London Celebrates Hei Teves

Hundreds joined in the grand event held in London, England to mark the 30th anniversary of Didan Notzach. Reb Getzel Itzinger, who led a dedicated team of local Gabboim and askonim who organized the event, chaired the evening.

The evening began with a short clip from JEM’s video “A Movement on Trial” and the words of the Rebbe, filled with deep pain gave a perfect setting for Rabbi Yitzi Lowenthal, a London native who is now on shlichus in Denmark, to open the evening sharing his experiences as a young boy in London and clearly explaining the Chassidic aspect of the day.

After a further part of the video was shown, this time the joyous dancing that followed the miraculous victory with the fiery words of the famous chossid Rabbi JJ Hecht, the crowd responded by getting on their feet and took a moment to translate thirty years of joy into true Chasidic joy with dancing and singing.

The guest of honor for the evening was Mr. Nathan Lewin, the lawyer who successfully argued the case of Agudas Chasidei Chabad. In his hour long speech, punctuated with humorous anecdotes and stories from his years of work in the field, Mr. Lewin gave the crowd a window into the process of the trial and victory, starting from the minute Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky had called him at 2am until the final moment the Seforim were returned to 770. He stressed how this was case was brought to court by the other side and also mentioned with pain how the victory is not complete until the seforim in Russia come back to their true home in 770.

When the official event ended, many stayed behind to farbreng with Rabbi Yisroel Deren, Shliach to New England and a member of the board of Merkos. Rabbi Deren, who sat till past 2am, stressed the point of how the Rebbe truly lives with us and how Hey Teves and the Rebbe’s arguments in the many sichos only prove this point to absolute certainty.

Wednesday evening, an upscale event was held at Chabad of Belgravia, organized by Rabbi Mendel Kalmanson, where Mr. Lewin gave talks on both the public Menorah cases and the Seforim case, with Q&A from businesspeople and lawyers.

As Mr. Lewin was in London, and heavily involved in defending the rights to public Menorah lighting, he also lit Europe’s largest Menorah which is organized every year by Tzivos Hsshem UK.

Full speech Nat Lewin

Mr Nat Lewin from mazaltovvideo.com on Vimeo.

Full speech Rabbi Yitzi Lowenthal

Rabbi Yitzi Loewenthal from mazaltovvideo.com on Vimeo.