The Rebbe’s Library Might Have a Photo of Your Grandfather

00:21 In the previous lectures about the collections of printed and written material in the library that was scanned and posted on the site of the library. We have in the library a huge collection of about fifty thousand pictures that was sent to the Rebbeim of Chabad. They are all scanned and posted on the site of the library. It all started after the Friediker Rebbe was arrested, released, and forced to flee, to leave Russia and settle in Europe. It's the first time that he was far from his Hasidim that are still in Russia in that time. He couldn't see them. He couldn't talk to them. He wrote a letter to them that he would like at least see their pictures. Each Hasid that has the ability should get himself a copy, a picture of him, and send to the Rebbe that he would have in file, that whenever he is learning about him, he should be able to look at his picture. About fifteen years later, in the year of Tav Shin Vav, nineteen forty-six, about after the Second World War, about a thousand families of Chabad Hasidim in Russia found a way to flee from Russia, settle temporarily in Europe, and then to continue, each one of them, to his destination. The Friediker Rebbe asked them again, those families that was released, to get a picture of them and send to him. This time, not only the Hasid himself, but he should take a picture of the whole family, all members of the family, him, his

03:03 wife, and his children. After Tav Shin Yud, the petircha of the Friediker Rebbe, Hasidim continued to send their pictures to the Rebbe. But then came something else. The Rebbe sent shluchim to the whole world, and he asked each one of them to report to him from time to time of their activity. In these reports, they would usually add a picture of the activities, and that continued for dozens of years, till there is a collection of about fifty thousand valuable pictures in the collection in the archive of the library. These pictures are very, very valuable. Not only the pictures of the Hasidim from Russia, but these activities of fifty years ago, sixty years ago, seventy years ago, are not parallel to anything that one can find. One can find there the activities of his parents, his grandparents, and his great-grandparents. If they are in Israel or in Europe or in the Far East or South America or North America, you won't, you will not be able to find such, such a treasure anywhere. The library had decided to scan them all and post them on the site of the library. For one to be able to see a picture that he's looking for, he would have to go to chabadlibrary.org/catalog, select in the line in top the catalog of the pictures, catalog of munot. There, he would be able to find pictures according to the people that are in the pictures. If he would want to know if there is any picture of, of his grandfather

05:39 or his great-uncle that was sent to the Rebbe, he would just select his name, and you would be able to see all the pictures that he's appearing under. And when you select one of them, it will give you a description of that picture, and in the bottom of it, there will be a link to the picture of that person or of that activity. If he has a grandfather that had a Chabad house in a specific city and he wants to see all pictures of that Chabad house, he would select the city. That is one of the ways to let, to select a search is by the city. So he would go to that city, and he would get a l- a list of all pictures of that Chabad house that was sent to the Rebbe over the generations. There, he would find pictures of include his family members and the mikvah rovim and all activities.