Diamond Magnate’s Life Story Begins Long Before Birth

Speaking at the gala banquet of this year's International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Emissaries, billionaire philanthropist Lev Leviev touched on his own family's history and how he came to be close to Chasidism.

The diamond magnate, an Uzbekistan native who serves as president of the Federation of Jewish Communities of the Former Soviet Union, delivered the banquet's lay leader address. In the speech, he related how his family Jewish identity was kept alive in the early 20th century by an emissary of the Fifth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Sholom Dovber, of righteous memory.

He then detailed how, many years later, he was privileged to meet the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, of righteous memory, in New York. The Rebbe's message to him then was to do all he could to help Jews living in Soviet lands.

An excerpt from "The Banquet: 5768," produced by Jewish Educational Media.