When the Conference of European Rabbis sought to send a pointed protest message to the new government in Austria, they decided to re-locate next month's scheduled convention from Vienna to Bratislava, Slovakia. Located only 40 miles up the Danube River from the Austrian capital (both cities utilize the same international airport), Bratislava was a logical last-minute alternative.

The change in plans has sent Chabad-Lubavitch emissary Rabbi Boruch Myers scurrying about to organize for the rabbinical meeting. As the spiritual leader of the Jewish community of Bratislava, he suddenly became the de-facto host of the international conference.

"We are watching the developments going on in the Austrian government but we are not overly concerned," says Mrs. Chani Myers, director of the Chabad Center's educational programs for children. "Still, many of the older members of our community are survivors, and the dark memories of the Holocaust are all too real."

Rabbi and Mrs. Myers and their six children arrived in Bratislava in 1993, just as the former Czechoslovakia was dividing into two independent states. With a Jewish community of more than 500, the Myers’, who taught themselves Czech, worked their way through the post-Communist bureaucracy to establish an extensive education program, including a Jewish kindergarten, Sunday school, women's Torah classes, seminars and weekly lectures.

Last month, on the date marking the 50th anniversary of the Lubavitcher Rebbe (of righteous memory)'s assumption of leadership, Chabad of Bratislava inaugurated its spacious educational center. It is only through Jewish education, Rabbi and Mrs. Myers believe, that the widespread intermarriage and assimilation in Slovakia can be confronted.

"Today there is a re-established Jewish community and a real sense of belonging," says Chani Myers. "The grandparents are sometimes moved to tears to see their children involved in observances they never believed would come alive again."