Lamplighters
Stories From Chabad Emissaries On The Jewish Frontier.
Narrated By: Gary Waleik
Produced by: Shneur Brook & Gary Waleik
A project of Machne Israel
Lamplighters
They Looked Everywhere - And Chose Zambia: Rabbi Mendy & Rivky Hertzel
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
They Looked Everywhere - And Chose Zambia: Rabbi Mendy & Rivky Hertzel
To inquire about dedicating an episode - please email podcast@lubavitch.com
Did you enjoy listening to this episode? Leave us a five-star review on the podcast platform and/or email us at Podcast@Lubavitch.com - we truly value your feedback!
“She's from Alaska originally, so there was no question that she will go to shlichus as well. The question was just if she's ready to go even to Africa. And I asked when we were dating, "Are you ready to go to Africa?" She said, "Of course!” - Rabbi Mendy Hertzel
"What's a ‘rabbi’? Why are you coming here?” “Are we giving a Zambian job opportunity away?” We said, "No, don't worry about it. No Zambians want to become rabbis." - Rebbetzin Rivky Hertzel
"I would never have ever imagined becoming as included in a Jewish dynamic Jewish environment if it had not been for them. I probably would not have allowed myself to be exposed to Jewish tradition." - Saul Radunsky
Produced by: Gary Waleik & Shneur Brook for Lubavitch International/Lubavitch.com - A Project of Machne Israel
Available on all major podcast platforms - and online at Lubavitch.com/podcast
We put in a petition for our visa and was denied. We tried again and was denied.
SPEAKER_02But the Zambian officials who twice rejected Rivki and Mendy Herzl's application for a work visa with the intent to establish a Chabad house in the capital city of Lusaka didn't know who they were dealing with, quite literally.
SPEAKER_01What's a rabbi? Why are you coming here? Are we giving a Zambian job opportunity away? We said, no, don't worry about it. No Zambians want to become rabbis.
SPEAKER_02But there were Zambian Jews who wanted a stronger Jewish community. They wanted the Herzl's, a young, enthusiastic Chabad couple eager to begin their life's work in Lusaka.
SPEAKER_03Bringing kosher food, bringing Mazuzis, bringing Tefilin, bringing Lullevan Esligin Matzas to just build everything to make sure we will be easy to have a Jewish good life here.
SPEAKER_02Life 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 a community that supports and relies on them. These are their stories. 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 at lubavitch.com to explore dedication opportunities. That's podcast at lubavich.com. You can also let us know how we're doing and about the schluchem 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. Manachem Mendel Herzel believes he was born to live a life of Jewish outreach. That began for him in northern Israel.
SPEAKER_03My parents started in Shlokim in a city called Roshpina near Tzfas.
SPEAKER_02Mendy's parents, Rabbi Shalom Bear and Dvorah Herzl, would go on to establish Chabad of the Golan Heights. His maternal grandfather, Rabbi Ariya Leb Kaplan, had been sent to Tsfas by the Lubavchar Rebbe in the early 70s.
SPEAKER_03And I just joined this big family picture of Schlochim in that area.
SPEAKER_02Herzl loved being a part of that legacy, but he also thought about the future and drew inspiration from the story of Avraham Avinu.
SPEAKER_03To go and to do the Lechliko in the strongest way for me was always the strongest dream and wish to have. Since I was born, it was crystal clearer. It was not the question.
SPEAKER_02Mendy studied in yeshivas in Israel and Detroit, and then for one year in Crown Heights, with the single-minded determination to be a Chabad emissary on the front lines. That's because Rivke lived in Anchorage, Alaska.
SPEAKER_01We would camouflage ourselves into the tree so they wouldn't see us, wait for them to pass. They were like part of our life. The bears, not as much.
SPEAKER_02Rivke's parents, Rabbi Yosef and Rebitzin Esther Greenberg, were the pioneering Chabad emissaries to Alaska. The Rebbe sent them in 1991 to support the 3,000 or so Jews who lived and worked in Anchorage at that time. From early on, Rivke was a part of that.
