVP system.

11:51 Speaker 1 We, we designed an online platform that allows students in advance of Shabbos to choose the s- table where they're sitting at, see who else is sitting there, and in that way elevate the expectation that when you come to Shabbos dinner, you offer us the dignity of letting us know that you're coming. so that they become aware that there's work that goes into this dinner. There were some students who made the claim that this is not Chabad. Chabad is meant to be welcoming and open to everybody. You are undermining what Chabad is about. So we ma- so our response was that this is what Chabad is about, and it is welcoming to everybody 'cause everyone is welcome to join

12:32 Speaker 2 The Chens demanded agency in other ways. They asked students to write short essays on Jewish topics when signing up for Shabbat dinners. They asked them to help set up and to help clean up afterward.

12:46 Speaker 3 And so by us choosing to change our Shabbos dinner, I was inviting students to step into a much more intentional space, and for that I would be overjoyed to prepare food for. And so it began to build a community here that has greater intentionality, that has a certain spirit of learning, and a certain maturity. So we began to become less concerned that if we ask something of students, they're not going to come, and it was very clear that those who engaged with us in the learning classes as well, that they l- went to create intentional, mature, curious Jewish spaces and lives.

13:31 Speaker 2 Over the next decade or so, the Chens adapted the program as new students armed with new technologies came and went with each graduation cycle. And the Chens saw that the model they had developed could apply to anybody.

13:45 Speaker 3 It's not enough that I ask students to do something about their Judaism. What am I doing about my own Judaism?

13:51 Speaker 1 And therefore, we should also be doing the inner l- exploration for ourselves within ourselves.

13:58 Speaker 2 The Chens aren't ashamed to admit that they were feeling overwhelmed, even a little burnt out. That's not something you hear from shluchim very often, but the Chens say they needed to be as honest with themselves as they had been with their students.

14:13 Speaker 3 And if we're so devoted to shlichus, how come some mornings we're absolutely exhausted by it? And so we avoid those questions. One of the dynamics that contribute to feeling overwhelmed or disconnected or burnt out is the feeling of stuckness. No, I can't change it, or I don't have time for change in my life. This space of stuckness is, in Chassidus what we say is Mitzrayim. It's galus. But when we neglect our neshamas and we neglect our inner conversations and neglect our thoughts, we experience burnout.

14:48 Speaker 2 When the Brandeis academic year ended in the spring of 2020, the Chens went on a short trip to Western Massachusetts to celebrate Chanie's birthday.

14:58 Speaker 3 A little getaway in a very sweet, creative Airbnb, and while we relished the quiet, we also began to sense a deep opportunity to reconnect with alumni.

15:10 Speaker 2 So the Chens created Zoom conversations with them to discuss what was going on in their lives post-graduation.

15:18 Speaker 3 And a cascade of thoughts and emotions and questions and joys and pain just burst forward. It was very, very powerful. We learned that it is scary to reflect on your life, yet at the same time, people crave it, but there is no space that they feel can hold a productive reflection and one done with trust and dignity. Now, we saw alumni doing it successfully, and we said something's going on that deserves greater exploration. I think what the alumni experience showed me is that everyone desires to reflect.

16:03 Speaker 2 The Chens' approach began to resonate. A Chabad rabbi in a big Mid-Atlantic Jewish community invited the Chens to work with them. The Chens realized that they needed their own teachable program model that could expand, grow, and be universally adaptable. So the Chens reached out to Steven Markowitz, one of their teachers in a program they took through the Institute for Experiential Jewish Learning called M2.

16:31 Speaker 3 And we asked him to help us make sense of what we developed in the alumni experience.

16:37 Speaker 1 And started developing a framework with which to continue these conversations and these explorations.

16:45 Speaker 2 Their new program would combine modern consultancy techniques with the ancient art of the farbrengen, the Hasidic heart-to-heart gathering promoting camaraderie, spiritual inspiration, and positive life changes. It's based on the Lubavitcher Rebbe's last maamar, the Ya'ate Tatza've, which he gave over in 1992. It describes how a Jew has the ability to reveal the divine presence in this world. The Chens called it M54.

17:15 Speaker 1 The M stands for the word magic. The number 54 is made up of three times chai, three times 18, and the idea being that when one chai, when one person engages with another chai, with another person in a meaningful, deep way, a new chai, a third 18 emerges. Because this type of learning is most effective in a relational way with others, fundamentally what a farbrengen is.

17:42 Speaker 2 Actually, the full title is M54: The Institute for Insourcing, referring to the Hasidic concept of avodat panimis, or inner work. The idea inspired support from the outset.

17:56 Speaker 1 George Rohr was instrumental in our coming on shlichus, and we said to him, "George, you were great in getting us out there. There's a need for maintenance," to put it mildly. And we presented him with this idea, and he immediately got it and enthusiastically supported us.

