Lubavitch Archives - a glimpse into a not so distant past

This may be one of the reasons why Facebook was created. Our good friend Dovid Zaklikowski has created a beautiful Facebook page/group where he features many never-before-seen pictures of happenings in the Lubavitcher הויף and other happenings within .כרם חב"ד These pictures are usually without captions, save for sometimes giving a general caption or idea that tells you the general date or time or place of the event. Visitors are then asked to identify the individuals in the pictures. Take for example this picture here, of the revered Chossid Reb Shmiel Duvid Raichik ע"ה of California; where else would you see such a picture? Nowhere. And where else would you have such a Chossid? only in Lubavitch. Elsewhere he'd be a Rebbe already.

l-r: Rav Shlomo Wolbe, Rav Yakov Yisroel הי"ד, Rav Mordechai Schulman of Slabodka.

איי, וועט איר דאך פרעגן, what's the Lubavitch angle in this picture? Are we now claiming Rav Wolbe, or perhaps the Slabodka Bnei Beraq Rosh Yeshiva as one of our own? No, silly, it's Rav Zuber that made this picture appear in the archives. He was a Lubavitcher Chossid. The picture is apparently from the time that RYYZ was Rov in Stockholm, or maybe not. Rav Wolbe was from Sweden, but we don't know if RMS was ever in Sweden. So maybe it's from a time that RYYZ traveled to Europe. There are pictures of him with Reb Lazer Yudel Finkel in the archive as well. He later immigrated to the United States and was killed by a drunk sheigetz around New Year's of 1953. See an interview with his daughter Mrs. Chana Sharfstein from Crown Heights in Mishpacha magazine.

 And here we have a wonderful picture of the Chossid Reb Bentche Shemtov at a family simcha. Those who know could tell you that at a certain point of the simcha/farbrengen Reb Bentche would get up and make himself heard. Here he was probably calling out some other chossid, telling him that he's a no-good bum, for one reason or another. That he wasn't mekusher to the Rebbe and is therefore not worthy of breathing the air on G-d's green earth. To his left was his brother-in-law, the unforgettable Reb Mendel Futerfas. They were married to 2 sisters. RBS was married to RMF's sister Esther Golda. Reb Mendel is sitting with kabolas Ol, but you might say that he doesn't look very happy. Simches were a whole lot heimisher back then.