When the Hamodia newspaper landed in the homes of thousands of families last week, Lubavitchers were surprised to see ten photos of Chabad bochurim in Shanghai, China.
Making its way through social media since, the photos have brought shivers down the spines of many whose loved ones were photographed in the refuge city during WWII.
The students were a part of thousands of refugees that received Sugihara Visas to Japan during WWII.
“In mid-October of 1941, as they prepared to attack Pearl Harbor, the Japanese felt that it was time for the refugees to leave their country,” explains Dovid Zaklikowski, whose grandfather, Rabbi Chaim Meir Bukiet was one of the students of Lubavitch Yeshivah in Shanghai.
Zaklikowski says the only option for the Jews was to go to Shanghai, China, “an international city that welcomed everyone.”
The story of the photos take us across the country to Portland, Oregon, where Rabbi Yehuda Oppenheimer served as the rabbi for eleven years, starting in 1994.
During that time he would drive cross-country, with his family, so that his kids could spend their summers in the New York Catskills.
On the way, after spending a few days at the Yellowstone National Park, they headed east and stayed overnight in Cody, Wyoming.
He was on line at a supermarket when a man approached him and asked in a deep Texas drawl, “Are you a Rabbi?”
Somewhat disturbed that he was being drawn out of “vacation mode,” he replied in the affirmative. After some “chit-chat,” he told the Rabbi Oppenheimer that he had been looking for a rabbi for years.
In 1944 young Max Krueger joined the U.S. Army Air Corp and served one year in India and one year in China. Among his duties in Shanghai was to take photographs of potential immigrants to America and. “Among the applicants were a bunch of rabbis who seemed oddly out of place in that city,” Mr. Krueger, who passed away in 2005, told the rabbi.
Nevertheless, Mr. Krueger went about his business and took the photos.
“Finding the subjects interesting, he retained copies of some of these photos,” Rabbi Oppenheimer says, “and reckoned that some rabbi might come along someday who would also find them interesting.”
The two exchanged information and said their goodbyes. Sometime later Rabbi Oppenheimer received an envelope with ten photos “of young scholars.”
All these years, Rabbi Oppenheimer thought that they were Mir bachurim, decades after he received them, he learned that in fact they are Lubavitchers.
Over the past few days, Chabad Lubavitch Archives, with the assistance of the descendants of the students who studied in Shanghai, Rabbis Shimon Raichik, Sholom Ber Tenenbaum, Yisroel Rubin and Yosef Landa, identified those photographed:
Here are the results:
1. R. Moshe Rubin
2. R. Shmuel Moshe Lederhandler
3. R. Chaim Ber Gulevsky
4. R. Yechezkel Deren
5. R. Leibish Probst
6. R. Mottel Brysky
7. R. Yosef Borenstein
8. R. Avraham Tzvi Landa
9. R. Gershon Chanowitz
10. R. Moshe Feder or R. Hirshel Rubin
Use the comments to identify the others and correct any mistakes.
I knew Rabbi Moshe Feder very well and #3 is definitely him. There is no question at all.
#3 is my father.
Confirmed from the Grandson and his mother that indeed #3 is Harav Moshe Feder
There is no doubt – # 3 is Harav Moshe Feder
#2 is ” Pinchas Blatt
3 10 ” Hershel Rubin
It is not Blatt and 10 is Reb Moshe Feder.
Btw are there any Lederhandler children?
# 10 is Moshe Feder. # 3 looks similar to his, but when looking at the photo from 1946, you see that it is not and the last photo looks much more like him.
# 2 is not Pinchas Blatt, though he looks similar to Lederhandler.
#3 is a photo of my father
No 10 is Herhel Rubin
Number 2 is definitely Pinchos Blatt. I was in the dormitory on Bedford and Dean when the Shanghai boys came. We gave up our rooms to them and we slept in the gymnasium.We spent many days and nights together.
Picture number 2 is definitely Pinya Blatt.
Standing in front, on the far right, is Rabbi Moshe Feder a”h.
The second bachur to the left of him, in the second row from the front, with the light-colorer tie, is Rabbi Moshe Chaim Sapochkinsky a’h, his brother-in-law.This is a well-known photo. Most of the bachurim were already identified before.
#3 is Rabbi Moshe Feder a”h who was niftar 2 years ago in August.
I’m pretty sure Reb Chaim Ber Gulevsky was a talmid of the Mir Yeshiva. Many of the Mir talmidim fro Shanghai remained on close and friendly terms with the Temimim.
#3 Is Reb Moshe #10 Rubin
Isn’t the bottom right in the group picture Reb Shmuel Tzvi (Hershel) Fox?
Can we please see an enlargement of the group?
ARE there any more?
In sefer tomchei temimim Poland latvia there is a few pictures from shanghai and there is write who some of them are. Or you can see from the pictures they have in the sefer. In the sefer #2 is pinchosen Blatt. And one ore 3 the people there is different then written here
REB CHAIM BER GULEVSKY KEPT A FRIENDSHIP WITH MY FATHER AVROHOM TZVI LANDA, HOWEVER HE WASNT A TALMID OF TOMCHEI TMIMIM
One of these identified Chasidim is my father a”h. It feels like I just got regards from him! I miss him so much. But we all know that really soon we will be reunited with our loved ones with the coming of Moshiach NOW! Amein Kein Yehi Ratzon!
number 1#0 is Reb Hershel Rubin ( Reb Moshe Rubin’s younger brother))
and i believe # 3 is Reb Moshe Feder as well
If you are looking for a fascinating, inspiring and entertaining talk on the Shanghai story, Mrs. Simie Schtroks from Surrey, British Columbia gives a lecture with the title, :How the wandering Jew Survives and Thrives based on the Escape from the Shanghai story. Simie is the daughter of Rabbi Gershon Chanowitz (see above photo).
Simie gave the talk in Boulder, Colorado and people were spellbound and still speak about it two years later. Her number is 604 541 4111
Number 3 looks like reb Moshe feder
I believe #3 is Moshe Feder