Community news service COLlive.com presents “In the Footsteps of Rebbetzin Chana’s Diaries,” an exclusive new 5-part short documentary series revisiting key locations written about by Rebbetzin Chana Schneerson OBM, the mother of the Rebbe.
Rebbetzin Chana voluntarily joined her husband, Harav Levi Yitzchok Schneeerson OBM, during his exile in Kazakhstan between 1940 and 1944. She had written about her harrowing experiences after arriving in the United States in 1947.
Reb Levi Yitzchok was sentenced by the communist regime for his fearless stance against their efforts to eradicate Jewish learning and practice in the Soviet Union. He and the Rebbetzin eventually moved to the city of Almaty, after which he passed away on Chof Av.
The series shows the Shluchim and Chabad historians, Rabbi Eliezer Zaklikovsky of Monroe, NJ, and Rabbi Mendel Feller of Minnesota, as they tour the buildings and areas mentioned by the Rebbetzin’s diary.
The third episode continues in Shieli, Kazakhstan:
9) Building of the Shieli branch NKVD, Soviet secret police agency: Harav Levi Yitzchak walks 4 kilometers every 10 days to register, including on Shabbos.
10) Shieli Open-air Market: Where essential food items and housewares are purchased, and the tailor and the shoemaker are found.
11) Shieli Government bakery: Harav Levi Yitzchok and Rebbetzin Chana wait in line every three days for many hours to receive a kilo of bread, amounting to hundreds of trips.
The episode shares details of what the Rebbe’s parents did in each place, while narrating directly from the Rebbetzin’s famous handwritten memoirs. The narration of the films is the actual text of the original diaries written in Yiddish, and has a running translation of English subtitles.
Episode 3
Episode 3 is dedicated to Rabbi Levi Wolff, Sydney Australia, in honor of his 50th birthday
Episode 1 dedicated by Rabbi Levi & Chana Matusof, France
The diaries were first published in the original Yiddish was in 5753, in “Tzadik Lamelech” Volume 4, edited by Rabbi Zaklikovsky. He asked and received the Rebbe’s permission and bracha to publish them. Get the set here
The Yiddish diaries were subsequently published by Kehot with footnotes etc. Translated versions of the diaries (in English, Hebrew, French, Russian and Spanish) are available on Chabad.org.
The diary in the original Yiddish can be found on Lahak.org.
Many have asked about further reading of the diaries, and they are published in English in “A mother in Israel” by Kehot: https://store.kehotonline.com/prodinfo.asp?number=EH-MOTH
great videos and very important. yasher koach!!!!
Wow!! This is so interesting!! Please keep on posting, it is so exciting when you post a new clip! I feel like I’m living the Rebbetzens diary. Thank you!