Ep. 92 // "One More Bochur in Yeshiva" w/ Reb Yitzchok Gniwisch

00:00 Speaker 1 So there's this guy sitting behind the counter, and he sees me coming with my father towards the yeshiva. So he gets up, comes to the counter, and he calls us over, "Shalom aleichem." Like shalom, "How can I help you?" So my father said, "I brought my son. Maybe you will take him in to the yeshiva, and I have a letter here." He said, "Oh, shalom aleichem. Come inside. Come in. Come, sit down." My father gives him the, the letter. He reads the letter, and he finishes the letter and closes it up, and he puts it down, and he says, "Oh, Baruch Hashem. Noch a bochur in yeshiva."

00:47 Speaker 2 Welcome to Homesick for Lubavitch, a podcast where we explore Lubavitch identity in the year two thousand and twenty-six. My name is Bentzi Apfason, and I will be your host. Let's begin. All righty. We are here in Montreal with a very special episode with Rabbi Yitzchak Gnewech, who agreed to come on this podcast, and we are very thankful to you for agreeing to share your story with us. This is a, a very special, very special conversation that we hope to have over here. Before we begin, for all those who like this podcast, please like and subscribe on the various platforms. It helps us tremendously. And if you really like the podcast, please go to hflpodcast.com/donate to help support the podcast. Rabbi Yitzchak, thank you very much.

01:42 Speaker 1 You're welcome.

01:43 Speaker 2 So we were, we were having dinner earlier, and you were beginning to share your story, which, which made it, which made it impossible to not ask again for us to have this conversation. Let's begin from where you were talking about, about the amazing story of how your family was saved really by the Germans.

02:03 Speaker 1 Well, it was saved by the Russians.

02:06 Speaker 2 Right. But the Germans were the ones that shoved them onto the train, right?

02:09 Speaker 1 Yeah. But, uh-

02:11 Speaker 2 Right. So why don't you tell the story from the beginning?

02:15 Speaker 1 Well, you want-- Which parashiot do you want me to start?

02:22 Speaker 2 At the be... Well, the just the, the framing of the story I think is-

02:25 Speaker 1 Well-

02:25 Speaker 2 Your family was in Sanz.

02:26 Speaker 1 Well, we, uh, ori- originally lived in Sanz before the war, my whole family. We were a very big family, the family Gnewech in Sanz. We actually live... There was two cities of Sanz. There was Old Sanz and New Sanz. We lived in Old Sanz. And when the war broke out, and apparently the Germans sold to the Russians because they were, like actually they were going together. They sold a hundred thousand Jewish slaves to be transported to Russia to cut down the forests and, uh, provide them with, with, uh, wood for, for heating and so on. And the way it happened that we ended up in Russia was that my father was coming back from somewhere. He was coming home, and the Germans already parked this cattle train on the train station. And wherever they saw a Jew, they just caught him, and they made him go into those trains. My father was coming home from somewhere, and apparently they saw him coming. They caught him. They threw him into that train. Out-- There was no way out. When my uncle, my father's brother, Rav Shalom Nusen, saw that my father's not coming home, he went out to look for him. And as he went out, they spotted him, and they threw him, him into the cattle, uh, train. Then his brother-in-law, Rav Leib Brandstofer, Rav Shalom, saw that they're both not coming back. He went out to look for them. Again, they threw him into the, to the cattle train, and he didn't come back.

04:40 Speaker 1 In the house, it seems to be there was a whole that whoever leaves doesn't come back. So, uh, my uncle, uh, uh, Rav Leib, had two sons, and the two sons went out to look for the three that didn't come back. And as they went out, they threw them in there too. The only people that were left in the house was my mother and me as a baby, I was six months old, and my grandmother. When my mother saw that nobody's coming back, she gets really worried, so she went out holding me in her hand, looking for my father and everybody else. And my grandmother was very worried that my woth-- my mother should go herself. So she went out too, and as they were walking, looking around what's happening, they caught them t-- as well, and they put them in the train. Then I don't know whether it was the same day, but eventually the train left, and it went to Siberia. And when we got to Siberia, they unloaded the Jews into a forest, and we were there for quite a, a long time. I don't kn- know how long My mother died in that forest. And then after the war, some of the people who stayed alive came back. From our family, the only ones that stayed alive was myself and my father. My mother died there from hunger. My father's brother, Nusen, my father's brother-in-law, Leib, both of his sons died from hunger in the, in the forest. And we came

06:40 Speaker 1 back-

06:42 Speaker 2 So the brother of Nusen survived?

06:44 Speaker 1 Survived, yes.

06:44 Speaker 2 So your father and Nusen were-

06:45 Speaker 1 Yeah

06:45 Speaker 2 ... the only two brothers.

06:46 Speaker 1 The only two brothers, and my grandmother survived.

06:49 Speaker 2 Oh, your grandmother survived.

06:50 Speaker 1 My grandmother survived, and his brother-in-law, Leib, also survived. But the two sons and my mother died from hunger in that forest. So we came back to Poland, and we were in Poland, I'm not sure, it was a very long time ago. I think we were there either for three years or for four years, and then the communists came in, and all the Eden started immigrating to Eretz Israel. And we came, my father, myself, my father's brother, Nusen, my, uh, uh, f- uncle Leib. My grandmother died in the city. The city that we came back to was actually a German city. It was called Breslau. In Polish, it's called Wrocław. And she died in, in that city. She's buried there. But we got a chance to go to Eretz Israel, so we came to Eretz Israel. We came, it was like a Gan Eden from what we went through and what we went through in Poland after the war with the, with the anti-Semiten, with the beatings and all that, that was already after the war. We came to Eretz Israel, so it was like a Gan Eden. And really the government at that time, they had nothing, but they provided everything for everybody. There was absorption centers. They were called Bet Olim. Not a bet haolam like a cemetery, but the Bet Olim, the, a place for the newcomers. And we, so they, f- first we were in a absorption center in Haifa when we got off the boat, and then we were transferred to

08:57 Speaker 1 Yerushalayim. We were in a place called, it was called Givat Shaul Gimel or Givat Shaul Beit, something like that. Anyway, we were there. We, there we got food every day. We got whatever everyone needed the government provided. And then from there, the people found jobs, and they moved, uh, everywhere, wherever they can find something, or they find relatives, and they moved where the relatives were. My father got a job working on the 10 Tel Aviv-Yerushalayim. So when we were in the absorption center, he used to go and, and work, and, uh, he lived in a tent right by the road, and he used to sleep there. He used to come home sometimes to the absorption center. And my father arranged for me to go to a cheder from there. There was a cheder. It was called Etz Chaim.

10:09 Speaker 2 In Yerushalayim?

10:10 Speaker 1 Yerushalayim. They-- I must, I don't know how old I was, but I must have been between nine and ten years old.

10:19 Speaker 2 And the other kids were also similar backgrounds, orphans, or?

10:22 Speaker 1 No, no. In that, uh, uh, Etz Chaim, they were Yerushalayim-nikie kids.

10:28 Speaker 2 Uh-huh.

10:29 Speaker 1 So I went to that, uh, uh, to that school, but I, since I didn't know how to read yet or learn Chumash or anything, they put me in in the first grade for about two or three weeks till I learned Alef Bet and a little bit of reading. Then they transferred me into a higher grade, into second grade. And we st- I stayed there, I don't know for how long, until I learned how to understand a little bit of Gemara.

11:07 Speaker 2 This is the first time you're going to school in your life, right?

11:09 Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah. That's the first time.

11:10 Speaker 2 You were in the war the whole time.

11:11 Speaker 1 Yeah, for, yeah, no school till then.

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12:15 Speaker 1 I learned already a little bit about, uh, about learning. My father found a place in Yerushalayim, in Katamon. It was called Batei Avot. Not a old age place. It was a place for y- children, yesorimim, who just came to us as well, and it was like a dormitory, and they had a yeshiva a few streets away. It was called Knesses Bnei HaGola. My father took me to this, uh, children's home. They accepted me, and the, the, the ch- all the kids from that children's home used to go to learn in this Knesses Bnei HaGola. We-- Th- that, uh, yeshiva had two classes. They had a beginner's class and a second class. I started in the beginner's class, and I don't remember the name of my teacher, but I remember the person who was, uh, running this, this children's home. His name was Shapira. And, uh, they arranged that we should all go to this yeshiva from the all the yesorimim, and the, the person who was head of this yeshiva was-- his name was, um, forgot. Anyway, I was in that yeshiva for two years, or for one and a half years, and I stayed in that dormitory. When I graduated from the second, from the higher class, they didn't have any more, uh, classes for, for the kids that graduated, so everybody was going to a, to a real yeshiva. So my father tried to get me to a yeshiva, but a regular yeshiva I couldn't go because we were already out of the

14:29 Speaker 1 absorption center, because my father was sleeping in the tent on the road as he was working. I was in the dormitory. So the only place that I can go is a yeshiva that has a dormitory. So my father went with me in Yerushalayim to one or two or three, I don't remember. Wherever we went, they said they'll accept me, but I don't qualify for... It was called Aliyat Hano'ar. Aliyat Hano'ar was where the government took all the kids that came themselves that had no parents. The government took them. They took care of them. They put them into schools that had dormitories and, uh, and provided for the kids food and everything. But if someone had one parent, they didn't qualify for this program of the government, Aliyat Hano'ar. So if, if a yeshiva would have taken me and, uh, they had to get paid. They wouldn't get paid from the government because I had one parent, so they couldn't, uh, take me in. They didn't have so much money to take me in for free. They said if my father can pay, they'll be glad-- they'll give him a discount, but he has to pay. My father didn't have any money to pay. So he wrote, in those days it was called a gluyah, which means a postcard. He wrote a postcard to my uncle, who got a job as a, as a, uh, shomer, as a watchman in Petah Tikva. He wrote him a, a card and he said, "What can I do? Do

16:25 Speaker 1 you have any idea where can I place my son, Yitzchak?" So after a few days, we get back a card from my uncle that he has a friend who's running one of these pnimiyot, one of these, uh, yeshivas that have a, a dormitory, and he spoke to him, and he agreed to take me in without payment.

