Personal Encounters with the Rebbe

The Rebbe tells a young rabbi, "We have to enter the enemies battle in order to win the war of assimilation."

The Rebbe sends an American rabbi to open four Jewish religious underground schools and he comes back with a lesson in his mission in life.

The Rebbe encourages a rabbi to open an institution that will create rabbis with the spirit of the chabad warmth

Dr. Luis Alberto Lacalle, former president of Uruguay, describes his meeting with the Rebbe at Sunday dollars, shortly before his election.

Rabbi Hollander, a well-known rabbinic activist and past president of the Rabbinical Council of America, informs the Rebbe of his plans for retirement.

Rabbi Yosef Goldstein relates a story from his days working in the Rebbe’s office in the 1940s.

Chief Rabbi of Great Britain and the Commonwealth, Dr. Jonathan Sacks highlights some unique aspects of the Rebbe’s leadership.

Rabbi Chaskel Besser tells a story illustrating the Rebbe’s gentle attention to children.

US Senator Joseph Lieberman tells of his first experience at 770 and of his last stop on the way to Washington to take his oath for the Senate.

Professor Herman Branover, a renowned scientist in the field of Magnetohydrodynamics, left the Soviet Union in 1972. A year later, he received an extraordinary, and perplexing, instruction from the Rebbe.

Mr. Robert Abrams served as New York State attorney general from 1978 to 1994. He and his wife, Diane, an attorney herself, would come to the Rebbe for Lekach on Hoshana Rabbah. In 1985, the Rebbe gave them an unexpected blessing for an addition to their family.

Rabbi Shmuel Lew discovers a Farbrengen of elder Chassidim with the Rebbe’s mother, Rebbetzin Chana Schneerson.

Rabbi Yitzchak Groner is a Shliach of the Rebbe in Melbourne, Australia for over 50 years. He recalls warm anecdotes of the Rebbe’s interaction with the students at 770 during the lifetime of the Previous Rebbe.

Rabbi Moshe Feller was a non-Lubavitch Yeshiva student from Minneapolis. He speaks here of the first Farbrengen he attended in 1955. Today, he is the Head Shliach of the State of Minnesota.

Former Prime Minister of Israel, Ariel Sharon describes part of his first Yechidus with the Rebbe shortly after the Six Day War.

After finding safety on American shores in 1941, the Rebbe helped the war effort, working at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Mr. Milton Fechter’s desk in the electrical engineering section was not far from the Rebbe’s.

Eliyahu Schochetman is a professor of Law at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. His father, Meir, knew the Rebbe while living in Paris in the 1930s.

While living in France in the 1930s, the Rebbe and Rebbetzin would often visit the Previous Rebbe in Poland. Rabbis Yitzchak Hakohen Hendel and Menachem Zev Greenglass were students in the Lubavitcher Yeshiva in Warsaw and Otwock.

Asher Heber’s family moved to Paris in the early 1930s. His father, Leibish, was a businessman who assisted the Rebbe.

While on business in Japan, Mr. Ephraim Steinmetz, a businessman from Venezuala, received a mysterious package and note from the Rebbe.

Attorney Nathan Lewin was one of Chabad’s main lawyers in the federal court case over ownership of the Previous Rebbe’s library. He tells the events which led up to the case, and the vital roles of the Rebbe and Rebbetzin in that court victory (1985 – 1987).

Mayer Zeiler is the owner of Flocktex Industries in Israel, one of the world’s leading textile manufacturers.

Ron Nachman is the mayor of Ariel, Israel.

Rabbi Shaar Yashuv Cohen is the Chief Rabbi of Haifa, Israel. Once, in Yechidus, he asked the Rebbe why he did not move to the Holy Land.

Rabbi Chaim Yaakov Shlomei was dean of the Bais Rivka Girl’s Seminary in France for over twenty years. He shares a special letter sent by the Rebbe to the seminary students.

Former Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu shares some of the personal experiences he had with the Rebbe during his tenure as Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations.

Mr. Sam Feiglin’s father, Moshe Zalman, was a founder of the Jewish community in Australia. A glimpse into the Rebbe’s personal involvement for Australian Jewry.

Asher Heber’s father, Laibish, was present at the last Purim Farbrengen of Rabbi Sholom Dov Ber, the fifth Rebbe of Chabad, several years after the beginning of Communist rule.

Rabbi Fabian Shoenfeld had a private audience with the Rebbe along with fellow members of the Rabbinical Council of America. A fascinating exploration by the Rebbe of the biblical story of Elijah on Mount Carmel.

Nochum Goldschmidt attended the same Cheder in Dnepropetrovsk as the Rebbe and the Rebbe’s brother, Leibel. Nochum’s cousin, Rabbi Mordechia Ashkenazi, heard these memories him.

Yona Kesa grew up in Dnepropetrovsk in the early 1900s. He shares his fond memory of the Rebbe and of the Rebbe’s father, Reb Levik.

Every year, from Berlin, the Rebbe and Rebbetzin would visit the Rebbetzin’s father, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok, for the festive month of Tishrei. Rabbi Moshe Eliyahu Gerlitzky was a student at the Lubavitcher Yeshiva in Lodz, Poland. He was present when, upon the Previous Rebbe’s instruction, the Rebbe Farbrenged with the Chassidim for Simchas Beis Hashoevah.

Rabbi Yehudah Leib Posner and his brother were students in 770 during the 1940s. One week, their father came in from Pittsburgh and spent Shabbos with them. Friday night after the prayers, their father asked the Rebbe how he should respond to the controversial topic of the day – the creation of a Jewish State.

Rabbi Chazkel Besser of Agudas Yisrael of America, befriended the Rebbe’s brother, Leibel, while living in Tel Aviv during the 1940s.

Rabbi Chazkel Besser of Agudas Yisrael of America knew the Rebbe’s brother, Leibel, in Tel Aviv. In 1948, Rabbi Besser moved to New York, and Leibel sent family pictures with him to give to his mother, Rebbetzin Chana.

Herbert Weiner is the author of Nine and a Half Mystics. In 1955, he was sent by Commentary magazine to report on the activities going on at Lubavitch World Headquarters.

Herbert Weiner is the author of Nine and a Half Mystics. In the mid-1950s, he scheduled his first private audiences with the Rebbe, intending to interview him for a series of articles.

The Rebbe and Rebbetzin arrived to America on the 28th of Sivan – June 23, 1941. Rabbi Mottel Sharfstein was a student in 770 during the 1940s. He recalls the first time he heard from his teacher about the Rebbe.

Yehuda Avner served on the personal staff of five Israeli Prime Ministers. In 1977, after meeting with President Carter at Camp David, Menachem Begin sent him to report to the Rebbe.

At the time that the Soviet Union began to open its doors, Shoshana Cardin served as Chairman of NCSJ, the National Conference on Soviet Jewry.