Living Torah Archives

Rabbi Chaim Zev Bomzer was a longstanding member of the Rabbinical Council of America, and Rabbi of Young Israel of Ocean Parkway for more than forty years. It was during the sixties that over the course of his travels to Israel, he developed a relationship with the chief chaplain of the Israeli Army, Rabbi Shlomo Goren. Once, when Rabbi Goren was in New York, he asked Rabbi Bomzer to take him to see the Rebbe.

While visiting from France, Rabbi Yaakov Spitetzky was confused as to why the Rebbe seemed to ignore him during one of their meetings. It was some information that he later received from the Rebbe’s secretary that touches and inspires him till this day. (1968)

Mrs. Dena Horn, who lost her father at a young age, recalls the special attention the Rebbe showed her family when they moved to the neighborhood. (1950s)

Chassidim sing the Russian version of “Who Knows One?” as the Rebbe distributes wine from the cup of the After-blessing. When a young girl sings along into the microphone, he gently reminds her to clap rather than sing, and stops the line of visitors to clap along with her.

Menachem and Devorah Emanuel were married in Crown Heights in 1983. On the day of their wedding, they received an invitation from the Rebbe to hold their first Sheva Brachos at the Rebbe’s Farbrengen in 770.

Rabbi Sholom Ber Lipskar is executive director of the Aleph Institute, which services the religious needs of Jewish men and women in prison. In 1985, they brought a group of prisoners to spend a weekend in Crown Heights, where they attended the Rebbe’s Shabbos Farbrengen.