Ep. 29: Bringing the Rebbe to Cable TV with Rabbi Dovid Krinsky

00:00 Speaker 1 We are in the week of Hay Teves. The Rebbe directed that when Hay Teves comes around, it is incumbent upon each and every person to purchase and buy Sfarim. This is the perfect time to get and to buy the set of Our Days, published by Der Her. Our Days is a living, organized treasury of the Chabad calendar. In addition, it includes biographies of all of the seven Rebbeim in the appropriate dates. It's not a coffee table set. It's something that you open, something that you learn, something that you return to. And purchasing this book is a fulfillment of the Rebbe's Horah to purchase Sfarim on Hay Teves. Many people mean to get it, they want to get it, but they keep pushing it off. Hay Teves is the appropriate time. We only do one sale a year, and it's lasting only for one week. 20% off is the most you'll ever see. There isn't a bigger or better deal coming. This isn't a purchase for now. It's a purchase that will last for years, for your home, your Shabbos table, your kids, for your own learning. Go to derher.org/ourdays to purchase the set. No code necessary. To have success with PR, in my opinion, was very difficult because you're going to television stations you don't control. You have to fight for them to come. You have to fight for them what to put on. Then you have to make sure, then you have to make sure that the content that they use is accurate and

01:39 Speaker 1 the things that they say, they totalize, is accurate, you know. I thought to myself then, "Why do I have to use their channels? I mean, why do we have to, I mean, channel, I mean, go through them? Let's start our own network in a way." If you've been enjoying this podcast, please like and subscribe so that others can enjoy it as well. In addition, if you've benefited in any way from Among Chassidm podcast and would like to give something back, you can do so today at derher.org/donate. I'm Yossi Kamen. Welcome to Among Chassidm by Der Her, an ongoing fabrengen about life as a Chassid, our vibrant connection with the Rebbe, and inspired living shaped by the way he teaches us each and every day. This episode is dedicated l'nishmas HaRav Saadia ben Harav Mordechai alav hashalom Dahan and l'refuah shleima for Chana bas Nechama Dina by Shaul and Shaindy Dahan. Shalom Aleichem, Rabbi Krinsky. How are you?

02:47 Speaker 2 Baruch Hashem. Aleichem Shalom.

02:49 Speaker 1 Okay. Uh, thank you so much for being here, and, uh, there's a lot that, uh, I wanna talk to you about. Um, there's Jen and Chanukah Live and answers from the Rebbe and a lot of, uh, rich, uh, rich in yonen in that. But first and foremost, before we get into all of that, you're obviously the son of Rabbi Krinsky, the Rebbe's maskir, and, uh, you grew up, I guess, in the, in the shadow of, uh, the Rebbe and maskiruts and all of that. And what was that like? I can imagine it, uh... Yeah, what was that like?

03:26 Speaker 2 So obviously, it was a big zechus. Um, we appreciated every moment of it. Um, it came with responsibilities, and one of the things that's come to mind is being told very often is, "In case you see something, you hear something, you have to keep your mouth shut." Literally, you know, not allowed to talk. You're not allowed to say anything. And that was because there were a lot of private personal things that really went on between the Rebbe and, uh, and the Olam and things people had, uh, bakashas that they asked the Rebbe, or there were things that, uh, had a lot to do with us kones. But there were, you know, things that were not made for public. So, and it was inevitable that even if I was home, back then there were no cell phones. People used to call the house phone. And, uh, there wasn't really privacy back then. I didn't even go and have a room or a private room that had a phone. Father didn't have an office in the, uh, at home. So conversations happen, and you hear, you know, everyone know it can overhear. And, you know, kids, they can overhear, too. And, um, Father spent a lot of time on the phone, even at home, when he was home. Uh, he wasn't home very often. And then, um, I used to want to see my father. I used to go to the office, sit in the office. I would come home from yeshiva and could sit there for

04:44 Speaker 2 hours, literally hours, two hours, whatever he'd say. He'd say, "Oh, now a few minutes, uh, we're, well, we're going home," so whatever, something like that. Always took hours. But, uh, you can see that he was busy with things and, uh, you know, you'll be able to, you'll be able to hear things that were going on.

05:01 Speaker 1 In those days, your father's office was in seven eighty-eight?

05:04 Speaker 2 Okay, so he started off-- My father's office started in maskirus. I rem- I remember when he was sitting in the maskirus at that time. There was probably four or five mas- maskirim, maskirim sitting there, which was very, very tight. And also, the maskirus office was, like, public. The door, for the most part, was usually open. People come and write setlach, beppof setlach, and things like that. And, um, there was only two phone lines. And, uh, for the most part, I mean, there were typewriters. They were using the typewriters, giving answers and writing letters and so on. And, um, my father had a lot of tafkidim from the Rebbe vis-a-vis, uh, maskirus and amerikus and also, of course, the machnisro and so on. And it got difficult for him to be working out of there because it was, it was a hectic place. Um, so this must have been now that I remember him moving next door to the building in seven eighty-four. Most-- It was obviously after they bought 784 and 788, building next door to 770.

06:05 Speaker 3 I'm remembering that he was in the library at one point. That was afterwards?

06:09 Speaker 2 The library was afterwards.

06:10 Speaker 3 Okay, go ahead.

06:10 Speaker 2 If I'm, if my memory serving correct. Library is afterwards. So when they bought the buildings next door to expand 770, it didn't happen right away. I don't think it happened right away. Now I'm talking about 5750 I think it was, something like that, and maybe it didn't happen till 5751. They had to empty out people that were tenants in the building, and the, it took time. Even back then it took time. They don't have the rules like they have now, the laws now they have in New York, you can't get anybody out. Back then you were able to, but it took time. Um, as they emptied out the apartments upstairs and the building became vacant, and I think it may become condemned because it was not in condit- good condition. I remember that they ... Now this is 784. 788 must, may have, may have been a little different because it was the next building, and there may have been tenants in there still later on, and there were stores on Kingston Avenue. So that building got connected to the shul, even though it was bought at the same time, got connected two, three years later than that. Um , yeah, so he went up to one of the apartments. It was an apartment where people had lived there, and they, um, the city had ordered to block up the entrance of the building. No one should go in. But they had a little trapdoor, two-by-two trapdoor over there on the bottom, and that's where

07:31 Speaker 2 he used to go up. And he made his office upstairs on the second floor in an apartment, and that's where he was able to work. You know, he had his own phone. They put in phone lines there, two phone lines. And, um, in fact, I think Reb Yael had an office for Sefer HaEichim up there as well. He was in the apartment next door. Right next door. The apartments were like next door to each other.

07:54 Speaker 3 That's where his office was-

07:55 Speaker 2 Sefer, for Sefer HaEichim

07:57 Speaker 3 ... till all the years?

07:58 Speaker 2 Who? Who are you talking about now?

07:59 Speaker 3 Yael.

07:59 Speaker 2 This is-- No, this is like the second floor, one flight up. This is one flight up.

08:02 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm.

08:03 Speaker 2 And I remember that they had a hole in the wall between the two apartments, and there was a phone in between that, uh, was on a, on a hinge like. They used to move, you know, one office to the other. I think father had another extension on his desk over there. But he worked, my father worked there for many years upstairs in the apartment. He used to go inside to the office, and he used to bend down. Literally, he had to bend down to go in where he wanted to. He had to bend down to go through the little two-by-two, two-by-two trapdoor to go upstairs to the office. So he had the office there for a few years, and then when they started building, they made the library shul up there. Um, I'm trying to think. The library shul was above that floor. I think they d- became the library shul. And, uh-

08:40 Speaker 3 So the, the library shul today is that. Those were apartments originally. That was the first floor.

08:44 Speaker 2 Yes, for sure. Those were... Yeah. Yeah, those were apartments.

08:47 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm.

08:47 Speaker 2 I think the floors are-- Those are apartments, yeah. And, um, but until they made the office later on, took a long time. It was way after they did the shul downstairs. So even when the shul was downstairs, extended already the, the first level of extension, upstairs was still, was still apartments.

09:06 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm. And-

09:08 Speaker 2 So he had his office there for a few years. Then later when they bought the library, when he bought the library, and he was involved with buyi- buying the library. It was a Dr. Shapiro that was there, a dentist, and he sold the library to, to Marcus. Um, I believe my father negotiated with him. I don't remember what it was. It wasn't, I don't think that much money. It was a beautiful building, but it was not that much money. Um, after they renovated there, he made it-- After they had the library in there, he made office in the back. He moved to the back. And then Leib Groner had an office in the front.

09:44 Speaker 3 In the library?

09:45 Speaker 2 In the library, yeah.

09:47 Speaker 3 So the, in the maskirius was basically Rabbi Klein.

09:50 Speaker 2 Right.

09:50 Speaker 3 Basically, that was his office. Rabbi Chadakov always had his own office.

09:54 Speaker 2 Uh, of course, Rabbi Chadakov was in a little bit in the front. Sometimes he had his office in the back. Well, then it used to be a Rabbi Quint that was there. Rabbi Quint sat, sat by the, the, um, the desk that was facing forward. The other desks were facing different direction, the one facing forward towards the door, he sat there.

10:11 Speaker 3 You remember him?

10:12 Speaker 2 Oh, yeah, very much. Yeah, Rabbi Quint. I remember him, yeah. Yes, indeed. He was like, um, he was, I don't know, the bookkeeper. He used to write receipts. He used to give out answers, and I, I, you know, I think he maybe went into rebbe a few times too. But he was, um, I don't think he was, he wasn't considered a maskir. But-

10:29 Speaker 3 But he does sign, his name is on the bottom of letters.

10:31 Speaker 2 He does? Okay. It's okay. It's time to be corrected. On which, um, which letters in particular?

10:34 Speaker 3 Different letters that either-

10:36 Speaker 2 No, really? Okay

10:36 Speaker 3 ... you know, like with the rebbe did letters.

10:37 Speaker 2 I, I never heard his name mentioned as a maskir, even though he was there.

10:40 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm. What about the other maskirius, like Meshulem or Meshulem Rochstein?

10:46 Speaker 2 So Meshulem I remember. Yes, I was a, a young kid when he passed away, um, s- but I do remember him. He was a, such a nice person. He was a wonderful person. He used to joke around a lot, even though people know that he was a bit, he was tzedaka because he didn't have any kids. But he didn't sit in the maskirius office in the front. He had his office in the back, next door to Rabbi Chadakov's office was his office. And-

11:09 Speaker 3 Where WLCC is.

11:10 Speaker 2 Where WLCC is. And it was interesting because a lot of-- Back then he was, he was an older person, but he was like more of the forward-thinking people of using, you know, technology and whatever was abou- around back then. He would try, you know. Um, and I remember everyone said how ironic it is that his room became WLCC.

11:28 Speaker 3 Yeah.

11:29 Speaker 2 So it was, uh-

11:30 Speaker 3 It was appropriate.

11:30 Speaker 2 It was appropriate, yes. And I remember as a kid, the Shabbos, I used to be in 770, he used to come around, yeah, and he used to wear a-- He wore a langereklec I think a whole week. He used to wear a long jacket. And, um, he used to give, uh, you know, to me, he used to give me, he had these packaged wafers, three flavored wafers. He used to give them out. I just remember that. I used to look for Rabbi Rochstein to give out the wafers. That's my memory of him.

11:51 Speaker 3 I think he was also, uh, took care of, I think Matzo and Kipper, like the-

11:57 Speaker 2 The soda?

11:57 Speaker 3 Yeah, the post-

11:58 Speaker 2 Oh

11:58 Speaker 3 ... the post, the fast cake or whatever. Him and his rebbetzin I think they would do that.

12:02 Speaker 2 Yeah. That I don't reme- I remember Moshe Groner used to do, do that, but that was in the Marcus office Um, maybe Moshe took it over from, uh-

12:11 Speaker 3 Moshe Leib

12:11 Speaker 2 ... Moshe Leib. His real name was, was Zusha-

12:13 Speaker 3 Zusia

12:14 Speaker 2 ... Zusia, yeah.

12:15 Speaker 3 Huh, it says on the

12:16 Speaker 2 Yeah. I mean, which I don't even know if it was his last name really. Was it? Is it last name? Not even sure of his last name.

12:22 Speaker 3 Um, could be not. I don't remember.

12:23 Speaker 2 Anyway, he was called Moshe Leib. Yeah.

12:26 Speaker 3 And-

12:27 Speaker 2 He was just a very nice, uh, friendly, you know, especially to kids. Used to come over and, you know.

12:37 Speaker 3 So all these stories that, like, the, they wanted to buy the Rebbe a letter opener, the Rebbe refused those things, it's probably his ideas.

12:45 Speaker 2 Could be. Could be.

12:45 Speaker 3 Makes, makes sense according to what you're saying, that he-

12:47 Speaker 2 Could be

12:48 Speaker 3 ... was into the technolo- the technology.

12:49 Speaker 2 Could be, uh, could be that's what, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, could be.

12:53 Speaker 3 Yeah.

12:53 Speaker 2 There's this famous story with him with the pencil. He came one to Rebbe to take the dictation with a pencil. He came with a very, very small pencil, and the Rebbe made some comment or something about the size of his, size of his pencil. So then he came back the next week and he gave him a very, a very big pencil. Yeah. He used to like to make the Rebbe laugh, and he was very, you know. He did some other things that was just, you know. He liked to make a little freylekh. Even though b'pnimius he probably wasn't as freylekh like he's, you know.

13:16 Speaker 3 Right. So I guess in those years, there's other older Hasidim that you remember that, like, uh, weren't around later, either maskiris or, or not, that, uh... I mean, you mentioned Moshe Groner. That's, uh, someone that's not talked about a lot, but, uh, apparently I heard that he, there was a lot that he carried with him, a lot of information.

13:39 Speaker 2 Oh, he was very, he had a very good memory. Yeah, he knew a lot of things, a lot of information. But then Moshe Groner for the most part on Shabbos, he used to come to the mirkes office. During the week you didn't really see him bechalal unless it was a yom hapagina. But he sat in the mirkes office on Shabbos. We came to shul, we spent some time in the mirkes office, then, you know. And it wasn't active at that time compared to what was going during the week. And, you know, we used to farbrengen with him, talk to him. We heard his stories and so on and so forth, yeah. Interesting, um, in the mirkes office, the maskiris office, I don't remember this, but I've heard from my father, there were de- desks that they got then, uh, they put desks that they got, I think, from the, what they call it? I don't know if it was Army Navy store. I don't know what it was, those stores, and the files came from places that they paid $10 for the desks. Um-

14:32 Speaker 3 What's the Army Navy? So like the war, the war-

14:35 Speaker 2 Yeah, they-

14:35 Speaker 3 ... equipment?

14:36 Speaker 2 Yeah. I forgot what they, they had a name for it. Um, ac- um, I forgot the name, but they, it was not the Army. They had, um, where they sold off stuff that the Army used and they didn't need anymore, they sold it off. That's where they used to buy their furniture from. The, um, if you went to mirkes office, you'll still see some of the filing cabinets. You see how old they are. They're-- I remember them from over 50, 60 years ago. When they put them in, they must have been 50, 60 years old. Probably from before World War II. Um, they decided to put a wall in front of the desk. And if, again, it's there now, whoever's been to mirkes office for the last tens of years, that the, that's, that wall is there 56, 50 years at least. So my father says that the carpenter, carpenter came to install the, um, half wall over there. But the half wall they were putting in was one inch thick. And the Rebbe saw he was building, the Rebbe said, "What happens if somebody comes in and wants to write a letter, wants to write something?" They shouldn't. So they made it a top to it. It's been changed since then, but it's the same top. I think now four or five inches where someone can take a pen and paper and write a letter or something on that, uh, little half wall. But that was Rebbe's idea to, to make sure people who

15:47 Speaker 2 come in have where to write a letter.

15:49 Speaker 3 It's very interesting, especially today, when we go to the aisle, and there's a whole, there's rooms, you know, tents that you can sit and you can write-

15:56 Speaker 2 Yeah

15:57 Speaker 3 ... your, your letter. It's interesting that it's a concept that the Rebbe initiated in the maskiris office, have a place to, you know, to write something.

16:04 Speaker 2 Yep. And people would start getting to-- the Rebbe, people were coming and writing letter constantly. Yeah. In addition, of course, to the mail that used to come every day.

16:13 Speaker 3 Right. Um, so were there some events that you had, like, you, you were privy to, you know, seeing things up close because you're the ma- uh, son of a, of a maskir? I'm thinking like, uh, like, like Lamas Chess, like when the Rebbe had a heart attack. All of a sudden your father was involved in the thick and thin over there. Is there other things from, from that time that you remember well?

16:40 Speaker 2 Tosh Lamas Chess is like, like, like yesterday. No, are you kidding? Yeah.

16:44 Speaker 3 How old were you Lamas Chess?

16:46 Speaker 2 19 years. Uh, Lamas Chess. Tosh Tish Lamas Chess. 19 years old.

16:51 Speaker 3 So what happened?

16:52 Speaker 2 Um, what happened? Everybody knows what happened Tosh Lamas Chess, unfortunately. But, um, my place by Akofis was all the way in the Mizlech Hall, next to the Oren Kadesh. But higher up, Rebbe El sat, was, was below there, just below us, but he was on the floor. Uh, Label Shapiro was there, Nachman Shapiro, the other Shapiro boys were there. Um, but I was higher up. I really got that place in a way because when they did the old shul, when they, from the f- ne- uh, when the schlach became the shul, then the, the shul was there. It was impossible to really get a place then. But then when they started the construction, the walls started coming down slowly. There were walls in the shul, but they were not closed up. They were like porous. There was like openings in the wall. So I remember when I was a little kid, I got a play. I was there maybe when they started that, 10 years old, 11 years old.

17:54 Speaker 3 In the eight half.

