My Encounter with the Rebbe (Video)

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.

Meir Lieberman was a camper in Gan Israel, New York in the summer of 1960. He had never heard of the Rebbe before, but apparently, the Rebbe knew of him.

Professor Herman Branover is a renowned physicist, who received not only spiritual guidance from the Rebbe, but scientific guidance, as well.

Rabbi Yosef Goldstein, an educator and author of the children’s audio-cassette series, Story Time with Uncle Yossi.

Rabbi Dov Levanoni is the author of The Temple in Jerusalem, and an expert on the Holy Temple. His book is based on the scaled model of the Second Temple which he built, and for which he received “a little help” from the Rebbe.

In 1939, the Rebbe’s father was exiled by the Soviet government to a remote region of Kazakhstan. At the end of his sentence, he and his wife traveled to the closest large city, Almaty, Kazakhstan. Leibel Raskin and his family were there to greet and assist them upon their arrival.

Mr. Joseph Cayre is a business leader and a prominent member of the Sephardic community.

Thirteen year-old Shmuel Gurewicz arrived with his family to Australia in 1949. He was among the first students of the Tomchei Temimim Yeshiva in Shepparton, Australia. But he had “bigger” plans…

Living in Australia during the early 1950s, young Shmuel Gurewicz wished to study abroad in a more established Yeshiva. The Rebbe instructed him to remain in Australia, to spread the light of Torah to others there. Some time passed, and Shmuel decided to try again…

Shortly after her engagement, Chana Sharfstein had an audience with the Rebbe. To her surprise, the Rebbe asked if she was planning to wear a Shaitel after her marriage. But that wasn’t the only surprise in store for her.

A few days before Yom Kippur in 1964, a sudden request came to 770 from a Jew who worked on a US Air force base in Greenland, to send a Shliach there to conduct the Yom Kippur services. Rabbi Shmuel Lew was called to duty.

Rabbi Shmuel Lew continues recounting his Yom Kippur mission. Just one day before he was to leave for Greenland, the Rebbe’s mother, Rebbetzin Chana Schneerson, suddenly passed away.

In spring of 1944, the Rebbe’s parents were stranded in Kazakhstan, having just completed five years of Soviet-imposed exile. Mrs. Rochel Lipskar and her family lived a few hours away,

In 1961, Rivkah Blau was Vice-President of Yavne, one of the first Orthodox student organizations on American college campuses. In a private audience, the Rebbe asked Rivkah and her friend numerous questions on the realities of Jewish outreach in university. As it turned out, her friend came with some questions of his own.

Herbert Weiner is the author of Nine-and-a-Half Mystics. During his private audiences with the Rebbe in the mid-1950s, he raised some questions about the nature of faith in Judaism.

Herbert Weiner is the author of Nine-and-a-Half Mystics, and served as the leader of a Reform congregation in New Jersey for forty years. He discussed with the Rebbe Chabad’s unique approach to reconnecting Jews with their faith.

During the 1930s, the Previous Rebbe would often visit a health clinic in Paris. On Shabbos, he would stay at the home of Yankel and Baila Lax. Their son, Berel, was about twenty years old at the time, and recalls the Rebbe visiting his father-in-law at their home quite frequently.

On Shemini Atzeres, 1977, the Rebbe suffered a massive heart attack during the Hakofos celebration. Dr. Ira Weiss flew in from Chicago to join the medical team treating the Rebbe at 770. Subsequently, he became the Rebbe's cardiologist.

Rabbi Yehuda Leib Schapiro heard Rabbi J.B. Soloveitchik retell the story of the Alter Rebbe’s attempt to visit the Vilna Gaon, as it had been passed down through his own family, all the way back to the Gaon’s chief disciple.

In November 1937, the Rebbe enrolled in the University of Paris, known as "the Sorbonne." A young man named Moshe Zev Reitzer was studying to become a pharmacist at the Sorbonne, attending some of the same classes as the Rebbe. Yoel Reitzer is Moshe Zev's son.