Czarist Russia

Reb Shmuel reputedly said to the Rebbe: “If you are a true Rebbe, you have nothing to fear by being arrested. If you are not, you deserve whatever they will do to you”

The guard was stupefied: few were the cabinet-level ministers granted such a privilege, and here stood a young chassid with a beard, sidelocks, chassidic garb and a Yiddish accent, at a time when to even reside in Petersburg was forbidden to Jews . . .

No words were necessary. I knew I was to be one of those boys who would be sent away from home, perhaps never to see my parents again.

The few who survived were so emotionally and psychologically destroyed that they were never able to live normal lives. They lived together in little villages, apart from the rest of the world

Reb Chayim YehoshuaFrom HaTamim, Issue No. 6, pp. 97-99; 2 13 Nissan 5697; appears as a continuation of the story of Reb Gavriel Nossai Chein. We include some excerpts from the same issue, pp. 8-12, taken from the Previous Rebbe’s remarks on a letter by ...

Rabbi Menachem Mendel's teachings in Chassidut, involvement in the economic well-being of Russian Jewry, and work on behalf of the cantonists.

"But Rebbe," objected the soldier, "battles are won to the tune of a joyous march, not with tears..."

After many long minutes, the Rebbe finally lifted his head from his arms and said solemnly: "You can go home. Your wife just gave birth to a baby boy..."

Jewish prisoners who spend the High Holidays behind bars are often forgotten. Rabbi Fishel Jacobs spent a career catering to this unseen population.

Letter from the Tzemach Tzedek