17:55 Speaker 2 Yeah. So I got a place there. That was the only place to go because on the floor everybody was, it was a very small shul. It was very, uh, even back then it was packed already. Um, I got a place, and then as they expanded the shul, then they went to the next phase of the shul. You can see downstairs, you know, where the beams are, the big beams. So I was able to sort of keep that place. And when, when the shul went all the way to Kingston Avenue, I was able to, I, I, I stayed in that place. And it was also a good place because it was harder to see hakafos, and you had to climb up higher to be able to see the hakafa, the first and seventh hakafa. But there was a lot of activity by the, by hakafos that went on between the first and seventh hakafa, between, uh, between haTorases. And Rebbe constantly turned around, said things to people, made comments or asked for things. So it was, you know, it was a lot of action over there. And, um, also, uh, by the other, between the second and the sixth hakafa as well. It was-- And then of course, in Chassidut, the, the consulate, Israeli consulate came, and there was-- Rebbe spent a lot of time with them, so he had a better view of what was happening. Anyway, uh, so Shemini Atzeres, Shemini Atzeres, Lag BaOmer. Um, we were there, and the shul, of course, was

19:16 Speaker 2 full. Uh, I think hakafa started then nine, nine or ten o'clock hakafa started back in Lag BaOmer. Was it times changed a few-

19:25 Speaker 3 I think nine, nine, nine thirty. Yeah, like, yeah, I think that's the time.

19:28 Speaker 2 I think it was around nine. Anyway, um, I don't remember now, but it was-- So they, you know, there were haTorases and the hakafos and so on like normal. Then, uh, then because I was standing long, uh, by the Aron Kodesh, I was looking at the Rebbe. I looked to see, I don't remember if the third or fourth hakafa when it happened. I remember the fourth hakafa, I think it was.

19:48 Speaker 3 I don't remember.

19:48 Speaker 2 I think it was the fourth hakafa. I was able to tell before the Rebbe turned around that his face already changed the color in his face because he was standing like, uh, in f- by a white wall, and the Rebbe's face turned white or ashen. I don't know if, you know. And before he turned around, we said something was wrong. We pointed out there was already something. Most people said they saw it as soon as Rebbe turned around. It happened when he was still facing, uh, Mizrach. But yet when the Rebbe started saying it, Rebbe turned around, but then you saw right away he was-- there was some pain, and he was very uncomfortable. It was very obvious. And then, you know, he sat down, which was very, very unusual. Um, and then people realized that something was wrong, and then, uh, people started screaming in shul. Everybody had to get out of shul, need air, and then they started breaking the windows in the vibe of shul. I'm not sure why they did that. They thought it would be more air if they break open. They broke the windows in the vibe of shul, and everybody, every-- almost everybody went out. I didn't go out. I'm not sure it was the right thing to do or not, but I stayed there. And then the Rebbe continued the f- the few hakafos, and, uh, he walked out of the shul on his own, but walked out slowly, and obviously you can see he was in

21:01 Speaker 2 pain. Um, the Rebbe went to his room for a while, and exactly those first half hour, forty minutes, it was hard to tell what was happening. There was doctors. I think Feldman was there at the time. Dr. Feldman was there. I don't remember who else was there. Who else was there in shul from the doctors, from the community? There may have been some other doctors, but they were not cardiologists.

21:27 Speaker 3 There was a Dr. Glasman.

21:29 Speaker 2 Could be.

21:30 Speaker 3 I think I read that in one of the...

21:32 Speaker 2 Um, you know, there was, um, I think there may have been, and I'm not sure, but maybe it was Dr. Ackerman. Ackerman may have been there. Yeah, I'm not sure. Um, and then, you know, they went to search to bring doctors and so on. Whoever knew some doctors tried to call a cardiologist. I know that, uh, I guess they knew right away that it was, uh, related to the heart. Um, and then, oh, so after a little while, they want the Rebbe to-- Oh, of course, Dr. Zolitzon. Dr. Zolitzon was there, of course, yeah. After a little while, they, um, they want the Rebbe to, to eat something. And I remember Dr. Zolitzon felt the Rebbe should have some sugar. They got some sugar cubes or whatever, some- something to drink that contained sugar. And the Rebbe said he wouldn't, he wouldn't eat anything before he made Kiddish. And, um, even though it was Shemini Atzeres, the Rebbe said he has to go to the Sukkah in those conditions. Imagine. So I remember the Rebbe walking out, walking to the Sukkah. I stood outside the front door of seven seventy, so I was able to, to see what was going on. And the door of the Sukkah, for the most part, was open. Oh, another thing. Before that, before the Rebbe went to the Sukkah, I saw the Rebbetzin come down from the seven seventy Sukkah in front of the Merkos, between the Merkos office and, and the, the Rebbe's Sukkah. She came walking with

22:59 Speaker 2 Chesed to seven seventy. So I can't even imagine how she made it through that Sukkah, but it looks like Shemini Atzeres, you know, that Sukkah, benches and tables on it, multiple places. Anyway-

23:09 Speaker 3 She came in from Union Street.

23:10 Speaker 2 She came from Union Street and walked through the Sukkah. I remember seeing her walk through the Sukkah. She walked to the Sukkah, and, uh, she went into the Rebbe's room. So later, the Rebbe had to come out and went to the Sukkah. I think she came out, I think she came out again when the Rebbe was in the Sukkah, and they were-- Anyway, the Rebbe made Kiddish. She may have been there for Kiddish. I don't, I don't remember. I think she may have been there for Kiddish 'cause I think there was the Rebbe said, "Yes, make Kiddish for the Rebbetzin." She may have been there for Kiddish. Um, and, uh, they all, I think they make the, they want the Rebbe to have chocolate, I think Zolitzon's prescribing and so on. After, um, I don't remember how long the Rebbe was in the Sukkah. Maybe it was fifteen, twenty minutes, something like that. He went back to his room. And while the Rebbe was in the Sukkah, I remember hearing that they brought down the bed in the Friediker Rebbe's room upstairs. I don't know if it was the Friediker Rebbe's bed or not exactly his bed or the Rebbe, maybe the Rebbe. One, I'm not sure. I, I always knew it as it was the, they brought the Friediker Rebbe's bed. They were still bringing doctors, and I still remember the scene when the doctor said that the Rebbe has to go to the hospital, and the Rebbe refused.

24:17 Speaker 3 You were there?

24:18 Speaker 2 Oh, I was, I was, I was in Merkos office. The door was open to the Merkos office, and they had like a stopper they used to put in because the times they used to keep it open. The Rebbe used to be in his room and go home, so they used to keep the door open, so you can see when the Rebbe walked out of his office 'cause the Rebbe would always notify him, "Going home." He didn't do that. He had to be there. That's a different story. So that door was open. Back then, too, uh, Garein Atach was not the way it is now. It wasn't locked. It wasn't, it, it wasn't, um, it wasn't off-limits for people. We were kids. We used to play there. Shabbos, we used to play there within and, uh, on the stairs and the, and the handrail going upstairs is where people put their coats. There wasn't, there weren't, uh, hangers anywhere to put coats. That's where people put the coats. So it was, um, I don't wanna say it was a hegles, but it was, uh... Anyway, so everything was open over there then. There weren't doors. There weren't even-- I don't even think there was a lock on the seven seventy door, and not even a door to the hallway or even to the zal. Um, so the door was open, so I was able to see what was going on. All the doors were open. Even though, I mean, the front door was technically somebody stood

25:27 Speaker 2 there. You couldn't go in unless someone, you know, they didn't let in everybody in. But I was in, and I remember the scene with doctors walking out. Like I think it was four doctors at one point just walked out and said, "He's not going to the hospital. We're like out of here. We can't take, uh, responsibility," and so on. Um, at that point, uh, they realized they have to get equipment from the doctors who was there m- managing it. I don't know. I don't remember who was there. Maybe, maybe someone, uh, Tzola was there. I'm not sure. Maybe Stritzke was there, Leib Stritzke. I, I don't, I don't remember who was trying to coordinate things. And, uh, oh, there was, Dr. Richter was there. Dr. Richter was there. He was there. And, um, they decided they have to start getting equipment, you know, EKG machines and things like that. So I remember that I went with, uh, it used to be, um, he was a bochur then, Greenspan. He used to work with Chaim Boruch in, uh, WLCB. So he took an ambulance, and, and Dr. Richter, and they asked me to come along. I don't know why, but they needed, you know, just in case they need extra hands. We went to a local hospital there, and Richter went inside, got equipment that he needed, and, um-

26:43 Speaker 4 Dr. Richter lived in Crown Heights?

26:44 Speaker 2 No, he didn't live in Crown Heights. No.

26:45 Speaker 4 He was visiting.

26:46 Speaker 2 He was visiting. He was visiting then. He was... He was related to the Lieberman family. I think his wife was a Lieberman. They were very close with the Rebbeson. They were very close with the Rebbeson. Um, how come you... Maybe, maybe they called him. Maybe they had called him. He maybe he was in Divish when he had tzedakah, and he came. It's possible. Possibly he came then that night, and it is possible that he came that time that. I don't, I don't know if he was there anyway for a coffees. And like I said, we ran, ran there with the ambulance, came back, and they brought the equipment in. I think then others went to other places. The Stritzkes went to other places to collect equipment, whatever they needed, and they coordinated. And, um, they set up a temporary, um, s- uh, clinic, whatever you wanna call it, that they wouldn't-- And, and obviously it didn't, it all happen in, within hours. But, uh, that's what they basically did.

27:40 Speaker 4 Right. Then there's the famous story that the Rebbeson told your father.

27:44 Speaker 2 I was there. I was present when that happened. So this was probably maybe 3:00 in the morning, 3:30, maybe between 3:00 and 4:00 in the morning.

27:54 Speaker 4 The doctors left.

27:55 Speaker 2 The doc- doctors left, and then around 3:00, 4:00 something happened. I remember something happened. They didn't say, but something happened worse.

28:01 Speaker 4 They never-

28:02 Speaker 2 Another, another heart attack. Heart attack, yeah. They just, I remember they say it was worse. And it was very quiet then. In the, um... Like I said, the, I was in the maskiris office. The lights were off. They had the one bulb that Rabbi Chodikov had on for, uh, Shabbos. There's this one bulb, and they still, they still do that. There's one bulb, so it's dark. And the door to gain a tachna was o- was open. And at that point, even the Rebbe's room, you know, door was open and closed open. Um, I was standing there like my father's on the other side of this wall that I described earlier. He was on the other side there, and I was standing facing my father, my back to Eastern Parkway. And like I said, it's quiet, and all of a sudden I hear footsteps. I can feel, you know, it's a woman walking. And the Rebbeson comes in. Uh, again, I wouldn't forget these words, and she says, "Rabbi Krinsky, "Yi kente a chazeiful mensh. Eshe kente gefinen a doktor far eym on?" I remember those words. And you know, and I think about it now-

29:05 Speaker 4 Rabbi Krinsky, you know so many people.

29:06 Speaker 2 You-- Yeah. Maybe you can find a doctor for my husband. Now when I think about it, I don't know why when I saw the Rebbeson walked in, why didn't I walk out? I don't know why I didn't walk out. I, I'm just like stood there. There's-- No one told me to walk out, and I was there. Um, and then they discussed, talked a few minutes, which I don't remember what, but I just remember this line. This line remained in my head. And I think as the Rebbeson walked out, my father turned to me and says, "You know what? Dr. Weiss. There's a Dr. Weiss, who's a cardiologist." He had sent something to the Rebbe not too long ago. I know he's close to his, my father's brother-in-law, Herschel Schusterman, who was my uncle. He was a mechutanim of his. He, you know, he knew somewhat of vague information about him, and he said, "You know what?" He had a feeling. He said, "Let me reach, let me call him." So again, 3:30, 4:00 in the morning, maybe I'm off by a half hour, I don't know. I'm just, uh... He called. He had Herschel Schusterman's phone number in Chicago, and Ira Weiss lived in Chicago, and he was, he had an office then at the time. And he, uh, he called Herschel Schusterman's house. Uh, obviously he didn't ring, pick up the phone right away, and then, you know, call- called insistently, and let it ring and ring and ring and ring and ring and

30:21 Speaker 2 ring, and then hung up and called again till they realized something, it's something important. They answered the phone, and, um, I don't know if my father asked him for Dr. Weiss' number, or he asked him to call. I don't remember who made the, like the first call. He may have... Anyway, they made contact with Dr. Weiss, and right away he said he'll be on, you know, take the next flight out. And, uh, and by that point, he didn't really have any yachas with the Rebbe before. They just probably knew of the Rebbe and so on, but it wasn't like he has been to the Rebbe or anything. But he was like, "I'll get on the plane." I think he said he had a 7:00 flight to New York, which already New York was 8:00. We were there an hour behind. And then he said, um, "Till I get there," because even it's not a long flight. He said, um, "I'll call Dr. Tishholz," which I think at the time was at Mount Sinai, and he was the head of heart. These were all, you know, big cardiologists. And, um, I'll make sure that he gets set up, uh, you know, in the meantime, at least to take control and make sure things are stable and, and so on. So, um, I mean, that, that, that's what he did, and Dr. Tishholz came. I don't remember what time he came, but I don't think he came much before 10 o'clock or something like that. I don't

31:37 Speaker 2 think he got there much before Ira Weiss. They arranged a police escort from LaGuardia Airport. Ira, Ira Weiss landed in LaGuardia. There was a police escort, and they brought him to 770. And, um, he went immediately into the Rebbe's room. And I must say, like, probably from that moment, things changed, of course, dramatically. And, um, I think immediately the Rebbe and him had a connection, felt a connection right away. I mean, the Rebbe was very comfortable with him because he understood the Rebbe, even though he wasn't a Hasid, but he understood. When the Rebbe said he's staying here, he's like, "It's the right thing." The Rebbe-

32:12 Speaker 4 I think he, he explained medically it made sense.

32:14 Speaker 2 Yeah, he explained. Yeah, that was important for him to stay. He w- he was right on the ball right away. And a- as soon as the Rebbetzin met him, I think she w- she was comfortable immediately, immediately. They realized that he, you know, he, his, um, character was, was such that, uh, that they felt very comfortable. And probably from that day on, he spoke to the Rebbetzin every single day till, till Chof Beishevat. He called her every single day to find out how she is and so on. They became very close. Um, that m- that was a turning point. There's no question that was a turning point. Yeah.

32:49 Speaker 4 So that was really the first time that you had such an up close, uh, I guess involvement or, or, or window-

32:56 Speaker 2 A window

32:57 Speaker 4 ... into what was, into what was happening.

32:58 Speaker 2 I don't know if it was the first time, but it was definitely a very crucial period of time that yes, I saw that. Yes. Yeah.

33:07 Speaker 4 Yeah. It was like the nature of the maskilis kind of changed at that moment.

33:12 Speaker 2 For sure.

33:13 Speaker 4 I mean, till then, you were working for the Rebbe. Then here it's all sudden we have, you know, you know, to help the Rebbe. I'm saying it's a diff- it's a different type of, uh-

33:21 Speaker 2 Yeah, it was only a small period of time that that was that, that nature changed, you know. From the-

33:25 Speaker 4 Right. I'm saying but it's something that didn't happen before.

33:27 Speaker 2 Definitely didn't happen before, and yeah, and the Rebbe being involved with doctors, and Dr. Weiss being by the Farbrengens or by Yaakov's or whatever, and checking the Rebbe. I mean, those was old, those were old news. It was not easy, you know, new stuff. It wasn't easy to necessarily watch. It wasn't like something that, you know, made people feel comfortable with and so on.

33:43 Speaker 4 Right. You mentioned the Rebbetzin. Um, did you have interactions with the Rebbetzin over the years?

33:53 Speaker 2 Yeah, I did actually. Yes, I did. I don't remember how it started. I don't remember how the first time, and again, that was because, uh, my father had a lot of interactions with the Rab- Rebbetzin, um, on various things. The things that I remember as far as him interacting with her was when he did the library. And I don't know whose idea this was. I don't know if it was the Rebbetzin's idea or his idea. I'm not sure where it came from. The idea of the library was my father's idea. I believe the Rebbe's library was his, my father's idea.

34:33 Speaker 4 To buy the building?

34:34 Speaker 2 To buy the building and make a library.

34:36 Speaker 4 What do you mean?

34:37 Speaker 2 I said, "Ta, why, why are you making a li-- why a library? Why are, why are you buying a building and making a library for a..." I mean, which is fine, but why is it-- It was like so, it was very interesting to me why he would make a library there because there was no Seforim. The Rebbe had his li-- his, his room, in his room, and if he wanted some things, he would go through Chaim Levy and get downstairs from the-

34:57 Speaker 4 Yefis from the library.

34:58 Speaker 2 Yeah, but it, it wasn't, uh, it wasn't, um, a constant, not that I know of. But to start collecting Seforim, it's not like there was a, a, a-

35:06 Speaker 4 There wasn't-

35:06 Speaker 2 There wasn't, there wasn't a Seforim, then there was, "Oh, there's not, there's, there's a room here. There's the Rebbe's room, a Seforim here. Let's put it into a library." No, he started from scratch. They started from scratch.

35:14 Speaker 4 Started a-

35:14 Speaker 2 Started from scratch after they bought the building. He had a building, then he started collecting Seforim.

35:18 Speaker 4 Mm-hmm.

