By COLlive and Baila Olidort – Lubavitch.com
Cover photo: Israel Bardugo
Rabbi Shmuel Azimov, the Head Shliach of Paris who spearheaded the unprecedented “French Lubavitch revolution,” bringing thousands of Jews closer to their heritage and establishing over 70 Chabad institutions, has passed away on Wednesday, 12 Cheshvan 5775.
He was 69.
In 2012, Rabbi Azimov was interviewed by Baila Olidort for lubavitch.com. The following is an excerpt from the interview.
Born in Russia in 1945, he was 3-years-old when his family arrived in Paris after fleeing communism. For most Chabad Jews escaping communism, France was a point in transit—either to the Holy Land or North America. The Azimovs were among the few Chabad families who remained. There were not many Jews in Paris; most were disaffected Holocaust survivors, and the city was largely devoid of any real Jewish activity.
Rabbi Azimov got his early grooming as a teacher from his father who went door to door searching for students. R’ Chaim Hillel Azimov founded 20 Talmud Torahs in Paris and its surrounding areas.
When he was old enough, he went to the Chabad boys yeshiva founded in Brunoy in 1947, by Rabbi Joseph I. Schneersohn, the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe. In 1963, then a teenager, Rabbi Azimov made his first transatlantic trip to see the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe, traveling by charter flight from London.
“I was one of three Chabad boys from Paris who lived in the yeshiva dormitory,” he told Lubavitch.com in an interview. “After returning from my first visit to the Rebbe, the three of us were instructed to start our activities as shluchim in Paris while continuing our studies in the yeshiva in Brunoy. So every Shabbos, we would return to the city. There were many children of Holocaust survivors who assimilated. But we reached some, we began to learn with them, to teach them, and eventually, they joined us in the yeshiva in Brunoy.”
After his marriage to Bassie Shemtov, the youngest daughter of the famed chossid Rabbi Benzion Shemtov OBM, in New York, the couple returned to Paris.
Arriving on the eve of the May 1968 student protests, the Azimovs inspired a grassroots transformation of their own. They continued to receive the Rebbe’s guidance: Rabbi Azimov and his wife should teach as much as possible. The Rebbe specifically instructed Azimov to dedicate half of his time to teaching in a formal school.
The couple opened Paris’s first Chabad House in 1972. Under his leadership, Chabad centers have since opened in every district of Paris and its suburbs.
Despite a recent rise in Anti-Semitism, France is home to one of the largest Jewish populations in the Diaspora, and Jewish life in Paris, where some 375,000 Jews reside, is thriving. With forty Chabad centers and some 170 Shluchim in Paris, a day school bursting at the seams with 2,000 students, and an annual budget of roughly $25 million, Rabbi Azimov built a remarkably successful Jewish infrastructure.
With his deep-rooted Chabad Chasidic world-view and a profoundly compassionate concern for others, “Moule” (short for Shmuel), a household name in France’s Jewish circles, has negotiated every aspect of Jewish communal life, working cooperatively and effectively with all of the city’s Jewish organizations and municipal authorities.
Almost all of the 170 shluchim serving in Chabad centers in Paris were his and his wife’s students. It is a story that reflects a highly functional family, or the dynamic of an exemplary teacher/students relationship.
Rabbi Azimov traveled regularly to the Rebbe who took particular interest in seeing and guiding the growth of Jewish life in Paris, where he and his wife lived for a period of seven years, beginning in 1935. “We’ve sown the seeds,” the Rebbe’s wife once told him, reflecting on that period of her life in Paris.
After suffering a stroke in 1998, he was forced to take a slower pace, at least physically. Yet he continued to maintain responsibility for his budget, and he continued to teach in school as the Rebbe instructed him to do half a century ago. No longer able to lead a class as he once did, he worked with students individually.
He was a member of the Executive Committee of Agudas Chassidei Chabad International, the central governing committee of the global Lubavitch movement.
His wife Bassie passed away in 2011 at the age of 67.
He is survived by his children Rabbi Mendel Azimov, Mrs. Esther Marasov and Rabbi Levi Azimov – all Shluchim in Paris, and grandchildren.