SPEAKER_01I was teaching Hebrew school from a very young age. The Chabaras was in our house until I was maybe eight or nine. The playroom was in my room.
SPEAKER_02Because of Anchorage's latitude, late sunsets made Jewish life even more of an adventure than they would ordinarily be.
SPEAKER_01And when Shabs ends at 2 o'clock in the morning, you can't vacuum the floor, you can't really clean up much after. You kind of just go to sleep and deal with it in the morning. We were making of Dala Sunday morning in the summers.
SPEAKER_02Rivki attended Chayamushka High School in Detroit and Machon Shoshana in Jerusalem. She says she was strongly attracted to the idea of Schlichus. In 2018, Mendy attended the Kinesa Schluchem while he was still in Yeshiva. One day he hopped a ride with a bocher, Chaimbar Selah, who had done some outreach work in Lagos, Nigeria.
SPEAKER_03And he was describing Schluchus there, how much there is nothing. And you're coming to establish not only Yiddish Kai, but you're coming to a place that there is no water and there is no food and there is no electricity and there is nothing, and you creating everything by yourself. And to me, that was the dream. To come to a place that there is no infrastructure for regular Jewish life and to start to do whatever I can to make this place better and the Jewish life feel stronger.
SPEAKER_02In late 2020, the Herzl's paths converged. And it was time to think of marriage. Rivki was working at Chabad of Charlotte, North Carolina, when she began dating Mendy.
SPEAKER_03I was dating her in New York at the beginning of the winter, and then I was asking if we are moving in Schluchas. She's from Alaska originally. So it was no question that she will go to Schluchas as well.
SPEAKER_02But Mendy wanted to know how far Rivke would be willing to travel. So we picked a random faraway location.
SPEAKER_03The question was just if she's ready to go even to Africa. And I asked when you were dating, are you ready to go even to Africa? And she said, Of course.
SPEAKER_02Mendy Herzl received Smicha in Crown Heights, and the Herzl's were married in early 2021 in New York, where they lived for one year. They were open to all possibilities.
SPEAKER_01We just knew that we wanted to start something on our own. I think both of us came with that. We wanted to go somewhere that had nothing.
SPEAKER_03We could settle the entire world.
SPEAKER_01We started to open Google Maps and the Chabad at Arg locator, and we were literally just going through continents and countries and states and cities. We would find a place, check if there was a Chabad there. We would try to figure out why isn't there a Chabad? Is our Jewish population? We would reach out to the Hedgehog, the Chabad rabbi of that place, and ask them, Are you looking for someone?
SPEAKER_02There were no takers at first, but not long after the Herzl's were married, the Hedge Shloka to Central Africa, Miriam Bentulela, passed away. Her husband, Rabbi Shlomo Bentulila, publicly announced that, in her honor and her memory, he wanted to open a Chabad house in Zambia.
SPEAKER_01My husband is into geography. I was not I never heard of the country in my life. I never knew it existed.
SPEAKER_02The Bentulelas had been sending visiting Schhlokem to Zambia for 30 years. The Herzl's jumped at the opportunity to become the country's first permanent Chabad emissaries.
SPEAKER_03I reached out to him and I said, Can I get this job, this position?
SPEAKER_01And we kept calling again and again. We made him crazy.
SPEAKER_02But other couples were interested too, and the process of choosing the right shlochem was taking time.
SPEAKER_01So we went to look at other things.
SPEAKER_03We decided to consider Italy and Australia, and we actually went to Czech in Alaska and Idaho and Washington State, everywhere. But Rivke says Zambia kept pulling them back.
SPEAKER_01It's not something that we can even explain. It's like, you know, a shouldok.
SPEAKER_02So they kept calling Rabbi Bentalila.
SPEAKER_01Until he said, okay, you know what? You could pack your bags, you could go for Purim and Pesach. So that kind of shocked us a little bit, like make Pesach in Africa.