16:55 Speaker 2 What kind of yeshiva was this?

16:56 Speaker 1 It was a yeshiva was w- that was running by the Poalei Mizrahi. Poalei Mizrahi.

17:07 Speaker 2 The Zionists.

17:08 Speaker 1 It was a, yeah, a yeshiva for the Mizrahi, which were religious Zionists.

17:13 Speaker 2 Right.

17:15 Speaker 1 So we decided that my father's gonna go with me for Shabbos to my uncle in Petah Tikva, and, uh, on Sunday we'll go, and he'll take me to this, uh, to this place. So we got on Friday, we got to Petah Tikva, and my uncle had a apartment. It was probably, the apartment was, uh, a hundred and fifty square feet, and he had a balcony, no kitchen or anything. There were, like, three or four families in that house, and everybody was cooking in the same kitchen. But my uncle was lucky he had a balcony, so they were cooking on the balcony, so-

18:06 Speaker 2 Your uncle had remarried at this point?

18:08 Speaker 1 He, he, uh, my uncle was remarried. He had a wife and, and they lived in this-

18:14 Speaker 2 Apartment

18:15 Speaker 1 ... room. It's, uh, was a room.

18:17 Speaker 2 A room of an apartment, yeah.

18:18 Speaker 1 So when we came, they put up a curtain-

18:21 Speaker 2 Right

18:21 Speaker 1 ... so we can sleep behind the curtain. And Friday night we have to go to shul, and it's klopping, it's a terrible rain outside. So my uncle says that the shul where he davens is about 15 minutes walk. We can't go in this rain. He suggests that we stay at home. We daven at home 'cause of the rain. So my u- my father said to my uncle, "How can we daven Friday night at home? No minyan. Is there no shul closer than the shul that you always go to?" So my uncle says, "There is a place here." It says, "Beis Haknesses Chabad." So I say, my father says, "So let's go there." He says, "No, no." In those days, people came from Iraq, from Yemen, from everywhere. He says, "Uh, it probably not our nusach. It could be the Sephardim, the, could be the Yemenites. It's not, it's not, uh, our nusach." My father says, "It says Beis Haknesses. How wrong can you go? Let's go." And anyway, they had a disagreement, and finally my father convinced my uncle that we should go to this Beis Haknesses, which was three or four doors down. Anyway, so we take a run, and we run in the rain. We come to this Beis Haknesses, and we open the door. As soon as we open the door, somebody comes to the door, and he says, "Shalom Aleichem." Aleichem Shalom. "Kum ta rain, kum ta rain." Come in, come in. So we go in, and he says, "Shalom Aleichem,

20:14 Speaker 1 where do you live?" So my father says, "I came from Jerusalem." My uncle says, "I live down the block." He says, "Nu, vos tut ir?" So my uncle tells him that he's, uh, he's a shomer, and my father tells him he works on the road in Tel Aviv. So he looks at my father, my uncle, and looks at me, and he says, he says to him, "And vos tut ir mit a yingle? What are you doing with your young fellow here?" So my father says, uh, he was in Jerusalem. He learned, and now he's finished. There's no more place for him. We're taking him here to a place that was right near Petah Tikva. I don't remember what the name, something Ganim.

21:01 Speaker 3 Kfar.

21:02 Speaker 1 What? Kfar?

21:03 Speaker 2 Kfar Ganim.

21:04 Speaker 1 Kfar Ganim. And, uh, over there, they agreed to take him in, and, uh, we're gonna leave him there. So the guy looks at my uncle, he mit a beard, and looks at my father, and-

21:18 Speaker 2 So both your father and your uncle both had-

21:20 Speaker 1 No, my father didn't have a beard, only my uncle.

21:23 Speaker 2 Your uncle kept a beard after-

21:24 Speaker 1 Huh?

21:25 Speaker 2 After the war, your fath- your uncle kept a beard.

21:27 Speaker 1 Uh, m- my uncle kept a beard the whole war. And he look at my father, looks at me, and he says to my father, "This is a gute platz, but this is nit far eich." Which means it's a very nice place, but it's not, from what I see who you are, it's not exactly what you're looking for. So my father says, "Listen, I tried this yeshiva, that yeshiva, and that yeshiva. They all were ready to take him in, but, uh, they wanted money, and I have no money. I make only..." I don't remember. He said two, two liras or something like that. And I can hardly buy food, and I have no money to pay. So he says, "You know what? We, Chabad, has a yeshiva in Lod. Come after Shabbos. I'm gonna give you a letter to that yeshiva, and I promise you they'll take him in." He says, "Without money?" He says, "Don't worry, you won't have to even talk about money. They'll take him right away." My uncle looks at my father and like, you know, like he was smiling at him, you know? The guy tells you a nice story. So anyway, we c- came in, we sat down, davened, and my uncle and my father had a discussion because my uncle said to him, "You're not taking him anywhere. You're gonna take him there, you're gonna lose the place that I arranged for you, and, uh, they're not gonna accept him. He tells you a story. He's not the balabos

23:16 Speaker 1 there. You better stick to our original plan." Anyway, they had a disagreement. Shabbos morning, we already... There was no rain. We went to my uncle's shul, which was the Sandzer shtiebel. We daven, we came home after schul the Shabbos, and then for Mincha, my father says, "Let's go back to this Chabad place." My uncle says, "I'm not going. What do you wanna go for?" He says, "The guy said that, you know, he's gonna arrange that they should take Itzchak into yeshiva." My uncle started arguing with him. He says, "I did-- I worked so hard for two weeks to get this guy to agree to take him in without payment. Now you're gonna destroy the whole, the whole plan. What are you doing?" And my father says, "Listen, I wanna take... If this is a real yeshiva that, where he should go to, I wanna take him, and this..." And my uncle said... Anyway, my father again convinced him that they should go to daven Mincha in this Chabad. We come there, and this guy who was, met us the day before is also there. He was so happy to see us. Kum ta rains. Anyway, we davened Mincha.

24:38 Speaker 2 He was a rav of the shul?

24:39 Speaker 1 No, he was, his name was Levin. He was, there was a, a very chushuve Chabad, um, uh, chassid in Petach Tikva. His name was, his name was, uh, Rabbi Avrom Paris.

24:59 Speaker 2 Oh, sure, sure.

25:00 Speaker 1 Okay.

25:01 Speaker 2 Ephraim Wolf's father-in-law.

25:02 Speaker 1 Right. So he was the f- son, uh, he was the son-in-law of this Rabbi Avrom Pari- uh, Rabbi Avrom Paris.

25:12 Speaker 2 Oh, so he's a brother-

25:12 Speaker 1 It's Levin

25:13 Speaker 2 ... brother-in-law with Ephraim Wolf.

25:14 Speaker 1 So it seems like that, yeah. Anyway, so he met us again, and we'd have Mincha, we had Shalosh Udres, and we'd have Maariv. And after Maariv, he says to us, "Komt." In other words, "Come." He takes us, uh, to a table, and he says we should sit down. He goes to a cupboard, he takes out... opens the cupboard, takes out a piece of paper and a pencil, and he starts writing. He's writing, he's writing, he's writing. He finish writing, he folds over the paper and he says, "Dorod tir. Here is this letter. When you get there tomorrow morning, give it to the people in the office, and I promise you that they'll take on your son." So my uncle says to him, he says, "You know, what you're doing is really destroying this whole thing. They're not gonna take him. I'm gonna lose the arrangements that I made. And what are we gonna do? What are we gonna do with our son? Where are we gonna put him? You're killing the whole plan."

26:25 Speaker 2 So your uncle looked at you as, like, his son too?

26:28 Speaker 1 Yeah, because I was the only one survived.

26:30 Speaker 2 You were the only one, yeah.

26:32 Speaker 1 So the guy says, "I promise you they will take him in. If they won't take him in, come in back here, and I promise you I will pay for any yeshiva, promise you." Anyway, my father takes the-

26:52 Speaker 2 You remember this fellow?

26:53 Speaker 1 I met him many times when I went to Eitz HaZohar.

26:56 Speaker 2 Well, he was a businessman? He was-

26:58 Speaker 1 Yeah, he had... Eventually, he had a restaurant in Tel Aviv, him and his brother.

27:05 Speaker 2 Uh-huh.

27:05 Speaker 1 Levin Brothers, they had a restaurant in Tel Aviv, where we went once to eat in their place.

27:12 Speaker 2 Oh, yeah?

27:13 Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah.

27:14 Speaker 2 So he, so he wa- he was just a, another do- another in the sh-

27:18 Speaker 1 Another in the shul, yeah. So, uh, he gave us this letter, and we went home, and there was a whole discussion motzei Shabbos, a hin and a her, and a hin and a her. Finally, my father convinced my uncle that we should take a chance. "If it's not gonna work," he says, "this guy promised he's gonna place me in a yeshiva, and he's gonna pay." And my uncle's laughing like, you know, "This guy promised you. Who do you know? Does he know you? Where did you meet him?"

