Alpharetta, GA – Chabad Shlucha Remembered For Her Accomplishments, Dedication And Personality

Alpharetta, GA – Days after her untimely passing, a Chabad shlucha is being remembered by those who knew her as a force who was larger than life.

The mother of 8 children and the oldest of 17 siblings, Mrs. Rashi Minkowicz, died suddenly on March 11th at the young age of 37. Mrs. Minkowicz, and her husband Rabbi Hirshy Minkowicz, had been the Chabad emissaries to Alpharetta, Georgia since 1998.

Rabbi Shalom Horowitz, who teaches both first and eighth grades at the Torah Day School of Atlanta and has taught several of the Minkowicz children, recalled both Mrs. Minkowicz and her husband as being intensely devoted to their yiddishkeit.

“They lived 45 minutes away from the school and every morning Rabbi Minkowicz would load seven out of his eight kids into the car at 6:45 in the morning and drive them to yeshiva so that they could be here in time for davening,” Rabbi Horowitz told VIN News. “The youngest one would still be in pajamas eating cereal in the car.”

As a recent Shabbos guest to the Minkowicz home, Rabbi Horowitz had a firsthand opportunity to see Mrs. Minkowicz in action.

“She would cook for 100 people every single week,” said Rabbi Horowitz. “Her husband would go to Costco on Thursday in his Suburban and would have huge bags of cabbage and potatoes and other things. While Mrs. Minkowicz had some help in the house, she made sure everything was done properly and she made it seem like having so many people around was no big deal. She had the same worries that the rest of us, tuition, kosher food, shidduchim, day to day expenses, but she never carried it as a burden. Everything she did was always with such simcha.”

Mrs. Minkowicz’s trademark positive attitude and love for yiddishkeit was clearly something she learned from her parents, Rabbi Chaim Meir and Sara Lieberman yblc’t, according to Rabbi Horowitz.

“I met her father when they made their last Bar Mitzvah,” recalled Rabbi Horowitz. “In the two or three hours that I spent with him, it was evident that her parents infused that love of yiddishkeit into her and she took that from her childhood home and imbued it in everyone that she met.”

The face of Alpharetta’s Jewish community was forever altered by Mrs. Minkowicz, who built a mikvah, ran the local Hebrew school and established a summer camp that became a popular destination for local children.

“It was a very cool camp,” explained Mrs. Rochie Orimland, who knew Mrs. Minkowicz from her youth in Crown Heights and stayed at the Minkowicz home during her year of shlichus in Alpharetta. “Forget about Jewish or Chabad, kids came because it was a great camp and many families became connected to Judaism through the camp.”

The Minkowicz’s would host 20 young women each summer who served as the camp’s counselors.

“Rashi would say instead of having a family of eight, I have a family of 28,” said Mrs. Orimland. “She would sit on the couch and shmooze with the girls. In camp, when no one could get anyone’s attention, she would just stand up on a chair and she could do it. She was a powerhouse of a person, the life of the party.”

Mrs. Minkowicz’s dynamic personality was a big draw that reached far outside Atlanta.

“Everyone knew about Alpharetta,” said Mrs. Orimland. “She made it cool and it was something you wanted to be a part of. Even after I spent a year there, I had a need to go visit her and still be a part of Rashi’s life.”

Mrs. Orimland recalled how Mrs. Minkowicz would constantly send out pictures and recipes.

“Going through my emails I would see how many links to Picasa albums she sent me. She kept up with so many girls and so many people and yet she made time for everyone. Everyone felt like they were one of her closest friends.”

Tuesday night Torah and Tea was a weekly gathering held at the Minkowicz home.

“She would invite people into her life and her home. Every week she would post pictures on Facebook and Instagram of something amazing that she would be serving that week. She would post the recipes as well because she knew everyone would want them.”

Understanding that she was the face of religious Judaism in Alpharetta, Mrs. Minkowicz took pride in her appearance and that of her children.

“She didn’t like the idea that people would think of a rebbetzin as someone who had ten kids and was always disheveled,” noted Mrs. Orimland. “She put herself together, her sheitel was always done and she, her children and her home always looked good. She would teach the girls who came to her house how to take care of themselves and other things also: how to cut salads, how to cook for 30 people but not spend 30 hours in the kitchen. When we would come on Friday afternoon, the house was always clean, the table was always set and she would be on the couch, happy to greet us.”

Managing the roles of Rebbetzin, confidant, friend and mentor was no easy task and like most people, Mrs. Minkowicz did not lead a life that was without difficulties.

“The last time I saw Rashi was at a sibling’s l’chaim,” said Mrs. Orimland. “It was last summer and we were just sitting around the table. She said to me, ‘Everyone has something in their life and you just have to be like, be happy.’ She said it so matter of fact, with a huge smile on her fact, that is just who she was. She really was a modern day Superwoman.”

Mrs. Minkowicz was named for her grandmother, Rasha, who also passed away at age 37, leaving her husband a single father to five children shortly before Simchas Torah.

“Rashi told us how her grandfather, who was a strong Lubavitcher chosid, would walk from Eastern Parkway to visit another shul every year on Simchas Torah. It was a long walk but he went every year in order to bring happiness there. Even though his wife had just passed away, he got all five kids dressed and went with them all. He danced with so much happiness that someone who was not religious, pointed to him and said, ‘I wish I could be as happy as that man,’ not knowing that he had just lost his wife. Rashi grew up with that kind of upbringing and if you ever stayed by Rashi’s parents, and many of us did, you would see how she became who she was.”

Noting that often after someone dies people tend to overemphasize their deeds, Rabbi Horowitz observed that everything that is being said about Mrs. Minkowicz is completely true.

“Nothing that is being said is being exaggerated,” said Rabbi Horowitz. “The girls who did their shlichus and stayed at the Minkowicz home were known to be the nicest girls, the best girls, because Mrs. Minkowicz created a special environment for them. She didn’t judge people and people loved her because she was authentic. She made yiddishkeit something simchadik, not because she said it should be that way but because that was how she lived her life.”

The levaya took place in Brooklyn on Thursday morning at Shomrei Hadas in Brooklyn and hundreds turned out to pay their respects. The funeral procession drove past Chabad headquarters at 770 and Mrs. Minkowicz was laid to rest at Old Montefiore Cemetery in Queens.