On one visit to the US, Rabbi Rosen said to me, “I’m going to see the Lubavitcher Rebbe, would you mind coming along with me?” I said, “Mind? I’d love to!”

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His appointment was for one o’clock in the morning, but nevertheless, when we arrived at the Lubavitch Headquarters at 770 Eastern Parkway, the street outside was crowded with people – dozens of chasidim were waiting there. When they saw Rabbi Rosen, they recognized him because he was famous – an Orthodox rabbi holding the position of chief rabbi in a Communist country was something very unusual – and they immediately made room for him.

Although we were early for our appointment, we were invited right in, and the Rebbe came out of his office and hugged Rabbi Rosen, whom he had known from before. Rabbi Rosen introduced me as a young rabbi from Belgium, a student of Rav Amiel, the spiritual leader of the Shomre Hadas Jewish Community of Antwerp. And the Rebbe started talking French to me, telling me that he had read Rav Amiel’s books, and he mentioned the Darchei Moshe in particular. He also asked me specific questions about the Jewish community in Antwerp, which he knew about very well.

When the Rebbe spoke with Rabbi Rosen, he also knew all the Romanian communities by name. Romania is a large country, with many towns with Jewish populations. I can’t remember their names, but the Rebbe remembered everything. He not only knew the names of the communities, but also exactly how many Jews lived where. And he wanted to know more. He asked Rabbi Rosen if there’s kosher food, if there are Jewish schools, whether the Jews want to leave Romania to go to Israel, or if they want to immigrate to America. He was very involved in this and interested in every aspect of Jewish life in Romania.Now Rabbi Rosen had come to ask the Rebbe’s advice concerning a particular problem. At the time, Romania had only one shochet – I remember his name was Rabbi Pinchas Wasserman. This man wanted to leave Romania to visit his children in Israel. But if he left, Rabbi Rosen said, there will be no kosher meat in all of Romania. Should he be permitted to go? Although the Communist government of Romania gave out such permissions, Rabbi Rosen had a great deal of influence with the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, so the matter of the permit was basically in his hands.

Rabbi Solomon Trau

I remember the Rebbe’s response. He said, “This is not a matter of halacha, Jewish law, this is an issue of mentshlichkeit, human compassion. On the one hand, the man wants to see his children, and it is a very humane thing to let him. On the other hand, thousands of Jews will be left kosher without meat because he is the only shochet available.”

Then the Rebbe thought for a moment and said, “My advice is to tell him that he can leave for six months to see his children, but under the condition that after six months he comes back.”

Before we knew it, two-and-a-half hours had passed; it was almost three o’clock in the morning. Outside, dozens of chasidim were waiting, and they couldn’t believe this. Usually when somebody went into the Rebbe’s office, he stayed for five minutes, ten minutes, fifteen minutes, but this was highly unusual.

Rabbi Rosen became concerned that maybe we had stayed too long, and he said, “Maybe I overstayed, I’m sorry for taking up so much of the Rebbe’s time.”

Rabbi Moses Rosen

But the Rebbe responded, “Rabbi Rosen, you represent a large Jewish community of many Jews, and this is their time. If anything, I am taking up their time by keeping you.”

Rabbi Solomon Trau was a member of many prominent Jewish organizations, including the RCA, American Israel Club, the Joint and the United Jewish Appeal. He was interviewed at his home in New York City in December, 2010.

This week’s Here’s My Story is dedicated

In honor of our dear Rebbe

By Anonymous

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On several occasions, the Rebbe had asked that his chasidim report on their outreach activities once a month, preferably at the beginning of each month, on Rosh Chodesh,. Usually, I would be the one to write the report of our activities on behalf of the yeshiva administration.

Writing a report to the Rebbe is no simple matter. Several days before, I would begin to to consider what I would report and how I would write it. And you don’t just dash off a letter to the Rebbe in half an hour. You need to find a block of several hours in order to prepare yourself, and then to write it properly. And then you need to decide what to write first, what deserves to be mentioned, and what to leave out. Of course, we used a typewriter – we didn’t have computers in those days.

