This past Shabbat, Parashat Chayei Sarah, 5,000 emissaries of the Lubavitcher Rebbe gathered for the annual Kinus HaShluchim, the global Chabad movement’s celebration of the Rebbe’s enduring impact. Thirty-five years after his passing, his guiding voice continues to inspire Jewish communities worldwide.

But this year, as the shluchim prepared to visit the Rebbe’s resting place and renew their mission, the moment demanded more than reflection; it required action. The Rebbe taught that the threats facing Israel and the Jewish people are not political abstractions but matters of Pikuach Nefesh, the preservation of life. That principle, overriding almost every other commandment, obligates decisive intervention when Jews are in danger.

Today, the dangers are unmistakable. The global rise in antisemitism, the intensification of anti-Israel agitation, and the violence incited by terrorist organizations mirror precisely what the Rebbe warned about: that the Arab war against Israel is not a dispute over borders, but a war against Jews living in their homeland.

Hamas, which won the 2006 Palestinian Legislative Council elections, continues to pursue total war. Its charter, like the PLO’s, still calls openly for Israel’s destruction. Neither has been amended, even after the Oslo Accords, which the PLO never ratified. Despite this, 135 nations still fund the PLO without conditions.

This is the hour for Chabad, the world’s largest and most influential Jewish movement, to lead a global, unapologetic campaign to confront six immediate threats to Jewish lives. Each constitutes a direct challenge to Pikuach Nefesh, and therefore demands urgent, coordinated action from the shluchim themselves.

1. “Pay to Slay” Legislation

The Palestinian Authority continues to reward convicted terrorists and the families of those killed while murdering Jews, with lifetime salaries.
To date, no nation has demanded that this law be repealed.
Chabad must lead the call for conditioning all humanitarian aid on the abolition of Pay to Slay.
If an entity wants humanitarian support, it must demonstrate basic humanity.

2. Incitement on PA Media

PA media, using frequencies owned by Israel, regularly glorifies terrorism and calls for violence against Jews.
Chabad must publicly and forcefully advocate for Israel to shut down or jam these frequencies to halt the deadly indoctrination broadcast into millions of Palestinian homes.

3. PA Educational Curriculum

Textbooks used in PA schools, overseen by Israel’s Civil Administration, teach hatred of Jews and encourage armed conflict.
The shluchim should push for the closure of schools that refuse to remove incitement from their curriculum, as a matter of preventing the radicalization of another generation.

4. Palestinian Security Forces (PSF)

Trained by the IDF and once intended to keep order, the PSF has increasingly turned hostile.
Chabad must advocate for the disarmament of these forces, which are a growing threat to Jewish life rather than a stabilizing force.

5. UNRWA

UNRWA serves 6.7 million descendants of 1948 refugees in 59 camps and continues to promote a doctrine of “returning” to Israel through force.
Chabad must press governments to halt all funding to UNRWA unless it undergoes comprehensive reform, and to insist on shutting down UNRWA’s operations in Gaza, where its infrastructure has repeatedly supported extremist activity.

6. COGAT (Israel’s Civil Administration)

COGAT has been criticized for enabling unsupervised Palestinian construction and for allowing the continuation of systems, from extremist curricula to PA media incitement, that undermine Israeli security.
Chabad must demand accountability from COGAT and push for policies that prioritize Jewish safety above bureaucratic inertia.

A Call for Chabad to Lead a Global Pikuach Nefesh Alert

The shluchim, the Rebbe’s own emissaries, must launch a worldwide Pikuach Nefesh Alert, a coordinated campaign presenting verified facts, documentation, and multimedia resources in multiple languages.

The goal:
to awaken global public opinion, pressure policymakers, and safeguard Jewish lives wherever they are threatened.

This is not a political campaign. It is a halachic obligation.

Embracing these six points is not optional; it is the clearest fulfillment of the Rebbe’s teaching that Jewish life must be protected above all else. In honoring the Rebbe’s legacy, Chabad must not only inspire but act, confronting the dangers he foresaw long before the world admitted they existed.

Only by doing so can the shluchim truly preserve and extend the Rebbe’s mission in this critical moment of Jewish history.

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