By Rivkah Lewin, Lubavitch.com
Next Tuesday marks 35 years since Rabbi Dovid Okunov, a bold Russian activist for Judaism who risked death defying communist authorities by teaching Jewish children Torah, was gunned down on a Brooklyn street.
In 1979, Okunov, a free man in the U.S., and a world away from the dark, oppressive forces of the former Soviet Union, was still working to assist Jews who were trapped there.
On Thursday, October 25, as he walked to morning services near his home in Brooklyn, a young black man seized his blue velvet bag containing his talit and tefillin, and shot him in the head, instantly killing him.
Over three decades later, Yeshivat Ohel Dovid, named in his memory, continues to do Rabbi Okunov’s life work. Year after year, the yeshiva turns out successive classes of Russian Jewish boys who benefit from a strong Jewish education.
Born in Ukraine in 1911, Rabbi Okunov grew up in repressive times for Jews. The Russian Revolution, a series of severe political upheavals begun in 1917, made it dangerous for Russian Jews to study Torah and be observant. Yet Okunov’s parents hired a teacher to tutor him at home.
After bar mitzvah, at 13, Okunov wanted to continue his studies at the underground Tomchei Temimim Yeshiva founded by the sixth Chabad-Lubavitch Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, in Kremenchuk, Ukraine. His parents, however, refused, due to the perils associated with such activities.
Okunov went on a hunger strike for two days, and his parents relented. Risking his life to become a Torah scholar, a rabbi, and a Chabad-Lubavitch chasid, Okunov went on to teach others in underground classes.
In 1947, the KGB discovered that Okunov was a follower of the Lubavitcher Rebbe in America and began to pursue him. Friends alerted him and Okunov fled to his parents’ home in Ukraine. Three years later, Rabbi Okunov made aliya with his four children. His wife, Bassia, had passed away a few years earlier.
During the shiva for Rabbi Okunov, the Rebbe instructed that a yeshiva be built in his honor, to serve the needs of boys whose families hailed from the Soviet Union. Thus the fledgling yeshiva run by the Friends of Refugees of Eastern Europe (FREE) expanded and was renamed Yeshivat Ohel Dovid.
F.R.E.E, whose raison d’etre was to provide Eastern European refugees with their material, educational, and spiritual needs, was established in 1969. The organization founded the first Jewish high school for Russian-American boys in the U.S.
In 1974, F.R.E.E expanded the yeshiva by creating the first elementary school in the U.S. for Russian immigrants. The yeshiva provides boys with a foundation in both Torah studies and secular subjects. Classes are offered in Russian for students who are not proficient in English.
F.R.E.E also provides scholarships to encourage Russian Jewish children beyond the local area, to enroll in Jewish schools.
Fully accredited by New York State and the Board of Regents, Yeshivat Ohel Dovid has shepherded more than 7,500 students through its halls. More than 1,000 students from the school have entered college and become teachers in Jewish day schools, doctors, lawyers, and engineers, among other vocations.
Rabbi Okunov was laid to rest in Old Montefiore Cemetery in Queens, not far from the resting place of the Rebbe. A black teenager, Caroll Miller of Crown Heights, was tried and sentenced to 22 years in prison on charges of pre-meditated murder, with the motive of robbery.
I’m shocked that this is the first I’m hearing of the murder of Rabbi Okunov. I grew up in Crown Heights but was just seven years old at the time that this horror story occured. So it’s understandable that I wasn’t aware of it then – but I know a few members of his family, and always heard about other Crown Heights tales of violence (the Goldman’s son, Mr. Zuber in Boston…). So I’m surprise to first be hearing of this now. It’s in important story to share. Not just so that Rabbi Okunov should be remembered – but also… Read more »
We need to know this part of our sad history.
Thanks for sharing. I never knew this but it’s made an impact on me just reading.
no way he served the whole sentence. There is NO justice in our justice system.
Smack a busdriver and get 7 years.
Kill a Jew? He got the equivalent of smacking 3 mta employees?
Disgusting.
It’s because of the special Okunov family we are frum today! May G-d bless you all with only good. Your the most amazing dedicated people.
S.K
We need Moshiach!
He raised a family who’s the best of Lubavitch. Shluchim all over doing amazing work!
I heard stories from tomchei tmimim and Reb Dovid. Incredible! Mesiras nefesh embodied him from such a young age. A real soldier.
Our family is frum today because of the special Okunov family. May you all be blessed triple fold for all that you do!
Does that mean he is out of jail? Murderers get a lighter sentence than others in this country, like Rubashkin.
Moshiach now
Following this horrifying killing, the Rebbe said a mamor “וירח ה’ את ריח הניחוח – תשמ “ע” a very powerful mamor!
im wasa a young 18 when it happenned.
he was in my mind a senior citizen, and very sad.Now i realize that he was a youn man , and his daughter was akallah and got matrried during shloshim.
his sons look just like him and they should contiue in his good work and be Maarich yomin!!!m it was a very sad and frighting day in CH since i was a an out of towner at the time.
goldman, then him……it was very scary years and still is.
we had the Rebbe bgashmius to give us koach to go on!!!!
He was murdered on a Thusday morning (Daled Cheshvan). At the Farbrengen on that Motzei Shabbos Noach (the Rebbe was still Farbrenging on M. Shabbos instead of Shabbos), the Rebbe began the Farbrengen asking to sing the Maamar Niggun. The Rebbe then began the Maamar, “Vayorach Hashem Es Reiach Hanichoach”, and quoted the Midrash that Hashem smelled the “Reiach Hanichoach” of those who are Moser Nefesh in the “Dor Hashmad”. And, most unusally, the Rebbe cried during this part of the (long and beautiful) Maamar. The Maamar itself is a wrap-up of the entire month of Tishrei and its impact… Read more »
He was a very kind, frum person. Went on mesiras nefesh for yiddishekeit . He singlehandedly raised a wonderful frum chassidish family.
Thank you collive for remembering this day
He was a great person and a beloved grandfather
May we see the coming of moshiach now
Kiddish in FREE this shaboss