By COLlive reporter
With the pandemic not allowing for Merkos Shlichus bochurim to visit remote Jewish communities and individuals this summer, community news service COLlive.com launches a new series of interviews with Chassidim who share memories of their own visits in past years.
This week’s interviewee is Zalman Dubrawsky of Dallas, Texas:
In the Summer of 2012, Mendy Krasnjansky (today a Shliach in Maui, Hawaii) and myself were sent on Merkos Shlichus to the suburbs of Frankfurt, Germany. We were stationed in Offenbach under the auspices of Rabbi Mendy and Rivky Gurevitch, and would travel to the small surrounding cities each day.
Before traveling to Frankfurt, we received a list documenting the visits of the previous Merkos Shluchim sent to our area, including a list of Jews they met. One day, we decided to travel to a small city four hours away. We had 4-5 Jewish names documented in that particular city, and were hoping for the best.
When we arrived in the city, we realized that this may be harder than we imagined. There were swastikas drawn on the buildings, glass bottles broken everywhere, something just didn’t seem right.
We knocked on the first door, but received no answer, the second door, also no answer. Finally, at the third door someone answered, but as soon as they opened the door, they immediately slammed it in our faces.
We felt very let down, especially after driving so long, and yet no success in sight. We returned to our car to discuss what to do, and decided that before heading back, we would knock on all the doors again, to see if anyone had returned home since our first attempt.
As soon as we entered the elevator, an elderly woman asked us in German if we are Jewish. To our surprise, she motioned to us to follow her to her apartment.
When we got to her apartment she told us she was Jewish and introduced us to her husband. We started talking together.
In the middle of our chat, the husband suddenly brought in a small pair of Tefillin. Turns out, this gentleman was a Jewish immigrant from Russia who survived the Holocaust. Just before the war, his parents gifted him with Tefillin in time for his Bar Mitzvah. Just a few days later the war broke out, and he was never taught what to do with his Tefillin.
He was overjoyed when we showed him how to put on Tefillin, his first time ever.
We then realized the reason why we traveled four hours to this far away city, and B’hashgacha Pratis met this woman in the elevator.
thank you for sharing
Beautiful story! Very inspiring !
Mamash two great guys with fantastic personalities
This is what gives us the fire and passion to fo about whatever shlichus we may be doing.
These stories are pure inspiration
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Thank you for sharing
Amazing Story!
Rabbi Gurewitz and his wife are the best!