35:18 Speaker 2 So I remember I asked my father, so he said, um, "You know, presidents have presidential libraries. You need to have a library." I don't know if he said it was a thing that, you know, kings all had libraries. It's a, it's a thing. You need to have a library. So he started, and it was like, my father spent hours and hours, hours on many, many hours, many hours a day setting it up. He started by himself. The boxes, he's made some calls from people that had Seforim, and other people heard there's a library. My mother had a friend that her, uh, her, her, um, this one, my mother's w- uh, friend, either her parents or the in-laws, somewhere in that, that immediate family, had a big collection of Seforim. They, uh, came to my father and said, "You know, we have this collection. You wanna pick up Seforim?" Whatever. My father didn't make much of it at first, what they have. Then it turned out it was a treasure trove of stuff that was became a big part of the library, and then they collected more and more. It started little by little, and people sent, and people, you know, some people were active in bringing Seforim, and so they built up the library. Anyway, at one point , I remember the shelf, they put in the shafes there that they, you know, I haven't been to the library many years now, so I don't know, but I think they're still there, the, the, the,

36:35 Speaker 2 that shafes that were like you can turn a wheel, and you can, they move over, and, you know, they put special weight on the floor to carry all the books and so on. But the second floor was not used for the library back then. Again, now I think they do use it for the library. Back then, they didn't. Again, I don't know who came up with this idea about making a room for the Rebbe there for yechidus.

36:56 Speaker 4 On the second floor?

36:57 Speaker 2 On the second floor. Uh, or they collaborated on this, the Rebbetzin and my father. Anyway- But the Rebbetzin wanted to be involved or was involved. Of course, I think she was pushing it, you know? I never asked my father who-- where this-- who initiated it. Um, I remember she went to pick out the carpet she wanted to have there, and she went to pick out the desk and everything. I know it was with a chair. Um, from what I understand, later on after it was finished, mm, I think the Rebbetzin wanted... I don't know who asked the Rabbi about having a cheder up there, and, uh, the Rabbi wasn't maskim. But, uh, it's funny. The Rebbetzin did the project, and yet, uh, I do think, I do think that there was a time that I went upstairs for something, you know, for a s- a few minutes. I don't know what it was. I don't remember the, uh-- right now what it was, but I think I went up there and spent a few minutes there for something.

37:50 Speaker 4 In that room?

37:51 Speaker 2 In, I think in that room. There was a time that they moved, the Rebbetzin said after Pesach Sheni, after they used to bake matzahs and send it to Israel. I remember in Taf Shamayim Alef, and maybe it was after that as well. Why it was moved to library, I don't know. They used to bring all the boxes of matzahs, and we used to go there take chal and then take, and then send off the boxes on a flight to Israel. Somewhere in my mind, I think I remember that at one point there were boxes upstairs in that room that-

38:22 Speaker 4 Maybe the Rebbetzin did that in ...

38:26 Speaker 2 Yeah. I don't know. I, I, I remember suddenly it went to, it went to, um, the library and went for a few, maybe a few times, and then it went back. Again, I don't know where it started. Maybe it was became more matzahs possible. I don't know. Maybe it was too much already to put downstairs, so they brought up.

38:42 Speaker 4 So I asked you about, um, your interactions with the Rebbetzin.

38:45 Speaker 2 Yeah. So I try back to remember, I try to remember how it started. I don't remember. I think that perhaps the Rebbetzin had her own car, and, um, she used to drive. And I think what happened was maybe the car had to go to the mechanic or something like that. I think. I don't remem-- I remember taking the car to the mechanic, but I don't remember if that was the first time. So she called up and said, "Someone take the car to the mechanic and, and pick it up." So, um, I don't know if she asked me or my father asked me. I don't remember where it started. So I said, "Yeah, I'll take it." I had a license already. So, um, picked up the car, dropped it at the mechanic. Went when they said it was ready, went and picked it up, and brought it back to Rebbetzin. I, I think I brought her the keys to the car and said it was taken care of. And from... Again, uh, don't hold me exactly, but I think somewhere along those lines at that point, I got a call once in a while for something that, uh, she wanted that we should, you know, take care of and needed taking care of. But maybe s- could be things she didn't wanna bother my father for, so she-

39:55 Speaker 4 She would call you?

39:56 Speaker 2 -she called. She called. She used to call the office, yeah.

39:59 Speaker 4 She would call the office and ask to speak to you?

40:02 Speaker 2 Yeah.

40:03 Speaker 4 But you weren't in the office then.

40:04 Speaker 2 I was in, I was, I was more or less in the office. I, I wasn't technically working in the office, but we're there as well. That was our life. That's where we were. And the office was our, was our home. It wasn't-

40:13 Speaker 4 Mm-hmm.

40:13 Speaker 2 It wasn't, uh, spent... No, we're there. Bochurim were-- We're there in the office completely. And when I was a kid, I used to come home from cheder, from yeshiva. First, it was in Old Teaneck, then I was in Bedford and Dean. From Bedford and Dean, went straight to Seven Seven. You get off the bus on the corner and it's a city bus, and went to Seven Seven. I was probably eight, nine years old, probably, uh, every single Maariv from quarter to seven or seven o'clock that I had. It was always-

40:41 Speaker 4 You were at the Seven Seven Maariv?

40:43 Speaker 2 Probably, yeah, every Maariv. Yeah. Used to be there after we... And if you had a half a day yeshiva, if the yeshiva was for a, it was some Yamim Tovot, it was a half a day, we're in Seven Seven. We wouldn't go home. Yeah, it was maybe in summertime, I remember we used to play in the street a little bit, you know. But after we played in the street, I went to Seven Seven. Had a bicycle, went to Seven Seven. Went always to Seven Seven every single day. Every single day. So yeah, so like the office and all that, it was like, yeah, that was our, that was our life, no question about it. Um, when we start... Oh, and the Rebbetzin was interesting. I think it was maybe Taf Shamayim, I think it was. Again, I could be off six months, maybe it was end of Lamas Madsheir, beginning of Mamalech. It was around Taf Shamayim. I get a call in the office of the Rebbetzin asks me to call her, and she tells me, um, she starts telling me the ways to, uh, Reb Chaim Lieberman.

41:45 Speaker 4 Yeah.

41:45 Speaker 2 "Er feelt nisht gut. Er davka nisht betol. Un er iz ba untzer bem bayis." I remember she said, "Er iz ba untzer be-be, uh, bem bayis. Un kh'ch, kh'cholt gevolt az zal zayn mit dem di gantze ts-- emts, emts zal zayn mit dem di gantze tzeit." So she said basically that, um, she says, "You know, as you know, the Reb Chaim Lieberman, uh, he's not well."

42:15 Speaker 4 The Frierdiger Rebbe's maskir.

42:16 Speaker 2 He's a Frierdiger, Frierdiger Rebbe's maskir, and he needs to go for some procedure. I don't remember what the procedure was. But she wants or we want that somebody should be there twenty-four hours. In other words, if you can make mishmeres, can make turns of people staying there. He was in the hospital. I think it was in the Brook- in the hospital in Brooklyn. And oh, and if we give reports like every day what's going on, what's happening with him. So of course, Rebbetzin asked, uh, of course she did, and arranged, uh, bochurim to be there for him. And I used to follow up with her and say, you know, not gonna get too much in detail or, you know, obviously there has to be another week, another five days, four days. I don't think I went into anything, any more detail than that.

43:08 Speaker 4 You'd call?

43:09 Speaker 2 Huh?

43:09 Speaker 4 On the phone?

43:10 Speaker 2 On the phone. On the phone, yeah. Um, yeah, so that was with, uh, with Chaim Lieberman. That was the story then. So that was also started more of a yachas, so to speak. Later on, this is really already in the middle of the mems. The rebbetzin fell, and she used to have problems with falling and breaking limbs, arms or her legs. She had, she had this problem, very, very brittle, the bones. So actually, uh, she broke her bones more than one time. And there are stories that I went to visit her in the hospital once or twice. Um, she went, I remember, she was in joint diseases. And there was a doctor-

44:06 Speaker 4 It's Manhattan?

44:07 Speaker 2 Manhattan. Beth Israel. It's part of Beth Israel, or later became part of Beth Israel. They were next door to each other across the street.

44:12 Speaker 4 Oh, right. Okay.

44:13 Speaker 2 Um, and that's where they were going to visit her once, joint disease.

44:17 Speaker 4 That was in joint diseases?

44:18 Speaker 2 Yeah, it was in joint disease. I remember because I, my father drove the rebbe there, and I remember we, we knew about it quietly. We followed him just to see what's in joint disease, yeah, disease. Uh, after that, I think it was after that time. I think it was after that time. Yes, I believe it was after that time, and she broke a few limbs. And she, I think her doctor then was this-- My gosh, it must be in the seventies, must be. In the, in the lameds. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. No, this is the, the, this is in the mem zone. I'm sorry. This is in the mems. I'm sorry. In the mems. There was a doctor, um, Howard Rosen that was her doctor, and he recommended she does therapy. And he said he knows a therapist that he thinks will be very good for the rebbetzin. The only thing is she wants to be picked up. She wants to be picked up, and someone should pick her up, bring her, and take her back home. So, um, I was married then. I had a car, and the rebbetzin called me up and said, uh, "There's this woman, a therapist. Her name was Gail." You know, "Can you pick up Gail? And a little bit be like the coordinator with Gail," because sometimes she was coming from work, from the hospital, sometimes she was coming either from a clinic or she was coming from her house. And the timing, you know, she

45:42 Speaker 2 was depending on when she had time available, she would come to the rebbetzin. So you would just have to coordinate between the rebbetzin and her and, you know, and also pick her up on time and bring her. So I did that. I did that. And that went on, I went on for a long time, many, many months. I don't remember if it was a year, but maybe. Could be eight months, twelve months. For I don't, I don't remember how long it took, but, uh, she came. It was at least once a week. So you used to have to call the rebbetzin and say, "Yeah, Gail can come," and them and them talk, them and them tzeitz a bit for the rebbetzin, things like that. And she'd, you know, most of the time she was a, she was available because she couldn't really, at that time it was hard for her to go anywhere. So, um, that was another period of time that too. I think that when she came int-in, into the office at, uh, that night of Shin Lamed Ches, Shin Et Tzes, that we all-- I'd already had some interaction with her. Maybe that's why it was felt comfortable to stay there. So-

46:43 Speaker 4 I'm thinking that, yeah, there were other people that in the house that helped, but it seems that the rebbetzin didn't want, wanted after you to, you know, the, the, the medical things like that.

46:55 Speaker 2 Oh, that with the, with the picking her up? W-when you-

46:56 Speaker 4 Yeah, with this coordination.

46:58 Speaker 2 I don't know. I, I don't know. I think it was maybe because, I don't know. I had the car. I don't, I, I don't know.

47:03 Speaker 4 They brought in other people that could drive. I don't know.

47:05 Speaker 2 I don't know. You didn't, we didn't ask questions then. You know, doesn't ask. You didn't ask questions. You, you, yeah, you do it and, uh, yeah.

47:11 Speaker 4 Mm-hmm.

47:15 Speaker 2 Um, after that, I mean, this going to a different period of time, but after Sforim, after the start of the case with Sforim-

47:25 Speaker 4 I, I was going to ask you about the Sforim, the whole story.

47:27 Speaker 2 The rebbetzin called the office every single day. So every single day. Every single day. And, um-

47:37 Speaker 4 During the court case?

47:39 Speaker 2 Before the court case. Everything, yeah. Even before the court case, yeah. She was calling every single day. And father didn't have a secretary in the office. There wasn't like the-- There were no secretaries back then in the office. Um, so she called the phone, you know, this seven seven two five nine nine five. Had a lot of extensions, and we used to, you know, someone was there was to pick up the phone. And usually, we picked up before my father picked up, only for the name and, you know, just find out who it is, what it's about, if it's important, so on and so forth. We used to pick up the phone a lot of times. You can hear right away by the hello. She had a very distinct hello, a very distinct, and you knew right away it was her. And, um, so she used to ask, you know, questions. She always wanted to speak to my father. But, uh, she was just-- Or if she knew it's me, she maybe say something, ask and so on, you know. Before we, before, before-- Uh, after we got-- After my wife and I were enga-- After we got engaged, before we were married, we went to the rebbetzin too. We went to the rebbetzin and, um, yeah, we had a lot of conversations, I mean, even before that. Um, yeah, she was, I don't wanna say she was intrigued. She was, you know, but my wife was from Italy, Milan. She was like-

48:59 Speaker 4 Has it-- Did your wife ha-

49:01 Speaker 2 She-

49:01 Speaker 4 Did your wife have a connection to the rebbetzin before?

49:02 Speaker 2 Yeah, she did. She did. Before? No. Before-

49:05 Speaker 4 Before that.

49:05 Speaker 2 No, no, she didn't. No.

49:07 Speaker 4 So your-

49:08 Speaker 2 My wife has her own stories.

49:08 Speaker 4 Your shver geshmendl never was involved with the, the rebbe's house?

49:12 Speaker 2 No, no. No, no, he wouldn't go there. No, no. He wasn't. But, um, she al- she always want to know, you know, how my wife was doing, how she was able to, uh, like transition thing from European and Europe and be in America, and even though she was, my wife was more American than European at the time. She spent a lot of years in school here. But, um, yeah, so w-

49:38 Speaker 4 She would, she asked her th- that question?

49:40 Speaker 2 She asked me, and she asked her, and yeah, she asked her. She asked her.

49:43 Speaker 4 When, when you were chosson kallah?

49:46 Speaker 2 Um, I think she asked her when she was chosson kallah, and then my wife had her own opportunities to go there, and she asked her, and she used to ask her, yeah, how she was doing and so on. Yeah. So we went as chosson kallah before we, before we were married, or went to bring an invitation. I went to bring an invitation, yeah, for the chasunah. And later, my son Chana was born, Chanchy, and my son Leibel. I think we were expecting our third child, so they went. My schvitz sent, um, he sent olive oil, Hanukkah, for the Rebbe to use.

50:24 Speaker 4 From?

50:25 Speaker 2 From Italy.

50:26 Speaker 4 Italy?

50:27 Speaker 2 Yeah. He had a whole story with the, where he got, where the, where the olive, where the oil was from, special pardes or whatever. And, uh, so he asked that we bring it to the Rebbesen. Called the Rebbesen and said, "We have, uh, oil," I said, "If someone's eyes for Hanukkah, if we can bring it." She said, "Sure." I said-- I'm trying to think. I'm sorry, I may not, that I'm, it could be separate when I, I don't remember if I brought the kids at that time or not, or it was, it was another time I brought the kids. And, um, we had a, we had a, we had opportunities, a few opportunities that we went. So actually, um, my son Meir was born. My fifth child, fourth son, and he was born Cheshvan. A couple of weeks later, his bris was, so his bris was Yud Gimmel. So about a few days later, a few days later, she calls. I answer the phone, and she tells me, and she asks me, "Vos mach da oylem?" I was very puzzled, like, "Vos mach da oylem?" It was like, it was either I said, "Vos mendel Rebbesen?" I wasn't sure if I asked her if she realized I was, I was puzzled. So she says, "I mean the babies, the babies." We had five kids, and then the youngest was, the oldest one was four, and he was, the other one, this one was born.

51:55 Speaker 4 The, the oldest one was four?

51:56 Speaker 2 Oldest one was four, and we had five kids, yeah.

51:58 Speaker 4 Oh, okay.

52:00 Speaker 2 Yeah. Anyway, so she called them the bab- the babies.

52:03 Speaker 4 The babies.

52:05 Speaker 2 The babies. So broche Hashem, you know, the bris and so on and so forth. I think she already knew we had the bris. And, um, unfortunately, a week later, it was Choveshvat. That was the last time I spoke to her.

52:15 Speaker 4 Oh.

52:16 Speaker 2 It was, it was difficult. Anyway.

52:27 Speaker 4 A week before.

52:28 Speaker 2 But... Huh?

52:29 Speaker 4 A week before.

52:30 Speaker 2 Yeah, a week before, and then look, Choveshvat, Choveshvat changed everything. Whether we admit it or not, but it changed everything. It was difficult for the Rebbe as well. I mean, that was, was obvious.

52:49 Speaker 4 Right. Th- there was a vawman that you had, uh, Choveshvat?

52:58 Speaker 2 What kind of vawman was there to be? I mean, well, the Choveshvat, I had Choveshvat, which is hard to think about. But, um, when, um, when they had to go, when, when the Rebbesen had to go to the hospital, so she, um, I think at first she didn't wanna go. Again, I don't know. I don't know what happened over there then. And obviously, the Rebbe was home then, but they, they were home. But she said then that, um, she wanted certain people to go with her. I don't remember the other people. I think, I think Mrs. Sternberg may have been one of them, I think so. But she said she'd only go if my father drives her to the hospital. So he came then, you know, the other maskiras, nobody knew what was going on at the time. So, um, he drove her. He drove her. That was-- But we found out fairly quickly before it was announced or anything. My father called us. We knew already. That was late at night. I don't remember what time it was. That was before anything started back in the Rebbe's house and so on. Well, that's a story for itself. But, uh, and vawment was another thing. And vawment was, was a very sad day.

54:14 Speaker 4 Yeah.

54:15 Speaker 2 It was. Um, so there were, there were opportunities. We had, you know, conversations where Rebbesen were, where Rebbesen was, you know. Different opportunities. What's interesting is, um, talk about, uh, what it was like to be the son of a maskir was if, and I was always very intrigued by this, that if you, my father was Maggid Rebbe, let's say, but he had a grandchild. Let's say if I had a child. So a few days later, if, uh, Rebbesen called the office, you'd give mazel tov. You know what I mean?

54:55 Speaker 4 Right.

54:55 Speaker 2 So she heard, she heard either from the Rebbesen that, uh, Krymsky got an eynikel. So she, uh, or sometimes it even worked the other way around too. So there was-

55:05 Speaker 4 What do you mean the other way?

55:08 Speaker 2 Sometimes if we said something to Rebbesen, we'd get, um, get a-- There's a story my wife, my wife tells about, um, tells it. We're part of it. We brought a tzitel to the Rebbe, to the Rebbesen. Wanted to give a tzitel to the Rebbe, and she was uncomfortable then giving it through maskiras. So, um, we were to, uh, call the Rebbesen and ask if we can come over one of the times. We ne- I don't think we said why we're coming over. Just want to... And, uh, she handed the tzitel to the Rebbe.