SPEAKER_03Rabbi Bentalila said, you need to go here to Zambia to visit for at least a month and a half. You can't do less. And we were like saying, it doesn't make sense a month and a half. Like it means I need to leave my job and to leave the coiler and leave everything. So I called my Mashpia and I asked him, like, do you think it makes sense? And he said, listen, we are talking about decision for life. So you have to take this month and a half trial to be able to see if you are ready to do this step.
SPEAKER_02So in March of 2022, the Herzl's boarded a plane and set off for faraway Zambia on their very first visit to the African continent.
SPEAKER_01We packed matza, we got everything together, and that's it. We arrived 24 hours before Purim.
SPEAKER_03So when we came to Africa, everything was new.
SPEAKER_01We didn't have meat, we didn't have dairy, we didn't have fish, we just gathered together whatever we could. We learned how to sift flour for the first time, how to check brown eggs. This was in one night, you know, we made humintashin, we made uh parf pasta bar, but that was it. The next night we were already making a perm party and we met maybe 25-30 people and they all came together. It was beautiful. You know, we got to know some people. They asked us if we were coming to stay, we said we don't know.
SPEAKER_02The Herzl spent the next few weeks getting to know the local community and preparing for Pesach.
SPEAKER_01We had 30 people for our first community Seder. We uh learned how to bring frozen kosher food in from South Africa. We learned that when you bring it by car or by bus, it might spoil, it might get delayed, you don't know if you'll get the food. We had to bring in married, we had to the whole thing was a learning experience. But it was a really beautiful Seder that we had.
SPEAKER_02The Herzl's also learned about the history of Zambia's Jewish community, which stretches back over 120 years. Many of Zambia's first Jews worked in the ranching and mining industries, and they had set down some roots.
SPEAKER_03So the Israeli Jewish community here was for many, many years, and they were very strong here. There were nine shoals here, and there is still nine cemeteries, nine different cities all over the country.
SPEAKER_02For over six decades, the Jews of Zambia held on to tradition, albeit without a rav and without a single mikvah. Then, in 1968, the Lubavitcher Rebbe sent a Shliach, a young South African yeshiva baker named Yurachmiel Glazer, to support and inspire Zambian Jews. Years later, Glazer told Mendy Herzl his story.
SPEAKER_03That the Yiddin here are celebrating Pesach and Shivuas and Roshana, but nobody's celebrating Purim. So when he came from Fahbad in 1970, he was trying to help them to realize that Purim is also a holiday. And he said, like, they made a beautiful Purim Pari.
SPEAKER_02That was in 1970, but by that time, Zambian Jews were feeling less secure in their country as it transitioned to a one-party socialist government.
SPEAKER_03Then they disconnected the relationship with Israel in 73, so it became worse and worse, so a lot of families left.
SPEAKER_02By the time Glazer threw Zambia's first Purim party in 1970, there were only a handful of Jewish families living in Zambia. That's one reason why celebrating Purim nearly 50 years later meant so much to the Herzl's. But after Zambia's government abolished its one-party system in the early 90s, Israelis began to return.
SPEAKER_03Now it's like a movement of Israelis and Americans and South Africans and international community.
SPEAKER_02That was just one of the things that convinced the Herzels to stay.
SPEAKER_01We decided by the end of Pesach that this was going to be the decision.
SPEAKER_03That there is so much to do here, and we felt that what are we doing has a meeting to ed here. So yeah, it was a very emotional connection.
SPEAKER_02In fact, the Herzls were so sure that Zambia was the perfect place for them that they stayed a month longer than they had intended past Lagba Omer.
SPEAKER_01We went back to New York, gathered up our things, our apartment, gave things away. We went to my parents in Alaska to have my first baby. And then we thought, we'll jump on a plane and go. We didn't realize that work visas could be denied. And so we went to New York and we were getting ready to go back in time for Hanukkah. We put in a petition for our visa and was denied. And we tried again and was denied. You know, most countries don't want to give away job opportunities to people who are not citizens, so we said, no, don't worry about it. No Zambians want to become rabbis.