27:54 Speaker 2 Yeah. Where, where, where are you going to collect the promise?

27:57 Speaker 1 It's a joke. And my father said, "No, I wanna try." Anyway, Sunday morning, my father takes me. There was a, a train to... I don't remember whether it was a direct train or... Anyway, we came to Lod by train. The train stop was on a elevated place, and there were steps to go down, and as you get- went down from the steps, you were facing the building of the yeshiva. So we went straight over to there. And in those days, in Israel, the... when there was a door and there was a office, the door was cut in half. The top, you could open the top part, and the bottom part stayed closed, and it had like a, a, a piece of wood, like a counter. So there's this guy sitting behind the counter, and he sees me coming with my father towards the yeshiva. So he gets up, comes to the counter, and he calls us over, "Shalom aleichem." "Aleichem shalom." "How can I help you? So my father said, "I brought my son. Maybe you will take him in to the yeshiva, and I have a letter here." He said, "Oh, shalom aleichem. Come in. Come, sit down." Anyway, my father gives him the, the letter. He reads the letter, and he finishes the letter and closes it up, and he puts it down and he says, "Oh, Baruch Hashem. "

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30:55 Speaker 1 My father was like, "You ?" You take him in? "Sure. Noch a bocher, Baruch Hashem, noch a bocher, tzugikumen. Noch a bocher came to, uh, an addition to our yeshiva. He was so happy.

31:13 Speaker 2 Who, who was this?

31:15 Speaker 1 His, his name was Chanoch Glitenschneid.

31:18 Speaker 2 Oh.

31:19 Speaker 1 He wrote a few seforim afterwards. He was the secretary of the yeshiva.

31:25 Speaker 2 Yeah, sure.

31:26 Speaker 1 So my father said, "Thank you, sir. Ich hem heym nemen. Ich hem bringen nem a bisel kleider." So home was unzetan. So he says, "No, no, da-"

31:36 Speaker 2 One second. Th-that, that means that your father want take you home to get some clothes.

31:40 Speaker 1 To take me to my uncle, because he had a suitcase that he brought for me.

31:44 Speaker 2 Right, of clothes.

31:44 Speaker 1 But he didn't take it with to the yeshiva because he didn't ta- think... Uh, he wasn't sure that they're gonna take me in, you know?

31:52 Speaker 2 Right.

31:52 Speaker 1 He took a chance.

31:53 Speaker 2 Right.

31:53 Speaker 1 He, he would go. So he says, "No, no, you don't. Hashem, kommt mit mir." In other words, "Come with me." He takes us in the back of the building, and there was also a counter there, and there's a lady behind it, behind the counter. And he says to her, "Rebbetzin Diskin," I remember her name. "Mir oman a nayem bocher in yeshiva, un er darf kleider." "Oh, sure, oh, sure." So she goes to this, uh, the, the, uh... In the back, there was, like, pigeonholes, cupboards. And she comes back with two sacks of clothes, and she says, "This is deine vokhendike kleider, and this is deine Shabbos kleider. Fraytag vestu nemen aroyfs die Shabbos kleider. Es dareyligen deine vokhendike kleider," the clothes I came in. "Un vest du's bringen, mir wellen dos oysvashen. Un du az noch Shabbos, vest du trogn die vokhendike kleider," the other bag I should put on.

33:05 Speaker 2 I'll translate it after, yeah.

33:06 Speaker 1 And, and nokh dem Fraytag vest du tsug bringen. So that Sunday I had to bring back the Shabbos clothes to her, and I had to bring back my clothes, which I took off.

33:20 Speaker 2 So one second, I'll translate. So she told... She gave you two bags. One bag was weekday clothes, and one bag was Shabbos.

33:26 Speaker 1 And one bag was Shabbos clothes.

33:27 Speaker 2 And she told you, you would come back to wash-

33:30 Speaker 1 To wa- to bring back my clothes to wash, to wear the clothes she gave me-

33:35 Speaker 2 Right

33:35 Speaker 1 ... on Shabbos, and then on Sunday to change into the clothes that the second bag and bring back the Shabbos clothes.

33:44 Speaker 2 To wash it for the next Shabbos.

33:45 Speaker 1 Yeah, and the next week, this is how every week I got clothes, and, uh, they cleaned the, the clothes I was wearing, and that's, that's how I stayed in the Lod yeshiva.

33:57 Speaker 2 So she was, like, the yeshiva mother?

33:58 Speaker 1 She was the, the, the mother of the yeshiva.

34:02 Speaker 2 Yeah.

34:02 Speaker 1 She was called the mother of the yeshiva.

34:04 Speaker 2 My, my alta bubbe had a similar job in a different school, Lazarov. Not, not in that school, but a different school.

34:10 Speaker 1 In, in Israel, right?

34:11 Speaker 2 Yeah, she had a similar job.

34:13 Speaker 1 Yeah. So anyway-

34:14 Speaker 2 Uh, but just to remind everybody, you, you... They were calling you a bocher, but you were sachakel, 10 years old, right?

34:20 Speaker 1 Yeah, I was, uh, probably... I was before bar mitzvah.

34:24 Speaker 2 Before bar mitzvah.

34:25 Speaker 1 Maybe, maybe I was 11 already.

34:27 Speaker 2 Okay.

34:27 Speaker 1 Because I learned in that yeshiva in Jerusalem. Anyway, so I learned in the, in the yeshiva in Lod. I think I learned there for two years. Now, the Seder in, uh, in the, uh, in Poland, when we came back from, from Russia, that people were going every day to the train and, uh, uh... Because the people were coming from Russia, and they didn't know whether their families were sent to Russia or they l- were left in Poland. They were going to the train and screaming, "Do you know a Gnevis? Do you know a Brandsdorfer? Do you know, uh, whatever it is?" And that's how we were always looking if there was anybody left alive.

35:26 Speaker 2 You were telling me before that there was a few hundred Gnevises, right?

35:30 Speaker 1 There was a few. So we were looking-

35:32 Speaker 2 But there was a few hundred before the war

35:33 Speaker 1 ... uh, in, before, in Sans, there was 400 family mem-members.

35:38 Speaker 2 Gnevis.

35:39 Speaker 1 Gnevis. Today, Baruch Hashem, I have, I have hundred and 60 or hundred and 70 here with the Ur eyniklekh.

35:50 Speaker 2 So you're well on your way back to 400.

35:52 Speaker 1 We will reach it. But we had 400. So we were going, my father and my uncle were going every day to the trains and screaming, "Do you know anybody?" Anyway, we never got an answer. When we came to Israel, there was a newspaper there. It was called Maariv.

36:13 Speaker 2 Sure.

36:14 Speaker 1 In America, there was a newspaper called the Tuch Morgn Journal.

36:19 Speaker 2 Sure.

36:20 Speaker 1 They had a column on the right side in the Maariv, in the Tuch Morgn Journal, where it was written, "Kroiven Gesiicht."

36:31 Speaker 2 Uh-huh.

36:31 Speaker 1 In other words, whoever was looking for, uh, relatives, send the name into the newspaper in Israel, and the people in, uh, uh, in, uh, i-in America send their name that they are looking. And that's how people found relatives. My father did the same thing. Week after week after week, our name appeared in the Morgn Journal, and my aunt appeared in the- In the Ma'ariv

37:06 Speaker 2 Oh, that's how they found each other

37:07 Speaker 1 That's how they found each other. So one, uh, uh, one day, my father gets a postcard from the United States, and it's written to him, Pinchas. And the lady writes, "I am Mariam, uh, uh, Gold- Go- Goldfarb. I am the sister of your, your wife. Is she alive, and who else is alive with you?" My father got this postcard, so he right away wrote her back that, "My mother is not alive, but he is alive, and I'm alive, and, and Nussin and, and Leib are alive." So she writes back, "Tell, uh, tell me, do you need anything? I will send you if you need any food or anything like that."

38:01 Speaker 2 How, how had she survived?

38:03 Speaker 1 She was in, uh, in, uh, Auschwitz.

38:05 Speaker 2 Your aunt?

38:06 Speaker 1 Yeah.

38:07 Speaker 2 And then she made her way to America?

38:09 Speaker 1 She was in Fernwald in Germany in the absorption camp.

38:13 Speaker 2 Right.

38:13 Speaker 1 And then she was, uh, came with the clothes and with the rabbit to the United States, and she got married in Fernwald to my uncle.

38:23 Speaker 2 In a, in a, in a-

38:24 Speaker 1 In Germany

38:24 Speaker 2 ... in Germany.

38:25 Speaker 1 In Germany.

38:26 Speaker 2 And she lived in America?

38:27 Speaker 1 She lived in Brooklyn.

38:28 Speaker 2 In Brooklyn.

38:29 Speaker 1 In Brooklyn. He was a closet booker host, and, uh, they lived in Brooklyn. He w- He had a butcher store. Anyway, we got this, uh, the thing. They started corresponding. Everything was corresponded was by postcard because it was the cheapest to send. At one point, my, uh, my aunt wrote to my father, "Since you haven't got a wife, if you want, I have no children. I'm ready to take your truck and to take care of him in America." She wrote to my father. At that point, my father got married, but I couldn't be at home because they... First of all, they had a terrible where they lived. It was like if you stand up, you couldn't stand up. It was like terrible place. And, uh, she was not very happy with, with me. So my father wrote back to her that, "If you're ready to take him, I'm ready to send him."

39:45 Speaker 2 She, of course, had never met you before.

39:47 Speaker 1 No. No, never.