55:41 Speaker 4 To the Rebbesen?

55:42 Speaker 2 To the Re- I'm sorry, to Rebbesen, correct, yeah. And, um, when she handed it, so the Rebbesen was like, she sort of could said quick, "This is obviously it," on the envelope. She said like, uh, "Ir hat echet problem?" And like, "Your w- was," that was her first, uh-

56:01 Speaker 4 Ir hat echet problem?

56:02 Speaker 2 Yeah. You have problems. Yeah, yeah. So, uh, my son, no, but I brought him normal button, you know. And the next day we got back the an- from the Rebbe, he handed my father a letter, the hands from the car, but the whole letter was not there. The letter wasn't there. And the Rebbe wrote this Benoi, he called it Kuf or he called it Kerensky. I remember I have a bunch of copies of different ways the Rebbe wrote on different setlock. And, um, I think got the answer on the brochure, everything, you know, was good. But, um, so sometimes, um, I say it went from the, from the Rebbe's, to the Rebbe's, and sometimes it went the other way around, too.

56:45 Speaker 4 Mm-hmm. Interesting. Okay. Um, I think we can talk about Gem, and by extension, we could talk about Hanukkah Live, which is obviously was a revolution in Lubavitch, but in the world-

57:07 Speaker 2 Mm

57:07 Speaker 4 ... to have the Rebbe, you know, broadcasted on cable television, then for sure Hanukkah Live with the simultaneous broadcast-

57:14 Speaker 2 Yeah

57:14 Speaker 4 ... all over the world. These thing, these things were revolutions. So one second. But I know your father started videos. So maybe I think that's probably how, you know, that's where it started. Now you want, maybe you wanna talk about that.

57:28 Speaker 2 I don't know if it was really connected in a way, but yes, in the Lamas, my father had this idea of recording the Farbrengens.

57:37 Speaker 4 Right.

57:38 Speaker 2 And he really wanted to record the Farbrengens, put it in the library. The library, you know, had shelves over there that he designated to put the videos over there. And-

57:44 Speaker 4 It was for the archives.

57:45 Speaker 2 For the archives.

57:46 Speaker 4 For the presidential, the library.

57:48 Speaker 2 Yeah. Yep. That's what it was. That's what it was. Uh, the problem was it cost five hundred dollars to do a recording. It, it also-- Part of this also started at this period of time, for the most part, because the technology was not there before. It didn't exist before.

58:01 Speaker 4 Not anything in the past.

58:01 Speaker 2 You had to have film. You had film. You couldn't-- You, who took a film? I don't know, maybe it took some. You didn't do films for hours. No one took a speech and went on for hours. You, you took, uh, minutes here and there, and you put it together and so on. But to have technology that you can go on, have a tape that goes on for hours, started with the video. This video, particular video that he had, and the machine was like from the, you know, the early-

58:25 Speaker 4 He hired someone

58:25 Speaker 2 ... version. Yeah. Just for rec- we always hired people. We never did it oursel- it was never done ourselves, anything. I mean, like treak, you can't even take a picture with a camera, with a phone, so never mind taking videos. I had nothing, no. So we had a guy. I remember his name was Sam Ador. He had a company, and they, um... And it was more, it was more like closed circuit type of cameras. It was-- And, but he used to have-

58:48 Speaker 4 I don't know what that means.

58:50 Speaker 2 Closed circuit is CCTV, you see. That is all of them. The camera, the security, security cameras you have today is technically like closed circuit cameras. Doesn't do, it just goes one circuit, and it records it. It doesn't-

59:02 Speaker 4 Okay.

59:04 Speaker 2 Um, so that had just come out. Father had the idea to call him to, uh... He was a, a Jewish guy, a Yemenite. Um, but he wanted five hundred dollars every time. So he used to come, and I was in a, before by Misa probably. I don't know. So he hired a guy, and funny, you know, we sat, we sat in different places, but, uh, we sat in the next door to the Friediker Rebbe's library, across from where the Beer Homets was.

59:36 Speaker 4 Mm-hmm.

59:39 Speaker 2 There was a room there that like had a washer and dryer and I don't know. I think-

59:43 Speaker 4 In the basement.

59:44 Speaker 2 In the basement. And that room, I haven't been there in, in since back then. That room really, the other side of the room was again seven seventy. It's a shul. The shul is seven seventy. The downstairs shul. Used to be, and again, I don't know how it is now. If you came downstairs, the main stairs from the, from where the zal is, the downstairs-

1:00:10 Speaker 4 From upstairs to downstairs

1:00:11 Speaker 2 ... downstairs to downstairs. There's a small landing.

1:00:13 Speaker 4 Oh, there's a door.

1:00:14 Speaker 2 There's a door over there.

1:00:15 Speaker 4 That-

1:00:15 Speaker 2 That door, that door is that room, was that room.

1:00:17 Speaker 4 The washer and dryer, right. Was in there.

1:00:19 Speaker 2 Yeah.

1:00:19 Speaker 4 Right. Okay.

1:00:20 Speaker 2 I don't know if the washer and dryer. I still have no idea.

1:00:21 Speaker 4 I'm saying you can't even get, get in that door 'cause there's a rail-

1:00:23 Speaker 2 You can't get, you can't get in

1:00:24 Speaker 4 ... there's a, no, there's a railing blocking the door.

1:00:25 Speaker 2 Yeah, you can't get in there. And that-

1:00:27 Speaker 4 I actually think the door, uh, is the door there anymore?

1:00:29 Speaker 2 I don't know. I'm just saying I don't know if the door's there anymore.

1:00:31 Speaker 4 I think it-

1:00:31 Speaker 2 I don't even think the door is, but if you remember, that's pretty good.

1:00:33 Speaker 4 Yeah.

1:00:33 Speaker 2 It was a long time ago. Yeah, the door's not there anymore. I, I'm not sure. I didn't check. I haven't seen.

1:00:36 Speaker 4 And they put tiles there, yeah.

1:00:38 Speaker 2 Could be they closed it up. But that's that room. So we had to set up the, the, you know, put the wires in and, but it, the-

1:00:45 Speaker 4 You're saying you need the equipment for the video.

1:00:47 Speaker 2 You know, we used to record it in that room. Used to record it in that room. What it was, there was, there was no cameraman, as far as I remember. There was no cameraman.

1:00:54 Speaker 4 So basically, basically the camera's in one place-

1:00:55 Speaker 2 We used to hang up a camera on the one or two places.

1:00:58 Speaker 4 Uh, then the wires, then the equipment's there.

1:00:59 Speaker 2 And the wires had to go somewhere. Where are you gonna put it then? There was no place to put it in seven seven. We, we did it over there.

1:01:04 Speaker 4 Mm-hmm.

1:01:04 Speaker 2 And, and the guy stand, had there like a very primitive type of, I say primitive. I mean, now today, compared to today, it's primitive, but then it was, uh, high tech. Had little buttons or whatever to make it go pan right, pan left, u- up, down, right, left. Tilt up, down, right and left. That was the whole thing you were able-- And then zoom. And that's how we recorded it. We recorded it.

1:01:24 Speaker 4 That's very high tech.

1:01:26 Speaker 2 Yeah. We recorded, thank God. Baruch Hashem. It was a way.

1:01:28 Speaker 4 So your father did that a few times, but then-

1:01:30 Speaker 2 Did more than a few times. It went on for a while. It went on for a while. For a year, it went on for a long, for a-

1:01:34 Speaker 4 All the, all the videos you have from the Lamas.

1:01:35 Speaker 2 The Lamas, yeah. But, and then, and then he, he stopped. The, in Memaleph-

1:01:39 Speaker 4 Memaleph

1:01:39 Speaker 2 ... your father hired-

1:01:41 Speaker 4 Was it? Yeah

1:01:41 Speaker 2 ... I think your father hired like a cameraman like the whole year or something. No, no, no. That was already Jim. That was later.

1:01:46 Speaker 4 That was you?

1:01:47 Speaker 2 That was later, yeah. Then he stopped. Well, first of all, don't forget, it stopped around, um, maybe, maybe it stopped because of, uh, Shemini Atzeret, Simchat Torah. It's possible that's why it stopped. I don't remember. I remember it was, couldn't get even the five hundred dollars back then. It was hard. But it stopped. I think it stopped, and I don't think it came back after Lamat Hes.

1:02:03 Speaker 4 Right. In Lamat Hes, there's no videos.

1:02:04 Speaker 2 There's no videos. Yeah, because again, the, the Lamat Hes was very Motzei Shabbos, and then for the start of the Rebbe's room. Yeah It was different. It was different time. It stopped. Um, so the whole gem thing. So, so how does that happen? So the gem thing started, um, tov shin yud chet tov shin mem. Oh, so just a little more background. It used to be you couldn't come with a camera and take pictures, never mind a video camera. First of all, it wasn't video. People weren't walking around with video cameras back then. There weren't really, in the '70s that is. Okay? In the Lamed, maybe towards the end there might be video cameras. But people used to come and take pictures of the Rebbe, sometimes they even borrow from Anash or whatever, and the Rebbe did not cooperate with it, to say the least. He was, you know, sometimes put something over his face, blocked his face or whatever, and then somebody's gonna ask him if he said Tehillahs today and, you know-

1:02:59 Speaker 4 Tanya

1:03:00 Speaker 2 ... Tanya. It was, Rebbe was very-- best describe it as did not cooperate or appreciate it, which is interesting. But one of the jobs my father had when he was hired for Maskitirs was PR, to do PR.

1:03:20 Speaker 4 He, father says that, that Ramni was hired, that was one of the-

1:03:23 Speaker 2 Who?

1:03:23 Speaker 4 Your father says that when he was hired-

1:03:25 Speaker 2 That's, yeah

1:03:25 Speaker 4 ... Maskitirs, that he was told that word in the beginning.

1:03:27 Speaker 2 Yeah, right. Public re-- I don't know if they said PR, public re-relations, yeah.

1:03:31 Speaker 4 Yeah.

1:03:31 Speaker 2 Yes, he wa-- Yes, amongst many other things that he had. He, he had a lot of jobs there. Um, so if he wrote a note to somebody and said he's my-- So the Boch, if he wrote a note and signed it, that this, this person, this cameraman or this person taking pictures has permission to be there, they won't, you know, like sometimes the Boch would get, uh-

1:03:52 Speaker 4 He-he-heated

1:03:53 Speaker 2 ... and then they, you know, take away the camera, throw them out because they ne-ne-never done appreciate.

1:03:57 Speaker 4 He showed a signed, a signed note.

1:03:58 Speaker 2 He had a sign, he had a si-show a note that he's, he was Mashul, that he approved it.

1:04:02 Speaker 4 Right. Your fa-- Over the years, your father brought different photographers-

1:04:05 Speaker 2 Yeah

1:04:05 Speaker 4 ... to take pictures for various-

1:04:06 Speaker 2 Yes, yes

1:04:06 Speaker 4 ... things or either for press or whatever it is.

1:04:08 Speaker 2 Yeah.

1:04:08 Speaker 4 Yeah.

1:04:09 Speaker 2 Absolutely. So before the guy gets, uh, hit over the head for, uh, you know, so he said, "I have, here's my permit-" "... my temporary permit."

1:04:17 Speaker 4 Press pass.

1:04:17 Speaker 2 Press, yeah. Well, press pass wouldn't work. He had to have, had to be more than a press pass. He had to have a, he had to sign it. Um, which he did for individuals and so on. That, um, then, um... So what happened was, and he used to try to bring, of course, the New York Times there, and other newspapers there to come to, to cover Farbrengen and so on. And of course, the televi-television stations as well to come to do a, a feature, you know. And they came, from time to time they came. But usually, you know, they came and if you had on television, if you had 30 seconds it was considered a lot. You didn't really got to a minute in most of the cases. Anyway, this is Yud Chet Tov Chet Mem. And-

1:05:01 Speaker 4 Yud Chet Tov Chet Mem, there were press and, and there was on TV, like, clips.

1:05:06 Speaker 2 Yeah. So there was Yud Chet Tov Chet Mem, and I was coming down from the office upstairs. My father already went downstairs to his place by the Farbrengen. And as I'm going downstairs, I see this crew shows up, I think it was from CBS. The crew shows up from CBS, and, um, I ..., you know, taking care of them, helping them out, giving them information, take caring them inside because you couldn't get in inside. And then I make sure someone, you know, let them in to stand there and, and then we took them in, you know, from one side of the, the Farbrengen, then we went to the back behind the Rebbe from the side. I think the guy's name was Kramer, I think the one who did it. I'm not sure. I think it was Kramer. Anyway, the next day-- And before that, I never, I was never involved with any of the press. I never did anything for them. I never, um, that was, you know, never interacted. Maybe something, something technical, but never, you know, had any, any shackles to them. And like I said, my father was in by his place by the Farbrengen, even though it was still minutes before the Rebbe came in. Um, so we knew it was gonna be on the next day. I think it was on the next day. It was Yud Chet the Mamzhei, the week it was on. The next day w-the next day it was on television. But just at that period

1:06:25 Speaker 2 of time, um, 1980, videotape started coming out. We had VCRs.

1:06:33 Speaker 4 Like the VHS videos.

1:06:34 Speaker 2 Yeah, exactly. But this will be the V-V- The, the VHS was the, the Panasonic. There was another one called Betamax, which was Sony, I think. They were competing different formats. But I remember I went to Jim Ator's place on, on Kingston Avenue, went and bought this machine, and, you know, figured out, tried to put it on to record the news, record the news. And because in the past, when you tried to get something from them, if there was something on the news, you try to get it, it was very difficult. Either some things maybe weren't, weren't recorded, they archived. You couldn't get, you couldn't get anything. Once it was on television, it was like we couldn't get anything.

1:07:08 Speaker 4 So now that the VCR came out, there's the technology to record it live.

1:07:11 Speaker 2 We were able to record it live. So rec- and, and record. It was on, it was stuck on the news, we recorded it, and it turned out being like a magnificent piece.

1:07:20 Speaker 4 I've seen it.

1:07:21 Speaker 2 You've seen it. It's a video, yeah. And I think it's four or five minutes. It was, like, very long. It was crazy how long it was. You know, like, on the news it's for half hour news, and then they had the thing on the Rebbe for f- I think it was four minutes. Now, do you remember?

1:07:34 Speaker 4 Something like that. It was long.

1:07:34 Speaker 2 It, it was long.

1:07:35 Speaker 4 Yeah.

1:07:37 Speaker 2 So, um, and again, we, we got it now. We recorded it. So my father tells the Rebbe that, um, you know, he says it was on the news, it was very good. And if the Rebbe wants, we have a recording of it, if the Rebbe wants to see it. And the Rebbe says, "Yeah, he'd like to see it." And we made up, my father made up for a day or two later on, a day or two later in the week to see it. Okay. My father says, "So I already had the VCR, and I got a stand to put it on. I just bought a m-monitor." I don't think we had him. We got a monitor, set it all up. And so my father, "Okay, take this, uh, this, um, cart-" And just plug in, just plug the, it needs, it needs power. Plug it into an outlet in the Rebbe's room, and then press play. I'll put it in and you just press play. "Okay, I can do it." A couple of minutes before, he tells me, "I can't do it." "Can't do it?" I never understood. He said, "I can't do it." Now I can understand when it comes down with the phones and the kids know how to do it.

1:08:40 Speaker 4 You're saying now you can't do it.

1:08:41 Speaker 2 Now I can't do it. Now I can't do it. Uh, yeah. Sorry, I can't press, press play anymore. Anyway, I... So now I can a little bit more relate to that. And he says, "I can't do it." He says, "You have to come and you have to do it." This is like 15, 20 minutes before. Um, I'm not even sure at the time when he told me I was that excited about doing it. I don't, I, I don't know. I was, like, s- scared. Even though I'd, I'd been to Rebbe for this, for my bar mitzvah, my hopshas, you know. Yeah, this was before I, this was before I got married. But it was-

1:09:14 Speaker 4 You weren't coming to do maskiras type of whatever. The, the dudes did the work in the Rebbe's room. It-

1:09:19 Speaker 2 No, no, no.

1:09:20 Speaker 4 Yeah.

1:09:20 Speaker 2 Even though I had a few stories around, yeah, yeah. No, no, not at all. Not even, not even close. No. Anyway, so, um, okay. Rebbe made up a time. He has to go in. All right, I'll go in. So push in the cart and put it on, uh, plug it, plug it in the wall, and Rebbe watches it. The whole thing is just not even a f- it's a few minutes. And we, you know, we try to keep it very discreet and so on. Came from the back, not from the front door.

1:09:54 Speaker 4 I was gonna, yeah, 'cause-

1:09:55 Speaker 2 No, we didn't came from-

1:09:56 Speaker 4 Non-Jews.

1:09:56 Speaker 2 Yeah, no. So finish. Just pull out the plug, and I leave the cart in «gan eina tach» and I go and stand in the maskiras office. Um, have you... I'm sure you've heard this story before. Um-

1:10:12 Speaker 4 I think it's printed in the, the heb, but I don't know for all the details.

1:10:16 Speaker 2 It's hard to give him the, yeah, with everything that really how, how, how I felt and what was going on. It's very hard to explain. So I'm in the maskiras office, standing alone. Father comes in, he says, "The Rebbe asked me something, but he doesn't want me, him to answer it. That he wants me to answer it personally. You have to come back in." And then I come back. I was, this I wasn't expecting, you know? So, oh, when I went in, this obviously is after «torah v'hamtzas.» The, um, there was already a bed in the room full time. The one that I brought down Shmini Atzeres, that bed stayed there, stayed there. And the Rebbe was sitting not by his desk. The Rebbe was sitting, like, with his back towards the win- by the windows, and there's a small table there, Morasha's table there. He was sitting-

1:11:10 Speaker 4 You sitting, you use that table?

