Their annual gathering impossible, Chabad rabbis convene on Zoom - for days and days

(JTA) — At the end of the annual conference of Chabad emissaries from around the world, they typically take a giant group photograph in front of the movement’s headquarters in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights.

But this year, no camera at the Kinus Hashluchim could capture the nearly 6,000 participants at once: They were on Zoom from their separate computers and time zones. The video version was a concession to the coronavirus pandemic that has disrupted the globe for nearly a year.

What’s more, the conference didn’t really end. Without planes to catch and families to head home to, the emissaries who a...