The month of Adar had been hectic, with lots of activities. Suddenly we were in Nissan, and I still hadn’t written the report for Adar. There was so much to report: Purim celebrations, preparations for Pesach, many different outreach projects.Before I knew it, it was the eleventh of Nissan, the Rebbe’s birthday, and I still hadn’t written the report.

“This is it,” I told myself. “No matter what, I’m writing this report tonight.” That night, I wrote and wrote. It was 3 a.m. when I was finished; I had written eight pages.

I felt so uplifted. There were so many good things in it. So much had been done to spread yiddishkeit, plus a number of activities in honor of the Rebbe’s birthday. I was sure they’d bring the Rebbe much nachas.

But then it occurred to me. “I can’t just sign off. I must finish the letter appropriately, with a blessing for the Rebbe’s birthday!”

Now, this was a problem. As I saw it at the time, a yeshiva student doesn’t give the Rebbe a bracha – he asks for a bracha from the Rebbe! From time to time, on special occasions, an elder chosid would stand up at a farbrengen, a chasidic gathering, and would bless the Rebbe in the name of the entire community; but never a young student!

But then I said to myself, “So what? It doesn’t matter who I am! I’ll give the Rebbe a bracha in the name of the administration.

Rabbi Aharon Leizer Ceitlin

“On the other hand, can I give the Rebbe a bracha on their behalf, when I’m really acting on my own? I must ask permission!” This dilemma was raging inside my head.

I knew that if I asked, there would be so many different opinions, that the report would never go out before Pesach. “Okay,” I thought, “I’ll sign the letter in the name of the administration, as I always do, and then I’ll add a bracha in my own name.”

But no, that wouldn’t be nice! Would that mean that they’re not blessing the Rebbe on his birthday, only I, the young student?”

Back and forth I went. It was almost morning. Finally, I made my decision: I wrote a wholehearted bracha and signed off, “The Administration.”

In the morning, I sent the letter off before anyone could ask to see the report, as they occasionally did. I rushed around all morning so that they should see how busy I was with Pesach preparations, too busy to be bothered.

Three weeks went by. One clear day, a letter arrived at the yeshiva from the Rebbe. This was a cause for celebration – the thin blue airmail envelope, with the Rebbe’s name and his return address, 770 Eastern Parkway.

Letter from the Rebbe

Inside the envelope were two letters folded separately. This was quite unusual. Sometimes you might receive a two-page letter. But two pieces of paper folded separately?

Inside were two two identical letters. One was addressed to the administration, and one was addressed to me personally: “I received your letter…thank you very much. My blessings for the holiday of Pesach; may it bring you freedom from all obstacles, spiritual as well as physical. Serve Hashem with joy…”

But wait!  At the end of my letter, at the bottom, there were two more lines, handwritten by the Rebbe. “Thank you for your blessing,” the Rebbe had written, “When you bless another person, G-d, in turn, blesses you.”

Rabbi Aharon Eliezer Ceitlin is a Chabad shliach living with his family in Safed, Israel. He was interviewed in the My Encounter studio in New York in March, 2012.

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Usually, it took me quite a few tries to get through to the Rebbe’s office, but this time I got through right away. Rabbi Binyomin Klein picked up the phone. I explained that I was in London on the way to the yeshiva and that I wanted the Rebbe’s bracha for my trip. He responded, “Call me in exactly twenty-five minutes.”

I did as I was told, and exactly twenty-five minutes later I called back. Rabbi Klein told me that the Rebbe wished me a safe flight, and he also inquired how my sister was doing.

I had not seen my sister for a couple of days, but I assumed she was fine. So I told Rabbi Klein, “She’s okay. Tell the Rebbe she’s fine.”  “No,” said Rabbi Klein, “the Rebbe wants to know how she is right now. Call your sister.”

I hung up and I tried to call my sister, but there was no answer in her house. I called my parents next, but there was no answer there either. Just then my flight was being announced. I took my luggage, boarded the plane and I totally forgot about my sister and the phone call.

When I got to New York, my first stop was 770 to inform Rabbi Klein that I had arrived safely.