1:11:12 Speaker 2 When I went there, every- I think every time when I looked like he was sitting. I don't know if it was, uh, it was always or he just... I, I don't know. I never asked if that's where he was always sitting.

1:11:19 Speaker 4 I heard, I've heard before that the Rebbe didn't usually use, like, the regular seat.

1:11:24 Speaker 2 He didn't, yeah. When you say-

1:11:24 Speaker 4 He sat-

1:11:25 Speaker 2 And when «yechi this,» we went «yechi this,» I don't think the Rebbe usually sat-

1:11:27 Speaker 4 He just sat on the side or-

1:11:28 Speaker 2 Which makes, yeah. Because the Rebbe had so many papers, and he was moving around. That was a different time over there. The Rebbe's, the Rebbe had so many papers on the bed. I don't, I never understood, you know. Suppose the Rebbe was resting or sometimes on the bed. Like, you know, the job was to take all the papers off the bed. It was like, I, I'm not exaggerating. Piles, piles, uh, were on the bed. So there were piles. Look, before Yechidas, they, they took a lot of stuff, um, you know, maskiras, and, um, and moved it and put in other places and so on. I mean, I don't know. They made it, it, it wasn't the same. Look, I, I can't say this with certainty.

1:12:02 Speaker 4 Well, there's no... Right. Yeah.

1:12:04 Speaker 2 I can't say 100% with certainty. I mean, uh, I was part of... I mean, at times I know that was a, that was a fact. That was, some people went later on to Yechidas. The bed wasn't in the room, obviously. So-

1:12:19 Speaker 4 Yeah

1:12:19 Speaker 2 ... things were prepared for Yechidas for those few years that they were still Yechidas in Rebbe's room from, um, when Rebbe started Yechidas again, which was sometime nine-

1:12:26 Speaker 4 It was slowing down already, but there was the, there was the Yechidas, yeah.

1:12:28 Speaker 2 Yeah, but when you went to Yechidas, the bed wasn't there.

1:12:30 Speaker 4 Right.

1:12:31 Speaker 2 So obviously, the stuff, stuff was, was being, was moved. Um, I don't think there's any secret. I mean, I mean, if someone realized that there was a bed and Rebbe slept there Shabbos, and then-

1:12:42 Speaker 4 Yeah

1:12:42 Speaker 2 ... you come Yechidas, bed wasn't there. Obviously, it, uh-

1:12:45 Speaker 4 Mm-hmm.

1:12:46 Speaker 2 Um, so I walk into, I go into the room, and like I said, the Rebbe was sitting. You know what? When I walked in the second time, I never saw the bed. I walked the minutes later. I mean, obviously, the bed was there. I never, I don't remember... I remember when I put on the, the video the first time. I remember distinctly the Rebbe was, the bed was there because I walked around with the, the cart to the other side so the Rebbe should be able to see it. When I walked back in, to me, I never saw the bed because I felt like I walked practically... I mean, the Rebbe wanted to speak to me, so I walked within. I didn't s- I remember standing near the bed, and I remember walking around the bed. I don't remember that part. So the Rebbe says, he says, «Ach gee fregt man Tatn, su dest mit gitantz beschas Maisa.» And my father didn't even tell me when he came that the Rebbe was asking, asking that question. Did I say that I, that, that I said my father told him that Rebbe asked him a question, but he didn't want him to answer that. I have to answer that.

1:13:48 Speaker 4 Yeah.

1:13:48 Speaker 2 Okay, so.

1:13:49 Speaker 4 So the question is-

1:13:50 Speaker 2 He said, «So mit gitantz beschas Maisa.» And-

1:13:53 Speaker 4 You have to translate the-

1:13:54 Speaker 2 Uh, I, there's no translation to be honest, because till today it's-

1:13:57 Speaker 4 The Rebbe asked your father. The Rebbe said, "I asked your father if you dance-"

1:14:01 Speaker 2 Along.

1:14:02 Speaker 4 Along.

1:14:02 Speaker 2 But that's not, I don't think it was not, it was, uh, that's not what the, he didn't mean in the literal sense.

1:14:09 Speaker 4 Sense.

1:14:09 Speaker 2 Um, that I, that I understood. He didn't mean that in the literal sense. Um, yeah, and you think at one point, you can think that the Rebbe was just kidding around, if you can use the word kidding around, but he was very serious. Rebbe was very serious. So he asked a second time. I said I didn't answer the first time. He asked a second time, and I still didn't answer. But then he asked, you know, «So mit gitantz beschas Maisa.» I'm telling you, if I, um, when I think about that, I think if I had, was able to drill myself into the floor over there in the Rebbe's room, I, I would have done that because I... So I went, like, half yes, half no. I didn't know. There's, there was no good answer for me, at least from my feeling of how, how to answer that. So I didn't know which one, honestly, which would be more «chutspehik» to say. If I said yes, if I said no. I mean, I, I, I didn't know, and then I never understood the question. And like I said, till today, I only have, like, an assumption what Rebbe meant. I'm sure Rebbe was accurate when Rebbe was asking, but I, I don't, I don't know. So, um, so then the Rebbe said, «No, mis tamest, And, uh, I walked out. And, you know, of course-

1:15:34 Speaker 5 Can you say what the Rebbe said?

1:15:35 Speaker 2 Oh. Um, so after he asked three times if we danced along, again, just to say that that didn't mean literally, literal. He said-- He asked, um, and I wasn't sure what to answer, so I shrugged my shoulder a bit. So the Rebbe said, "Okay, so you should probably for sure you'll free up your time to be involved with these things." And the Rebbe didn't really specify when he said these things. And when you'll, uh, so the things, "And then you should dance along, not just to be yetzer for..." I don't know how to translate yetzer. Not just, uh-

1:16:13 Speaker 5 That's good enough.

1:16:14 Speaker 2 Yeah. But, uh, should dance along truthfully, I guess, for Emes. Really, if that's the right word either, I'm not sure. Um, so I went out... Huh?

1:16:29 Speaker 5 The Rebbe gave you, uh, some type of mandate.

1:16:32 Speaker 2 Yeah, but I wasn't sure exactly what it was. And I spent the next couple weeks and the few months after trying to figure out what was the Rebbe talking. I don't know why I didn't ask the Rebbe to be more specific. I don't know why. You know, we didn't do things like that then. I don't know. You just didn't do that. "Hello, Rebbe. Uh, what did you mean?" I don't know. We just didn't do that. Didn't do that. Today, I try to think why, why not ask the Rebbe be more specific? Um, so what happened was I, I thought about it, and I thought, "Oh, it has to do with television, I guess." But I didn't think that the Rebbe was talking about PR. And I-- And if he was talking about PR, I was like, to have success with PR, in my opinion, was very difficult because you're going to television stations you don't control. You have to fight for them to come. You have to fight for them what to put on. Then you have to make sure, then you have to make sure that the content that they used is accurate and the things that they say, they totalize, is accurate, you know. I thought to myself then, "Why do I have to use their channels? I mean, why we have to, I mean, channel, I mean, w- go through them? Let's start our own network in a way." And it so happens that 57Z, 57Z, I remember coming back, we were

1:17:53 Speaker 2 sitting in the back of the plane. We stopped in London. I think it was when we were coming back for Pesach. And some of the Chaverim were sitting there. I remember Yossi Sheinfeld, who's now in Tucson, was sitting there also next to me. And this guy's sitting there, and, you know, back then you used to get on a plane, you used to talk to people next to you. You know, "Hello. How are you?" You know, "You for bread?" You know, "L'chaim." It was like, uh... Now you get on a plane, you don't say anything to people. But then, you know, it was like, it was, it was normal. "And where do you come from?" I think he was coming from Saudi Arabia or something like that. Uh, we're doing Saudi Arabia. "I work for American company called RCA Americom, and we do international satellites, and we do, uh, uplinks and downlinks. We sell to governments, basically, um, basically for governments and so on. They sell to Israel." Uh, very nice. And then, "Okay, let me..." He wanted to give me some brochures or whatever. I took it. I took it. I wrote it. You know, okay.

1:18:44 Speaker 5 You had his brochures?

1:18:45 Speaker 2 I had his brochures, yeah.

1:18:47 Speaker 5 Okay.

1:18:48 Speaker 2 That's, uh, that's how it, you know. I had brochures. I didn't understand really what it was. And I called him. I said, "You know what?" I had, I had his business card then. I just-

1:18:58 Speaker 5 57Z, 57H, 57S, mem, so for, for three years-

1:19:02 Speaker 2 I-

1:19:03 Speaker 5 Before you gave this guy his business card.

1:19:04 Speaker 2 Yeah. Probably, I put it down, put it somewhere.

1:19:05 Speaker 5 Okay.

1:19:05 Speaker 2 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Kept it, you know. It sounded, you know, interesting, whatever. I don't know why back then. I don't know. And the guy that we met was a, was a, was a goy. But, um, I said, "You know what? Maybe we get our own, uh, satellite, or we get our own uplinks. We get this own thing, and then..." So I call him up, and, and it turns out it's, it's forget about it to the money. It's not, it's not something you could build on your own, basically. I mean, it's not-- He can't have you... It's the whole thing didn't, uh... But he says, "You know what? You can lease time on the equip- on satellites." And he gave a name of a guy Ed Hurwitz in New Jersey, whatever. He was working also maybe also for RCA. I don't remember. We called him up, and, um, he says, "Yeah." Um, he says, "Yeah, I can lease you time on a satellite. Yeah, no problem. But you have to get up to the satellite. How are you gonna up to a satellite?"

1:20:06 Speaker 5 I don't... When he gets-

1:20:07 Speaker 2 And to get-

1:20:07 Speaker 5 What does that mean, get up to the satellite?

1:20:09 Speaker 2 Uh, how, how does the signal get on a satellite? It has to go somewhere. Where-- How is it going to the satellite?

1:20:14 Speaker 5 So you need, like, a, a dish.

1:20:16 Speaker 2 You know, you can call dish, but it wasn't-

1:20:17 Speaker 5 What do you call it?

1:20:17 Speaker 2 These are transmitters or-

1:20:18 Speaker 5 Transmitter.

1:20:19 Speaker 2 Transmitter. You have to go transmitter, but transmitters don't hang around in Brooklyn or anything like that.

1:20:22 Speaker 5 Right.

1:20:22 Speaker 2 The transmitters are fixed. And for the most part then-

1:20:26 Speaker 5 I remember-

1:20:26 Speaker 2 The television networks had-

1:20:28 Speaker 5 I remember the one on the roof of 770.

1:20:29 Speaker 2 That wasn't... That was a receiver of a dish to be able to see what... Yeah. Yeah. That was-

1:20:33 Speaker 5 That was, that was-

1:20:33 Speaker 2 That was something else. That was nothing.

1:20:34 Speaker 5 That's what I was gonna say.

1:20:35 Speaker 2 It was a dish. It was, it was, yeah, for to get signal of, you know. If something was on the, the satellite, we can receive it off the satellite, but-

1:20:43 Speaker 5 Okay.

1:20:44 Speaker 2 But the whole, the, the difference really and, and when John started doing the recordings and all that, to put it on a satellite, it had to be something called broadcast quality. It had to be a certain quality. Otherwise, they wouldn't give you time on the satellite. They're just not gonna bother. It had to be a, a certain technical Excellence that they will-

1:21:08 Speaker 6 That's like a standard in the industry

1:21:09 Speaker 2 ... a standard. It was a standard. It's called broadcast quality. So you couldn't, you know, you couldn't just go get some random cheap camera and think, "Okay, I'll take it here, and then I'll give it to someone that can put it up to the satellite," and then they, they wouldn't accept it. They wouldn't put it up there. So what happened was we had to get the signal from 770 to what's called an uplink to the satellite. So, um, if you go up the roof of 770, you can see Manhattan skyline. And I don't know if today you can still, but back then you're able to see Empire State Building. So we rented a room at the Empire State Building, and we had to call like AT&T or something like that to get, get us what's called a microwave dish. They send a microwave dish from 770 to, um, Empire State Building. And Empire State Building on the, had towers on the roof that had signals and cables going to different uplinks to the, to satellites in different parts of the Tri-State area. There was a place in Long Island. There was a place, place in Staten Island. I don't remember if Brooklyn had. Then there was, I think, in New Jersey. So you had to rent a line to go from, from the Empire State Building, you know, after you had the room, and after you were able to take the signal, you had to, you had to rent a room, rent lines to an

1:22:25 Speaker 2 uplink, and the uplink had to be available. It was, it was a process, and we worked through the process. And, uh-

1:22:30 Speaker 6 You asked the Rebbe before this?

1:22:34 Speaker 2 No, I don't think that-- That said that I want to do the satellites-

1:22:37 Speaker 6 Mm-hmm

1:22:37 Speaker 2 ... and so on? Not until I had it all figured out.

1:22:40 Speaker 6 Figured out.

1:22:40 Speaker 2 Not until I had it all figured out.

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1:24:34 Speaker 6 Der Her through your financial support as well through visiting our website, derher.org, or through contacting us to setting up a meeting. Thank you very much. Enjoy the rest of the podcast.

1:24:46 Speaker 2 And, um, when we finally had it figured out, we thought it was figured out, we made the trial of Tisha, I think it was of Tisha, with, uh, Los Angeles, with Shlomo Kunin. He stayed there. He was in, he was in Los Angeles for the Fabregan. And he called me and said, "Look, we're gonna put this on the cable." And then we had this idea. There are cable stations. There were thousands of cable stations in America. And if we contact them, had someone in New York, New York making contacts, and then we did this flyer, for instance. This went to the cable stations, the flyer that they should put it on. And we'd put here which sat-

1:25:19 Speaker 6 Take it out

1:25:19 Speaker 2 ... which satellite it's for and so on.

1:25:29 Speaker 6 So this is later once it's established.

1:25:31 Speaker 2 No, it's as, as it was starting. This is-

1:25:33 Speaker 6 This is the begin-- This is 1987.

1:25:35 Speaker 2 Okay. Yeah. But we did the same more or less same format.

1:25:39 Speaker 6 So you had a live via satellite. So this, this went into a newspaper.

1:25:43 Speaker 2 No. This went to cable stations.

1:25:45 Speaker 6 Oh, to the stations.

1:25:46 Speaker 2 Yeah, the sat-- The advertise that, and-

1:25:48 Speaker 6 Coast to coast, the worldwide-

1:25:49 Speaker 2 This paper was different

1:25:49 Speaker 6 ... spread of the Chabad Babav-- movement, even with Lubavitch Rebbe, to the point of... Okay, here's Jam's logo.

1:25:56 Speaker 2 But then there's a box there. It's, here's the satellite information.

1:25:58 Speaker 6 Satellite transmission, Satcom IIR Transponder 7, beginning 9:30 PM EDST until approximately 1:30 AM EDST. So this is a notification to them.

1:26:10 Speaker 2 Where they can-- How they have to-- They need the coordinates where to put it in, how they program, where they find our signal.

1:26:15 Speaker 6 So they're looking for content, or you-

1:26:16 Speaker 2 No, usually the cable stations then were looking for content. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. For the most part, yeah.

1:26:20 Speaker 6 So you establish it in one place, and then you let other satellite stations know that it's available, and whoever wants-

1:26:27 Speaker 2 They want the cable stations. Yeah, so-

1:26:28 Speaker 6 Cable stations, sorry.

1:26:29 Speaker 2 So what we did was we had a mailing list of thousands of cable stations, and we had the phone num-

1:26:32 Speaker 6 There's so many stations, okay.

1:26:34 Speaker 2 Back then there was like four thousand. We were very small. Then they got consolidated, so there was less. But back then-

1:26:38 Speaker 6 Mm-hmm

1:26:38 Speaker 2 ... there were a lot. And then we notified a shluchim. We sent it to the shluchim and say, "Look, guys, you're local. You call them up." They had channels that were like free ch- uh, channels and so on, or the public service and whatever it is. And we st-established a network that way. We had, we had hundreds of stations, maybe more. I don't know if we had thousand, but we had hundreds of stations. But we made sure to go to markets that there were a lot of people. When I say thousands, you had a lot of them that were in small markets. So we went to markets that we knew, you know, either were Jewish or that they were-- had, you know, millions of people. But-

1:27:08 Speaker 5 So that's how the first, um, start-

1:27:10 Speaker 2 Yeah, but that's the concept we used, I mean, later on as well.

1:27:12 Speaker 5 Right.

1:27:12 Speaker 2 It was the same thing.

1:27:13 Speaker 5 And the JEM name, you started right away? You, you made an organization out of it?

1:27:17 Speaker 2 Huh. Um, uh, I-- When I started right away, I started under Chinuch Visual Center.

1:27:27 Speaker 5 Chinuch Visual Center.

1:27:28 Speaker 2 Visual Center, yeah. But that, that number was, you know... It's funny you ask. But yeah, then I switched it, um, then we did AKA or, uh, whatever, A-AKA for J-Jewish Educational Media, but then later on we just reformed and reorganized it under Jewish Educational Media.

1:27:46 Speaker 5 Mm-hmm. And why, why is it, like, a name like that and not like Chabad?

1:27:54 Speaker 2 Okay, uh, good question. Good question. First of all, I didn't, I didn't, I didn't know if I wanted to ask the Rebbe about using the name Chabad. I don't, I don't know, even like, even when it's in WLCC, it wasn't technically, you know, like-

1:28:12 Speaker 5 It wasn't like-

1:28:12 Speaker 2 Was-

1:28:13 Speaker 5 Wasn't an official, uh-

1:28:14 Speaker 2 Wasn't, you know. So I, I never pushed for that. On the other hand, I thought if it's doesn't say Chabad and it's Jewish Education Media promoting Chabad, I thought it was a little, it would be a little more receptive in a cer- in a certain way.