39:49 Speaker 2 She wasn't even with you in that time when they took you-

39:52 Speaker 1 No, she was in Auschwitz camp. She was-

39:54 Speaker 2 Before the, before they took your father off the street

39:56 Speaker 1 Before the war, she didn't even-

39:58 Speaker 2 Ah. Ah

40:00 Speaker 1 So she agreed to take me if my father agrees to send me. So the correspondence went back and forth until she found a yeshiva in the United States that had the right to give student papers, and that was the Torah Vodaas in Brooklyn.

40:22 Speaker 2 Right.

40:23 Speaker 1 So my uncle went to Torah Vodaas, and the, the, the Rov there agreed to send me student papers.

40:32 Speaker 2 Was that Mendel Lovitch?

40:33 Speaker 1 I don't know.

40:34 Speaker 2 Right.

40:37 Speaker 1 We got the, the student papers. We went to the American Embassy, but it took about a year, a year and three months from the time we got the pa- the, the-

40:52 Speaker 2 The affidavit

40:53 Speaker 1 ... the affidavit till I was able to leave. It took... So meanwhile, I became bar mitzvah and, uh, and everything, and I was in, in, in Lod-

41:05 Speaker 2 And, uh-

41:06 Speaker 1 ... that whole time.

41:06 Speaker 2 Who, who was... Just, just before we continue with America, who, who was the... Who were the teachers of Lod? Who were the-

41:13 Speaker 1 Oh, Melech Kaplan, olavo Shalom. He has a son here in Montreal.

41:18 Speaker 2 Oh, the Rosh Yeshiva?

41:19 Speaker 1 Rosh Yeshiva, yeah. I was b- I have a friend here who was with me in yeshiva, Rabbi Leibovitz, alav ha-shalom, and, uh, in New York, uh, there are still a few that are alive. Leib Svadlov. You know Leib Svadlov?

41:36 Speaker 2 Svadlov. Svadlov.

41:37 Speaker 1 Svadlov, yeah.

41:39 Speaker 2 So-

41:39 Speaker 1 He has a son in that school

41:40 Speaker 2 ... so, so this Rabbi Melech Kaplan, he was a melamed?

41:43 Speaker 1 He was my teacher, yeah.

41:45 Speaker 2 Who else was there?

41:46 Speaker 1 Uh,

41:47 Speaker 2 This was connected to the, the yeshiva in general, Shlom Echaim?

41:50 Speaker 1 That was the main yeshiva in Lod.

41:52 Speaker 2 So Shlom Echaim and all that whole-

41:53 Speaker 1 Yeah. They were in the pardes. There was two b- buildings. There was the Tachanaat Ha'akevet, where the younger kids were. And-

42:02 Speaker 2 It was literally in the train station?

42:04 Speaker 1 Yeah.

42:05 Speaker 2 It was in the train station.

42:06 Speaker 1 Not in the... You came down from the... It was in the city, but you came down from the train station. You walked about fifty steps-

42:14 Speaker 2 And you were there

42:15 Speaker 1 ... and that was the yeshiva.

42:16 Speaker 2 Uh-huh. And the pardes? Where was-

42:18 Speaker 1 Pardes was inside, in- inside a pardes.

42:21 Speaker 2 Oh, so it was on an, it was on an actual orchard.

42:24 Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was like ten minutes walk from here. There was one of the bochum got killed by a Arab walking from the yeshiva to the pardes.

42:35 Speaker 2 Really?

42:35 Speaker 1 Yeah.

42:36 Speaker 2 Was it... Were you at all, um, connected with the two, the two-

42:40 Speaker 1 Yes. Uh, on Shabbos, we used to go... For Shabbos, we used to go to the pardes.

42:45 Speaker 2 Uh-huh.

42:46 Speaker 1 Because, uh, we used to eat together with all the bochum.

42:50 Speaker 2 So you-

42:51 Speaker 1 But we had-

42:51 Speaker 2 The young, the younger boys would eat with the-

42:53 Speaker 1 Yeah

42:53 Speaker 2 ... So you told me you met Rabbi Sorol there.

42:55 Speaker 1 Yeah. Rabbi Sorol was there.

42:57 Speaker 2 Sorol Friedman.

42:58 Speaker 1 And, and then I was with Rabbi Sorol in seventeen-seventy.

43:01 Speaker 2 Right. No, but you told me earlier you met him-

43:02 Speaker 1 Yes

43:03 Speaker 2 ... as Sorol. Rabbi Sorol Friedman, he was also-

43:04 Speaker 1 Rabbi Sorol Friedman

43:05 Speaker 2 ... he was also an orphan.

43:06 Speaker 1 That's right. And, uh, and, uh, what's his name? The guy in England. Uh- Aron Cousin? No, he wasn't there. Uh, no. The, what's the name? The main guy. Nachman Sudak. Nachman Sudak was with me there. Uh- My uncle, yeah ... all the, all the, these guys were there. Uh, what's the name? Motel Chaim. Motel Chaim. Yeah, and, uh, e- everybody. There was a guy, Levin, in, in Chicago, uh, in Los Angeles. Well, all the family, we were all together. So- And you, you, do, do you remember the Shalom Chaim, that whole Yeah, he used to, uh, avenue? farbreng with us on Shabbos. Well, what, how did that strike you as a boy from- It was, uh- ... a different world? ... new. It was new, that's what I'm saying. Yeah. What did you think about it? I, I didn't think. I was happy to be there. Right. And, uh, to get, you know, food and, and, and clothing and, and care and a place to sleep and comfortable and we... I remember when they printed the first Siddur, each one of us got a siddur. It was like, uh, you know, everything. It was the first thing that you owned, your own. Everything. And, uh, we got even pocket money. Really? Every month we got pocket money. So it- Who's funding, who's funding this? It, it was, uh, the, uh, via the Wolf, no? Ephraim Wolf. Rabbi Ephraim Wolf, yeah. If, if you wanted to buy a gazoz, the weather was very hot. What's gazoz?

44:47 Speaker 1 Gazoz is club soda. Something to drink? Something to drink. So there was a, a guy selling gazoz. I see, the seltzer trucks. Yeah, yeah, seltzers, a, a half a gush. So if we got, uh, pocket money, so we got a, a, a, uh, a pound in those days. It was called a pound. So we got a half a pound every month, pocket money. So the half a pound was a hundred half gushes. Right. Uh, uh, half a pound was 50 gush. Right. So if you wanted to buy a soda, you went with a half a gush and you bought a soda. Wow. I, I, I just wanna p-pause before we go to the next part of your story. I just wanna emphasize what, what you're... I wanna emphasize something that comes out of this story for us. It's such a beautiful story, this, this Yeshivat Ner Yisrael. The fact that they welcomed you, this, uh, Rav Chanoch Lisenson, who was an author. Yeah. And he's sitting behind the counter and all excited to see a young boy who he never met before. Forget about the Levin, who, who, who wasn't even in yeshiva, but he- No, it was, it was just a person ... just a person, and he's also excited. What, what does he gain from all the thing? And then this lady, Mrs. Diskin. And like you said, sometimes it's not so fancy. It's just a boy who needs- No ... who needs a roof over his head and- It, it was fantastic.

46:09 Speaker 1 We had dormitory rooms. All right, so we slept, uh, eight, in some rooms were 12 boys with, with, uh, high risers. Right, yeah. But it was fantastic. The bunk beds. Yeah, we had everything. No, but my point, my point is that you, you're, it's not even about... Not, it's not always about the inspiration, the messages. It's partially about caring for somebody. That's it. Yeah. That we got food, we got fantastic food. Right. And, and, and the coverage and everything was... I mean, one day, I have to tell you this story, what happened. One day I didn't behave. I didn't behave. I was not, uh, one of the, you know, the quietest kids. So- I, I'm not surprised. So, uh, uh, Rabbi Meir Kaplan got very angry at me, and he punished me that, uh, the, "Kents nisht geyn essen vechere," which means tonight, because of what you did, you have to skip supper. All right, so I, I, so I stayed and played outside. When everybody went in to eat supper, he came over to me. He says, "Kumm mit mir." He took me to his house, and he gave me a delicious supper. Wow. But he wanted that everybody else should see that there was a punishment here for what I did. Huh. But he wouldn't let me not eat supper. He came to the playground where we were playing, and he called me, and he took me to his house, and he, his wife gave me supper. That's a story. That's a story.

