The Impact of Rashi Minkowicz

By COLlive reporter

A moving tribute was made during the gala banquet of the International Kinus Hashluchos in New York in memory of a young Shlucha who passed away in 2014 and the lasting impact she had.

Mrs. Rashi Minkowicz passed suddenly at the age of 37 leaving over her husband Rabbi Hirshy Minkowicz, 8 children and her community of Chabad of North Fulton in Alpharetta, Georgia.

Her colleague, Shlucha Chana Refson, who serves at the University of Georgia in Athens, shared the following story with participants of the banquet on Sunday night.

“After a class, my husband and I were sitting around speaking with students and we were talking about Jewish identity,” Refson said. “From the end of the table, Stacy pipes up and calls herself a spiritual Jew.”

Stacy had just transferred to campus and Refson and her husband Rabbi Michoel Refson weren’t aware of her being involved in any Jewish activity.

Stacy went on to say that she recites the “Shmah Yisroel” every night before going to sleep. “This wasn’t something we often hear from students in university,” Refson says, so she inquired about this practice.

Stacy answered that when she was 4 years old, she attended one of the youth programs led by Rashi Minkowicz and heard about the importance of connecting to Hashem by saying Shmah.

“She took it to heart and made a mental promise she would never go to sleep without saying the Shmah,” Refson said. “This is the story of the impact one Shlucha had on one person.”

Refson went one to tell the Shluchos: “So many times we don’t know the impact we have on others. Many years later you may hear that someone is doing a Mitvzah because of something they heard at the Chabad house, preschool or shabbos table.”

She concluded, “Chances are Rashi never knew this or never got to hear this from Stacy. But you know this now, Rashi: Every single night for the last 17 years, there’s a Jewish girl saying Shemah because of you…”

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