1:28:29 Speaker 5 Yeah.

1:28:30 Speaker 2 And, uh, funny, the reason I used Chinuch or educational was when we started, and then the Rebbe gave an answer about being involved sort of it part-time because he didn't see Parnassah in it and so on, when I was still-- before I was married. Rebbe said to be involved the other part-time with Chinuch. So I figured if I make this Chinuch and Jewish Education in one-

1:29:00 Speaker 5 Uh-huh

1:29:01 Speaker 2 It'll be one entity, it's, uh-

1:29:03 Speaker 5 But that was in hindsight.

1:29:05 Speaker 2 Huh?

1:29:06 Speaker 5 That was in hindsight because JEM is-

1:29:08 Speaker 2 No.

1:29:08 Speaker 5 Oh, you started it, you started saying it didn't have a name in the beginning.

1:29:11 Speaker 2 Didn't have a name when we started, yeah. It didn't have a ni- a name yet.

1:29:13 Speaker 5 Uh-huh.

1:29:13 Speaker 2 No, it didn't have a name yet. No. No, we just did it like, you know.

1:29:18 Speaker 5 So, okay, you mentioned about that answer that you got from the Rebbe about doing this Parnassah and then JEM. I, I see that you showed me before that you have this answer here, so I wanna see, I wanna get to that. So we're gonna-- soon we'll go through some of the answers you got from the Rebbe about JEM, um, Bas Hashem, if you could show me that. But before then, let's just finish off this story of the initial, um, you know, you were talking about getting the satellites from Manhattan, from Empire State Building. So how, how does that-- how do you get from there to a live broadcast in Seven Seventy?

1:29:51 Speaker 2 Yeah. So, um, all of this was n-new, obviously, totally unfamiliar with it. I think I mentioned to you that, um, personally, I didn't know how to hold the camera. Still don't. So I didn't have that knowledge and experience, but, I mean, it just meant we had to go find the people. So, um, and we discussed how to get the satellite, how to get the signal to the satellite, but then you need to have cameras in Seven Seventy at the Farbrengen, and they had to be manned by cameramen that were professional. Um, and then the Seven Seventy had to be, like, wired up to be able to get the signals. So I think at the time we had three or four cameras with Farbrengens in different angles. We had one right facing the Rebbe, one behind the Rebbe, then we had another one to the side, and then we had a wide one. Maybe it wasn't manned, the fourth one.

1:30:45 Speaker 5 This didn't all happen initially, but over time.

1:30:47 Speaker 2 No, but after the first one or two Farbrengens-

1:30:49 Speaker 5 Yeah

1:30:50 Speaker 2 ...we, yeah, yeah, we, we tried to move it to the next level constantly, yeah. So, um, we had to rent the equipment. We had to rent the equipment, we had to rent the whole studio. And, um, we set up one of the offices that were-- took over on the second floor next to my father's office. There was a room there. We made an, you know, did some construction there, made some adjustments that we can put panel of cameras. And, um-

1:31:23 Speaker 5 Of cameras? Oh, okay.

1:31:24 Speaker 2 Uh, monitors.

1:31:24 Speaker 5 Monitors. Yeah.

1:31:25 Speaker 2 Monitors. Yeah, sorry, monitors. Um, it's interesting because the crew that we were able to find... I knew somebody at ABC Television. I don't remember how I got to him, got to him. His name was Julius Barnathan. I don't remember how I got to him, but he was a resource for me if I needed camera people, equipment, and where to get it and, you know, things like that. Just, he was obviously was a Jewish guy, and he was very, um, involved with, um, designing even, engineering equipment for sports events, like the baseball games, the football games, the, um, the Olympics. It was his, you know, it was his brain that did a lot of the stuff that ev-evolved over time. And I called him about the Farbrengen. He loved the idea, and he used to watch the Farbrengen. He was so helpful. He was so helpful. Anyway, he gave me some names of people that worked at the time at ABC that did some of the baseball games and so on, um, that knew how to go in a stadium when there was a game, a sports game. They went in and wired the whole place from scratch every single time because sometimes one station, one network had it, sometimes another network had it. So they went in there. They all brought in their own equipment at studios and so on. Now-

1:32:42 Speaker 5 So you didn't need to reinvent the wheel. There was a s-

1:32:44 Speaker 2 They did

1:32:44 Speaker 5 ...there was a re- I'm saying but there was a service you can hire because of this.

1:32:47 Speaker 2 What, you mean for us-

1:32:49 Speaker 5 Yeah

1:32:49 Speaker 2 ...in New York? Y- Well, it wasn't a service. It was not a service.

1:32:51 Speaker 5 No?

1:32:52 Speaker 2 No, it wasn't. It wasn't one phone call. No, it wasn't. It wasn't. No, but I had a, I had a, I had, uh, names of people that already did it.

1:32:58 Speaker 5 Mm-hmm.

1:32:58 Speaker 2 And let me tell you, these people, for the most, most, I think all of them were Jewish for the most part, and very obviously secular, if you can use that word. But they loved to come to do this, the Farbrengen. They loved it. They loved it. It was-- They u-used to thank me. I used to pay them, of course. They used to thank me, and they always used to come, "When's the next one? When's the next one?" It, it was like, I mean, here these people are out there doing all these games, things a lot more exciting for them than, um, than a Farbrengen. But they, they all, they all loved it. All the people involved loved it, what they were doing. I don't know if they loved the challenge or they loved working with the people they were working with. They all loved it. So, um, we had to rent the cameras, and it's another place I was able to call, you know, borrow, just quality, quality cameras and so on. And again, I mean, this is, this stuff is just bikitzurim time, but it was, it was a different level and so on. So they came. They would wire up the place. Maybe in the beginning, we had to start a day or two before, perhaps start the wiring. But after time, you know, they know, everyone know what to do, know where the wires go, so they were able to come start the, the morning of. You want to believe the biggest

1:34:04 Speaker 2 challenge was? Is get a cameraman with a camera to stand in seven seventy by Farbrengen. That meant he's e-either gonna block somebody or someone has to move a few feet so he can squeeze in. It was a fight. It was literally a fight.

1:34:20 Speaker 5 Mm-hmm.

1:34:21 Speaker 2 And you have to explain to someone, "I understand. You wanna see a-- I understand that you wanna see the Rebbe by the Farbrengen. You wanna be there. But if you move over two feet or a few, possibly millions of people can see the Rebbe." 'Cause I mean, that was the logic that, you know. But people didn't understand it then. They didn't understand it.

1:34:35 Speaker 5 Yeah.

1:34:35 Speaker 2 People didn't understand bachlal. People didn't understand the, in a way, the value. It's shocking. I mean, I, I believe now people understand the value, and we probably-- I probably myself didn't understand the extent of the value of it. But, um, cooperation inside seven seventy by most people didn't exist. So that was from the, the bigger challenges is how to get them there. Um, I think, I think the fact that, um, some point in the Farbrengen the Rebbe's turn to the ca-- all the camera people, especially the gem camera people, and go, you know-

1:35:12 Speaker 5 Say l'chaim.

1:35:12 Speaker 2 Say l'chaim to us. So we had a studio upstairs, and my brother, Yossi Friedman, was with me in the studio. He was the director in the studio, and that basically meant we were getting signals in there. There's cameras, and all these cameras, they're coming, one camera, I don't know, number, camera number one, camera number two, number three, number four. And you can only send out one. You're only sending one or, or split your screen and send out two. So he would direct them, you know, you know, "Get closer to the Rebbe. You know, get wide now. I want to see a crowd." So, I mean, he did a very good job doing that, Yossi. Um, and we were just discussing, in fact, um, 'cause someone made a comment about the famous Sama Echanafi that we, we did. You know, it wasn't practiced. You know, the one that I've seen, Sama Echanafi?

1:35:55 Speaker 5 Mm-hmm, the video, yeah.

1:35:56 Speaker 2 In the video. That became like, it became automatic.

1:35:58 Speaker 5 That became like the-

1:35:59 Speaker 2 A class, a class, yeah. And, uh, you know-

1:36:02 Speaker 5 And every Lubavitch video, that was the, it started off at that then.

1:36:04 Speaker 2 He, he wasn't trained to do this or whatever, but he had a good eye for it. And, um, did it like, how do you say, on the fly. It was done, you know, he didn't have a chance. There was no second edits. There wasn't anything. This is how it went. Um, but the, uh, the fact that the Rebbe used to tell them to say l'chaim, you know, so even we, we felt that i-in the studio. You know, obviously that was-

1:36:26 Speaker 5 And also the really-

1:36:26 Speaker 2 I was talking to us and so on. Huh?

1:36:28 Speaker 5 The people that are watching-

1:36:29 Speaker 2 Yeah

1:36:29 Speaker 5 ... the Rebbe's telling them l'chaim.

1:36:30 Speaker 2 Yeah. Yeah, and that, yes.

1:36:31 Speaker 5 And chassidim that watch the videos today-

1:36:33 Speaker 2 I, exactly that's my point. That's, and I, I believe it, and I said the Rebbe's telling

1:37:43 Speaker 5 Right.

1:37:44 Speaker 2 You know? Have it, archive it, whatever, you know, have it. And it was not-- We didn't deal with it at the time.

1:37:50 Speaker 5 And that was after Gematamos, you know, uh, Rabbi Elokana Shematchan got involved in getting-

1:37:56 Speaker 2 Yes, indeed, Elokana

1:37:56 Speaker 5 ... getting the videos.

1:37:57 Speaker 2 Elokana does a great job, yes. Very unbelievable. Yes, kol hakavod to him. They really moved it to the n-next, to the next level in every way.

1:38:07 Speaker 5 Right. Uh, and, um, I mean, beginning with just discovering where the videos are and locating each, each, each recording.

1:38:13 Speaker 2 Oh, yeah, I had the record. The, them videos I had together. But, uh, what Elokana gets a lot of credit for is, um, we were storing the videos, and we weren't storing in a professional place, and they were deteriorating.

1:38:24 Speaker 5 Yeah.

1:38:24 Speaker 2 And the stuff that my father did, like in the Lameds, I mean, that was, was sent to FBI la-labs to, uh, restore. They had to restore it, you know. It wasn't, uh, the, uh, the physical tapes. The tape itself had to be restored.

1:38:39 Speaker 5 Right.

1:38:40 Speaker 2 I don't know, you guys, but I think we, uh, maybe it cost a million dollars or close to a million dollars. It was a, it was a, a lot of money.

1:38:46 Speaker 5 To, to-

1:38:46 Speaker 2 And the stuff, the stuff deteriorates, you know, the tape, and if it's not stored properly and so on. And now they can migrate it to different technologies and so on to make it. But no matter what they say, there's always, you know, deg-degrade in a certain way, the quality.

1:39:00 Speaker 5 Mm-hmm.

1:39:00 Speaker 2 So yeah.

1:39:01 Speaker 5 Sure.

1:39:02 Speaker 2 It wasn't enough just recording it and having it in the end. And the big question is what do you do with it, and how do you disseminate it properly?

1:39:08 Speaker 5 That's what JEM is doing today, yeah.

1:39:09 Speaker 2 That's what JEM is doing today, yeah.

1:39:11 Speaker 5 I think it's one of the nyonym that, like, it's a mese that was started for then live but took on a whole new life after Gematamos and still the, you know, the method of, one of the main methods of the Rebbe's, the Rebbe getting out to-

1:39:28 Speaker 2 Yeah

1:39:28 Speaker 5 ... to ourselves and to the world.

1:39:29 Speaker 2 Absolutely, yeah, sure. And I see it from my grandchildren, of course. I see it, you know, uh, in the klal, they're in yeshivas, and, uh, um, it's their lifeline to the Rebbe, ab-absolutely, no question. I mean, I hear from others and so on, and all the married people today, they come home and say, "You know, this is my whole connection." Absolutely.

1:39:45 Speaker 5 For sure.

1:39:46 Speaker 2 And it'll be for generations. But you know what? I mentioned Elokana a few times, but I had answers from the Rebbe regarding taking videos and editing it. The Rebbe was very, very concerned about the chayas that someone has about editing a video. It's interesting, the Rebbe understood then, which is not a spellet, but the Rebbe understood then that you can take the Rebbe's videos and then just edit it in almost, you know-

1:40:20 Speaker 5 Things can be taken out of context.

1:40:21 Speaker 2 Out of context, yeah. You can move it, you can move it to however you want.

1:40:24 Speaker 5 And interesting, so you had some ideas to make some short videos.

1:40:26 Speaker 2 No, but Rebbe said, like you asked me, you, you take a chayas that is gonna be, uh, you know, to what the, the, the kavana was, you know?

1:40:35 Speaker 5 Yeah. Sure.

1:40:37 Speaker 2 But now, you, you think about it now with AI, you see how dangerous it is.

1:40:41 Speaker 5 Right, anything can be manipulated.

1:40:42 Speaker 2 Now it's really dangerous, and we really have to figure out a way to make sure that, you know, there's a way to certify what's, what's accurate and what's real versus, you know, God forbid, stuff starts coming out.

1:40:52 Speaker 5 Right, that's a whole thing that, uh-

1:40:53 Speaker 2 People can do crazy stuff with it.

1:40:54 Speaker 5 Now, Jerem, for example, worked on AI. I think one of the points of, you know, why can't you use one, one of the tools out there is the, is the accuracy.

1:41:02 Speaker 2 Of course, of course.

1:41:03 Speaker 5 You know.

1:41:03 Speaker 2 You can't trust a lot of things you watch today.

1:41:05 Speaker 5 Right. So you need a-- If you have it built by ourselves-

1:41:09 Speaker 2 Right, exactly

1:41:10 Speaker 5 ... then it can be-

1:41:10 Speaker 2 I think this is something we have to do, for sure.

1:41:12 Speaker 5 Yeah.

1:41:12 Speaker 2 For sure.

1:41:12 Speaker 5 This is the AI discussion.

1:41:13 Speaker 2 It's the next challenge for the, yeah, for the next generation.

1:41:16 Speaker 5 Yeah.

1:41:16 Speaker 2 But it's now. It's here and now.

1:41:19 Speaker 5 Okay. So back to, there's one element that you didn't discuss, is that you have to have simultaneous translation.

1:41:25 Speaker 2 Right. Right.

1:41:28 Speaker 5 So that was, that, that, that was kind of happening already, wasn't it? It was, yeah.

1:41:34 Speaker 2 Yeah, of course. We started right from the beginning. We realized right away.

1:41:36 Speaker 5 No, I'm saying even before Je- the videos, there was some type of translation happening.

1:41:41 Speaker 2 Oh, and you mean 770?

1:41:42 Speaker 5 Mm-hmm.

1:41:43 Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They had the transistors. Remember that?

1:41:45 Speaker 5 Yeah, the transistors where people could hear.

1:41:46 Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah, yeah. But that was the atto- Yeah, that was different, and Reb Ben Zion Mechal used to do it. He was one of them. I don't know if-

1:41:52 Speaker 5 One of the people, yeah

1:41:52 Speaker 2 ... others, but he's one of-- Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

1:41:54 Speaker 5 So then you, so then Manis Friedman started it.

1:41:57 Speaker 2 Yeah, we started first... I don't remember. Maybe it was Zalman Polsky that started first. A few people. I don't remember who started first before. You know, we, we alternated a few, a few times, and then we-

1:42:07 Speaker 5 But that was right away. I mean, you had-

1:42:08 Speaker 2 Right, yes.

1:42:09 Speaker 5 You had the-

1:42:09 Speaker 2 On, on, on the, on the satellite and on the cable, there was something called channel A and channel B for audio. So we'd have one channel was orig- original- originally Yiddish, and the second channel was English. But even in the English, we had-- Oh, you were able to mix it. So we had, you know... It wasn't fully-- I don't think we ever had full English without the Yiddish.

1:42:31 Speaker 5 Yeah, you could always hear the Rebbe.

1:42:32 Speaker 2 You could always hear the Rebbe.

1:42:33 Speaker 5 Yeah. Yeah.

1:42:34 Speaker 2 Yeah. So the funny thing is, I don't remember what point we mentioned to Rebbe that's how we were doing it. And the Rebbe had questions about it, how we were mixing the audio and so on. And then we said that point that you can always hear the Rebbe. So he was-- So I think at that point, if I asked, told Rebbe, "You know what? If Rebbe wants to see it."

1:43:00 Speaker 5 This is right in the beginning?

1:43:01 Speaker 2 It wasn't the beginning. I think it was, like, in, within the year. No, it wasn't right away in the beginning. This was, um, this was probably within the year. It wasn't in the beginning. It wasn't in the beginning. It wasn't right away.

1:43:14 Speaker 5 So your father asked if, if the Rebbe wants to see the video.

1:43:19 Speaker 2 Rebbe said, "Yeah." So we made up a time. I don't think it was a few days later. I think it was, like, for the following week.

1:43:26 Speaker 5 I'm sorry to interrupt, but the Rebbe had a reaction to the whole, like, thing be-- in the beginning? Or it was like it happened, like, you, you-

1:43:35 Speaker 2 To Farbrengen on-

1:43:36 Speaker 5 Like, you asked the Rebbe before, "Could we do this?" Or was it like, you know-

1:43:40 Speaker 2 Well, I have to check. I, I don't remember if I asked him, but I may have asked Vaftich. I don't remember. But I asked later on. And most likely, the reason I asked later on, for the most part, because the first one wasn't a major investment, and, you know, we knew it would-- And we probably didn't-- It needed preparation. In other words, if you want to really make, have a network of stations, you need to prepare it. You have to tell them months in advance. They have to, they have to, you have to book the time. With LA, at this one, we didn't. We were only doing, I think, to one place. Maybe they'd also Manhattan. So, and it was, like, a little bit of a, I guess to say, a test run, see how it goes, if we have all the pieces right. So we probably did it with le- less notice. I have to, I have to check and see if we, what we did for Vaftich and how much. I don't think. I think we went to one or two markets, and we said, "We're having this on in a few weeks. Please put it on." You know, and they cooperated, and they put it on. But we always needed close to two months to do it, and it was even two months was late 'cause the programmers, you, you go to programmers, and they're months ahead, and so you have to squeeze it in, and you have to have a place.