He told me to wait, as he wanted to tell the Rebbe that I had arrived. He went into the Rebbe, and I remember waiting quite a few minutes until he finally came out. He said, “You know, the Rebbe is really concerned about your sister; you haven’t told him how she’s doing.” There was a touch of irritation in Rabbi Klein’s voice and I was a little bit alarmed that I had forgotten. I ran out and immediately placed a call to my sister’s house, but again, I could not get through.

I called my mother’s house and finally reached her. “Where have you been?” she asked me. “We’ve been trying to reach you!” My sister had gone into labor, and had suddenly been hit with a major complication. Her situation was perilous, and many people had been saying Tehillim for her. The doctors rushed her to the intensive care unit, and had been trying to stabilize her.

Rabbi Michoel Hazan

I told my mother, “The Rebbe was very concerned about her!”

“How did the Rebbe know?” she asked, incredulously.

My only response was, “The Rebbe kept telling me that I should call you. I tried a few times, finally getting through now.”

I went back to 770 and passed the information to Rabbi Klein who, in turn, gave it over to the Rebbe.

When he came out of the Rebbe’s office, Rabbi Klein told me that the Rebbe must have sensed that my sister wasn’t well, which is why he kept asking about her. He went on to say that the Rebbe blessed her that she should have a full recovery, and that both she and the child should be healthy.

Baruch Hashem the baby was healthy – a boy, by the way – and my sister made a complete recovery.

When I had a chance to tell my sister about the Rebbe’s persistence, she became very emotional. She explained that as the emergency was unfolding, she was slipping into a delirium. She tried telling my mother to call me, so that I’d call the Rebbe for his bracha. But she was slipping in and out of consciousness, and my parents couldn’t make out what she was trying to say. She just couldn’t get the words out. When she realized that they wouldn’t understand her, she just closed her eyes and said in her mind, “Rebbe, please help me.”

This occurred while I was in the airport in London, when the Rebbe asked me how my sister was doing…

Rabbi Michoel Hazan grew up in Gibraltar. He currently resides in Monsey, New York, with his family.

This week’s Here’s My Story is dedicated

לע”נ הת’ יוסף ע”ה בן – יבלחט”א – ר’ נחמן בער שי

By Chaim Piekarski and Family

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I did have a terrible cough and it took a very long time for it to get better. I don’t remember this part so clearly, but I do remember we went from one doctor to another and I was given one antibiotic after another. Nothing seemed to work.

All the coughing made me hoarse – first a little, then very, very hoarse. It became harder and harder for me to speak, until one day I stopped speaking altogether.

We went to all kinds of doctors who had all kinds of theories, but the bottom line was that I could not talk and they could not help. Sometimes when I think back, I wonder: Perhaps it was psychological?

And then my parents took me to the Rebbe. We went in as a family, with my parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, squeezing into the room until you couldn’t fit a pin in! Everybody received a blessing and then the Rebbe said, “All of you please go out, I want to speak to her alone.”

I was astonished and stunned that everybody had to go out and that I was going to have a private audience with the Rebbe.  I remember being in such awe of him.

As soon as everyone left I remember feeling completely comfortable and calm, as if I was there with my own grandfather. And he spoke with me as if we were on the same level.

He asked me what I like to do, how old I am, what I do in my spare time. I remember the conversation, answering him in a whisper.

He went on to ask me what I want to do someday. I replied, “I love little children and I hope to be a mother and teach young children.” The Rebbe responded that was a very good goal and that is what I should do.

The Tillim family

As the conversation progressed, my voice became stronger. I can’t say I spoke normally, but I did start talking with more force. I was mesmerized by his presence and it was as if he compelled me to talk.

The only way I can describe it is: He spoke and I answered. I can’t explain it in any other way. Then he asked me what I wanted to do now.  I said, “When I get to a certain age, I’d like to be a Bnos leader.” Bnos was a program in Bais Yaakov schools where on Shabbos, older girls mentored younger girls. They would explain the Torah portion to them and give out snacks.

He said, “That’s a very good thing and that’s what you should do.” He gave me a blessing and I remember backing out.