47:53 Speaker 1 You know, this, this is the kind of people that, uh, we dealt with. Why do you think, why do you think this, this, this group of people was so like this? You said the other yeshivas weren't taking boys. What do you think was- I don't know. I, I, I think- They weren't even s- they weren't even survivors ... I think it was the mindset that if you can take somebody and bring him, keep him in the right milieu and show him the way, that's more important than anything else. It's like saving a Yeah. You know? These people, they, they had this feeling. Even the melamdim in the yeshiva. We had a, a melameds who tea- taught us arithmetic. He was a guy from Russia. He didn't speak any Hebrew, and he sp- don't sp- he didn't speak any, uh, Yiddish. So, and he was teaching us arithmetic. It sounds like a cheder of today. But he, he had so much heart in it. Huh. He taught us, I mean, he taught us, you know, basic arithmetics. Right. Uh, we were all kids that never went to school before. Right. You know, so i- it was special people. Hmm. Wow, what a story. Okay, so let's go back to New York. I'm sorry for- So, uh, when she sent us the papers, my father thought it's gonna happen the next day. Right. So my father took me to, he took me to the Gerrer Rebbe, took me to the Belzer Rebbe, he took me to the

49:42 Speaker 1 Chasanish, he took me every-- to all the gedolim, I should get a broche, 'cause I'm going to America. In those days, going to America was still a very, was a dangerous place, you know? Oh, I see. Ruchnius, ruchnius, ruchnius one. That they should give me a broche, that I should be safe. So I went to all the rebbes. Even after the war, they were still worried about- The people were worried. You know, America is America. The Goldene Mediene, yeah. So, but i- it took about a year and a quarter till after I became bar mitzvah that, that we finally got the, the, uh, this. For my bar mitzvah, in those days, the, you couldn't buy meat in the stores. The, there was no meat. You couldn't buy sugar. There, there were certain staples that the government gave every- Rations, yeah ... month. Rations. And you can go with this, and you got it for this. For my bar mitzvah, instead of getting six eggs, I got 12 eggs, and instead of a half a kilo sugar, they gave a whole kilo sugar, and 200 gram of, uh, basal off. So my father w- was so On the black market? The black market, and he had some money that, uh, that when he came, uh, uh, you know, to visit me, he gave me some, some of that money, so I should have some pocket money. In Yeshiva, in- In Yeshiva in Lod. Right. Yeah. So the, the situation was very, very... But it's was- How

51:44 Speaker 1 did your father handle it? Was he ever, was he, was- No, my father was- Did it break, did it break him or? No, no. He was happy he was alive. Right. You can't ima- We, Baruch Hashem, can't imagine what it is to come out of a fire into a regular living place. Yeah, but not everybody ca- was, was so happy like that. Some people were broken their whole li- We were- Your fa- your father was a happy man. We were appreciative- Mm-hmm ... of what's happening. You know? Right. My father was very happy to walk on the fish. Right. Nobody was hitting him, and nobody was, uh, uh, like in Russia, they were cutting the wood, so the, the goy, if they didn't cut enough- Doesn't shoot him. Doesn't shoot him, right ... you know. So i- it, it was unbelievable. So your father sh- uh, shared a feeling of positivity with you. Yeah. It's my father, my uncle, alive. They were like, you know- They, they were ha- They were happy that- They were happy people to be around. Yeah. So what happened was once we found my aunt, she sent us the papers. And the funny thing was that the American co- uh, consulate needed a, uh, a, um, certificate from the Mishteret, from the police, that I'm not a gangster. But I'm, I was 10 years old or 11 years old. They had no record on me. So they took the Mishteret to be able to give me a record that I'm,

53:22 Speaker 1 uh, I have a clear, I have it still here, a clear record. It took them four or five months. But the, the American Embassy wouldn't give me the visa until they had a certificate from the police that I'm not a garnet. Right. So anyway, it took a long time. Finally, I got my papers, and I'm off to Haifa to board the boat. It was, uh- Who bought you the ticket, your aunt? No, my father. Your father. My father bought the ticket. It was, uh, uh, it, it was actually a freight... It was called commemute. Steerage in the bottom? Uh, they, it was freight at the bottom, and on top they had a few hundred people that- Oh, the ship itself was a freight ship. The ship itself. Yeah, yeah. I, I'm not sure, but- So it wasn't like a fancy cruise ship or anything? No, no. It wasn't. Anyway, we were on the, on the water I think about three weeks or three and a half weeks- Uh-huh ... till we finally got to United States. What was that like for you? It was good. Across the ocean. Wonderful. Was-- I mean, people were throwing up, and you know, it was not, uh... But it was wonderful. I was looking forward, you know? It was an adventure for you. It was an adventure to come to America. Anyway, I was, uh, arrived in America, and my aunt and my uncle were waiting for me on the pier. And I, I came with, uh, short pants

55:07 Speaker 1 and with, uh, a covered timber. Short pants 'cause you were getting taller or shorts? No, short pants because it was, uh, you know, uh, we were in the ocean. It was, uh, warm- Right ... still. So I came with short pants. And with as a yarmulke, Israeli yarmulke, but my uncle was a 십시오 with a long be- with a long beard- Right ... with a beaver hat. And I come off, and I had a little suitcase, and I had a few things there, and I filled. And I came off, and, uh, he t- takes a look at me. He didn't know what kind of a breed this is. But they were so nice to me. Anyway, the next day- We're here in the big- The next day he opens my suitcase, and he takes out Uh, my things to put them in a cupboard, and he takes out my film. And I had, uh, these little film. The government gave film for every bar mitzvah person, every bar mitzvah kid that had no parents or had even one parent got a pair of film. Anyway, he takes out my film, and he has this beautiful uh, all, uh, all effort the film. He takes a look at my film. He says to me, he says, "If I wouldn't mind, he would like this film, and he's gonna give me other ones a little bit bigger," he said. He exchanged the film. Anyway, he was a Cloisenburger Hasid, so he took me to Cloisenburger Yeshiva. He

56:55 Speaker 1 was a big macher in Cloisenburg. He was a businessman or an- A businessman. He had a, a butcher store. He was, uh, uh, he had, he had nice panos. And he was one of the top... In those days, he was one of the top, uh, uh, Cloisenburger Hasidim. Like, he was, uh, very So, so this Cloisenburg and The Sons Cloisenburg, right? So the- The Sons became later. The Cloisenburg was Cloisenburger Rebbe. And he wa- the Cloisenburger Rebbe moved to America. To... No. The Cloisenburger Rebbe lived in America at that time, and then he moved from America to Netanya. Oh, okay, so it's the same one. Yes. Yes, yes. This is the one who lost m- his whole family in the war, yeah. Eleven kids. A wife and eleven kids. Yeah, okay. So, uh, he took me to his yeshiva, and the yeshiva was in, uh, in Williamsburg. I think on South Fourth Street. I was actually in Torah Vodaas, but my uncle didn't agree with Torah Vodaas. He wanted me to be in Cloisenburg because he's a Cloisenburger Hasid. So he took me out of Torah Vodaas, and Torah Vodaas agreed to let me go with, with their student visa to Cloisenburg. Took me to Cloisenburg, and in Cloisenburg, I learned in yeshiva there, but it did not agree with, with me. And, uh, I made problems, and I got into fights. Uh, I was an Israeli, you know. I didn't let myself. And one day, I got into a fight with one of the

58:44 Speaker 1 big guys, and, uh, I did something wrong. I hit him very hard. So the rosh yeshiva called me and says, "Look, we can't tolerate this kind of, uh, behavior here. You have to go and tell your uncle to take you out from here." In other words, he threw me out of the yeshiva. I came home. You know, I thought my uncle was going to, uh, grace for us. Here he is, the big Cloisenburger Hasid, and they threw out his... They didn't have any kids. My aunt- You're almost like his son, yeah. They threw out his son. He... I thought he was going to, you know, start screaming. I came home. He said to me, he used to call me Yitzchaki. "Yitzchaki, "" We're gonna go to the Rebbe because he was a big, big person by the Rebbe, and with the Altor lady. So he went to the Rebbe, spoke to the Rebbe, and the Rebbe said that he should bring me in. So he probably told the Rebbe that in Herzl's room I was learning in the Lubavitch yeshiva. So when I came up to the Rebbe, he, uh, machof kinim very nicely, uh- Received- Very nicely. He received you very nicely. He received me very nicely. And then he says to me, "Yitzchaki, "" Hmm. "Your place is Lubavitch. It's not for you here. Go to Lubavitch. Your uncle's gonna take you there, and you'll be there. You'll be happy like you were happy in Herzl's room." I didn't expect that. I thought

1:00:42 Speaker 1 the Rebbe is gonna say, you know, uh, "I'll arrange. They'll take you back to this." Unbelievable. In your mind, w- were you upset that you were... W- did you think that was why you were acting up? You, you wanted to be in Lubavitch? I, I probably was acting up for that. Really? You like- I was looking to be thrown out. You wanted to go to Lubavitch school? I, I don't know whether... I didn't know that Lubavitch is gonna accept me here. Right. But you liked it back in Herzl more. Yeah, I liked it in Herzl, and this was... It was too different. Right. Anyway, this was before, right before Pesach. Pesach I spent with my aunt, with my uncle. Right after Pesach, my aunt found out where the Lubavitch yeshiva is, and right after Pesach, she took me to Dean Street, Bedford and Dean. And again, she took me there. We came, there was big doors, you know, the big, two big doors on Bedford and Dean. We opened the door, and when you opened the front door, the door of the Bais Medrash was open because the Bais Medrash was a very high, high place. There was no air conditioning, so they kept the doors open. Should be The air sh-- anyway, we come in, and the doors of the Bais Medrash are open, and who's sitting right across the doors? Rav Mendlik, Rav Mendlik, yeah. Rav Mordche Mendlik. He sees a woman coming in with a child, so he gets up from his

1:02:27 Speaker 1 place, and again, he comes out to meet us. And my aunt tells him that, "This is my, this is my nephew. He just came from Eretz Yisroel. He used to learn in Lubavitch. He's..." Oh, yeah, before I left Eretz Yisroel, a Melach Kaplan gave me a letter- Right ... that if I ever come to Lubavitch in, in, uh, America, I should give them the letter, an introduction letter. Right. And he wrote in the letter that I'm a, a God-fearer, a smart smith. I knew, uh, about all these You know, and all these, uh, th- good things about me. And I always had the letter f- with me. You enjoyed learning? Huh? You enjoyed learning in the yeshiva? You, you liked to learn? Yeah, sure. So, uh, when we came to, uh, to Dean Street, I took that letter with me. And so she tells him that I learned in Lubavitch yeshiva, and she had me in Clos Mogeh yeshiva, and it really didn't work out. And she thinks, and the Clos Mogeh rabbi also said that it would be a good thing that if I go back to Lubavitch here in, in Brooklyn. So Rav Mendlik says, "Good, good. And my aunt says, So he says, My aunt had a, a little bag. She had, uh, another shirt for me. She didn't bring my clothes. Again, a repeat of the same story. Yes. And, uh, uh, Mendlik says, uh, Took four days until somebody called me to the office to get my name and to

1:04:23 Speaker 1 register me and, uh, all that. It was Moshe's father, I think. I don't remember. Moshe Katlavsky's father, I think. He worked in the office. Uh-huh. I, I'm not sure. Or it was, uh, a younger guy. Anyway, they finally registered me in yeshiva. And, uh, Rav Mendlik took me into his shiar. I used to write his Chadushot Torah. Oh, yeah. Rav Mendlik, sure. And, uh, I learned there, and there was all these guys. Abba Pantaleov was my Yeah. Yeah. He comes here. Abba Partil was my was my Uh, who else was there?