SPEAKER_02For a few months, the Herzels navigated the Zambian bureaucracy. They sent Yeshiva Bokram and couples to run services in the following Tishrei, Hanukkah, and Purim.
SPEAKER_01And we were just sitting on our hands, just waiting to be allowed into the country.
SPEAKER_02But the Herzels finally emerged from a sea of red tape. Rivki remembers that they received their final government approval on a Thursday.
SPEAKER_01We barely even had time. I mean, we only had three days' notice from when we got the visa until we were on a plane, so we didn't have much time to gather our things together. It came on a Thursday, we were on the plane on Sunday night, heading back. Three weeks before Pesach.
SPEAKER_02The Herzels arrived in March 2023 as Zambia's first permanent Chabad emissaries.
SPEAKER_01We made Pesach, and after that was when we kind of started to figure out what our community actually needs from us.
SPEAKER_02The Herzels agreed that what Jews in Zambia needed the most at the outset was very simple connection to Jewish community.
SPEAKER_03Our first priorities in Schlochim is to make sure that every Yid in town is connected with us. We need to make sure that everyone in town knows our number, knows who we are, and they will feel comfortable to come and visit.
SPEAKER_01This is my place. I could come and make Hamitashin, I could come and Daven, I could, whatever it is that they feel comfortable with, they feel like that's their place.
SPEAKER_02Rabbi Mendy estimates there are now about 40 Jewish families living in and around Lusaka. More than half of those are permanent residents. The rest stay for weeks, months, or years because of connections with seasonal business or the American or Israeli embassies.
SPEAKER_03And Bahukashem, yes, when you have a new family come, new people that come, they bring in new energy, a new environment. And we know that we have a opportunity to make them connected to Yiddishkai, to make them connected to the Ebushot, to make them connected to everything. And that's our job. That's what we are focusing on.
SPEAKER_02The Herzl's do get a small handful of tourists eager to view Zambian wildlife and nature preserves, but it's expensive for Israeli backpackers, and the world-famous Victoria Falls are a long eight-hour drive from Lusaka. So most of their support comes from the permanent and transient communities, Shabbos guests, and international donors who value having a Jewish resource so far from home. And from their informal kosher market that supplies locals with meat, wine, dairy products, and Israeli dry goods. The Herzl say they love their diverse, committed community.
SPEAKER_01Here, you know, in the middle of nowhere, everyone kind of comes together and they come here and they just feel free to kind of reinvent themselves Jewishly.
SPEAKER_02My name is Saul Israel Rudansky. Saul was born about seven decades ago in Livingston, Zambia, practically under the misty shadows of the world-famous Victoria Falls.
SPEAKER_04There was a Shaw and a rabbi and a Shochit. There were something like 170 Jewish people in the town. And so I grew up in that community until I was 10 or 11.
SPEAKER_02Saul attended a Jewish school in Cape Town, South Africa, until he was 17. He went to university in London and lived in Canada, Australia, and Italy, all the while maintaining business connections in Zambia. He returned with his wife and children in 1996. By that time, even in Lusaka, the Jewish population was still below what it had been before its flight in the early 70s.
SPEAKER_04The number of Jews was tiny. We were down to maybe 20 people who wanted to identify as Jews.
SPEAKER_02Saul had seen the visiting Schluchem and through them what Chabad stands for.
SPEAKER_04And I could see, of course, there was already the beginnings of an open-handed dialogue between Chabad and the general Jewish community, secular and non-secular.
SPEAKER_02Saul is currently chairman of the Council for Zambia Jewelry and one of those who lobbied for the Herzl's and helped them acquire the necessary work permits. Unfortunately for Saul, when the Herzels were granted approval, a COVID travel ban had stranded him in Australia, preventing him from returning to Zambia for two and a half years. So we first met the Herzels by phone.
SPEAKER_04And I got to know them by talking about the real issues regarding their physical presence and their determination to be here. We weren't talking about, you know, recipes for matzabals, things like that.
SPEAKER_02Well, why not? There's certainly nothing wrong with a good matzabal soup recipe.
