Amateur Photographer Recorded Chabad Beginnings in Australia

By Chaim Mehlman

Tisha B’Av 5783 marks the tenth Yohrzeit of Reb Shmuel ben Reb Moishe Zalmen Feiglin of Melbourne, Australia.

Reb Shmuel was the youngest child of Reb Moishe Zalmen and Shpritze Leah Feiglin — the pioneers of Chabad in Australia.

The couple together with their five elder children arrived from Eretz Yisrael in 1912, and many years later The Rebbe referred to Reb Moishe Zalmen as the “Avrohom Avinu of Australia”.
One of his eyniklach, Reb Uri Kaploun (Jerusalem), has written a book about him, using The Rebbe’s title as the title of the book.
The book has also been translated into Ivrit.

Another eynikel, Reb Mottel Feiglin (Melbourne), son of Reb Shmuel Feiglin, has commissioned two documentary videos. The first is about the beginnings of Chabad in Australia. It covers the history of the Feiglin family from the late 19th century, and their vital role in the establishment of Chabad institutions in Australia beginning in the 1940s.

In 1986 The Rebbe started campaigning for Chabad Houses to be established anywhere where there are at least a few yidden, in any city, around the world. The second video begins where the first left off, covering the spread of Chabad from coast to coast in Australia.

Reb Shmuel was an avid photographer and home movie maker. We have him to thank for much of the original photographic material, especially in the first documentary. In the days when very few took pictures, and even fewer made movies, Reb Shmuel recorded many of the major events and personalities from the earliest stages of Chabad in Australia.

The videos are available to watch on the Vimeo and / or the YouTube links, posted below.

Vimeo:

YouTube: