NEW YORK — More than 1,000 Chabad-Lubavitch envoys, representing some 70 countries around the globe, will hold their convention in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn next weekend. The conference, scheduled to run from November 4-8, will be highlighted by a visit to the resting place of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson of righteous memory in Queens and a grand banquet at the Brooklyn Marriot.

The rabbis are meeting about the condition of the Jewish people in places as far away as Perth, Australia and Kinshasa, Congo; Jewish revival in the Former Soviet Union; responses to local and international challenges large and small; and many other topics ranging from the internet as a tool for Jewish education to the latest techniques in marriage counseling to dealing with the incarcerated.

Reports will be heard from communities diverse and at times even opposite in their dress, religious custom, affluence, and everything else save for their one common denominator — the fact that they are Jewish.

Numerous lay leaders - captains of industry, finance, and the arts - will participate in the Sunday evening banquet as well.

While the conference opens a window into the agenda, program, goals, thought process and modus operandi of the Lubavitch movement, Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky, chairman of the conference, says that to the Rebbe the most important thing about the annual conference was the personal effect on the Shluchim who are far away from each other all year round.

"The Rebbe would always emphasize the importance of the moral support and spiritual sustenance the Shluchim give one another simply by meeting and exchanging experiences, Rabbi Krinsky said. "The annual gatherings were always very, very dear to the Rebbe's heart."

On the lighter side, one of the banquet's visual and sensual attractions is the "roll call" conducted by Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky of the Lubavitch World Headquarters, when representatives of each state and country are called upon, followed by spirited Chassidic dance.

A video presentation by Jewish Educational Media of some 300 new emissary families who left Lubavitch World Headquarters to their posts around the globe, and another one depicting some of Chabad Lubavitch's work in Nepal, will be shown as well.

The annual convention for the women representatives will be held in February.

For more information please contact Lubavitch News Service at (718) 774-4000 x 212.