1:05:23 Speaker 4 Shmuel Lu?

1:05:23 Speaker 1 Shmuel? Shmuel Lu? No, Shmuel Lu- He was younger. Younger. Younger, yeah. Shmuel Lu was here in shiur. Um, who was else my Um- Moshe Herschel? Shmuel Pesach. Bogomilsky. Bogomilsky was my was my I understand. Uh, I, I was- Moshe, Moshe Herschel was there already? Moshe Herschel was here. Was in Eretz Yisroel? In-- No. Oh, Montreal. Moshe Herschel was here in Montreal. Oh, Montreal. In Montreal. Um, Herschel Begun was with me in class. Motel Deitch, Motel Kalmanson, they were all in my class, and we had forty-two guys in class. Anyway, I was in Dean Street, I think two years. Do you remember a fellow, David Shabbat? Da- David Shabbat. He came from Baltimore. He was, uh, he came f- a family- Maybe after my, uh, my time. Could be it's after. It was in the y-- in the fifties also, but maybe in the later fifties. Maybe. And then they transferred us, uh, to seven seventy. We learned, I don't know. Rabbi Mendlik was first our shivah, then they transferred Rabbi Mendlik to seven seventy, and Rabbi Bukiet came to teach us. Uh-huh. So we were there until we finished Rabbi Bukiet, and then we went, all of us, to seven seventy, and they bought a building for dormitory on Eastern Parkway. It was six seventy-six Eastern Parkway. Sure. A block away. Yeah. That's where your grandfather was my roommate. Oh, y- yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They told me. Rabbi Mo and, and Berel, both of them. We were roommates with, with, with,

1:07:09 Speaker 1 uh, what's his name, the guy from London? And- Chaim Oshovel? No. Nachman Sudak? Nachman Sudak and, and- Shochat? No, no, no. Uh, what's his name? Uh, Nachman Sudak and, uh, his, uh, his father was in jail. He came back. He was Berl yeah. Yeah. He's a cousin with my grandfather. Yes, that's right. We all slept downstairs in the same room. On Eastern Parkway. On Eastern Parkway. And we learned in seven seventy. Anyway, when I became- Yitcherait, Yitcherait Port was there also? Yitcherait Port came later. Came later. Yeah. He was sitting at my table, Yitcherait. Hmm. He's my wife's uncle. Oh, that's right. So a- anyway, we learned in seven seventy, and then when I became- 18 years old, I started getting letters from the government, from Israel, that I should come back to join the army. One second. W-what about... Did you... At what point did you meet the Lubavitcher Rebbe? 'Cause until now you were just, uh- I met the Lubavitcher Rebbe, it's not a good story. It's not a good story? Anyway, I- You don't wanna say it? Uh, the first time I saw the Rebbe was, I was still in Torah Vodaas, and there was, uh, a- Before Klausenburg? Yeah, before Klausenburg. It was Yud Shvat. Uh-huh. So I had a, a, a distant relative there, uh, a bianco camera, Oliver Shalom, so I'm a lifted juvenile. And he had a friend, Itcher Bergman. He lives in Toronto now. So they said to me, they said, "You learned Lubavitch in Eretz Yisrael.

1:09:04 Speaker 1 Today is Yud Shvat. The Rebbe is probably farbrengen." Right. "If you wanna go to the farbrengen, we'll take you." I said, "Huh, this would be fantastic." So we- You, you had heard about the farbrengens when you were in Eretz Yisrael? We... Sure, but over here, uh, uh, I didn't hear nothing about Lubavitch yet. No, but in Eretz Yisrael you, you- Yeah. In Eretz, we knew. We, uh, we got seforim from there- Right ... but then... But here I was- You had gone to a different path, Torah Vodaas, right? Yeah. I was in Torah Vodaas, and then- Right, Klausenburg, yeah ... but when they said that they can-- they're ready to take me to the Rebbe's farbrengen, I said, "Of course." So we went by subway. We got off on the Eastern Parkway station. We come out, and we go into Seven seventy, and there's nobody there. It's Yud Shvat, and there's nobody there. Right. And we look around. All of a sudden, uh, another guy comes, uh, looks like a formereit. We go over to him. We said, "Isn't tonight- Right ... Yud Shvat?" He says, "Yeah." Says, "Isn't the Rebbe farbrengen?" He says, "Yeah, the Rebbe's farbrengen, but in a hall on Church Avenue." Right. Right. So we said, "Where is Church Avenue?" So they said, "If you take the... go down to the subway again, you get off at, uh..." I don't remember, what did they say? At Atlantic or something. Right. Anyway, and you go out and then... So they s- uh,

1:10:41 Speaker 1 they said, "You wanna go?" I said, "Sure, let's go." Anyway, so that was... We went to Church Avenue, and the Rebbe farbrenged there, and we were there till, I don't remember, twelve thirty or one o'clock, till the Rebbe finished farbrengen, and then we went back to Torah Vodaas. That was the first time. How did it strike you? Oh, it was unbelievable. Was, uh, you know, to see the Rebbe sitting in the front, and, and the oylem was not like, like you used to see the oylem. Yeah, it's a small oylem. It was a small oylem. The hall was a nice size hall. Right. But it was a small oylem. Maybe there was four hundred people, something, or four hundred and fifty people. Wasn't that... But it was a, a, a oylem in the... We were able to... When we came in, there was tables like that, and there was guys standing on the side. So we were able to stand on the left side by a table, and we saw the Rebbe straight because the bochurim, there was not too many bochurim then, but the bochurim were standing on the side. So when we came in, we were able to stand and see the Rebbe- Hmm ... in the front. So this was, this was the first time I saw the Rebbe. But up to that point, it's not like you had sent any letters or anything? No, no. Never sent them. You, you were just learning in the Lubavitch mesivta. That's right. You weren't,

1:12:10 Speaker 1 uh, building a kesher or anything like that. No, no. So then in Tov Shen Yud Zai, I was getting to be eighteen years old. Right. And I started getting letters from the government that I should come back. I wrote to my father. He says, "You wanna come back? I have no place for you. You can't be by us because, uh, his wife, Nina, will not agree for you to be with us. If you can make different arrangements, and I don't see what you can do." You wanted to go back? I had to go back. Uh-huh. Because they wouldn't renew my passport, and I couldn't stay there in the United States without a... I had to renew my student visa. I see. And you had to have a passport that's six months- Right ... valid- Right. I see ... to go to renew the visa. And Israel wouldn't give you a passport. They wouldn't. They want me to go back. Right. So I didn't know what to do. My father says, "Don't come back. You have no... I would love to have you back, but I haven't got what to do with you." Right. "You won't have any place." So I didn't know, so I wrote to the Rebbe. This is the first letter you're writing? Yeah, the first letter I wrote to Rebbe. Hmm. I wrote to the Rebbe that this is the situation, and I don't know what to do. So a letter, uh, Beniumin, in those times, you wrote into the Rebbe a

1:13:43 Speaker 1 letter, and, uh, Rabbi Groner used to take it in, or Beniumin used to take it in. They used to come out, and here the clock is ticking. I don't know what to do. Uh, and there's no answer from the Rebbe. And every day I go to the maskiras, "You have something for me?" "No, we don't have." Anyway, one day I go in, and he says, "I have an answer for you." He opens the answer. He didn't give me back the letter. He opens the answer. He said, "The Rebbe says you should go speak to the hanhalah." "Oh," Rabbi says, "Go to him." So hanhalah was Rab- Rabbi, uh, Rabbi Jacobson. Right. So Rabbi Jacobson. Rabbi Sol Jacobson. So I came there. So I come to Rabbi Jacobson. He says, "Vos vistu?" So I tell him that, you know, I have this problem. I wrote to the Rebbe, and the Rebbe answered I should go speak to the hanhalah. "So vos vistu ir zol tron?" What do you want me to do? So I said, "The Rebbe said I should speak to you. Probably you have an idea what, you know, what I should do." He says, "Kum tsrik in a tog tsvey." Come back in a day or two, and I'll tell you. Okay. So I wait a day. The next day, he used to give a shear. He used to give us a shear in the morning, serious. I go over Rabbi Jacobson, you are Kapsa Enfel from here. He says, "Yeah. Come with

