“My Encounter” in South America

After conducting over 70 interviews in their new studio in the heart of Crown Heights, the My Encounter with the Rebbe team hit the road again! This time they decided to leave the confines of North America and headed south to the largest country in the Southern Hemisphere: Brazil.

In just four days in Sao Paulo, they managed to squeeze in twelve interviews with over 25 hours of video footage!

Some highlights from the trip:

Monday: The My Encounter team arrived in Brazil Monday morning, after taking a red-eye flight from New York. Wasting no time, they headed straight to the Escola Gani Chaya Mushka girls school to interview the dean of the both the boys and girls school, Rabbi Hirsh Leib Begun. He spoke about the early years in 770 in the late 1940s when he first met the Frierdiker Rebbe!

Later that night, they interviewed Mr. Sacha Kalmus in his home, where he spoke about his special relationship with the Rebbe.

Tuesday: In the morning the team interviewed Mrs. Devorah Blumenfeld, who flew in special from Rio de Janeiro to tell her stories of her late husband, the Rav of Rio, Rabbi Yerachmiel Blumenfeld with the Rebbe. She has an incredible memory!

They then made their way to the house of Henry Sobel. A noted reform rabbi, Sobel emotionally spoke about his yechidus with the Rebbe in 1980, when his mother was ill. Holding back tears, Sobel said, “The Rebbe was the greatest religious Jewish leader of our times”.

Wednesday: Early in the morning, the My Encounter crew headed to the house of Rabbi Dovid Weitman, who spoke about his fascinating yechidusen with the Rebbe, when he would bring large groups of students to the Rebbe. The students would ask all sorts of questions and the Rebbe would patiently answer each one of them.

After a 3-hour interview with Rabbi Weitman, they headed to the home of Lisette Sayeg, who insisted they eat a 3-course meal before doing the interview! After dessert, Mrs. Sayeg spoke about the story of her son who was miraculously saved from leukemia as a result of a brocha from the Rebbe.

Mrs. Suzi Konig then came to the Sayeg house to speak about her yechidus with the Rebbe after losing her brother in a car accident. The Konig family was planning on moving to Israel after this tragic loss and sought the Rebbe’s advice. The Rebbe told them that they would find comfort in their brother’s passing by staying in their home town of Curitiba (a small town in Brazil) and focusing their efforts in bringing local Jews closer to Judaism. This was the impetus to bringing Rabbi Yoseph and Tila Dubrawsky to Curitiba, who are now shluchim there for over 25 years!

Later in the night, they headed over to Reb Mayer Zajac where he spoke for close to 3 hours about his fascinating stories with the Rebbe, including the many horoas he received about the printing of Likutei Sichos! The crew got back to their office at around 12:30 am.

Thursday: Leaving their hotel room at 6:45 am, the My Encounter team headed over to Tifferet Lubavitch to interview Rabbi and Mrs. Yaakov and Sheina Begun. The Beguns spoke about the early days of Shlichus in Sao Paulo and how the Rebbe encouraged them through all the hardships of those early years.

After about 4 hours of interviews, they interviewed two other individuals about their stories with the Rebbe and headed to the airport to make their flight back to New York.

Stay tuned for their clips…!

A special thanks to Rabbi Dovid Weitman, Felipe Dorf and Yankee Teitelbaum for making the trip happen!