1:44:45 Speaker 2 So the problem was we didn't always know which, you know, when the Rebbe was Farbrengen, didn't know what time. I don't remember if weekday Farbrengens beforehand had a set time of 9:30. I don't, I, I don't remember that. Shabbat Farbrengen started at 1:30. Weekday Farbrengens, if I, if I remember correctly, they could have started at eight o'clock. Uh, I, I think somewhere between 8 and 9:30. Uh-

1:45:08 Speaker 5 I know there were-

1:45:09 Speaker 2 I think so

1:45:09 Speaker 5 ... I know there were changes from-

1:45:10 Speaker 2 There were changes. There-- That's how I, that's how I remember it over the years in the Chofs and the Lameds. It wasn't always the same. But they were announced it a few days before.

1:45:18 Speaker 5 Right.

1:45:18 Speaker 2 Announced a few days before. Here, what do I announce? It's gonna be a Farbrengen eight o'clock, and the Farbrengen will start at 9:30? Or, or, um, if we announce this is a Thursday night Farbrengen, turns out the Rebbe's gonna Farbrengen Shabbos. I mean, you had to ask the Rebbe earlier. And it was interesting. This is one, I don't, I don't know if you wanna call it side benefit. I don't know if that's the right word. Um, probably not. But, um, we, you know, asked the Rebbe and said, "Look, we need to, we need to prepare this in advance." And it almost worked out two month... It was almost two months before every Farbrengen. See, Vaftich, and next one was Yud Shvat. It was two months. From Yud Shvat, the next one was Rebbe didn't let us do Purim. That's a separate thing. The next one was, uh, you know-

1:46:01 Speaker 5 Nisan.

1:46:02 Speaker 2 And the next one was, okay, Yud Bais. Was it Yud Bais Tammuz? Another two months. So Yud Bais Tammuz, Chof Av- So that was like almost a minimum. Then they have to book the satellite. You can't get the satellite last minute. You can't buy that many hours of satellite time so late. So I was saying it was a side benefit that you knew way in advance when the Rebbe was farbrengen.

1:46:24 Speaker 5 Yeah, to the point that at the end of the farbrengens, it says that the next, when the next one will be.

1:46:30 Speaker 2 Yeah.

1:46:30 Speaker 5 At the end of the satellite-

1:46:30 Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah

1:46:31 Speaker 5 ... if you've seen the video, it sa-

1:46:32 Speaker 2 Yeah

1:46:32 Speaker 5 ... it says when the next one will be.

1:46:34 Speaker 2 But, um, the part that was really, I guess, uncomfortable, and so is that asking the Rebbe something now which he's gonna do in two months from now. And I don't know. I'm not sure, you know.

1:46:50 Speaker 5 It's not how the Lubavitch worked.

1:46:52 Speaker 2 Yeah, I'm not sure the Rebbe was necessarily all that pleased or comfortable with that so much in advance. I, I don't know.

1:47:00 Speaker 5 Mm-hmm.

1:47:00 Speaker 2 Because I have a lot of answers, but a lot of answers.

1:47:03 Speaker 5 Okay.

1:47:04 Speaker 2 And a lot of questions.

1:47:04 Speaker 5 So, so, so go back to, um, so the Rebbe asked your father, y- your father asked the Rebbe if, if Rebbe wants to see it.

1:47:10 Speaker 2 Ah, yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. So Rebbe said yeah. So which was interesting that Rebbe when, when it was offered, the Rebbe said yeah. So made up ti- a time. It was during the day. Uh, this time I already knew the drill, you know. Not great the last time. Brought him the, the cart and the ca-, the VCR and the monitor, and that sicha used to be earlier. It used to be a nigun before when the Rebbe walked in. Later on, I think more by the broadcasts, the Rebbe went straight to sicha. I'm sorry, remember. Don't say we're, I'm not saying 100% accuracy, but more or less. So I go in, start the sicha. I put it on, and I, I put play, and I stand there, and I've... Okay. Rebbe will listen five, 10 minutes, and then he'll, he'll nod, you know, "Okay." You know, "Ash keich," or whatever, you know. Um, so I stand there 10 minutes, 15 minutes. It goes 20 minutes. The sicha's going. It goes half hour, 40 minutes. And, uh, to one point, I think it was past an hour. I think it was even longer than that. No, definitely o-over an hour. Sicha finishes, and the Rebbe turns around and he says, "A dank, aber next amol," so he's cl- he's claiming a kirts of sicha. "Next time, pick a shorter sicha." And I was like, "Wow." I mean, I was just, I was amazing that the Rebbe didn't wanna stop the sicha in the middle.

1:48:58 Speaker 5 Mm.

1:48:58 Speaker 2 His own sicha, he didn't wanna stop it in the middle.

1:49:01 Speaker 5 Yeah.

1:49:02 Speaker 2 Shkhineh medaberis tagreina. Yeah, so they don't... It's a lesson. It's a lesson. I, I tried to apply that lesson, you know.

1:49:10 Speaker 5 To video the Rebbe's, uh, sicha.

1:49:11 Speaker 2 You don't walk out. I mean, mitrael, and I, I stand there, you know. Okay. You, you, you don't walk out. I mean, this, he told to me-

1:49:17 Speaker 5 Yeah

1:49:17 Speaker 2 ... you don't stop in the middle. You can't stop in the middle. So, um, which is interesting, the Rebbe said next amol. And I was thinking, "Oh, the Rebbe said next amol." But, uh, I wasn't gonna pick out the sicha. I don't, uh, I'm gonna pick out a shorter sicha. It didn't, didn't enter my mind that there would be such a issue that the Rebbe-

1:49:37 Speaker 5 Yeah

1:49:37 Speaker 2 ... wouldn't wanna stop it. So that was, that was a big wow moment for me.

1:49:41 Speaker 5 Was there another time that the Rebbe asked to see it? There were, there were-

1:49:44 Speaker 2 There was another time. There were other times, but that was different. That was different. That was more like Chanukah Live. I, I don't know if you remember. There was... When we did Chanukah Live, we were in a studio somewhere.

1:50:03 Speaker 5 But Chanukah Live is a whole nother thing because it's-

1:50:04 Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah

1:50:05 Speaker 5 ... simultaneous video satellite.

1:50:06 Speaker 2 Yeah, so it, it was def- technically, on a technol- for technology-wise, it was way, way, way complicated. Way complicated, and so different. We had, sometimes we had 10 countries. I forgot how many countries we had, and it was, it was wild. Stuff that we did then, hardly anyone ever did anything like that.

1:50:24 Speaker 5 At that time, yeah.

1:50:25 Speaker 2 Nah, probably not. Probably even now. I don't know. Why? Why would anyone have an event, live events around the world?

1:50:31 Speaker 5 Right.

1:50:31 Speaker 2 13... Who, who's doing that? Like-

1:50:32 Speaker 5 Yeah.

1:50:33 Speaker 2 ... I don't know. I can't imagine who was doing it, why they would do it. I mean-

1:50:35 Speaker 5 Yeah

1:50:35 Speaker 2 ... everybody see each other. You can get incoming feeds. That's easy. But doing? I don't know.

1:50:41 Speaker 5 Maybe, probably today tech- technology is-

1:50:43 Speaker 2 Today it's totally different.

1:50:44 Speaker 5 Yeah.

1:50:44 Speaker 2 There's internet. There's no doubt that all that, all that changed. Um, yeah, so a few things at Chanukah Live when the Rebbe was watching at the time, there was a problem with the audio in 770.

1:50:54 Speaker 5 The first year?

1:50:55 Speaker 2 It could be the first year, yeah. So we told the Rebbe we had recorded it, and we kn- we had a, a good copy of it. "Do you want to see it?" And he said, "Yeah." That was another time.

1:51:09 Speaker 5 The Rebbe really appreciated Chanukah Live. You could, I mean, you could tell just from the sichas-

1:51:13 Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah, yeah

1:51:13 Speaker 5 ... where the Rebbe talks about it. And literally, so literally, it's like the whole concept.

1:51:16 Speaker 2 Yeah. There's no question about it. It was, it was Rav Shternberg's idea.

1:51:19 Speaker 5 Yeah.

1:51:20 Speaker 2 And it was to his credit. Yeah. That was taking it to a whole nother level. Absolutely. And the Rebbe appreciated, yeah.

1:51:26 Speaker 5 In the three years before Chavrei Nanot, the Nun, the Nun Alf, the Beis that it happened, I think it took till Nun Beis to get the, for, for 90% of the, the technology to work, yeah.

1:51:36 Speaker 2 It was a challenge, you know. For the most part, we did stuff on a, a shoestring or even less than a shoestring. And to do it probably with the ultimate, uh, professionals is probably, you know, costs $1 million. I have no idea what-

1:51:54 Speaker 5 For the Chanukah Live?

1:51:56 Speaker 2 Maybe it's be- somewhere between half a million and $1 million, you know. It still costed a lot of money. But it was, yeah, it wasn't a cheap type of project. And even then-

1:52:05 Speaker 5 Mm-hmm

1:52:05 Speaker 2 ... my wife reminds me that I've shown her that not n- and I think I sent it to Rebbe actually And I think it was in the Wall Street Journal, maybe, maybe Time Magazine or whatever, that Ronald Reagan tried to have a similar setup where they had an interactive, and it didn't work.

1:52:22 Speaker 5 Right.

1:52:22 Speaker 2 It didn't work. They did it from Washington. The-- Well, you saw the article?

1:52:24 Speaker 5 Yeah.

1:52:25 Speaker 2 It was... Yeah, you have to look it up. It's there. They did it, and it didn't work. So I felt okay. A, a little bit, if that's an excuse or- -a mitigation of any sort.

1:52:34 Speaker 5 And then another thing you did was the Lag BaOmer parades.

1:52:36 Speaker 2 Yeah.

1:52:36 Speaker 5 You did that also, um-

1:52:38 Speaker 2 Yeah

1:52:38 Speaker 5 ... on television.

1:52:41 Speaker 2 Yeah, in fact... Yeah, so we-- The Rebbeson came then to the library a few times, and we did bring her a monitor there from what we were broadcasting, even though she can somewhat see it from where she was. And she was sitting in the room that we were discussing earlier that w- that they made, my father and Rebbeson made for the Rebbe.

1:53:00 Speaker 5 That room-

1:53:01 Speaker 2 She sat her up-

1:53:02 Speaker 5 ... the second floor

1:53:02 Speaker 2 ... in second floor. Yeah.

1:53:04 Speaker 5 That's the-

1:53:04 Speaker 2 That-

1:53:05 Speaker 5 Today, that's the-

1:53:06 Speaker 2 I don't know. You know, I haven't-- I, uh, I don't know. The exhibit? I don't know what they do there. I, I'm s-

1:53:09 Speaker 5 No, is that like the-

1:53:09 Speaker 2 I'm sorry to say, I'm embarrassed that I haven't been there in, in ten years.

1:53:13 Speaker 5 No, probably that's the room where, where, where they sit, where the librarian sits. It's a little-

1:53:17 Speaker 2 Could be. Very possible. I, I don't know. It's possible.

1:53:20 Speaker 5 Yeah.

1:53:20 Speaker 2 I don't know what... I don't know. I haven't been there.

1:53:23 Speaker 5 That was also-

1:53:23 Speaker 2 But, uh-

1:53:24 Speaker 5 ... Chanuk-- It was similar to Chanukah Live. You had then, you know, narration and, uh-

1:53:27 Speaker 2 Yeah

1:53:27 Speaker 5 ... that whole thing.

1:53:28 Speaker 2 But I, one of the big regrets I have is that, because again, we bring up about the Rebbeson. She wanted to see it. We wanted to show her at home, to see it at home. The Farbrengen, not the Lag BaOmer, Farbrengen. And we tried to do it. We tried to set it up, tried to bring a signal there to do it, and, but it didn't work. Uh, and, um, we were discussing before about, you know, sometimes it takes money. The big regret is I wanna say, "Let's do whatever it takes." We tried once or twice, you know, sent a microwave with it. The problem is from seven seventy you couldn't really see the Rebbe's house that easily. There were buildings in the corner over there that blocked. So you would have to bring equipment that had very high masts to see, you know, the, the signal and so on. I do regret that we never did that.

1:54:16 Speaker 5 But why can't it be a regular television monitor?

1:54:20 Speaker 2 There were-- At that time, there was no cable in Brooklyn.

1:54:22 Speaker 5 Oh, there was no cable.

1:54:23 Speaker 2 If there was cable in Brooklyn, we wouldn't be having the conversation right now.

1:54:25 Speaker 5 Oh, there's no cable in Brooklyn.

1:54:26 Speaker 2 There was no cable in Brooklyn then.

1:54:27 Speaker 5 They have to live in Manhattan to get cable.

1:54:29 Speaker 2 Yeah, you gotta move.

1:54:31 Speaker 5 Interesting. Okay.

1:54:32 Speaker 2 In fact, the cable station we worked with, there was a cable vision in, out in Long Island. It turned out being in, one of the biggest ones in the country. They were talking to us. I don't remember what we were using them for. We used to put the Rebbe's Farbrengen on, in Long Island. It was on Long Island in Cablevision. There was a guy there where he was high up in the, in the organization there, and then they want to get permission to come to Brooklyn. I think maybe at the end they did. I don't know. I never followed them. And they, and they called me and asked me, "You know, oh, you have big organization. You have probably connections in the, in the city and in, in Brooklyn. Maybe you can help us get, uh, cable television to Brooklyn."

1:55:06 Speaker 5 Mm-hmm.

1:55:06 Speaker 2 I'm like, "You know, we c- can you help us get the Rebbe on television?" We didn't came to help you bring television to Brooklyn.

1:55:13 Speaker 5 Yeah.

1:55:13 Speaker 2 That was like, that was not, uh, it was a bit of a, a no-go. It wasn't, uh, something we were, you know-

1:55:19 Speaker 5 Right

1:55:19 Speaker 2 ... going to do. So it was-

1:55:21 Speaker 5 But I believe one of the Chanukah Lives was on local stations also.

1:55:24 Speaker 2 Yes. Yes, it was. Yeah. I think it was Channel Nine.

1:55:26 Speaker 5 And, and-

1:55:26 Speaker 2 WOR

1:55:27 Speaker 5 ... WOR?

1:55:28 Speaker 2 Yeah.

1:55:28 Speaker 5 Local. That's-

1:55:29 Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah

1:55:29 Speaker 5 ... that's wild that that happened.

1:55:31 Speaker 2 Yeah. I mean, the boys came to and said they can do it, and I was like, "How are we..." Yeah, it was done. Yeah.

1:55:36 Speaker 5 Somehow they-

1:55:37 Speaker 2 Right

1:55:37 Speaker 5 ... the bachurim figured it out.

1:55:38 Speaker 2 Figured it out. Yeah.

1:55:39 Speaker 5 Yeah. Um, okay. So I think-

1:55:42 Speaker 2 Again, it's also only possible because the quality of what we were doing was broadcast quality, and they would accept it. You know, they wouldn't let you put something that they didn't-

1:55:50 Speaker 5 Right

1:55:51 Speaker 2 ... use. Yeah.

1:55:52 Speaker 5 Sure. Okay. So you have a binder here with, uh, various answers from the Rebbe. Um, so I think the first one is something that you mentioned already, what you wrote to the Rebbe, what the Rebbe said about, like, setting up an office-

1:56:07 Speaker 2 Oh, that one. Yeah

1:56:07 Speaker 5 ... for, for, for Jemez. I think it's, um-

1:56:12 Speaker 2 All right. It's like, uh, somewhat, I guess, personal.

1:56:16 Speaker 5 I think it's at the end.

1:56:18 Speaker 2 At the end. So you were going through the book already?

1:56:22 Speaker 5 Yeah. Here.

1:56:28 Speaker 2 So what do you wanna discuss about it?

1:56:28 Speaker 5 Can you take it out?

1:56:30 Speaker 2 Yeah.

1:56:32 Speaker 5 If you take it out, you can, you can read it. So what was the question that you wrote to the Rebbe?

1:56:47 Speaker 2 I have to read the question. I don't remember exactly. We want to set up a studio.

1:56:52 Speaker 5 Wait, wait.

1:56:53 Speaker 2 So no, it was-

1:56:53 Speaker 5 What year is this?

1:56:54 Speaker 2 Tosh"m, alef.

1:56:55 Speaker 5 So this is right in the beginning.

1:56:56 Speaker 2 Yeah.

1:56:57 Speaker 5 So you want, so you want to set up a studio.

1:56:58 Speaker 2 Yeah. We discussed earlier, and I said I had to rent all the equipment and all that. So we thought, of course, whatever, you know, we wanna set up a studio and have people and so on. Um, «foreign» I'm just reading to myself. «foreign» Yeah. It's exactly how we discussed earlier, that it ne- needs a lot of preparation and technical stuff. «foreign» I want to bring, hire two people to, to work on it. And one of them was my brother-in-law, Yossi Friedman, and the other one was Simcha Gottlieb, um, who had already experience in working in television projects. And they had worked with us on the Yutess Kislev. I'm just, again, familiarizing myself with it. Um, then I mentioned that the satellite that we used in the past a few times, uh, w- that were already booked, so. Just letting the Rebbe know we're trying to find and ask for brocha to get him, help find other satellites that have the availability. Okay. So Rebbe answers. It's funny because I don't say anything about what I'm gonna do. I said I'm gonna hire the people. Rebbe says, «foreign». And then-

1:58:23 Speaker 5 You translate as you read, as you read

1:58:25 Speaker 2 Uh, there was, "I don't see in everything you write ab-above any, uh, inyan of Parnassa, a full, a full, a full Parnassa, um, and steady for me." Uh, "Vechol ha'yesh hu snif leparnassa, most, you know, part Parnassa." And the Rebbe says, "Begiluy-ikur," underlined, the most important thing.