1:15:29 Speaker 1 me up." So I go with him, and Rabbi Raskin used to have a, a office there near the bathroom in seven seventy, where you go in to seven seventy, there's the code site, and then there is an office used to be, uh, Rabbi Raskin's office. So he takes me, and he says- Oh, Rabbi Raskin. Oh, no, Dovid Raskin. Dovid Raskin, of course. Sure, yeah. Yeah. He takes me in there. He says, "Sit down." So I sit down. He says, "Do you know you have a brother in Canada?" "I have a brother? I never had a brother in my life." "You don't know?" I said, "Rabbi Jacobson , you're laughed from here to here." "Yeah, you have a brother in Canada, a half brother. Not from David. He's a half brother." A half brother. And then I started to realize that there is a bi- a gimmick coming in here. I says, "Yeah, yeah ." Who's he saying this in front of? Huh? Who's he... He's saying this in front of somebody or just- No, to me. So you're playing a game with each other. Yeah. Uh-huh. So his son telling me that I have a brother. I know I don't have a brother. I'm starting to realize there is a game- Right ... that's gonna be played out here. He can't tell it to you explicitly because that would be wrong. No, but wait. So anyway, all right. As we come as they in a portal, and all right. So I see him the next

1:17:23 Speaker 1 morning by Chassidis. Rabbi Jacobson, the brother, when I get the letter I'll let you know. A few days later, I go to meet Rabbi Jacobson, and he takes out a letter. The letter came from Montreal with a postage card from Zalman. What was his name? Sure. Sure. So Zalman Sure. And he writes in the letter, and the letter is written in English. And I can't... I don't read English. "You had his own worst off state." So Rabbi Jacobson starts telling me that this, my brother is so happy to hear that I'm alive. He didn't know whether anyone of our family survived. And he's so happy. He would love to see you. He will give everything in his life just to see you once. He can't come to New York because he's got a sick child who has... He did have a sick child. He has to be with the child all the time. His wife cannot pick up the child because the child is very heavy, and he has to pick up the child to take- Tell me the whole story. Yeah, a whole story. But if I can somehow come to Canada, it's gonna be a, a happiest day in his life if I will come to see him. And he gives me the letter, and he says, "For Canada." So I said, "Rabbi Jacobson, Canada, weil my passport is . My passport is not valid." Yeah. "I can't go to Canada." "You Canada. Canada." Anyway, how am I gonna go to Canada? This

1:19:33 Speaker 1 is, this is your first interaction with, with, with, with Lubavitch proper. How am I gonna go to Canada? I have no passport. Right. I have no visa. Right. How am I gonna go to Canada? Anyway, I'm going around like my head is, am I gonna write to the rabbi again? He gave me the wrong address, you know. What am I gonna do? Anyway, Labor Volovik, so zang isun, came to the rabbi for Yud Shvat. It was right before Yud Shvat. So I go to Labor. I said, "Labor, do you ?" He says, "Yeah. But no Yud Shvat. The next day, via the first one with the ban, the train." "Can I come with you?" "Sure. Sure. I don't have any papers." He said, "Give a cook. This Ross's Point," that was the, the place where the train was stopping, and the custom guys were coming up to check if whoever has paper. "This Ross's Point, Ross's Point, but weiter." Anyway, what am I gonna do? To... In the States, I can't stay. I have no passport. The rabbi says I should ask Rabbi Jacobson. Rabbi Jacobson says I should go to Canada. And if I ask him how, he gives me an argument. What am I gonna do? My father says I shouldn't come back. So I'll go. So I take my un-guilty passport, and I put the letter inside, and I go, I buy a ticket, and I go with Label to the train, and we get on the train. And the train left,

1:21:36 Speaker 1 uh, Central Station, I think it was ten o'clock at night, and at five in the morning, we were scheduled to arrive in Rosedale's Point, where the customs agents came on the pl- on the train to check whoever's papers, and whoever didn't have papers, they took him off, and they used to send them back from the other side of the border. All right. Label sits by the window, and I schloof down the chai, and I'm sitting and suffering and all, and I can't close my eyes, and I'm sitting, what's gonna be at five o'clock in the morning when these guys come up to check the papers? All of a sudden, the train stops. Ch-ch-ch-ch. Stops. And these guys come up. Everybody, they're going around with papers. "Papers, please. Papers, please." All right. I take out my passport, and I put the letter in, in the first page. And he goes, takes everybody's papers, comes, takes Label's papers. Label had a Canadian visa, and he had a student's visa. Looks at it, gives it back to him, then I give him my paper. And instead of looking at my passport, he picks, picks out the white sheet of paper, and he opens it, and he reads the letter. He reads, he looks at me. Reads, he looks at me. Reads. Folds it up, puts it in the passport. "Have a good trip." Wow. Anyway, I felt like I was going to dance, but I didn't wanna show any excitement. Right. I still have paper. We come to

1:23:34 Speaker 1 the, to Canada, we get off the plane, we come to the yeshiva. I thought that Rabbi Jacobson, he wrote a letter, or he communicated with somebody that, uh, I'm coming to the yeshiva. I come, nobody knows who I am. See, he was Massad with the government, but now with the yeshiva. Nothing. Anyway, I come into the yeshiva, and, uh, Rabbi Fagelstock, who was the principal, meets me. "What are you doing here?" And I tell him that Rabbi Jacobson found me with my brother. He says, "Who's the brother?" I tell him, I show him that it's- Sure. He says... He makes like that. So anyway, Rabbi Fagelstock said, "No, uh, and did they make arrangements, uh, for you dormitory?" I said, "I don't know." "Rabbi Jacobson said that I should come, and I came. I didn't... I don't know where..." He says, "He didn't tell us anything that you're coming." So Label Walovik standing there, standing there. He says, "Oh, Yitzchak, Right. So Label comes up with me, but she felt when somebody else came in, she, she, she felt- She can hear footsteps. Yeah. She can hear it. Yeah. "Label, where is this "Who is this with you?" So he says, "A bocher from, from New York has "Give him to eat." "We ate already." She was his aunt, but he used to call her bubbe. So, "Give him a glass of tea with, with a shtick of So Label, there was always a There was a, a pot, pot, pot of, you know, of

1:26:26 Speaker 1 tea on the, on the oven. So Label pours me a glass of tea, and, uh, there's a piece of So we sit, we eat, and then time to go to sleep. So Label says, "You know what?" There was two beds in the room. One bed was sleeping Mintz, Isaac Mintz, alav hashalom. His son is running now the- Sure. It is. His father was sleeping there. Running JLI. His son's running JLI. Yeah, yeah. And the other bed- Saying that you're sleeping there, you're sleeping the other Zimmer. I sleep in the other room. There was only three rooms. One room, Rabbi Peretz and his wife were. The other room, Bella Motzkin, had a room which if you went in there and you opened the door, if you wanted to close the door, you had to go on the bed so you can close the door. This is how big the room was. A closet, a closet. A closet. That's where Bella slept. And Leibel slept with Mintz in the same room. Why did Isaac Mintz... He was also a relative? No, Isaac Mintz was not a relative. They had bochum- Dorms ... two bochum from the yeshiva, sleep in their house. Uh-huh. Rabbi Peretz. And Leibel says, "I should go to sleep there." He has another room. Right. Right. So I went. I was tired because the night before I didn't sleep all night because of the train. I lie down, go to sleep. In the morning, I wake up. Who's sleeping on the floor? Leibel. Leibel

1:28:14 Speaker 1 Volovik Huh. So he gave me his bed, and he slept on the floor. And you knew him from where? Remind me. From Lod. From Lod. Yeah. He was one of your friends in Lod. Yes. Anyway, the next day I came to the yeshiva, so already Rabbi Kramer met me, said, "Du wisst gi kumen lernen dor, Rabbi Jacobson tun yeshiva, kens lernen." And, uh, he went over to, uh, to Rabbi Nelkin, alav ha-shalom. He was in charge of the this. He took me, and he... The, the yeshiva rented a bed for me in Rabbi Fegelstock's house. Hmm. Rabbi Fegelstock, alav ha-shalom. In Rabbi Fegelstock's house, I, I was there, and there was a guy, Engel. What was his name? I don't remember. Yeshua. Yeshua was his name. I think so. The guy who had in, uh... He had a store that was making carts on Kingston. Anyway, we had, uh, we slept by Rabbi Fegelstock, and that's how I stayed in the, in the dormitory, in the yeshiva, and nobody asked who's gonna pay for me, and nobody asked. Rabbi Gringla, alav ha-shalom, gave us clothes. He m- he s- used to send us every Pesach and every Sukkot, he used to send us to a clothing store. They gave us clothes, shirts, under shirts. How did you like it in Montreal? What? How did you like it in Montreal? It was wonderful. It was won- Rabbi Cheikhen was the Rosh Yeshiva. I got smicha in, uh, from Rabbi Cheikhen, uh, for Rabbonis and Dayanis, and

1:30:10 Speaker 1 Rabbi Hendel. And I was in yeshiva until, until I got married. But meanwhile, I have no passport. I'm in Canada. I have no passport, no visa- Right ... no nothing. So I went to Rabbi Kramer. I said, "What do I do?" Right. Rabbi Kramer says, "Go to Rabbi Shputz." Rabbi Shputz, alav ha-shalom, was a wonderful, wonderful person. I went to Rabbi Shputz, and Rabbi Shputz says that we're gonna write you a letter to the immigration, that we need a teacher, and you, you're qualified. You have, uh, qualifications to be a teacher, and they should, uh, give you immigration status as a teacher. In those days was, was pretty easy to do. And the yeshiva takes responsibility and all that they're gonna pay you and- Right. Fine. So we take the letter down to the immigration. The immigration said that the application will take, uh, three to four, six months, and as soon as they have an answer for me, they will send me a letter to this address. Yitzchak Nevisch, care of Rabbinical College of Canada. Gave him the letter, and I'm waiting. Nevisch said, "Okay." One day I go to the office, there's a letter for me. I open up, it's from the immigration. "We are happy to, to let you know that your application has been accepted. Please come down to get your immigration status with your valid passport, and your immigration status is gonna be approved." Okay, I'm ready to go, but we haven't a valid passport. The, uh, uh, Israeli, uh,