SPEAKER_04I I wasn't yet telling them that my particular forte was in Simmons, but um they got to understand that eventually. Both of them showed that openness that I had become familiar with in the previous uh years, tolerance was an absolute necessity. And so I thought this was going to be a fabulous uh opportunity for the Jews of uh Zambia, and I thought it would attract many more.
SPEAKER_02It was an opportunity for Saul as well. These days he attends prayer services, and Rabbi Mendy says, Saul is there at every single holiday celebration. He even raps to fill in from time to time. Saul credits the Herzels.
SPEAKER_04I would never have ever imagined becoming as included in a dynamic Jewish environment if it had not been for them. I probably would not have allowed myself to be exposed to Jewish tradition.
SPEAKER_00My name is Michal Sibia Cohen. I was born and raised in Israel in Tel Aviv.
SPEAKER_02Michal says she's from a traditional family that ate kosher and celebrated the holidays. She attended a secular school and earned two university degrees in linguistics. Michal has worked as a teacher of Hebrew and French and as a translator in an Ivory Coast cybersecurity firm. A few years ago, her husband took a CEO position at a Zambian limestone company, and the whole family moved there.
SPEAKER_00I didn't know about any Jewish community before the Herzles arrived. I just remember the day they arrived and they just made it so easy, really, for everyone to feel that wow, we want to be part of it. Immediately for my husband, who is a completely non-religious uh person, he told me, wow, Rabbi Mandy is so nice, and it's from my area, the north of Israel, let's go. And also Rifki. You know, I could sit and speak with uh hours about the Jewish community in Alaska, and I was like, What? Are there Jews in Alaska? And she was like, Yeah, of course, a lot. You know, and when you enter there, you feel safe and peaceful. You want to learn more and to open your mind, and no one will ever judge you. No one. And you just want to stay close to them and to be part of it. I have three boys and my kids, then they also felt it.
SPEAKER_02Michal's oldest son requested that Rabbi Mandy be his bar mitzvah teacher.
SPEAKER_00He told me that the moment he started the lessons with Rabbi Mandy, it was just like talking to someone who will always understand him.
SPEAKER_02Michal and her family celebrated her oldest son's bar mitzvah in Zambia.
SPEAKER_00And the guests were Israeli and Jewish community. Some of them I didn't even know, but the entire community was uh invited. So it was special to see Jewish people around from and around the world coming and celebrating a bar mitzvah of a kid they don't even know.
SPEAKER_02The Coans left Zambia last year and returned to Israel. When it was time for the bar mitzvah of Michal's second son in early 2026, Rabbi Mendy was giving him Zoom lessons.
SPEAKER_00You know, I I would stand and listen behind the computer and listen to them. And my husband also told me that he likes to listen to him. And my My husband is telling me it's so nice to go and sit with Mendy for two hours and to listen to him and to talk to him about things.
SPEAKER_02Michal says she recently started lighting Shabbos candles, which she had never done before, and she's now looking for women's Torah study groups. And who knows, maybe she and her husband will learn even more in a few years when their youngest son studies with Mendy on Zoom for his bar mitzvah. In just over three years, the Herzl's have made a significant impact on Jewish life in Zambia. It hasn't been easy learning the ropes in a new city, country, and continent. In Zambia, getting even basic items can pose a real challenge.
SPEAKER_01Last Sukhis, we had our Lilovan Serg arranged to come in a day before Sucis from South Africa. And at 12 p.m. Air of Sukhis, we discovered that it was stuck in the airport. They weren't letting it out. And they said that we didn't complete all the documents that are needed to allow it in. They called it the flowers. We can't give you the flowers without getting a document from South Africa and from here and from that one and from this one. And it was looking pretty bad.
SPEAKER_02But Rivke took charge.
SPEAKER_01So I got on the phone with the lady in charge there. I kind of forced her to get on a FaceTime with me, and I tried to explain to her and talk reason to her. And at a point I said, I'll give you my whole bank account. Tell me how much. Just give me the number. We need this as a religious obligation. And uh I was on the phone with her for about an hour. You know, we were writing letters to the OL, to the Rabnet.
