Mrs. Chasiah Kudan, 47

Mrs. Chasiah Kudan, Chabad-Lubavitch emissary to Hollywood, Florida passed away yesterday, January 22, after a lengthy illness. Her passing comes just a day after the marriage of her son Yossi to Tzippi Neubort of Brooklyn and on the eve of the Kinus Hashluchos, the international conference of female Chabad emissaries, in Brooklyn, NY. She was 47.

A dedicated mother of six, and co-director of Chabad Ocean Synagogue with her husband, Rabbi Dovid Kudan, Mrs. Kudan suffered from cystic fibrosis, a condition she was diagnosed with at the age of 11.

Despite the challenges that would later be imposed on her by her health, Mrs. Kudan was committed to serving as a representative of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, of blessed memory. Two years after their marriage in 1986, the Kudans went to University of Pennsylvania, where they served at Lubavitch House working with the university’s students. In 1989 they moved to South Broward County in Florida, working under the auspices of Rabbi Raphael Tennenhaus running youth programming for Chabad of South Broward. The next year the Kudans opened the Chabad Ocean Synagogue.

Rabbi Tenenhaus recalls Mrs. Kudan’s constant commitment to her mission. “We had tremendous respect for her,” Rabbi Tenenhaus said interview with Lubavitch.com. “She had a lot of self sacrifice and a lot of joy.”

Mrs. Kudan’s health seriously deteriorated in her mid thirties. In 2001, she received a bilateral lung transplant. Despite the serious nature of surgery, she remained optimistic, telling the Sun Sentinel in an interview shortly afterwards that “[w]hatever challenge comes your way, I really believe that, if it’s in your way, it’s saying that you can handle it. God gives us things that we can handle.”

Even as her health declined, Mrs. Kudan kept a steadfast commitment to her values. Her son, Rabbi Leibel Kudan, relates that even when her illness made her uncomfortable, she took great pains to make sure that she would remain modestly dressed.

“My mother was a lady of determination,” Rabbi Kudan says. “She exuded a wholesome commitment to the Torah. That was somethings she lived and conveyed to all of us. “

Mushky Tennenhaus recalls the unique nature of her special neighbor. “I just loved her. She was someone I was able to talk to about anything, she got right to the heart of things,” Tennenhaus recalls. “Very few people get what’s really important in life. She did.”

Chasiah Kudan is survived by her parents, Tevye and Chaya Robinson, siblings, Gedaliah Robinson, Yossi Robinson, Aryeh Robinson and Bayla Helman, her husband, Rabbi Dovid Kudan and children Rabbi Leibel Kudan, Mrs. Miri Rubin, Yossi Kudan, Mendy Kudan, Sholom Ber Kudan and Chana Kudan, as well as two grandchildren.