My parents, who were waiting outside, asked me how it went and I answered them. Everybody went absolutely wild! I was talking!

My brother Yoel would later tell the story:

I was home during their meeting with the Rebbe. Before my parents even returned from their audience I received a call from someone who said to me: “Your sister is talking!”

She had not been talking for I don’t know how many months, and it was a terrible situation. So I asked the person who called: “How do you know?”

He replied, “She met with the Rebbe and she came out talking!”

“How do you know?” I persisted.

“Everybody is talking about it!”

I was waiting to find out if it was really true, waiting for my sister to walk in. When she finally arrived home I asked her, “Can you talk now?” “Yes,” she said, “I’m talking.”

It was shocking, absolutely shocking to hear her talk after all that time. Thank G-d, she recuperated…

Slowly I got better and went back to school. I remember when they asked for volunteers to be a Bnos leader I raised my hand. I had been waiting for that moment to happen and said to myself, “I can fulfill the mission given to me by the Rebbe to become a Bnos leader!”

I can tell you that the Rebbe affected my life in many ways. I happened to be a very good student and had been encouraged to go to college “to make something of myself.” But I always had a feeling that wasn’t for me.

I wanted to go to a teacher’s seminary, but my parents were very against it. They said, “What do you need it for? Get an office job and make some money!”  My reply was, “Remember, the Rebbe told me that I should teach young children…”

I went to a seminary half the day and worked the other half, paying my tuition from my own earnings and following through with the Rebbe’s directive. It wasn’t easy to get a job afterward, but thank G-d I was successful. I feel this is because I had the Rebbe’s blessing and vision in front of me. He somehow looked into me; he saw who I was, what I needed and what I really wanted. He had a profound influence on me because he gave me the strength to fulfill my mission in life.

That’s the real miracle of my story: More than a mute girl who started to speak, the real blessing of the story is that I became who I was meant to be.

Rivka Chaya Tillim grew up in the Boro Park section of Brooklyn. She currently lives in Monsey and is the mother of eleven children. She, her father, and her brother were interviewed in April, 2011.

This week’s Here’s My Story is dedicated

in merit of Yitzchok Ben Bracha

Mr. Yankel Shiffman

Mr. Shiffman currently lives in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn. When Yankel was only 15 years old, his father became very ill. The doctors said that he didn’t have much time to live. So together with his father, mother and grandmother, they went to the Rebbe for a bracha and advice. Yankel stood in the back of the room while the Rebbe wished the family well. As they were walking out of the room, the Rebbe asked if Yankel could stay in for a few minutes to talk. The Rebbe then told him, that according to nature, his father wasn’t supposed to live and there will be a time when he will be depressed, but as a Jew, even when things get tough, he must always believe in G-d. The Rebbe then pulled out a Gemorah Brochos and together, they learned line by line, the story of Chizkiya on his deathbed. The Rebbe then told him to learn the Gemorah together with his father.

He learned the Gemorah with his father a few times and a couple of months later his father passed away. It was only then, did Yankel realize why the Rebbe learned the Gemorah with him. Those few minutes, Yankel told us, kept him going even in the darkest of times. We heard about this story because Yankel was visiting the Ohel asking the Rebbe for a bracha because of a difficult situation he is currently going through. A very powerful story.

Interview in NY Studio

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The mission involved helping a young, seventeen year-old girl who was experiencing great emotional difficulties with teenage issues – rebelliousness, religious confusion, her home situation – the typical things that trouble teenagers. In her case though, these problems were quite severe. The Rebbe had taken an extraordinary personal interest in helping this girl through this stage in her life, and I was recruited to do what needed to be done.

For three or four months, I spent fifty percent of my time working on this issue. I didn’t do a single thing without consulting Rabbi Hodakov, who in turn would consult with the Rebbe and relay the Rebbe’s instructions how to deal with each particular situation.

This young girl often wrote to the Rebbe directly, and when the Rebbe responded, I was instructed to discuss his response with her. What I want to describe is one particular exchange that was absolutely extraordinary.

