By COLlive reporter
Rabbi Shlomo Cunin came Thursday to Cheder Menachem boys school in Los Angeles with a sizable wooden chest and placed it on display in front of the curious eyes of students and teachers.
What you see here is directly connected to Chof Ches Sivan, the Head Shliach of California told them.
He said the wooden trunk was used by the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, and his wife, Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka Schneerson when they narrowly escaped the Nazi onslaught in France.
They arrived to the United States of America on the 28th day of the Jewish month of Sivan (this year, corresponding to June 30, 2011).
The day is celebrated in Lubavitch communities worldwide as the beginning of the Rebbe’s decades-long revolutionary work to revitalize Jewish life in the Western Hemisphere and across the globe.
In a phone conversation with COLlive.com, Rabbi Cunin said the chest came to his hands unknowingly and that it took him years to discover its uniqueness.
“In the Lameds (5730’s), there was an old brass lighting fixture laying in 770 which was meant to be discarded when renovation was being done. I asked and got permission to keep it. We put it in a box which was also meant to be thrown out.”
In the tragic fire of 1980 when 3 people were killed at Chabad in Westwood, one of the only items that survived was the wooden trunk.
It was then that Rabbi Cunin took a closer look and found travel and immigration stickers identifying the route the Rebbe took to come to New York through Lisbon, Portugal.
Without names tags those days, the Rebbe signed his name on two stickers using the large printed letter “S” to continue writing his last name, Schneerson.
VIDEO: Arrival in America
I wonder if the Rebbe’ last name is spelled with a CH in french or german?
very!
go hershel gross
I wish we had that in NY, dont know why my son is off for 2 1/2 weeks until Yeshiva Kayitz start!
A few years I’ll go rabbi greenbaum realized the children of los angeles don’t have acceptable options for summer camps so he instatuted an 11 month of yeshivas ka-itz for the Cheder. it is a wonderful program head by Rabbi Hiedingsfeld.
ita a yishivas kayitz for 1st month
It looks like the kids are still in school in LA on Chof Ches Sivan,interesting.
thats amazing
veeeeeeeeeeeeeery cool!!!!!!!!!!!!
Indeed, here on chatzi kadur hatachton we were left with an entire treasure chest of divrei elokim chayim that the greats of previous generations did not dream of…. Of course this is not to minimize a physical artifact that was used by and belonged to a nosi