The Powerful Question Reb Mendel Futerfas Was Asked

An excerpt from the new book My Gulag Life: Stories of a Soviet Prisoner, ad told by Reb Mendel Futerfas (Hasidic Archives):

One day I was called to the office of the local communist authorities. There I met two people in tailored suits, fine silk ties, and gold cufflinks. They introduced themselves as professors of Jewish Studies at the local university.

They claimed to have discovered an interesting phenomenon during their research on Soviet Jewry.

“There are cities in our great country with rabbis who sport long white beards and study Talmud day and night, but when Jewish infrastructure—the synagogues, schools, and ritual bath—is shuttered in those communities, Jewish life disappears.

“Yet there are a group of Chasidim, some too young to grow facial hair, who move in where there is nothing, and overnight there are children sitting together and studying Torah. Then a ritual bath is created, and signs of religious life begin to reappear.”

They continued, “We don’t understand. How is it that Chasidic students can move to a place with a defunct rabbinate, and somehow generate the energy to revive Jewish life? Tell us, what is the secret of the Chasidic movement?”

Of course, I did not answer them.

Which professor in the Soviet Union had money to dress so smartly? They certainly were police.

Even communist atheists realized that Chasidism contains tremendous energy. Let us appreciate what we have. It is irreplaceable.