She had written to the Rebbe, describing at length her anguish and inner turmoil. The Rebbe responded to her immediately as he did throughout this episode – typically within a couple of hours or, at most, within a day. In his letter, the Rebbe wrote, among other things, that he empathizes with her… that he feels her pain.

So she wrote back: “I don’t believe you. How can you feel my pain? You’re not going through what I’m going through.”

Within two hours, there was a response from the Rebbe, and this was the gist of it:

“When you will merit to grow up and marry, G-d willing you will have a child. The nature of things is that towards the end of the first year, the child will begin to teethe. Teething is painful and the child cries. And a mother feels that pain as if it was her own. This is how I feel your pain.”

Rabbi Shmuel Kaplan

The last words of the letter read: Kach ani margish tzaara, “This is how I feel your pain.”

This had a very strong impact on her. We discussed it and she began to realize that the Rebbe was feeling what she was going through, and that the Rebbe was trying to help her. Slowly, she began to respond. She made progress, she matured and things turned out well for her. Eventually she got married, had children and many good things happened to her.

I feel privileged to have witnessed firsthand the Rebbe’s involvement in this girl’s life… how he put himself into it with such intensity. I mean, he was the Rebbe, and yet he spent so much time answering her letters back and forth, back and forth, over weeks and months. And through his caring, he succeeded in turning her life around.

Rabbi Shmuel Kaplan is the head Chabad emissary in Maryland.

This week’s Here’s My Story is sponsored
in honor of our dear Rebbe
by

Rabbi Leib and Esther Lerner            Rabbi Menachem and Faige Rosenblum

With much gratitude to Hashem, the My Encounter with the Rebbe team is proud to announce that they have hit the milestone of 50 interviews conducted in our studio in the heart of Crown Heights! A special thanks to Haysha and Bassie Deitsch of Crown Heights for graciously donating the studio space. These testimonies would simply not have been recorded but for their generosity.

Interviews conducted in-studio feature a significantly reduced cost-per-interview, allowing us to conduct more critical interviews at a faster pace. Individuals from various backgrounds have been coming through the studio to share their encounters with the Rebbe – a number of them, many of them over the age of 80!

Mr. Evsey Nemoytin

Rabbi Pinye Korf

Rabbi Michoel Hazan

Rabbi Gedalye Korf

Rabbi Chaim Meir Halon

Mr. Nachum Gordon

Mrs. Brana Shaina Deitsch

Mr. Geoffry Davis

Click here for full-color print version

When I first opened and people saw the glatt kosher sign and then saw that I was wearing a kippa, they said, “Young man, you’re wasting your time and money in this place. You belong on the Lower East Side.” But I said, “I appreciate your interest and advice but the success of the business depends on G-d.” dairy

The restaurant became a huge success. I did a lot of take-out and a lot of catering. People would often ask me for ice cream, to which I would reply, “The food is fleishig, so in the same meal we can’t have ice cream.” They said, “Okay, then we’ll buy our own ice cream.”

That’s when the seeds were planted in my head. I started to do research and finally decided to make non-dairy parve ice cream which I could sell with a fleishig meal. I read an article about tofu. I didn’t even know what tofu was at the time, and I went to Chinatown to buy it.

I started experimenting with it but at first I had little success and whatever I made, I had to throw out. During this time, whenever I met with the Rebbe I would mention what I was doing, and he would say to me, “You have to have faith. If you have faith in G-d, you can do wonders.” So I kept trying.Meanwhile, my restaurant business expanded. I now had a Mintz’s Buffet on 3rd Avenue in Manhattan and another one in Flatbush, Brooklyn. And then an opportunity came up to open on Madison Avenue. I asked the Rebbe if I should do it, and his answer was “Be careful.” I didn’t understand what that meant. It was Madison Avenue and it was such an opportunity. I opened there, but I was not successful. The local clientele was wrong for my sort of business. And then my 3rd Avenue restaurant had to close because Donald Trump bought out the whole square block and razed all the buildings.

That is when Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, founder of the Lincoln Square Synagogue on the Upper West Side, came to me. He said, “I understand that you have to leave your location because of Donald Trump. Why don’t you come to us – we want you here on the West Side. Open up a Mintz’s Buffet and we will support you totally. My whole congregation will come to you.”