18:14 Speaker 2 The first M54 cohort convened in May 2021. Here's how the program works: for four months, cohorts of six to 10 shluchim, the men led by Peretz, the women by Chanie, join a weekly one-and-a-half hour Zoom meeting for interactions, questions, and discussion. Cohorts meet a few weeks into the program for an in-person retreat. Early in the program, the Chens were able to acknowledge an important truth.

18:42 Speaker 1 Chasidus is not halacha. Chasidus is mystical, esoteric, philosophical ideas to integrate into your life. That integration, though, each one needs to do it personally. We found that shluchim and shluchas lack this process. It was striking.

18:58 Speaker 4 Subject after subject in high school, in seminary, in, in yeshiva, you're learning the subject, learning the subject, but how is it settling into you? What do you do with it?

19:07 Speaker 1 And what we're trying to do is to demonstrate avodat penim as something real and relevant, and offer a system of how to do it.

19:16 Speaker 4 And so this allows the shluchim and shluchas to really own this work of avodat penim so that when this process is over, they have it.

19:27 Speaker 5 The whole idea of us going on shlichus and being emissaries of the Rebbe was in order to bring Mashiach, in order to bring people closer to God.

19:38 Speaker 2 That's Rabbi Avi Bookert, co-director, along with his wife Luna, of the Center for Jewish Life, which serves Arlington and Belmont, Massachusetts.

19:47 Speaker 5 We went out optimistic, we were young, and we were very excited, and we still are excited, but 10 years later, it has a different feel to it.

19:58 Speaker 2 The Bookerts have been very successful in their work. There's now a weekly minyan in Arlington, and they're looking to build a new Chabad house. They've inspired many young people to take on Shabbos observance and even to study in yeshiva.

20:12 Speaker 5 And that brings joy.

20:16 Speaker 2 But Rabbi Bookert says they've also experienced some cognitive dissonance.

20:21 Speaker 5 The challenges are many. Obviously, the challenge of fundraising, the challenge of getting buy-in from the community, and Boston has a very strong secular culture, academic culture, a hard shell of Judaism going back in secular Jewish America over a hundred years.

20:40 Speaker 2 That created a twofold problem for Bookert. On the one hand, many Jews in his community were resistant to making contact. Conversely, many of those who were engaged at the Center for Jewish Life often didn't respect privacy boundaries. He kept his frustration inside.

20:59 Speaker 5 I felt like I was losing the plot. The excitement and fervor that I had 10 years ago, I was losing that.

21:05 Speaker 2 Fortunately for the Bookerts, they already knew the Chens, who live and work just a couple of towns over. The Bookerts signed up for M54 in 2023.

21:16 Speaker 5 Right away, what struck me was that I was not alone in these challenges. All of a sudden, you're sitting and farbrengen and talking and going through workshops with these colleagues, some of them much older than me, some of them a little younger than me, but we were all going through the same challenges, and Chanie and Peretz did such an amazing job really bringing these issues to the fore, really articulating these issues through different exercises, new ways of seeing things.

21:45 Speaker 2 Avi and Luna Bookert joined an advanced cohort in 2024. It's perhaps a bit of a paradox that Bookert and so many shluchim have found the M54 program to be so invigorating because, in a sense, what they're learning has been under their noses all along.

22:02 Speaker 5 Yeah. I, I mean, it was the farbrengen model. You know, and that's the beauty of M54. They're showing you in a down-to-earth language, in a language that's more accessible to all of us, what's right there, from a farbrengen, from a niggun, from a sicha, a maimar. It's all right there.

22:19 Speaker 2 Bookert says he saw immediate results.

22:22 Speaker 5 I became more organized and intentional with my schedule, and able to set the correct boundaries, and I'm taking smaller steps, more focused, intentional steps in my day-to-day. M54 has definitely helped in making this journey a healthier way of sustaining our shlichus.

22:46 Speaker 2 The Brandeis 2026 spring semester ended on May 17th. While classes were still underway, I spoke with Bella Shatzkess, a second-year political science major. Bella comes from Brooklyn's Syrian Jewish community, but all she had previously known about Chabad was that yeshiva bochurs were all over her neighborhood once a week.

23:08 Speaker 6 Those kids under the Kings Highway Q Train subway station who always asked me if I was Jewish and tried to shove tea lights into my hand every Friday, um

23:20 Speaker 2 During her first semester, Bella met the Chens, joined them in their home for Shabbos dinner, and in no time at all was learning with them on Shabbos mornings, forging bonds with their children, and meeting fellow students who she says she might not have met otherwise. These are not unusual Chabad on campus experiences. What Bella didn't know was that she'd be in the first group of students to experience Chabad Brandeis 360, a program for students based on the M54 model.

