Arranging Our Flight

The first charter flight from England to the Rebbe last year had been a tremendous success. Many people had been given the opportunity of seeing the Rebbe for the first time, as well as meeting family members and friends whom they could never had hoped ever to see or visit. It also had a positive effect on Lubavitch in general.

We were receiving continuous inquiries about our next flight. We therefore decided to charter another plane from the Flying Tiger Airline.

I wrote to the Rebbe about various options we had for flying into New York, and I received the following reply from the Rebbe in the form of a letter dated 17th of Teves, 5722 (December 24, 1961):

I received your letter of Dec. 14th, as well as the cable. In the meantime your have surely received my letter in reply to yours of an earlier date.

With reference to the planned chartered trip, I see from your letter that you cannot dictate your terms to the air-lines, for they have their own limitations. However, it would be well if the trip can be so arranged as to take in two farbrengen in close proximity, such as Shabbos-Mevorchim Sivan and Shavuos, or Shabbos-Mevorchim Tammuz with Yud-Beis Tammuz. However, judging by your letter, I do not think the decision is yours. Therefore, the best thing would be to poll the opinion of the prospective participants and go by the majority within the limited choice available.

In the end, we again had to accept the one and only date that was available, which indeed would give us at least two farbrengens as the Rebbe had suggested.

We were scheduled to embark on Sivan 29, 5722 (July 1, 1962) and we would be leaving New York on Tammuz 16 (July 18). The return flight would leave on the evening of the sixteenth of Tammuz, and we would therefore be flying home on a fast day - Shiva Ossor B'Tammuz. Fortunately, we would have six hours less to fast, as we would be traveling from west to east.

For £35 round trip, it did not take too long to have all 118 seats booked.