I was very excited about that, especially when a friend of Rabbi Riskin found me the perfect location at 72nd and Broadway. What an opportunity!

Mr. David Mintz

I was very excited. This was the answer I was waiting for.

Then he dictated to me, “The Rebbe says, ‘Absolutely not. B’Shum oifen nisht. Absolutely not. B’Shum oifen nisht.’” Twice he said that.

I was taken aback. I said, “Why is the Rebbe saying absolutely not?”

Rabbi Groner said, “The Rebbe says you should continue with your experiments with the parve ice cream and G-d will help you to be very successful. And your products will become so popular and so in demand that they’ll be sold all over the world.”

It sounded like a fantasy. Meanwhile, I felt like I was losing a golden opportunity at 72nd and Broadway…

But I listened to the Rebbe. For me it was not even an option. Somebody else seized that opportunity and it proved nothing but trouble – trouble with the building department, trouble with the health department – the man never really managed to open up despite the enormous expenses that went into it.

I decided to go into experimentation full time. I sold the Brooklyn restaurant because the neighborhood had changed and I committed to making this parve ice cream from tofu – first I called it Tofu Time, and later Tofutti.

Tofutti Ice Cream

By 1981 I was distributing samples. Then I got my first break. There was a health food store in Manhattan called Health Nuts and the owner called me. He said, “I heard people talking about a product you are making – tofu ice cream. I’d like to try it.”

He was my first big customer and then came Zabar’s, the epitome of gourmet shops in New York. After that Bloomingdale’s called. They ended up giving it out as people came into the store and selling it in their cafeteria.

Now I knew I couldn’t make enough of the stuff in the small place where I was working. I had to go commercial – to take it to the next level.

Again, I went to the Rebbe and I said, “Please give me a bracha. I found a factory that wants to make it.” The Rebbe said, “It will be difficult in the beginning, but you have to have faith in G-d.”

And it was difficult. In my lab in Brooklyn we made the stuff in little kettles. In the factory, the pots were a hundred or two hundred gallons. I had to reformulate. But I succeeded and Tofutti took off. Eventually, we were producing almost ten thousand gallons of Tofutti a week in cooperation with Wells Farms.

At this time, the Rebbe told me, “People will come and they’ll offer you all kinds of money. Don’t be swayed by their offers and be very careful. Just keep on doing what you are doing.”

When that did happen, I followed his advice. But after a time I asked him if I should take the company public. It was a privately held company and I thought it would be profitable to have it traded on the stock exchange. The Rebbe’s response was: “That’s a very good thought.”

And that’s what I did. This move put Tofutti on the map, so that we were working with the largest companies like Haagen Dazs and others. And it was all because the Rebbe gave me a blessing that I should be successful, and because his guidance saved me each and every time.

David Mintz, a New York restaurateur, is the founder of the Tofutti company, makers of non-dairy ice cream. He was interviewed in his home in Alpine, New Jersey in February, 2007.

This week’s Here’s My Story is sponsored
in honor Of my dear parents
Chana and Effy Hamatian

It has long been known that the Rebbe received Peres for an audience in 770 during January of 1970, but it was largely unknown that his first meeting with the Rebbe took place four years earlier, in 1966.

Prior to interviewing JEM’s My Encounter with the Rebbe team conducted several months of research in New York and Israel. After learning about the two audiences, the team studied whatever details were available, uncovered photos of Mr. Peres’ at 770, as well as correspondence between the Rebbe and Peres.

With this information in hand, Reb Zalman Wolff, a Chabad activist who maintains friendly ties with Israel’s government leaders, contacted the President’s staff to facilitate the interview. The President expressed interest in recording his testimony, and a date was set. However, a series of events postponed the meeting, including the passing of the President’s wife, Mrs. Sonya Peres,and an emergency surgery for Mr. Peres, who is in his 89th year of age.

Finally this week, the My Encounter with the Rebbe team was hosted for an interview at the Beit Hanasi in Jerusalem, where President Peres discussed the full details of his relationship with the Rebbe.