23:53 Speaker 6 Chabad 360 is for students trying to build a relationship with their Judaism that they can then take past the college world. We, this past semester, have focused on kabbalat ol, which is accepting the mitzvot. How do we make it that you want to continue to accept the mitzvot onto yourself and accept Hashem into your life?

24:21 Speaker 2 Bella says the Chens' approach made it easier for her to consider taking on mitzvahs she otherwise might not have.

24:27 Speaker 6 And it's definitely something that I'm going to take with me for the next couple of years and the rest of my life.

24:34 Speaker 4 My name is Elliot.

24:36 Speaker 2 I spoke with Elliot Bachrach as the spring 2026 semester drew to a close. He's studying theater arts with minors in Yiddish and Judaic studies. He first met the Chens in the fall of 2022, about a year after Elliot had major surgery during the first semester of his freshman year.

24:56 Speaker 4 It was my first semester back from brain surgery, and, um, I was introduced to Peretz by Chanie, and I remember him looking in my eyes and just saying, "Wow, that must have been a really difficult experience. It's amazing that you were able to get through that." In that moment, I just felt seen. I was struggling that semester. I was, I was behind in a lot of schoolwork 'cause I didn't get to finish my first year of college or even my first semester, but they went out of their way to make me feel welcome whenever the circumstances were not great for me.

25:33 Speaker 7 Elliot's father is a convert, and his mother is not Jewish. Before college, he attended Catholic school.

25:40 Speaker 4 I think we lit the menorah twice growing up, so we didn't even do Hanukkah.

25:45 Speaker 7 But now Elliot keeps kosher, keeps Shabbos, and is strongly considering an Orthodox conversion. His relationship with the Cheins has allowed him to learn and to live his passion for Judaism.

25:59 Speaker 4 So much of my Yiddishkeit is rooted in my experiences with Chanie and Peretz. They're pretty much like my Jewish parents.

26:08 Speaker 7 Elliot was also among the first Chabad Brandeis 360 students, which has helped him realize that Chabad, at its essence, is so much more than a wonderful five-course Shabbos meal.

26:19 Speaker 4 You know, inner work, and something that Chanie says all the time, "What are you gonna be doing the Monday after graduation? You know, after you don't have this vibrant community to go back to, what are you gonna be doing? Because everything's made for you. You just show up to the dinner. It's, it's definitely not gonna be like this for the rest of our life."

26:40 Speaker 7 Elliot is on track to graduate in 2027. He says he hopes to someday raise his own Jewish family. Now that the semester is over, the Cheins are running their latest M54 cohort and promoting their new interactive board game, Let's Farbreng. They're also working on a book featuring essays by Chabad shluchim about their own Avodat Panim's journeys.

27:05 Speaker 8 I mean, our, our fantasy is to make Avodat Panim universal, to bring this practice and this value to the larger Jewish world. We think that this is the last calling of the Rebbe, in the Maamer Ba'atid Tzanba.

27:19 Speaker 7 You've shared your educational model with so many people, but I have to ask, has the inner work you're teaching also changed you?

27:27 Speaker 8 Unquestionably. I've applied it to fundraising, to the anxieties that I have around fundraising.

27:34 Speaker 9 Yes, I'll say amen also. It has extraordinarily transformed the way we are with each other, our children, our students, alumni, to really be reflective and curious and courageous.

27:47 Speaker 8 Courageous. I'll say it again, courageous. Courageous, distinctive, individualistic. The reason the Hebrews to created you was because y- there was something unique about your observance and your interpretation of Yiddishkeit that was necessary.

28:02 Speaker 7 Rabbi Avi Bookert has known that for a long time, but with the help of Rabbi Peretz and Rebbetzin Chanie Chein, Bookert says he's been able to more effectively internalize that message.

28:14 Speaker 10 Shlichus is not for a superman. Shlichus is a very human and real experience that the Rebbe of blessed memory asked each and every one of us to take part of. That in order to impact others, we must first be impacted as well, and by inspiring ourselves, we will inspire others.

28:40 Speaker 7 I'm Gary Wollek. Thanks for listening to Lamplighters: Stories from Chabad Emissaries on the Jewish Frontier. We welcome your questions and comments about what you've just heard on Lamplighters. Please email us at podcast@lubavitch.com, and if you know of a great story involving Chabad emissaries or the people they inspire, please let us know about them. That's podcast@L-U-B-A-V-I-T-C-H.com. To subscribe digitally to Lubavitch International Magazine or to receive it at your doorstep, please visit lubavitch.com/subscribe. Lamplighters is a project of Machne Israel, the social services arm of Chabad Lubavitch.