My Mother’s Death and My Father’s Immigration to the Land of Israel

On Tuesday morning, 27 Tamuz, my mother felt that her final moments had arrived. I was there with her at the time, and she asked me to call my father immediately. She wanted to say goodbye.

Devotion and Discipline

In the winter of 1969, about half a year after our mother’s passing, my father, my sister and her family received permission to leave Russia.

Running a Kollel

We wondered how someone who had been a businessman all his life could suddenly start to run an institution dedicated to Torah study.

R’ Mendel Wechter and My Father

On the day he died, my father went to the Kollel after lunch, as usual. He then began to ask the members of the Kollel for forgiveness if he had been too demanding in enforcing the Kollel schedule, or if he had ever spoken harshly to them.

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Samarkand »

By Hillel Zaltzman

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"Samarkand" tells the story of the Chassidic underground that operated in the Soviet Union, upholding Judaism during the rule of communist terror. Gripping narrative sweeps the reader to distant lands, and paints a picture of mysterious figures in Samarkand's alleys, secret Torah study under the constant threat of arrest by the KGB, and the long and hard fought victory in inspiring Jewish renaissance throughout the Soviet Union.

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