The Rebbe’s Army. The Rebbe’s revolution. These terms have already entered the vernacular, to describe the amazing accomplishments of the Rebbe’s emissaries who have settled throughout the globe, sharing their passion for Judaism with the local Jewish community. This article interviews Mrs. Bracha Heintz, who together with her husband R. Aryeh Leib and their ten children, serve as the Rebbe’s emisarries in Utrecht, Holland.

Mrs. Heintz herself is a native of Holland. Her father came from Hamburg, Germany, which he fled in 5693 (1933) after the Nazis rose to power.

After the war, he married a Jewish girl in Holland and raised a traditional family.

“My parents sent me to Jewish classes once a week, organized by the local community,” says Bracha. “The classes were given by Rabbi Binyamin Jacobs, an emissary of the Rebbe shlita in Holland. I found the classes fascinating and I had many questions, which he answered convincingly. He later invited me to visit on Shabbat.”

Bracha quickly chose to adopt a religious life and attended Beis Rivka, a Lubavitch girls’ school in Paris. After marrying her husband, Aryeh Leib, they lived in New York, where he studied for two and a half years. Fifteen years ago, they left America for Holland. The Chabad rabbis in Holland recommended that they move to Utrecht, where they have lived ever since.

How many Jews live in Holland?

“Forty thousand Jews live in Holland,” says Mrs. Heintz, “but only 1,000 of those reside in Utrecht. Most Dutch Jews live in larger cities like Amsterdam or Amstulfan. Before the Holocaust, which wiped out the Jewish community of Holland, there were about 100,000 Jews living in Amsterdam alone! After the war only a few returned, those who managed to survive the horrors. As a rule, the Jews in Holland are not very traditionally observant.”

The spiritual situation in Utrecht leaves the Rebbe’s emissaries with a lot to do. Mrs. Heintz’s work covers a wide spectrum of activities:

“I teach Judaism to children ages 4-6 every Sunday while my husband teaches the older children. We also have classes for adults. I’m in charge of arranging gatherings for children and adults. I’m also responsible for the mikva even though at this point there are not that many who observe the family purity laws.”

How would you define the success of your work in Utrecht?

“If Jews here still identify themselves as Jewish, that in itself is a big miracle. Naturally, everything that we have accomplished here is only due to the strength of the one who sent us here, the Rebbe shlita. The very fact that Jews here do more mitzvot than they used to do and are making progress in small ways towards a more Jewish life is a great miracle.

“There was a Jewish boy from Rotterdam who finished high school and went to Utrecht to attend the local university. He decided to visit our synagogue, where he met my husband, who invited him for Shabbat. He loved it, and began coming every Shabbat and became fully observant He progressed to the point that he became a Rabbi himself. The residents of a certain neighborhood in Israel would be quite surprised to learn that their Rabbi is that very same young man!

“There was a Holocaust survivor who was born during the war and lived in Utrecht. He grew up in an orphanage, since his parents were left incapacitated after the war. A Jewish girl lived in the orphanage as well, but they never became close.

“On Rosh HaShana he came to our synagogue for the first time. He became friendly with my husband and gradually became more and more involved in Judaism. Every Shabbat he walked for two hours to come to synagogue. He even started going to the mikva, ritual bath, on Friday before Shabbat.

“Six months later he decided to renew his relationship with the same Jewish girl he had known in the orphanage. They are now happily married and have built a beautiful Jewish home.”

What are your plans for the future?

“Our plan is to do more each day than the day before. This is what our work is all about: hastening the redemption and the revelation of
King Moshiach!”