The Time the Rebbe’s Secretary Was Kidnapped

Historic Treasures — Episode 111: "The Time the Rebbe's Secretary Was Kidnapped"

Welcome to our weekly program, The Inside Story of Chabad in America Through the Mindel Archives. This is the second program. Last week we spoke about the historical background of Rabbi Mindel's shlichus — the trips that the Rebbe sent him on to Russia — and we're going to do maybe three or four programs on all the trips: what happened on the trips, and the shlichus that the Rebbe gave him.

So today I will talk about the first trip that he went to Russia, and the heroism involved. Now, as you know, here is the "peckel" of Russia — all the trips, the notes that he wrote down, the things that he answered — this whole peckel, etc. It's amazing, all the trips. We'll talk about it — I don't know, maybe next week or two weeks.

This is about the trip he went to Russia to bring back the manuscripts that the Frierdiker Rebbe had left there. Now I want to share with you a story that happened on that trip. This happened in 1958 or '59 — the first trip, I think, that the Rebbe ever sent anybody as a representative. Later on, years later, more people went, but Rabbi Mindel was the first one that was ever sent to Russia.

It was a very dangerous time. It was during the Communist regime, and the Chabad people, anash, had yeshivos underground, hideouts underground. If the KGB, chas v'shalom, caught them or found out what they were doing, it meant prison — or worse than prison. So this is the time that the Rebbe sent him on shlichus — Rabbi Mindel. The Rebbe told him exactly how to dress — we'll talk about that maybe another time — but I want to tell this story now.

In 1958–59, he came as a tourist, through the tourist office. There was a girl — she found out, I don't know how she found out, because everything was secret, even within the office, I guess. I don't know how they knew, but they knew that a tourist was arriving in Russia — a person who was very close to the Lubavitcher [Rebbe]. Remember, the very word "Lubavitch" was dreaded in Russia — but a person close to the Rebbe was coming to Russia. How she knew, nobody knows. She was close to some of the anash also, through secret channels — I mean, it all had to be hidden.

So she somehow told one of the Chabadnikim — I don't know how she got hold of him — and I think his name was Shmedel-Prus [?]. I think he was one of them, I think — I'm not a hundred percent sure. And she told him that a "Rebbe's mensch" was coming as a tourist to Russia. In those days — I mean, they knew nothing from there, I mean this was a very dangerous time — be very careful. She didn't know where he was staying, but she knew that he was arriving, and I think she told them what date.

So what should they do? They got together — the anash, somehow, underground, I don't know how, but they were in touch with each other — how do we see this person? So they decided that there was a hotel where tourists stay — more or less, I don't know how many hotels there were, maybe one, I'm not sure. "The new one is coming, we will try to see him." So they would try to be around the hotel.

They got a car — I don't know how they got a car. I mean, there was no renting like in America — there's no Avis, there's no Hertz. A taxi, maybe, but I doubt it, because the taxi driver wasn't supposed to know anything. So how could they get a taxi? But they got a car — I don't know what it was, whether it was a taxi or not, I don't know.

Four chassidim went in front of the hotel. They thought he was there, and they waited outside — maybe he'll come out. They didn't know what he looked like — nobody had beards, chas v'shalom, in those days. So whoever walked out, they tried to see if maybe he looked different. Even just sitting and waiting in the car was a danger, but anyway — mesirus nefesh, b'kitzur, to make a long story short — they saw him walk out, and they thought this was him, because even though he didn't have a beard, he looked different.

He walked out and was walking. They followed him with the car. He walked maybe a block or two, to a bus stop. They followed him, he was waiting at the bus stop, and they stopped the car in front of the bus stop. One or two of them got out of the car, blindfolded him, and kidnapped him — put him into the car.

Now, Rabbi Mindel thought — he said Shema Yisrael — he thought, "this is it." He didn't know what was happening. I mean, in those days, they found out afterward that he was from the Rebbe, and that was it. Now, his shlichus was that he was supposed to get some manuscripts — but that's a whole other story, and it's besides the point.

So they put him in the car, and they drove — he didn't say a word, they didn't say a word — maybe an hour and a half, or two hours. Then they came to a place, took him out, and they all went down into a basement. Now, when we in America say "basement," we think of some basements with a chandelier, made to look nice. This was like a cellar — a cellar, mamash, like they have in Russia.

They undid the blindfold. He opened up his eyes. They sat down, brought out a bottle of mashke, and said l'chaim. And they told him who they were — but he didn't believe them. He thought this is what the KGB does — they pretend to be chassidim. They were talking to him, saying, "my father is this, my mother is this" — people that Rabbi Mindel would have heard of — but he still did not believe them. I think he said it was thirty-five or forty minutes sitting in the cellar, until he saw — he saw how they reacted, that they wanted to know about the Rebbe, that they wanted to know everything about Chabad.

So he realized who they were, that they meant it sincerely, and he told them — you know what the Rebbe does, he told them what's happening in 770, everything, and he happened to tell them that the Rebbe teaches a niggun — in those days, on Simchas Torah, in the morning, he teaches niggunim, ten niggunim, a different one every year. I think that started in 1956 or '57.

He started to sing them the first niggun, and he explained to them that after a farbrengen comes out — he spoke maybe an hour, every word he says was [recorded/noted] — and so they said, "please teach us the niggun, teach us the niggun." And that's the niggun that he started to sing to them — I'll sing the niggun, you know, maybe some people don't know the niggun — this is the niggun that he taught them: [sings niggun].

And he sang the niggun over and over, and they were crying the whole time, and they said, "again, teach us the niggun" — "Dr Kenu" [as heard] — until he taught it to them, "Dr Khal Khanu" [as heard]. To them, this was something tremendous — they knew something of what it meant.

And then they couldn't just let him walk out alone with them, so he went his way — whatever happened after that isn't important now in this part. Next week we will continue the next part of his trip. Thank you.