To promote the upcoming webcast of the Rebbe’s 80th birthday Farbrengen on Jewish.TV, producers at JEM have partnered with Chabad.org to release vintage footage of the original video introduction to the 1982 satellite feed of the farbrengen.
The introduction to “Celebration 80” features famous Broadway producer, Joe Papp, who became a major Chabad supporter after once seeing the Rebbe on a satellite hook-up of a farbrengen.
“I had the experience of tuning in late one night to a cable station… and I listened to [the Rebbe] for four hours discussing projects and ideas of such vast diversity and such scope. I felt, ‘There is a wise man left in the world. I thought that we had none.'”
Along with Papp is a 36 year-old Rabbi Manis Friedman, today a known Chassidic scholar who was the simultaneous translator for the event.
JEM director Elkanah Shmotkin says of the video, “This intro is a neat sort of a ‘time machine.’ It transports us back to an earlier era of communication, a different time and a different type of hafotzas hama’ayonos. We’re hoping that when people see the intro, they’ll be excited for more and feel like they want to view the whole farbrengen.”
The farbrengen is the second in a new series of Jewish.TV webcasts of farbrengens produced by the JEM Farbrengen Club.
Last month, response to the webcast of the Rebbe’s 1973 Purim farbrengen was so huge that philanthropist Ben Federman stepped forward to offer JEM one million dollars if they could get one million farbrengen viewers between Purim, 11 Nissan, Lag Bomer, 12 Sivan and 3 Tammuz combined.
Jewish.TV creative director, Shais Taub, added, “The farbrengen webcast will start to air on Sunday, but the page is already getting tremendous traffic. When I heard Ben’s challenge, my first thought was that it was unrealistic. But now I see that it’s actually starting to happen. Through modern technology, over the next few months a million Jews are going to learn Torah straight from the Rebbe.”
VIDEO:
NU! WE ARE NOW UP TO SHNAS 109. WE ARE STILL WATCHING, WE ARE STILL LEARNING, WE ARE STILL SINGING, AND WE ARE STILL WAITING…..WE WILL I”YH CELEBRATE YUD ALEPH NISSAN OF THIS YEAR WITH OUR DEAR REBBE SHLITA WITH THE COMING OF MOSHIACH IMMEDIATELY NOW!!!
G-d in Heaven
Please have rachmonus on your children send him back to us.
We need him so desparately
what were the chassidim singing
Lets Not forget who gets the credit for all of this !!
u look so young!!
It is so very hard to discribe the inner feelings the we all have and feel inside. we just want to reach out and hear the Rebbe again and again now, and be able to see with our own eyes the Tzadik of our generation. May we have the Zechus in our times to see H’B revelations.
#8, I’ve had the dvd for a week and have already watched it 3 times. Just saying I liked the intro.
to 5 pls read comment 3
Oy Ribbono Shel Olam: Moshiach Now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hey – that’s a letdown We wait to see the Rebbe and you The video is cut off as the Rebbe sits down and we don’t hear even one second of him speaking to the crowd.
Anyway – thanks for that, but disappointed!!
This video goes right up to where the DVD starts. It helps to give and overall feeling of excitement for the farbrengen.
Ohhhhh REBBE, we need you down here among us. May we be zoyche to see you soon.
You can really feel the excitement!! Mr. Papp and Rabbi Friedman did a really great job at the intro.
I am excited to watch the farbrengen already, I’ll be at a viewing on Thursday night, iy”h.
unbelievable…
Rebbe, we miss you so much.