Coming two weeks after the release of Faithful and Fortified: Israel’s Prime Ministers, in which five Prime Ministers – Rabin, Begin, Sharon, Shamir and Netanyahu – speak of the Rebbe’s interactions and guidance to them, Peres’ interview provides yet another prism on the Rebbe’s deep relationship with Israel’s government and military leaders. Many of their testimonies have been documented over recent years thanks to a generous grant from Rabbi Yossel Gutnick of Melbourne, Australia.

The cost of the interview – including research, cinematography, lighting and sound, was sponsored by Mr. Sholom and Pessy Jacobs.

Rabbi Yechiel Cagen, Director of JEM’s My Encounter with the Rebbe oral history project, explained, “We had originally hoped to include his interview in the new film alongside the Prime Ministers, but with so much material already prepared for the film, we decided not to wait for the President’s interview. There will be many more volumes in the Faithful and Fortified series, and we’ll be able to include Mr. Peres’ full interview in one of them.”

From the dozens of testimonies collected, a picture emerges of the Rebbe’s keen ability to connect with those who were not like-minded, managing to find issues of common ground and to inspire even self-proclaimed agnostics. These connections spanned the entire political spectrum – from those in sync with the Rebbe’s views to those, such as Peres, on the political left.

“The aim of the My Encounter with the Rebbe project has been to document the history of the Rebbe and the evolution of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement in modern times,” explained JEM’s Director, Rabbi Elkanah Shmotkin. “If we would only interview those who agreed with the Rebbe on every issue, we’d miss many important events and perspectives. istory is made up of different types of people with varying opinions and viewpoints, and the My Encounter team has done a phenomenal job locating and recording testimonies spanning ethnicities, continents, and viewpoints. As an important player in Israel’s government for over sixty years, the testimony shared by President Peres is important to the historic record.”

The session with Peres was conducted by My Encounter with the Rebbe’s lead interviewer in Israel, Rabbi Zusha Wolff.

Peres explained that the 1966 audience was suggested by Mr. Yossi Ciechanover, at the time, a legal adviser to the Israel’s Defense Department. Peres enthusiastically accepted the opportunity. “I had heard a lot about the Rebbe, and I wanted to meet him.”

The first meeting lasted over an hour, with the conversation taking place in English, Yiddish and Hebrew.

It was some 15 months before the outbreak of the Six Day War, and Egypt was growing increasingly antagonistic and threatening toward its Jewish neighbor to the south. In Peres’ words, “the world was ready to eulogize Israel.” At the time however, the anti-Israel sentiment of the Egyptian masses had a more political, and less Islamic, flavor that the animosity of today.

Addressing the relations between the two countries and the prospect of war hanging over the region, the Rebbe urged Peres to view the problem of Egypt as a personal, rather than national, confrontation. “The Rebbe began to discuss with me what we should do about [Egyptian President] Abdul Nasser. He asked me, ‘Why do you need to wage war with Egypt? Take care of this one person, Nasser. You won’t need entire armies to do this.’”

Of course, Nasser’s provocations continued, and the IDF would deliver a resounding victory over the armies of Egypt, Syria, and a number of their neighbors. The Rebbe would later call Israel’s victory in the Six Day War ‘G-d given and miraculous.’

Four years later, during their 1970 meeting, the Rebbe spoke with Peres about matters standing at the center of Israeli life, including “Who is a Jew?,” absorbing the mass immigration from Russia, Jewish education and the Jewish identity of the State.

At that time Peres was Israel’s Minister of Transportation and Communications, and the Rebbe addressed the importance of connecting the two roles of transportation and communication. “He said we must use modern communication – at the time, radio, telephone and television – to facilitate Jewish education.”

Referring to his political positions – often at odds with those of Chabad, Peres said, “Unfortunately, the Chabad movement did not support me politically. But I value the Rebbe’s outstanding leadership and his great inspiration.”

“The Rebbe’s was unique in the fact that he merged the spiritual and the practical. He saw the future as clearly as the present. When he looked at the present, he understood our immediate security challenges, and at the same time, he endeavored to meet the future by investing in education. He recognized the gap between the present and the future, but urged us not to allow ourselves any gap in our action.