1:58:51 Speaker 5 At your age.

1:58:52 Speaker 2 Yeah, your a- my age. Yeah, I was 22 years old. Um, "Shidduch, a Shidduch, a nisuna-nisuin," marriage. "Vepael vechol hazotis vechayeitzebazei arei zemoshubach." And, and the most... And, and if whoever's the most diligent in, um, effectuating it is, is, is, um, meshubach, blessed. He's lucky. Fortu- he's fortunate. The word is probably, is fortunate. So shebezet hi ashai larishain. And then the first question will be is about Parnassa.

1:59:36 Speaker 5 So when-

1:59:37 Speaker 2 And Parnassa and then dot, dot, dot.

1:59:39 Speaker 5 So when you get married, Parnassa's gonna be important, and this is what-

1:59:42 Speaker 2 Yeah, but I never asked about Parnassa, and at that time I wasn't thinking about Parnassa, so this hit me like a ton of bricks. So then, "Vlo chen yisarakeis," double underline. "Therefore, you should, like, pull yourself together. You shtadel, and you should put an effort. Kidurush," like, is needed, underline. "Bazei," in this. And then, "Berag bizman hapoinim izeh," and only on your free time, "Yaaseh vechol hanal," ask HaKotzior. And then only when you're free from, I guess finding a Shidduch and getting married, then you should be involved with these things.

2:00:24 Speaker 5 As Debbie wrote this, just holding it up to the camera. So this... Okay, so you can put it down. So this is, um, you started... So that, that's when you started the Shidduchim?

2:00:39 Speaker 2 Yeah. This was Yud Aleph Tavis.

2:00:43 Speaker 5 And I know there's a story when you got engaged, what the Rebbe told your father about what happened.

2:00:46 Speaker 2 Yeah, it was actually before I got engaged, yeah.

2:00:48 Speaker 5 What happened?

2:00:49 Speaker 2 So, just to give background how it was, I don't know how you, uh, if you're... I don't know, when did you get married?

2:01:01 Speaker 5 Later.

2:01:01 Speaker 2 When, when when were you born?

2:01:03 Speaker 5 Yeah, exactly. Better question.

2:01:06 Speaker 2 Uh, I used to be the say there, typically, when someone was Matzia a Shidduch, so they Matzia to the parents or the boy to the girl or whatever it was. And each individually, the boy or the girl, used to write into the Rebbe if they should meet. If the boy should meet the girl, the girl should meet the boy. And that was the status of me. The parents wrote in, you know. So, um, and if they're, if they're answered each one yes, then they would meet, and then they would meet, and then write into Rebbe for a Bracha to get married. And sometimes the Rebbe would tell the boy yes and the girl no, or the girl yes and the boy no, which was interesting, but that's how, that's how it went. Um, so I had a chaver who had a cousin, a Mendy Deren. He was a Posner. He had a cousin that was Gorelik in Milan, and he was Matzia one of the McGorilla girls, and, um, I mentioned to my father. So one of the side benefits he had from being in Masques is the, my father had spent time, a lot of time during the day in and out of the Rebbe, and especially also he used to drive the Rebbe home or to the El and so on. So, the day after, whatever it was, within a few days of when he mentioned, I don't know if it was that day, next day, whatever, um, he mentioned to the Rebbe

2:02:50 Speaker 2 that this Hatzalah came up, and whether, and whether he should look into it, and whether he should start looking into it. And the Rebbe says yes. Okay. A day or two later, my father mentions it to me. So what I have to do is I have to write to Rebbe and see if, uh, you know, ask the Rebbe if we should meet or not meet. And then the girl does to do the same thing. It was just about Yud Shvat then. It was ju- It was already Yud-- It was Yud Shvat. It was around, around Yud Shvat. Around Yud Shvat. Um, anyway, we both get an answer, probably Yud Aleph Shvat, that we should meet. Okay. So I think on Yud Gimmel Shvat, we, we met, spent a few hours. Back then, if you go out to meet, we went to the airport. I think people, that's what they did then. Just go to the airport somewhere and meet. Spent a few hours. The next day, so I'm thinking, I think it was Yud Gimmel, Yud Daled. The next day was the Tu Bishvat Fabregen. Um, so again, I don't remember. It was Yud Gimmel, Yud Daled, and the, and the, Fabregen was Yud Daled, Tes Vav. It was Tes Vav. I don't remember the Tu-Tu Bishvat Fabregen what, when it was. Chei used to be on Tes Vav. Anyway, so the next night was a Fabregen, Al HaPanim. And then the next day, we met a second time. Before, uh, I think... Oh, we

2:04:20 Speaker 2 met a second time. The next day, the Rebbe asked, Rebbe asked my father in the car, "Vo zey tzvart mir de shidduch?" So my father says that, uh, "Ze graytn zikh, um, bring them, let my Bracha for the-"

2:04:36 Speaker 5 You only met once?

2:04:37 Speaker 2 Twice.

2:04:37 Speaker 5 Twice, twice.

2:04:37 Speaker 2 By that time we met twice.

2:04:38 Speaker 5 Mm-hmm.

2:04:41 Speaker 2 And the Rebbe was like, "Azoy shnell? Azoy vi a satellite?" It's always fascinated me how the Rebbe looked at the technical part of it, that a satellite was a... One of the things of a satellite, of course, that it covered a big area, but that it was-

2:04:53 Speaker 5 Instant

2:04:53 Speaker 2 ... instant. And that it was very, you know, how the Rebbe focused on, like, on that part.

2:04:58 Speaker 5 That your Shidduch is a, is like a satellite.

2:05:00 Speaker 2 Yeah. So that it was ins-- That it was fast. In fact, you know, sometimes when we... Just the Rebbe's point, sometimes when we had the, uh, we had the, the broadcast and it was doing-- We had the video and we had the audio with it. But some place didn't have the audio, didn't work. For some reason, we would-- they'd call in for the Chabad houses that had. We had Chabad houses that had viewings too. So they would call up and get the audio feed from New York or whatever, and they were always complaining that the video was always ahead of the audio.

2:05:26 Speaker 5 Mm-hmm.

2:05:27 Speaker 2 So it was, it was-

2:05:27 Speaker 5 Schnell

2:05:28 Speaker 2 ... it was faster. Um, so that was Rebbe's, uh, so, so then... Huh?

2:05:36 Speaker 5 Yeah. Okay.

2:05:36 Speaker 2 The next day, the next day we wrote in, this is already now, this is Yud Zaen. We wrote in, and I write my tzetl, and the, and the minyan then was, again, the boy, the, and the girl. Each one writes the pr- the possible future choson or future kallah write their tzetl. And they bring it to maskiros, and they put, like, a clip on it, and they write on it shidduch outside, which Rebbe used to give faster attention if it involved a shidduch. Rebbe would respond quickly, so it doesn't get lost with everything else and make a young couple wait and so on. So we put it in, you know. There was a place in the maskiros office they used to call the winkle. It was like a letter tray. It was still there, the letter tray. And you put it in the, uh, any mail that came for the Rebbe went into that tray. Anyone that brought a tzetl, you can put it into that tray. Any, anything that went in there, for the most part, wasn't touched or everything that was in there. Everything that went in there went into the Rebbe. So it had this clip on it that said shidduch, and that night was the night of Yechidus. The tzetl went into the Rebbe. Rebbe reads the tzetl. And it seems, at the time I didn't see, I didn't see in time what she wrote. I didn't see what she wrote. But it seemed like she wrote that, that we had

2:07:00 Speaker 2 met, and I think she said she likes what she sees, and that she wants to do what Rebbe wants her to do. Like she did, she said, "I'll das." She wants, she wants to know, wants to know... No, she wants to do whatever want-- She wants to do what Rebbe wants her to do, something to that effect. So Rebbe reads the tzetl and says, actually, the maskir then was Miyaman Klein, and he says that it says, "In ish v'es eshas el medayta."

2:07:41 Speaker 5 She has to want.

2:07:41 Speaker 2 She has to want. Yeah. Like, call her up and find out if she wants. Well, it's not, it doesn't work on the Rebbe's das. It'll be on her. Does she want or doesn't want? So, um, Rabbi Klein tracks her down and says, "Do you want?" And she said, "Yeah, yeah, I want. Yeah." Oh, so Rebbe said, the Rebbe said that, um, "Whatever she answers, write it on the envelope and put it under the door." Because it was before Yechidus, and before Yechidus, Rebbe used to close the door, and he used to dob-double lock the door. Whatever, no one came in or what. Sometimes it would be forty-five minutes, an hour, whatever it was. But he wanted to respond before Yechidus, not leave it for after Yechidus. Because he probably understood it probably, you know, could be anxious or whatever. So put it on the door, and then when he opens the door before Yechidus, the start of Yechidus, he'll have it right over the, have the tzetl. Anyway, that's what happened. She said she wants. Miyaman wrote on the Rebbe, "She's, she, she wants." And then we got an answer, you know, before Yechidus, then teva shidduch, yeah, she, he besha teva matslachas, and so on. But the point is of the story that, uh, the Rebbe said it was, uh, like a satellite, so that we forever got connected to the satellite.

2:08:51 Speaker 5 Satellite.

2:08:51 Speaker 2 Yeah.

2:08:52 Speaker 5 So back to this answer. Um, the Rebbe didn't say anything about chinuch in here. Didn't say anything about chinuch. So, I mean, so afterwards, you did the satellites, but that wasn't your only thing you were doing 'cause Rebbe told you not to, basically.

2:09:07 Speaker 2 No, it was the only thing we were doing.

2:09:09 Speaker 5 So, uh, what, what... So the Rebbe said it's not a parnasah, but you have to deal with it.

2:09:14 Speaker 2 So there's no parnasah. We're dealing with it. Um, what else one's, one's supposed to do? Yeah.

2:09:18 Speaker 5 Uh, so-

2:09:20 Speaker 2 That, the parnasah, that's another, ended up being another parshah. That was a, you know, within this time overall period was later on. But a few times Rebbe was, you know, concerned about parnasah and so on. But that's-

2:09:32 Speaker 5 Rebbe's concern for you.

2:09:33 Speaker 2 But he brought it up, yeah. But that was separately though.

2:09:37 Speaker 5 But you weren't doing anything else th-then?

2:09:41 Speaker 2 Primarily, I was doing the farbrengens. It was really, I wouldn't say full-time because there were times that, you know, two months before his letz, as it got closer to the date, I became a lot more involved.

2:09:54 Speaker 5 Right. Okay. So maybe... Can I, can I take this?

2:09:57 Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah. Take.

2:09:58 Speaker 5 All right. So I'm gonna take the binder. Before we started recording, we went through it a little bit, so I don't know if we're gonna get through everything. These are all original, uh, kiseyada of the Rebbe, most of them. Um, okay. So-

2:10:17 Speaker 2 It's not a major particularly or particular-

2:10:20 Speaker 5 Yeah, yeah. So I'm just looking through it. These are copies.

2:10:23 Speaker 2 Of course, you know, they were non, one non-binder.

2:10:25 Speaker 5 The one non-binder are copies, yeah. Um, bracha for your buying your house. Yeah.

2:10:31 Speaker 2 That was interesting there.

2:10:34 Speaker 5 You wrote to the Rebbe that this is Taf Shin Mem Gimel, that I'm in midia, that we bought the house on 585 Montgomery Street in Crown Heights.

2:10:42 Speaker 2 We're having a closing, yeah.

2:10:43 Speaker 5 We're gonna move there before Pesach. Actually, asking the Rebbe's bracha and hagashama of ruchnis in your name and your wife's name. Rebbe wrote, "Kesav yad yehi besha teva matslachas vakoel matzudot beze-"

2:10:55 Speaker 2 Non-dollar. Non-

2:10:57 Speaker 5 "... veha-"

2:10:58 Speaker 2 Oh, "vakelen."

2:10:59 Speaker 5 "Lahashka?"

2:11:01 Speaker 2 Yeah.

2:11:01 Speaker 5 "La'atzlacha-"

2:11:05 Speaker 2 Um, Karen coinvolge smich admir, non dollars. Rebbe's saying that I'm giving you $50 from the fund of the Friediker Rebbe to-

2:11:14 Speaker 5 To participate in the buying the-

2:11:15 Speaker 2 As, as an investment

2:11:16 Speaker 5 In buying the house.

2:11:17 Speaker 2 In the house. So here's a, here's a ksavia, the copy, and the copy of the $50 bill. So that will give you an investment in your house on Montgomery Street. Um-

2:11:25 Speaker 5 Yeah, so, um, I have a big debate with wife about that. She's like, "So don't bring it." Said, "Why did you deposit that $50?" I said, "It's from the answer. It was very clear. You have to, it was the last call. You have to deposit them. That's from the Karen. That's where the broch is." She's like, "Could've, uh, exchanged it." So I have a bunch of answers where the Rebbe s- gives us dollars and says, "Lahaklif, you can change it."

2:11:45 Speaker 2 Right.

2:11:45 Speaker 5 This one, the Rebbe didn't say lahaklif, and he didn't, and he said lashko, so.

2:11:48 Speaker 2 Yeah. You have a copy of it.

2:11:50 Speaker 5 Yeah.

2:11:51 Speaker 2 Okay. Um.

2:11:54 Speaker 5 There's nothing from the-

2:11:55 Speaker 2 That's a little, uh, that's a little chopped up, I see, but that was-

2:11:58 Speaker 5 It's not even the Rebbe on this, but this is-

2:12:00 Speaker 2 No, there are other one... Yeah, this is-

2:12:01 Speaker 5 This is like a schematic-

2:12:02 Speaker 2 Exactly

2:12:02 Speaker 5 ... diagram-

2:12:04 Speaker 2 I wanna look

2:12:04 Speaker 5 ... of, schematic it's called, of the Chanukah Live of the 12, 12 satellites. So you gave this one-

2:12:12 Speaker 2 That's only part of it. Yeah, that, that's not a good copy, yeah.

2:12:14 Speaker 5 Right, you gave it in to the Rebbe.

2:12:15 Speaker 2 Right.

2:12:16 Speaker 5 Um-

2:12:16 Speaker 2 By the way, the Rebbe said to make a book of Chanukah Live. Um, did you ever see the book?

2:12:20 Speaker 5 Yeah, a beautiful book.

2:12:21 Speaker 2 Yeah.

2:12:21 Speaker 5 And they have a much nicer schematic in the, in the book.

2:12:24 Speaker 2 Yeah, this, this was actual schematic. That one was just a-

2:12:26 Speaker 5 It's an artist. Yeah. Okay, so this is an answer that the Rebbe wrote. He wrote that tonight from eight o'clock there's going to be a satellite on cable te-television in the whole United States, including New York. Parts of the farbrengen of Yo's Tammuz with a preface of explanation about Lubavitch. That's another thing that you started doing-

2:12:51 Speaker 2 It's the first time-

2:12:52 Speaker 5 ... is having like a small program bef-

2:12:54 Speaker 2 Pre-program, yeah

2:12:54 Speaker 5 ... a pre-program before the satellite-

2:12:56 Speaker 2 Nine o'clock, yeah

2:12:57 Speaker 5 ... and the Rebbe's answering, 'cause I have, yeah, this is a copy. Have a peh mamish, question mark. What's the peh mamish?

2:13:03 Speaker 2 Exactly. So I must tell you, the answers on the, on, on the farbrengen, uh, the amount of ha-ha peh, ha peh mamish I have, tens, tens. Every single farbrengen, I want to know the peh mamish.

2:13:15 Speaker 5 So what, what did you take that to mean?

2:13:18 Speaker 2 I, some things I didn't always understand. Why? First of all, it was a doch. I meant a doch. So also interesting. So I would write him before the farbrengen that should be, uh, batzlocha. So I'd get out an answer e-either right away, whatever, but always said something peh mamish. After the, after the farbrengen, the Rebbe went home. In the car, this is half hour after the farbrengen, whatever, he always tell my father, "Give it a zon, as a sheibna doch." Always.

2:13:51 Speaker 5 Rebbe wanted-

2:13:52 Speaker 2 I want-

2:13:52 Speaker 5 ... tell your father tell you to write a doch.

2:13:54 Speaker 2 Tell my father, tell me to write it. It was wai- I was waiting for a doch. And with time, it got, it got harder and harder what, you know, to make the doch because a lot of it was, you know, involved, you know, how the shidduch was and so on, how many stations. But, uh, it was to get reports back was not always so easy from people. I mean, I only s- try to understand. I, my only figure that Rebbe wants to know. He spent hours talking what was the peh mamish, uh, you know. And if it was an actual question, would need an actual answer, but, uh, or was a bit rhetorical, but the Rebbe definitely wanted reports.

2:14:30 Speaker 5 Reports.

2:14:30 Speaker 2 And if I gave a report and I said, "This is the kitsa," the Rebbe said, "Please give me-"

2:14:34 Speaker 5 Oh, yeah. So that, that's one of the ones you have.

2:14:35 Speaker 2 "The whole, the whole long-"

2:14:36 Speaker 5 So, so I have a question. So this one is a copy also, but it's a lot of an- a lot of a- answers from the Rebbe in this letter, and it's also connected to names-

2:14:47 Speaker 2 Right, with people-

2:14:48 Speaker 5 ... of people that called.

2:14:49 Speaker 2 Right.

2:14:50 Speaker 5 So maybe look at it and tell me what's this whole thing with the, with the list of the people that are, that are calling? Like what, what's that-