Community news service COLlive.com presents “In the Footsteps of Rebbetzin Chana’s Diaries,” an exclusive new 5-part short documentary series revisiting key locations written about by Rebbetzin Chana Schneerson OBM, the mother of the Rebbe.
Rebbetzin Chana voluntarily joined her husband, Harav Levi Yitzchok Schneeerson OBM, during his exile in Kazakhstan between 1940 and 1944. She had written about her harrowing experiences after arriving in the United States in 1947.
Reb Levi Yitzchok was sentenced by the communist regime for his fearless stance against their efforts to eradicate Jewish learning and practice in the Soviet Union. He and the Rebbetzin eventually moved to the city of Almaty, after which he passed away on Chof Av.
The series shows the Shluchim and Chabad historians, Rabbi Eliezer Zaklikovsky of Monroe, NJ, and Rabbis Mendel Feller of West S. Paul, MN, as they tour the buildings and areas mentioned by the Rebbetzin’s diary.
The series begins in the regional city of Kyzylorda where the Rebbe’s parents were exiled, before continuing on to the remote desert village of Shieli (formerly Chi’ili or Chiali) 130 kilometers away, where Reb Levi Yitzchak was exiled.
Through the camera lens, the viewer gets a small glimpse of the sights and places that are vividly described by Rebbetzin Chana in dramatic and harrowing detail. “The films bring Rebbetzin Chana’s diary to life, documenting the experience that the Rebbe so often described as ‘total Mesiras Nefesh,” says Rabbi Zaklikovsky.
“As we approach Chof Av, we hope that these films will encourage the viewer to read Rebbetzin Chana’s diaries, and take inspiration from the incredible Mesiras Nefesh Reb Levi Yitzchak and Rebbetzin Chana exemplified,” he said.
Featured in the first episode:
1) Open air market: Purchasing essentials needed for everyday life.
2) Military hospital: Helping obtain a military pardon for a Jew.
3) Train station: Traveling back and forth from Shieli and from Kyzylorda.
4) NKVD government building: Desperate pleas for better treatment of her husband.
The film shares details of what the Rebbe’s parents did in each place, while narrating directly from the Rebbe’s famous handwritten. The narration of the film are the actual text of the original diaries written in Yiddish, and have a running translation of English subtitles.
VIDEO: Episode one
The diaries were first published in the original Yiddish was in 5753, in “Tzadik Lamelech” Volume 4, edited by Rabbi Zaklikovsky. He asked and received the Rebbe’s permission and bracha to publish them. Get the set here
The Yiddish diaries were subsequently published by Kehot with footnotes etc. Translated versions of the diaries (in English, Hebrew, French, Russian and Spanish) are available on Chabad.org.
The diary in the original Yiddish can be found on Lahak.org.
rabbi z. has always been a true example of what a chosid is and should be keep it up!!!!!!!!!
Yasher Koach! Thank you for this very interesting insite of the Rebbes parents life