App Works to Spread the Light (and the Contact Info)

Yosef Tiefenbrun, a student at the Central Chabad Yeshivah in Brooklyn, N.Y., got something new around Chanukah time. He has a new web app to connect people he meets, wherever he is, with Chabad rabbis and services, wherever in the world they may be. Already, he says he has made six connections this month and plans on making many more.

The app, ChabadLink, allows people to quickly and easily refer acquaintances to Chabad rabbis or institutions with just a few taps on their mobile devices.

“Our goal,” says Meir Simcha Kogan, managing director at Chabad.org, which developed the mobile web app, “is that if you meet someone on a plane or in the mall and you think they would benefit from connecting with their local Chabad, you should be able to do so with ease.”

After inputting the potential connection’s basic contact information, the users employ what Kogan calls a “revolutionary new search” to locate the most appropriate Chabad representative or service through searching by last name, location, college campus or organizational name. Once the connection is made, both people receive an email message notifying them about one another.

Tiefenbrun first heard about the app in a briefing before he embarked on a road trip up the West Coast from San Diego, Calif., to Washington state in a menorah-festooned RV as part of the #Sharethelights Chanukah awareness campaign of the Jewish Youth Initiative.

“When I would meet Jewish students, I would just whip out my smartphone and use the app to send both the student and the Chabad rabbi on their campus each other’s contact info,” says Tiefenbrun.

Another aspect he found useful was the ability to track his referrals, which allowed him to see in real time those who did connect.

The web app—available in eight languages—was born out of a close partnership between Chabad.org and the Jewish Youth Initiative, a division of Merkos Suite 302.

Its ease and utility allow someone not familiar with the vast infrastructure of Chabad centers worldwide to find the right person for a referral with minimal effort.

Its functionality is expected to be a boon to Chabad on Campus shluchim (ambassadors), who can expect to receive referrals from students’ hometown Chabad representatives as they head off to college. Conversely, four years later, they will be able to link their departing students with Chabad representatives where those young people are headed.

“This is definitely an exciting tool that will streamline the transition for my students as they leave university back to the real world,” says Rabbi Levi Schectman of Chabad of Wesleyan in Middletown, Conn.

Geared for the wider public, the app is meant for use beyond Chabad representatives. Its ease and utility allow someone not familiar with the vast infrastructure of Chabad centers worldwide to find the right person for a referral with minimal effort.

How do people use the app? They can go to www.chabad.org/ChabadLink or easier to remember, www.chabadlink.org on their smartphone or tablet.

“This is part of our broader vision,” explains Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, vice chairman of Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch, the educational arm of Chabad-Lubavitch, “which is to ensure that every encounter with a young Jewish person becomes a long-term relationship with Judaism and the Jewish people. This app is a great step in that direction.”