He is survived by his siblings R’ Moshe Nissan Azimov – Jerusalem; Mrs. Raizel Raskin – Morocco; Mrs. Sara Even-Yisroel (Steinsaltz) – Jerusalem; Mrs. Esther Matusof – Toulouse, France; Mrs. Devora Markowitz – Australia; and Mrs. Shterna Shanowitz – Los Angeles, CA.
His brothers-in-law are Rabbi Berel Shemtov, Head Shliach of Michigan; Rabbi Abraham Shemtov, Head Shliach of Philadelphia and Chairman of Agudas Chabad International; and Rabbi Israel Shemtov of Crown Heights.
Baruch dayan haemes.
I dont know him but im deeply inspired by his life of communal service, may his family and all who knew him be comforted
Shluchim today can take a lesson from him.,…..actually all of us can.Reb shmuel was not worried about political correctness. He never ever second guessed the Rebbe.He believed with every fiber of his being. The Rebbe knew that he could trust him to turn over France ,spiritually,AND He DID.
Although no one will be at his level, in his short life, he was able to build such a strong and vast army of Chassidim!!!
These thousands of baalei teshuva will ensure that his life work will continue to flourish and succeed in bringing the geula now!!!
My zeide rabbi Leibel Raskin
no one would be doing what he did in paris
Reb mule was a shaliach who loved his mekuravim like i never saw.
He was the engine of the Judaism in France. There’s not a jew in paris who hasn’t heard about yidishkeit, and from the lubavitsher rebbe. every jew in paris knows that for tfilin mezuzois etc. You have to go to the beit lubavitsh !! yes this a little detail from reb mule’s work.
HaRav Chaim Yitchak Sanowicz a Rebbei in the high school @ YOEC in Los Angeles 4 many years.
Baruch Dayan Haemes
Rov Mule built an empire. His Baal teshuvas became real chassidim-I am married to one and can attest to their yiras shomayim.
No other shliach had done such an amazing shlichus. He turned the darkness into shining lights!
If I’m not mistaken, rabbi Adin Even Yisroel (Steinzaltz) is a brother in law of his as we’ll.
CHaim hillel
his father name is chaim Hillel
His father was Chaim Hillel Asimov
r want to say tehilkim shmuel Ben
i don’t know how the people are gonna handle this
are all being taken. Giants who truly lived for the Rebbe, who changed the world, who chassidus changed THEM.
tzaddik yesod olam! they held up our shaking world!
And we are left like little orphans, clueless, so lost.
I guess they want to get a really good view from upstairs, with all the other great leaders, Avraham, Moshe, Dovid… watching us little midgets take the last step over the finish line.
These last few moments.. are just soo painful….
R Azimov was a person that loved ppl the way they are.
i was looking for a shidduch,i went to his personal house. he was talking with me like a father to is daughter. every week , he asked how i was feeling to my father…
( and i m just a regular girl , not from rich family ….
today i m married,
my shidduch wouldn t have worked without his precious advice
he was shlucho shel adam kemosso mamash
This man single-handedly has inspired more people to become Baalai Tshuvah then any other in Lubavitch.
The French Revolution will continue!
Please go straight to the kisei hakavod & plead to Hashem to take us out of this Golus immediatement!! Mach a SHTUREM!!! Ad Mosai!!!
He is now together with the Rebbe…………!
he was a real chossid!
Its a real shock! He accomplished so much. The whole tzarfas ufaratzta was because of him.
He will surely mach a shturm to bring MHM now
….in his lifetime!!
He will forever remain a legend in Lubavitch!
No one accomplished as much as he did!!
all the french people are morning his loss
absolutely right.
I do not know of any shluchim as powerful and successful yet so humble as him.
He was a real chossid.
In one year Europe has lost the two Shluchim who made Europe wat it is today, Harav Sudak and his brother in law Harav Azimov. They where the finest examples of true Chassidim and Shluchim.
HES WAS AT TRUE CHOSID SHLIACH,SO SAD 🙁
BARUCH DAYAN HAEMES
WE HAVE A LOT TO LEARN FROM HIM
There wasn’t any, and most likely will not be any, like him
BDE so sad he was a powerhouse and was matzliach in the rebbes shlichus in france
One think is sure. The olam aba is lucky to great such a great person