Here’s My Story: The Ten-Year-Old Counselor

Mrs. Sarah Mindel Shemtov

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When I was growing up in downtown Montreal in the decade after World War Two, we were the only religious family on the block. This meant that we had to be role models — representing not only Lubavitcher chasidim but all Torah observant Jews.
We started at a young age. In 1954, when I was only ten and my sister Rivka even younger, we became counselors at Mesibos Shabbos, lively weekly gatherings for young girls, where we served refreshments, sang, danced and told inspirational stories.

Mesibos Shabbos — for both girls and boys — was an initiative of the Previous Rebbe, who urged his chasidim to use these gatherings as a way to excite children about Yiddishkeit. Subsequent youth activities introduced by the Rebbe — such as the large Lag B’Omer parades — were outgrowths of Mesibos Shabbos.

In Montreal, these Shabbat parties were held at the Tomchei Temimim yeshivah which was then located on Park Avenue. Both my sister and I spent much time preparing. We took this responsibility very seriously. We would look up stories in the Talks and Tales children’s magazine to tell the other girls, we popped the popcorn and prepared the candy gift bags. And we would collect all the girls from the block, who were eager to participate.

After about a year, our supervisor, Mrs. Sara Feigelstock, asked me to write a letter to the Rebbe about our activities and to include all the girls’ names. I did this with my father’s help. The Rebbe sent a beautiful response, written in Yiddish, stating how happy he was with our activities and giving us his blessing to continue spreading Yiddishkeit. He mentioned my name in the first line, which thrilled me beyond words. He wrote:

[To] the Mesibos Shabbos of Montreal, run by Sarah Mindel:

I was pleased to receive your letter, a report about the Shabbat parties and the manner in which they are conducted. Certainly, in connection with the upcoming holiday of Shavuot, the day of the Giving of Our Torah, special attention was paid to the Shabbat parties held on the weeks preceding Shavuot, to prepare the children for the holiday. Our Sages, of blessed memory, relate that when G-d Almighty gave the Torah to all Jews, as the very first condition He required that Jewish children be raised in the path of Torah. It was this assurance that made possible the giving of the Torah to all Jews.

Likewise, in every generation, when Jewish children are raised in accordance with the guidance of the holy Torah, they strengthen all Jews wherever they are, and it evokes G-d’s blessings wherever they are needed.

This idea should bring out additional drive from each one of you — amongst all Jewish children — to proceed in the path of Torah and mitzvot with strengthened energy, and to attract to yourselves all Jewish children whom it is possible to reach, so they, too, should know that they are children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and that they, too, accept the Torah from G-d, the Giver of the Torah, who protects them and blesses them materially and spiritually.

I read that letter to the other girls and I was so proud. Although I was very young — only eleven when I received that letter — it was important to me to have my efforts acknowledged.

When I became a teenager, I saw these efforts bear fruit as the young girls, whom I had recruited on my block for Mesibos Shabbos, moved on to the youth group, Bnos Chabad. This group for older girls also included many immigrants from Russia. While I was involved with it, I wrote to the Rebbe about our activities and received another beautiful letter from him:

I was pleased to learn that you are undertaking the important work of bringing Jewish girls closer to Judaism, imbued with the warmth of Chasidut. Certainly, the women of Chabad … in Montreal will help you in this, whenever you will need their assistance … The main objectives are to increase the number of members and those influenced by the organization, and also to improve the quality of the work. It is well-known that “nothing can stand in the way of determination.”

In particular, suitable ways should be found to make use of the summertime, when the children are free from their secular studies in school, and have more free time.

The Rebbe mentioned “those influenced by the organization” and I certainly saw it with my own eyes — then and in later years. There was significant impact on the families of the girls who participated in Mesibos Shabbos and Bnos Chabad. Some of the mothers began lighting Shabbat candles and keeping kosher. And quite a few of the girls themselves became religious and went on to establish Torahobservant homes.

For me, receiving these letters from the Rebbe was completely extraordinary. I and all the girls involved felt so proud that the Rebbe was pleased with our activities, and for the rest of my life I continued to devote myself to the work he was encouraging.

When I left Montreal at thirteen and came to study in New York, I continued my involvement with the Mesibos Shabbos program. I did it in New York and, whenever I returned to Montreal for holidays, I continued to do it there. I was also a counselor in the Mesibos Shabbos summer day camp in Montreal.

I didn’t stop even after I got married. I organized Mesibos Shabbos parties until the ninth month of my pregnancy with my oldest son, though I had to take a short break after the baby was born. Then, when I had my special needs daughter, Mushky, I made sure that she too experienced Mesibos Shabbos in a unique way.

I also spoke a few times in different schools about strengthening Mesibos Shabbos, because this program has been a part of me all my life.

Mrs. Sarah Mindel Shemtov, a former Bais Yaakov and Bais Rivka teacher, has been involved in various Chabad girls’ and women’s programs for over seventy years. She was interviewed in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, in August 2026.