“He dealt with our present and the future with equal urgency, because they cannot be separated. And [he held that] any separation between them presents a danger.”

In just four days in Sao Paulo, they managed to squeeze in twelve interviews with over 25 hours of video footage!

Some highlights from the trip:

Monday: The My Encounter team arrived in Brazil Monday morning, after taking a red-eye flight from New York. Wasting no time, they headed straight to the Escola Gani Chaya Mushka girls school to interview the dean of the both the boys and girls school, Rabbi Hirsh Leib Begun. He spoke about the early years in 770 in the late 1940s when he first met the Frierdiker Rebbe!

Mrs. Devora Blumenfeld came in special from Rio De Janiero for interview

Later that night, they interviewed Mr. Sacha Kalmus in his home, where he spoke about his special relationship with the Rebbe.

Tuesday: In the morning the team interviewed Mrs. Devorah Blumenfeld, who flew in special from Rio de Janeiro to tell her stories of her late husband, the Rav of Rio, Rabbi Yerachmiel Blumenfeld with the Rebbe. She has an incredible memory!

They then made their way to the house of Henry Sobel. A noted reform rabbi, Sobel emotionally spoke about his yechidus with the Rebbe in 1980, when his mother was ill.  Holding back tears, Sobel said, “The Rebbe was the greatest religious Jewish leader of our times”.

Rabbi Dovid Weitman spoke about the groups of students he would bring to the Rebbe

Wednesday: Early in the morning, the My Encounter crew headed to the house of RabbiDovid Weitman, who spoke about his fascinating yechidusen with the Rebbe, when hewould bring large groups of students to the Rebbe. The students would ask all sorts of questions and the Rebbe would patiently answer each one of them.

After a 3-hour interview with Rabbi Weitman, they headed to the home of Lisette Sayeg, who insisted they eat a 3-course meal before doing the interview! After dessert, Mrs. Sayeg spoke about the story of her son who was miraculously saved from leukemia as a result of a brocha from the Rebbe.

Mrs. Suzi Konig talked about her yechidus with the Rebbe in 1980

Mrs. Suzi Konig then came to the Sayeg house to speak about her yechidus with the Rebbe after losing her brother in a car accident. The Konig family was planning on moving to Israel after this tragic loss and sought the Rebbe’s advice. The Rebbe told them that they would find comfort in their brother’s passing by staying in their home town of Curitiba (a small town in Brazil) and focusing their efforts in bringing local Jews closer to Judaism. This was the impetus to bringing Rabbi Yoseph and Tila Dubrawsky to Curitiba, who are now shluchim there for over 25 years!

Later in the night, they headed over to Reb Mayer Zajac where he spoke for close to 3 hours about his fascinating stories with the Rebbe, including the many horoas he received about the printing of Likutei Sichos! The crew got back to their office at around 12:30 am.

Thursday: Leaving their hotel room at 6:45 am, the My Encounter team headed over to Tifferet Lubavitch to interview Rabbi and Mrs. Yaakov and Sheina Begun. The Beguns spoke about the early days of Shlichus in Sao Paulo and how the Rebbe encouraged them

through all the hardships of those early years.

After about 4 hours of interviews, they interviewed two other individuals about their stories with the Rebbe and headed to the airport to make their flight back to New York.

Stay tuned for their clips…!

A special thanks to Rabbi Dovid Weitman, Felipe Dorf and Yankee Teitelbaum for making the trip happen!

Rabbi Yaakov Begun spoke about the love the Rebbe gave the Brazilian bochurim in the early 1950s

Working on schedule

Yankee Teitelbaum, JEM's cameraman, hard at work, hard at work

Mrs. Sayeg in her home in Sao Paulo

Rabbi Mayer Zajac talked about starting Likutei Sichos

Henry Sobel directing the My Encounter car in Sao Paulo

An interview with Henry Sobel, a reform rabbi in Sao Paulo for over 40 years

Rabbi Hirsh Leib Begun spoke about opening a cheder in Brazil in 1960