Monthly Archives: April 2011

Once again it is Friday — time to watch The Living Torah. As the screen flickers on we await the Rebbe’s holy countenance and his immortal words. We watch and are transported back to those incredible years when farbrengens abounded and occasions to see the Rebbe were many. Perhaps at times we took those magical days for granted and didn’t take advantage of every golden opportunity.

Girls at LEC elementary school in Miami watch a My Encounter interview.

Today memories flood our minds, waiting in line to receive a sefer or a dollar from the Rebbe, the anticipation, crush, awe and then the Rebbe’s words, spoken to each of us personally. We recall how we ran home quickly and wrote the date and the words of the Rebbe on the dollar he had just given us and added it proudly to the growing pile of dollars that we treasured. Some people had more personal stories, a surprise answer from the Rebbe or a miracle story, which they were happy to share with family and friends.

I open up my eyes and find myself back in the present. I look around at my children and students and can see from their faces that for them the feeling is different. Though my generation lived with the Rebbe for far too short a time, at least we have our own distinct memories. We listened enviously to awesome stories of the older generation who had come from a more intimate and less crowded time in Lubavitch. Then we heard the early shluchim who had kept up a steady stream of correspondence with the Rebbe and now have all those letters to sustain them. But at least we know the feeling and understand what it meant to be part of it.

Rabbi Leibel Shapiro answers a questions asked by an elementary student about his first yechidus with the Rebbe.

Enter “The Living Torah” and “My Encounter with the Rebbe.” What a magnificent, albeit daunting, project. Some clichés cannot be improved upon: “A picture paints a thousand words.” With the advent of technical and media resources we are now able to give the next generation a taste, a glimpse , of what was. Even more, we, together with our children, continue to hear more than we ever knew. We learn from each “Encounter” what a privilege it is to be a Chassid of the Rebbe..

This past week we were privileged to host the team from “My Encounter with the Rebbe” at our school, Lubavitch Educational Center in South Florida, which also encompasses Beis Chana, Klurman Mesivta and Yeshiva Gedolah Rabbinical College.

The students were given a behind-the-scenes view of the production. Rabbi Mendy Alevsky gave a presentation about how this project began, and the cameramen showed the students the technical aspects of lighting a set. The students then viewed some footage and discussed what worked and what needed improvement.

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Sunday, was our last official day of interviews in South Florida.

Jerry Levine started our day at The Shul, describing filming the Rebbe for 'Windows to the Soul' in 1992.

Thanks to Rabbi Lipskar and Rabbi Shea Rubinstein, we used the main sanctuary at the famous ‘The Shul’ in Bal Harbour, Florida for an ‘Open Mic Day’. We interviewed eight people in total throughout the day!

Our day started at 7:30 am at The Shul, debating whether to use the main sanctuary or the smaller daily shul. The problem with the main sanctuary was the many big windows that shine light into the room, posing a big problem for interviews because you can’t control the light. The issue with using the smaller shul was that people are used to davening there on Sunday morning and we would get a lot of disturbances in the first half of the day. We ended up using the main sanctuary and Yankee Teitelbaum, our cameraman, worked his magic to make sure we got a great frame.

After about a two and a half hour interview, Rabbi Yoikel Weiss, the Karastirer Rebbe's son, walks out of the main sanctuary at The Shul. Rabbi Weiss reminisced about the days that he lived in Crown Heights in the early years of the Rebbe's nesius (leadership).

Our schedule was as follows:

9am: Jerry Levine – a renowned journalist and film maker. Jerry talked about his memories filming the Rebbe up-close for the documentary ‘Windows to the Soul’ and behind-the-scenes stories with the Rebbe surrounding Chanukah Live.

10am: Marc Sheridan – a business man from Bal Harbour who talked about his many encounters with the Rebbe. One that stands out is that when they were making plans to build the beautiful building now called ‘The Shul’ there was a debate whether they should take the ‘build and they will come’ approach or wait until all the funds were secured. The Rebbe told Sheridan, a member of the building committee, to take the same approach as with one’s personal house:  take a mortgage and build right away!

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Three interviewers from the organization charged with preserving teachings of the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory, took their operation south this week.

Jewish Educational Media dispatched a film crew to Miami this week to record personal recollections of the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory.

On the hunt for 100 people who had first-hand recollections of the Jewish leader, Rabbis Yechiel Cagen, Yankee Teitelbaum and Mendy Alevsky focused on Miami as part of their effort to commit 1,000 personal testimonials from people across the globe to film.

Cagen, who directs the “My Encounter with the Rebbe” project for Jewish Educational Media, explained that it runs alongside JEM’s mainstay Living Archives program, a daunting endeavor to preserve 70 years of still and moving footage and audio recordings – including thousands of hours of the Rebbe’s public addresses and appearances. My Encounters instead takes a more intimate look, shining a light on how the Rebbe personally affected people in the post-Holocaust world.

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