ANT KATZ

As one can imagine, it takes a HUGE TEAM to carry out the work started by Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Kazen 25 years ago. Kazan passed away at the age of just 44, on 3 December 1998.

Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Kazen, the first “Director of Chabad Lubavitch in Cyberspace,” was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1954 to Rabbi Zalman and Mrs. Shula Kazen, escapees of Stalin’s prisons and the Nazi holocaust. The Kazen home was always a centre of Jewish activity and Yosef Yitzchak, youngest of seven siblings, grew up helping to resettle Russian immigrants, preparing and delivering meals to the poor, and volunteering for all types of communal activities.

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As a young boy Yossi Kazen left home to study in New York, near the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory, whom he loved dearly. He was an early volunteer of the now ubiquitous Mitzvah Tanks, the Lubavitch international telephone hook-ups and many other original ideas and programs, and was endeared to many friends.

Even before the web, Kazen was one of Lubavitch’s technological innovators, and helped develop the systems whereby the Rebbe’s talks were broadcast via telephone to far-flung Lubavitch outposts around the globe.

But there was much better to come. With the advent of computer communication technology, Kazen immediately recognized its potential for reaching an almost limitless audience, particularly people limited by geographic and other constraints.

Rabbi Kazen could surely not have imagined what a success the internet would become when he passed away 15 years ago. Kazen was interred at the Old Montefiore Cemetery in Queens, in proximity to the resting place of the Lubavitcher Rebbes.

He left behind his wife, Rochel, and six children ages 5-18, in Brooklyn; his parents, Rabbi Zalman and Rebbetzin Shifra Shula Kazen of Cleveland, Ohio; and six sisters and their families who are representatives of Lubavitch around the world.

As much of a visionary as he was, Rabbi Kazan could surely not have expected that Chabad.org could ever serve 37-million unique visitors in one year. 75,000 learn with Chabad.org every single day and many more during peak holiday seasons. They currently offer close to 70,000 pages of information, 9,000 audio classes and 2,000 video clips.