Hundreds of directors of Chabad institutions from around Israel gathered recently for the annual Conference of Directors. Arutz Sheva was there.

The conference was sponsored by Union of Chabad Chassidim, headed by Rabbi Yosef Aharonov. Among other issues, it dealt with the question of how to run a Chabad institute in the modern era, with phone applications, Facebook, Twitter and the like having become dominant.

“We’re trying to teach our directors that even in the age of the applications, Facebook and Twitter, and other such things — which the average director may not have a grip of — even these things can be channeled for purposes of sanctity and can lead the institution to a prosperity that it hasn’t known before,” explained Chabad spokesperson Rabbi Moni Ender.

Rabbi Yitzchak Havlin of Kiryat Gat Chabad noted that “in our own internal education we maintain the original, pure education and ensure that this new equipment doesn’t enter, so that children do not have to deal with things with which they are not supposed to deal at this age. But we use these tools to reach as wide an audience as possible.”

He added, “Today about 2,000 students study in Chabad’s institutions in Kiryat Gat, from age 0 all the way to elderly people aged 85 to 90. The expansion is great, and that’s why we come here [to the conference]. We give and receive. We receive information from our other partners and from professions, and this helps our development.”

“There is no doubt that this conference is aimed at helping one another, at developing the institutions, at consulting one another and at receiving strength from one another,” said Rabbi Aharonov.