By COLlive reporter
Photos: Chaim Tuito
An evening of tribute was recently held in Israel to mark the 50th anniversary since the first hookup that allowed Chassidim to hear the Rebbe‘s farbrengens live from 770 Eastern Parkway.
That first phone connection was all but a dream for Yud Shvat 5730 (1970), the anniversary of the day the Rebbe accepted leadership of Chabad-Lubavitch and the day a new Torah was to be welcomed to 770.
The excitement surrounding the occasion was felt in Chabad communities worldwide. The chossid R’ Itchke Gansburg approached R’ Shmuel (Mulik) Rivkin, then a young bochur, to see if it could be done.
“Farvos nit?” (I don’t see why not) was Rivkin’s reply. Motivated and handy, he got to work with the help of his friend R’ Meni Wolff, today the Director of Kehot Publication Society in Israel.
Situated in what would become the WLCC broadcasting room, Rivkin connected wires and contraptions with ingenuity. The result was a live audio broadcast that was heard on a loudspeaker in the Chassidic village Kfar Chabad in central Israel.
It was a novelty and chassidim of all ages flocked to hear the Rebbe’s words – some even traveling from other cities. R’ Aharon Dov Haperin, editor of the Kfar Chabad magazine, was then a student in Yeshivas Kol Torah in Jerusalem. He recalled traveling there with his classmate Rabbi Shabtai Slavaticki, today the Head Shliach of Antwerp.
“R’ Shmuel Rivkin merited to bring the direct connection between the Rebbe and the chassidim and to strengthen it in a wonderful way,” said Kfar Chabad Rabbi Meir Ashkenazi, who was a youngster at the time of the broadcast.
The evening of tribute to Rivkin, today the owner of Kol-Shar, one of the oldest and most experienced sound and video companies in Israel, was held in the 770 replica building in Kfar Chabad.
Attending the evening were many grateful chassidim, among them were his brother in law Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Aharonov, Chairman of Lubavitch Youth Organization in Israel; Cholon Chief Rabbi Yochanan Gurary; Karmei Yosef Rabbi Eliezer Brod, chairmen of the Kfar Chabad committees R’ Shimon Rabinovitch and R’ Nachman Reichman, and Rabbi Zusha Wolff – Director of JEM in Israel.
A special video was produced by Rivkin’s son, filmmaker Shlomo Chaim Rivkin. Interviewed were Merkos Vice Chairman Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, California’s Head Shliach Rabbi Shlomo Cunin, JEM founder Rabbi Hillel Dovid Krinsky, WLCC founder Rabbi Chaim Boruch Halberstam and Paris Shliach Rabbi Mendel Azimov.
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The chossid R’ Eliezer Lichtenstein recalled how Rivkin was the single person overseeing the hookup in New York while no less than 6 technicians from Israel’s Ministry of Communications were dealing with the other end in Kfar Chabad.
“These technicians were having trouble with the hookups,” he said. “It was only when Mulik returned for a visit to Israel that he was able to figure it out. If one way didn’t work, he tried another…”
During the evening, Rivkin was surprised with a special gift presented by his son, R’ Yossi Rivkin, owner of the Chabad Hebrew news website COL.org.il and partner in the community news service COLlive.com.
The gift were framed photos of Mulik Rivkin with the Rebbe and the $100 bill he received from the Rebbe at the time. “For all that you have done so far,” the Rebbe told him during a private Yechidus.
It was announced during the evening that Rivkin’s vast archive of photos, audio and video he has taken over the years with the Rebbe will soon be all available online. It is said to be one of the rarest documentations of Chabad history in recent years.
One example, played during the evening, was the audio recording of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visiting the Rebbe while he sat Shiva over the passing of Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka Schneerson OBM.
Rabbi Menachem Brod, an author and a Chabad spokesman in Israel, praised Rivkin for wisely documenting such historic moments. “Even today we don’t always know how to appreciate special moments,” he commented.
