Monthly Archives: June 2010

Last week, a camera crew went on the road to to three Living Torah viewings to discover what people think about the My Encounter with the Rebbe project.

Here is a short clip from their trip to Toronto, Canada, Brooklyn Heights, NY, and Hillside, NJ.

Today, Gimmel Tammuz, make a hachlata for that will inspire yourselves and your children! 1. Sign up to Living Torah at www.jemstore.com and 2. Make sure not one more testimonies don’t get lost at www.1000encounters.com!

On Yud Shevat, 5725 (1965), fifteen years after the Frierdiker Rebbe’s passing, the Rebbe gave a historic talk on the critical importance that Chassidim document the stories of their generation, in order for the younger generation to learn from them, and to pass them on to future generations.

It has been sixteen years since Gimmel Tammuz. We each seek to be inspired by learning the stories of our Rebbe. And those who don’t have stories of their own, must rely on the older generation.

The My Encounter with the Rebbe oral history project fulfills this request of the Rebbe’s from over 45 years ago. Its leaders do their best to make sure the events are documented for future generations. And they have only just begun.

Help JEM preserve these precious encounters by giving toward the project here. Now, in honor of Gimmel Tammuz, every dollar given will be doubled by a generous donor.

The campaign to save 1,000 interviews for the My Encounter with the Rebbe oral history project is in full swing, with people around the world donating and promoting the project.

To date, 366 people of diverse backgrounds have been interviewed about their encounters with the Rebbe. But there’s still so much more to learn!

Average expenses per 5-hour interview

Some items discovered from past testimonies are the Rebbe’s involvement in:

• The launch of the USDA’s WIC program
• The US Sixth fleet’s establishing a base in Haifa, Israel
• Young Israel’s campus Kosher Clubs
• Underground work with the Mossad in Moscow
• Foretelling stem cell research
• Extraterrestrial exploration
• A view on the Hippie movement
• A US State Department letter to the Soviets
  (more…)

In honor of Gimmel Tammuz, JEM has just released a new DVD in The Early Years series. The new DVD features eighteen amazing recently-recorded interviews shedding further light on the Rebbe’s early years.

When they started the My Encounter with the Rebbe project, one of JEM’s highest priorities was to document the Rebbe’s life before the coming to America. From these interviews, we released a four-part series called The Early Years covering the Rebbe’s life from 1902-1941.

For this release, JEM located and interviewed a number of fascinating individuals, including Yisroel Adamski of Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, who remembers the Rebbe’s parents celebrating the Rebbe’s wedding in Dnepropretrovsk. Below is an excerpt from the interview.

Please help JEM save 1,000 encounters! There are still many people out there with priceless memories to share. Help JEM record more interviews like these, before it’s too late!

Responding to a renewed effort to interview Mazkirim, senior Shluchim and others with major interaction with the Rebbe, Rabbi Yoel Kahan, the Rebbe’s chief chozer, and Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky, the Rebbe’s secretary and secretary of Lubavitch’s three central Mosdos, sat down for a 3-hour videotaped session.

A clip of Reb Yoel’s interview, featuring his observations from the year 1951 — as the Rebbe was formally taking the helm of the Chabad Lubavitch movement — appeared in this week’s Living Torah.

According to Rabbi Yechiel Cagen, the project leader, this summer will see a renewed push to interview “high value persons” who have especially unique and deep experiences to share. “Mazkirim, senior Shluchim, older Chassidim, and anyone with an especially rich interaction with the Rebbe — these are all people we want to hear from. If for nothing else, we need to hear from them for our childrens’ sake.”

See some of Reb Yoel’s interview here:

Please help JEM’s My Encounter project here: www.1000Encounters.com.