By COLlive reporter
Rabbi Yechezkel “Reb Chatche” Feigin, the famed secretary of the Rebbe Rayatz, left no descendants. His entire family was murdered by the Nazis.
Now, a new photobook, Footprints: Colorful Lives, Huge Impact, tells his story. Of the twenty individuals featured in the book, five lived through or perished in the Holocaust.
The biographies are accompanied by 185 photos, many of them published there for the first time. Obtaining illustrations for the chapter on Reb Chatche proved a difficult task, however. The staff at Hasidic Archives (www.hasidicarchives.com) tracked down the descendant of a couple whose wedding Reb Chatche had attended in Poland. The man’s nephews helped locate the Feigin family’s passports in the Latvian State Archives.
With the assistance of Rabbi Mordechai Glazman of Chabad of Latvia, Hasidic Archives received good-quality scans of the 1933 passports of Reb Chatche, his wife, Sasha, and his daughter, Masha. The documents were translated, revealing that the dedicated secretary had dark hair and blue eyes.
Award-winning photographer Marc Asnin assisted with the production of the book, a process that spanned six years. “There is no one like Dovid Zaklikowski at finding great photos,” he says. “Hasidic Archives books are not just good content. They are superb quality, from the design to the photos to the paper and binding. These books sit on my table in my office and at home and make great gifts.”
Footprints is available on Amazon Prime or from SeforimDeals.com.
thank you for this post… what am amazing book… truly a photo album… I ordered a copy for my son on shlichus on Amazon Prime.
Chatche had four sisters: Chana, Sara, Sima and Chaya. Sara was killed by the Nazis, other sisters survived and lived a long life. Chaya, the youngest, lived till 1990.
He also had a brother Zalman, who was killed before the war.
Sara is my great-grandmother.
I was able to get for my antique Seforim collection/research library the original 7 pamphlets of Hatomim ithat belonged To Reb Chatche Hay”d with his and the Rebbe Rayat’zs stamp in it from Riga and OtWotck.
What a great book footprints will be !!!! Can’t wait.
rebitzin faigin was the sister of hachosid aharon eliezer ceitlin a”h (grandfather of harav ceitlin a”h of tzfas) and of rebitzin chaya pozner a”h wife of hachosid sholom pozner a”h
If you want to see pictures of Chatche and Soshe’s daughters, there is a famous picture of the Rebetzen Shterna Sara at Rabbi Mentlik’s vort. Ther are two girls on the side who are Boruch Hashem liviing with us today, Rebetzen Chitrik and Rebetzen Tema Gurari, zoln zain gezunt un shtark, pictured next to their mother Rebetzen Krasik. in that picture, Soshe is in the top row, and the four girls in front of the table are Chatche’s daughters. Soshe’s maiden name was Tzeitlin, she was a sister to the famous Chosid Reb Aron Leizer Tzeitlin and also to Rebetzen… Read more »
her gaze is so intense… that is eyes were blue is an amazing detail that brings warmth to this very strong man.
would love to see the photo of their daughter. oh well, will get the book tomorrow.
Jewish name Soshe in Russian version is Sonia
Jewish people in Russia very seldom named daughter Sasha. It is a typical Russian name.
Thank you for not using my aunts English name… many in the family have always spelled it Sasha… sorry if it offends anyone.
With all the research you got the name wrong.
Rebbetzin Feigins name in the passport clearly shows Sonia.
(NOT Shasha!!??)
of reb chatche in the book to his right is the rebbes and freierdiker rebbes mazkir rabbi moshe leib rudshteun (his real name was zusha shifrin) to his left rabbi moshe pinchus katz gabay of 770 in the back rabbi nison mondel the mazkir of freierdiker rebbe and rebbe
Sosha (prounced Soshe), not Sasha which is short for Alexander. Basics.
I got the book, the stories, the pictures… there is nothing like it…
Really amazing how you got a hold of this.
Wasn’t his wife a Ceitlin?