SPEAKER_02Rivke says that after more than an hour of persuasion, the woman at Airport Customs relented.
SPEAKER_01She accepted uh a payment of some sort to give us the Lula Vanestrog. And uh it was unbelievable. I mean, even after her, I had to fight with three more agents to get it home to me. So it was it was a real it was a real process. It was a very special experience. And uh it arrived two hours before the holiday started.
SPEAKER_02Remember that early events at Chabad of Zambia drew an average of about 30 people.
SPEAKER_03And in Tishre we had 70, and Oshana and Sukhas and in Sivrasterra, almost every event we had 70 people.
SPEAKER_01And we did not come with any expectation of growth. We were fine with having 30 people at every event, but unbelievably, our events at this point are at 60-70.
SPEAKER_02The Herzl's homeslash Chabad house could no longer comfortably accommodate holiday crowds, so the Herzels recently moved into their own house. There's an Airbnb, which is usually full for Shabbas and holidays across from the shool. They now import kosher food and wine for a community that increasingly demands them. Chabad of Zambia hopes to build a mikvah and expand their preschool and Hebrew school programs. But beyond the growth and the numbers, Rivki says there's also been a qualitative change as their diverse community comes together.
SPEAKER_01When we first came, people were not necessarily willing to be a community with each other. If they felt too different, coming from two different backgrounds, they almost didn't feel like they were a part of the same family. And as time went on, people really learned how to come together and to be okay with the differences, and it's a very cool thing to watch. You know, I have I have one little girl that calls our house the candlelighting house. Can we go to the place where we light candles to light the candlelighting house?
SPEAKER_02Zambia is a majority Christian country.
SPEAKER_03They love Israel and they love us as Jews and they are very, very appreciating what we are giving here because Israel is very, very committed here to this country as well. So I never met personally any anti-Semitism and any bad feelings towards Israel, but the opposite the connection and almost and this is also part of our job. Meet with these people, explain to them what is Judaism, explain to them what we can do to make them feel more connected to God.
SPEAKER_01And I would say that we probably experience the least anti-Semitism. We get emails daily asking to help people convert to Judaism.
SPEAKER_03What is Judaism all about and what is Shiva mitzvahism that also non-Jews are going to heaven? Learning from Judaism and from us that we always have to make this world better and to make this world peaceful, to make this world a place of goodness.
SPEAKER_02That message has made its way all the way up to Zambian president Haikande Hichilema, whom the Herzels met in 2023 in Israel, where they gifted the leader with a menorah. The Herzl's community is relatively small, but they dedicate everything they have to it.
SPEAKER_03It's not nine to five job, it's like 24 hours seven days a week.
SPEAKER_01We don't get the off-button. There's no off-button when it comes to the Jew in need. Even if they're non-Jews, and what do people need from me? What can I give to inspire people to live a more godly life, to live a more giving life?
SPEAKER_02The Herzl's now have in their possession letters sent by the Lubavitcher Rebbe to Yurachmiel Glazer, the Yeshiva Bocher, the Rebbe sent to Zambia in 1968.
SPEAKER_03And every time we have doubts and we have hardships and we feel like not so sure that that's our schluchas, we're saying like I have this origin brother in my hand. So it's always strengthening, and it's always a point of like reassurance of what we are and what is our job here.
SPEAKER_01I think there is nothing more empowering.
SPEAKER_03We have a beautiful gift that we got from the Rebbe, Schluchas, which is surrounding me and my family since the second I'm starting to breathe until I'm stopping breathing. We are standing in the front lines to bring Mashiach. Because we want to bring Mashiach as soon as possible.
SPEAKER_02I'm Gary Wallach. 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 at 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 at L Ubavitc.com. To subscribe digitally to Lubavitch International Magazine or to receive it at your doorstep, please visit Lubavitch.com slash subscribe. Lamp Lighters is a project of Machne Israel, the social services arm of Chabad Lubavitch.