JEM’s Team Loved Miami

JEM’s My Encounter with the Rebbe team recently returned to Crown Heights from an interviewing trip in sunny Florida. Here are The My Encounter team’s top 10 favorite things about their trip to Southern Florida.

1. Southern Hospitality.

“We had our own home for the duration of our visit,” said Yechiel Cagen, who heads the My Encounter project for JEM.

“Rabbi Efraim and Gittie Brody graciously lent their home in North Miami Beach to the cause. All beds were made, the towels were prepared, and the bathrooms stocked with soap and shampoo, baby baths and soap.” (It wasn’t just the team visiting – the families came as well!)

2. The people.

One interview that really stood out as a testament to the Rebbe and what he means to every Jew was with Mrs. Miriam Fellig. She had a very close relationship with the Rebbe and was a holocaust survivor that came to Canada with nothing but the clothes on her back. At her first meeting with the Rebbe, she was so taken back with the Rebbe’s unconditional acceptance, that she asked the Rebbe to adopt her, and he did so readily.

The team managed to catch some interviews with Head Shliach Rabbi Avraham Korf, Rosh Yeshiva Rabbi Leibel Schapiro and Rabbi Pinchos Weberman. These interviews were full of toichen and horaos on how to lead a community.

Bal Harbour Shliach Rabbi Sholom Ber Lipskar is a tremendous storyteller, and a very busy man! The My Encounter team had to schedule 3 separate interviews with him between all of his other duties just to catch his story. He speaks so clearly and powerfully about the Rebbe and had many horaos from the Rebbe on a variety of different subjects.

Rabbi Yaakov Zvi Roth, a long-time teacher at the Lubavitch day school in Florida, had the merit of receiving numerous letters from the Rebbe to his class. He spoke glowingly about the Rebbe’s interest in these little children, and how the Rebbe would comment on their projects and pictures.

The Rebbe would even comment in his handwriting on the letters, showing enormous interest in seemingly trivial things. The greatness of an individual can sometimes be seen in how he deals with seemingly unimportant minutiae.

Stay tuned for the release of these interviews!

3. Security.

One night the My Encounter team finished interviewing at midnight. They were back at the Brody home where they were staying, and they were ready to go to bed when the doorbell rang and kept on ringing.

It was the police! The local Shmira had witnessed someone breaking into one of the cars and alerted the police. B’Hashgocha Protis, they chose the car which was empty of anything valuable. Had the chosen Yankee Teitelbaum‘s car, they would’ve happened upon thousands of dollars worth of video, r”l.

4. The nachas.
The children at LEC (Lubavitch Educational Center) got a behind-the-scenes look at how a ‘My Encounter’ interview works. The My Encounter team presented to the boys elementary, then girls elementary, and finally the girls high school.

The kids got to see the camera, the lighting, the various screens, the microphones, and the whole setup. Then the kids interviewed Rabbi Shapiro themselves while sitting in the prestigious “interviewer chair.”

Rabbi Shapiro was amazing. He answered any question posed to him by any person with such tact and clarity.

5. The flexibility.

At the last minute, the rabbi who was scheduled to interview with is at the high school on Friday had “eruv duty.” After scrambling quite a bit, the My Encounter team finally succeeded to convince Mrs. Rivka Mendelsohn, a veteran Shlucha and teacher in the school to come share her personal encounters that she merited to experience from the Rebbe throughout the years.

Many times at the end of a long day, both R’ Mendy Alevsky, interviewer for the My Encounter project and Teitelbaum, JEM’s cameraman, added one or two interviews to make sure to capture everyone on JEM’s list in Florida.

6. The hospitality.

Shabbos was in Bal Harbour. What a beautiful community that loves the Rebbe like no other. Rabbi Shea and Dobie Rubinstein and Rabbi Eily and Nechama Dina Smith graciously hosted the My Encounter team, and introduced them to many people who were interested in the project.

7. The Scenery.

One of the interviewees was Dr. Marvin Shuster. Once he was in New York staying at the Gansburg residence on President Street, and he wanted to give the Rebbe and Rebbetzin a gift. So he went to the Rebbe’s house across the street and knocked on the door. An elderly lady answered. She introduced herself as the Rebbe’s cousin and housekeeper and took him inside.

They spoke for close to 30 minutes and he went on to tell her that he has this beautiful secluded home in Miami and that the Rebbe and Rebbetzin should come take a vacation! The elderly woman turned to him and said “The Rebbe and the Rebbetzin don’t take vacations.”

8. The machers.

Rabbi Shmuel Blizinsky spoke of a time in yechidus: the Rebbe told him that he wanted his Chassidim to stop practicing defensive Judaism, and begin an offensive, to capture the hearts of the young generation. After that yechidus, Rabbi Blizinsky went back to Israel and put a plan into place. He was one of the first ones on the front lines doing the Rebbe’s holy work.

Our researcher Eliyahu Benhiyoun managed to put together a packed day of interviews for us at our “Open Mic Day” at Rabbi Moishe Denburg‘s Chabad House in Boca Raton. Not an easy task to fit so many people on a regular weekday!

9. The brachos.

Mr. Sol Zuckerman told of how the Rebbe gave him a brocha for a child and sure enough one year later, a child was born.

The team interviewed Mr. Morty and Yurah Mayberg, one of the first of the Korfs’ Mekuravim in Miami in the 1960’s. They also enjoyed a close relationship with the Rebbe. After having a few girls, they had a special blessing from the Rebbe to have a baby boy.

10. The farbrengen.

Cagen, the director of the My Encounter with the Rebbe project, gave a presentation at a Melave Malka and farbrenged with some of the Miami locals. At the presentation, they got to see some new, never before seen interviews that the My Encounter team recently filmed.

It was quite a trip! In total, My Encounter with the Rebbe interviewed 29 different people with close to forty (40) hours of footage!

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