1:32:17 Speaker 1 consulate is not gonna give me a passport. They're not gonna validate my passport because my record shows that I'm... They wrote me another letter that they, uh, consider me as a I'm in Tzur again. So now Rabbi Jacobson's not here. Right. What am I gonna do? So I write to the rabbi. Hmm. Wrote to the rabbi, and the rabbi answered me again, I should go and speak. So there was not writing. I used to go to the payphone. Right. I call Binyamin. Right. And Binyamin wrote in, and Binyamin came, called back that I- he has answered two days, three days. The rabbi said I should speak to the Again. All right, so I go to speak to Rabbi Kramer. Rabbi Kramer said, "Look, we gave you the letter, but I wasn't aware of your problems. I don't know how, how to help you. Go to Rabbi Fegelstock and Rabbi Schputz. They are more into these things. They maybe have idea." So I went to Rabbi Fegelstock and Rabbi Schputz, and Rabbi Fegelstock says that Rabbi Schputz is more in these things because he was in business also. Rabbi Fegelstock was only a, only a principal. Rabbi Schputz was in business. Maybe he can come up with the idea. So Rabbi Schputz says, "I really don't know." So I said, "But the rabbi said I should speak to you." He said, "Really? Okay, you know, let me think. Let me think. Give me a couple of days. Let me think." A few days later, Rabbi Schputz

1:34:54 Speaker 1 comes back to me. He says, "Yitzchak, you have to become a baal teshuva." Rabbi Schputz, if I become a baal teshuva, who's, uh... what's gonna be with my passport? How is that gonna help me that I should have a valid passport? He says, "You don't understand." He says, "You have to become a baal teshuva. You call the consulate, and you tell them that you really weren't thinking the right way. You decided you have to go back to Eretz Yisrael to serve in the army. Even if you have nowhere to be, you're gonna find a place to stay. You definitely wanna go back to Eretz Yisrael. However, you came to America. Your aunt took you to America. Before you go back, you want to stop to say goodbye to them and thank them for all the things. So you need to go to America. You need a valid passport. If they would give you, validate your passport for two weeks so you can go to America." And he went, and he bought me a airplane ticket one way going Montreal, New York, New York, Tel Aviv. And he says, "Call, and then we'll go down with this." And then we still have... I call up the consulate, and a young lady picks up the phone. "Yes, can we help you?" And I speak to her in Hebrew. "Bevakasha, uh," So I tell her the whole story, that I'm becoming a baal teshuva, and I want to go back. I made a mistake, a stupid mistake by

1:36:54 Speaker 1 not reporting. I have a problem because, uh, you know, I have nowhere to stay, but I, uh, I'll find the Jewish place to let me in. Somebody's gonna let me in. She says, "Really?" "But I have, uh, one problem. I want to go through to the United States to thank my aunt, and I need, uh, my passport." She says, "I'll speak to the consulate. Come down, and he'll give you a, a for two weeks." I said, "When can I come?" She says, "Come tomorrow." "Thank you very much. What's your name?" I wanted to make sure that, uh, you know, I come down, that I'm speaking to the same... "My name is Rachel." "Oh, okay." Put down the phone, go back to Rabbi Schputz and tell... Rabbi Schputz owned a few taxis. So for the next morning, he reserved one of his taxis. Taxi was waiting outside the yeshiva. I brought my passport. We get into the taxi. The, the, the Israeli consulate was on the street McGregor. We go to that street. I go up. Rabbi Schputz is sitting in the taxi waiting for me. I go up. I come in. They buzz me in, and, uh, I ask her, "Rachel?" She says, "Ken. Ani Rachel." "Oh, I spoke to you yesterday about my passport, and you said I should come." She says, "Yes. Sit down. The consulate is waiting for you." She goes into the consul, and the consul comes in. He opens the door. He comes in. "Please come in. Where

1:38:57 Speaker 1 is your passport?" I take out my passport. He opens up a drawer on the right side, takes out a, a pad, you know- Rubber ... uh, that you, you put, you make the rubber, uh, stamp wet in it. Right. And he takes out also- An ink pad. An ink pad, and he takes out one of these date things, and he- Right ... wheels, puts the date. "" So I tell him I need two weeks. "Bevakasha, tell me." So I give him my passport. First, he stamps a big stamp. You know, the consulate, the, the And then he takes the stamp, and he puts in for how long it's valid, the passport, that it's six months and two weeks. In other words, because it, the passport has to valid six months to go into the States, and he gave me an extra two weeks to spend with them. I come downstairs. Rabbi Schputz is... I thank him, and I thank her. Come downstairs. Rabbi Schputz is waiting for me in a taxi. We drive down to the Canadian immigration, and I come in with the letter they approved me with my passport. They put me that I am a Canadian immigrant, and that's how I am here now. What a story. What a story. The way the Aibishter is running the world and, and everything is... And the Rabbi put me in the right spot all the time. Right. That's amaz- the, the whole story is amazing because a lot of times these kind of

1:40:50 Speaker 1 stories are about I, I, I went... I, I met the Rebbe this time, I went to Yechidus that time, and so on and so forth, and I'm sure you have other things to say about that. But this is a story about the Hasidim around of Lubavitch and the way that they interacted with you. It's, it's unbelievable. With every person that I met up in my whole journey, there was nothing but the most wonderful, wonderful people. It's unbelievable. All right. I s- I, I was- And you weren't even from Lubavitch family. No. You were, you were- I, I, I was living by Rabbi Fagelstock's house, okay? There was one time where I w- got very, very sick. I had... I don't remember. Such high fever. Rabbi Fagelstock, there was a, a doctor here in Montreal, a doctor, Dr. Friedman, alav ha-shalom. Dr. Friedman was not a young man. He used to go , and he used to have his medical, uh, taché. Rabbi Fagelstock went to pick him up from his house to bring him to Rabbi Fagelstock because he, he was fragile, to bring him to the dormitory to where I slept in his house, to make sure to check me out that, you know, and gave me... He used to say, when he used to, uh, Dr. Friedman, alav ha-shalom, „Lech lecha genain.“ When he used to come to a patient, he used to ask the name first, and he used to say a capital tefillah. Hmm. And then he checked out, and he

1:42:42 Speaker 1 gave me medicine. This is a doctor here in Montreal? In Montreal. You remember him, my wife? My wife is here sitting when we're making the interview. I want you to meet my wife. Yeah, she was responsible for this interview. That's right. Yeah. We got to it an hour and forty minutes in. You said you were going to introduce her. We got, we got to it an hour and forty minutes in. Come later. Come and say hello. Yes, please. I'll put a picture. I'll put a picture. I'll put a picture. It's, it's really, it's, it's really a beautiful story. Um, it's a, it's a beautiful story about, about, uh, the community of people who, you know, the, that greeted you each step of the way. And, and they, they, they didn't know, they didn't- And, and they didn't do, uh, do for something- You had nothing to give them. You were- That's it ... you were an orphan from, from, from a war with a father who, who was penniless. That's it. And they never got in touch from Montreal or from New York to my aunt and uncle who were, who had money- To pay for your- ... to pay for me in any way. I got everything. I got from yeshiva, I got dormitory, food, uh, uh, lodging, clothing, uh, even pocket money. Here, Rabbi Gringlass, alav ha-shalom, used to give us every month five dollars pocket money. It's amazing. Amazing story. And we used to, uh, he used to take care that we

1:44:15 Speaker 1 should have a suit for Rosh Chodesh and a suit for Pesach. Hmm. And underwear and shirts and everything. What a story. What a story. Yeah. Wow. These people were good people. Aibishter should give them a , and zechusom yu gulen aleinu. Yeah, and I think for, you know, for me listening and for others listening, it's, it's a reminder that, that, uh, you know, Lubavitch is about shlichus and, and afatz amayones and all kinds of big ideas. But at the basic, at the foundation, it's partially about- It lies, uh, uh, ahavas Yisroel. Ahavas Yisroel. That's, that's the bottom line. No chabur in yeshiva. No chabur in yeshiva. That was Rabbi Me-- We had a Rabbi, Rabbi Moshe Liss in, uh, in, uh, in the yeshiva in, in, uh, Dean Street, who was a wonderful person. The bochum were really wild, wild. He never raised his voice. He never... He, it, it was unbelievable. He loved every bocher. It's an amazing story. Rabbi Yitzchak, thank you very much. You're welcome. . And, uh- I hope that there's gonna be some use out of, uh, you know, your tirche to come to listen to my story. I'm not worried for even a second. You, you're really taking after your wonderful father, Rabbi Avtzon, who did the same thing in Hong Kong all these years that he was there. He was always there for everybody that came to Hong Kong. He was mamesh, uh, uh, a malach HaElokim, that how he helped people and how he, how he treated

1:46:26 Speaker 1 people. And the Aibishter help we should have nachas from you, from all your brothers and sisters- Amen ... and you should sein gezunt un shtark with his wife together. Amen. Amen. Thank you very much. Thank you, and thank you to Mrs. Knievitch as well. Thank you. The music for this podcast comes from the album Repentance Doors by Oren Dror and Nadav Bachar, and is used with their permission.