3 minutes with Reb Yehoshua Schneur Zalman Serebryanski ע"ה

Reb Zalman was born in 1903 in Brahin, near Chernobyl, in White Russia. His father was Menachem Mendel and his mother was Nechama. His mother was the sister of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Gluskin, a Chabad Rov in Paritch, Minsk and Leningrad. His father Reb Menachem Mendel was a chasidisher yid with a very warm heart. His kindness was known throughout the community, including Samarkand, where he lived until his passing in 1942. In 1924 at the age of 20, his father suggested he go learn in the Lubavitcher yeshiva in Rostov. The Frierdiker Rebbe accepted Reb Zalman into the Yeshiva. In 1925 he attended the Frierdiker Rebbe’s Purim Farbrengen in Leningrad. It was there that he first saw the Rebbe. He was close to Rabbi Chatshe Feigin the yeshiva Mashpia. Eventually Reb Chatshe appointed him to work for him as his secretary and to administer several underground yeshivos. In 1928 he married Brocha Futerfas, sister of Reb Hendel Lieberman and Reb Mendel Futerfas. During the 1930s the couple and their three children lived in Charkov. In 1938 he was conscripted into the Russian army. In 1941 he moved his family to Samarkand. In 1949, Reb Zalman and his family were sent by the Previous Rebbe to Melbourne, Australia. Reb Zalman founded various Chabad institutions in Melbourne including a boys elementary and high school and Beis Rivka for girls. In 1967, he founded the Yeshiva Gedola, which is a thriving Lubavitcher yeshiva for students from across the globe. On Yud Shevat 1970, the Rebbe honored him with the recital of a פסוק in conjunction with the completion of Moshiach’s Sefer Torah. The Rebbe wrote that he gives him this honor because he is the Mashpia of Chasidus for Australia. A few weeks before Gimmel Tammuz, 1991, Reb Zalman said that his Shlichus had ended, and indeed on Gimmel Tammuz 1991 his נשמה returned to its maker.



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Dr. Isaac Balbin wants your help with this niggun

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My Tempest in a Teacup for today

Yeshiva World has a gallery of photos of the Australian Siyum haShas that took place today. Or was it tomorrow? I'm confused. Is it today in Australia now or tomorrow? so was this yesterday or today? In any case they had some guy named Danny Weiss take pictures for them and send them in, which they then posted on their site. It so happens that our man in Melbourne also sent me a picture of a Rov in Melbourne speaking at the same event. That Rov is a HaRav Reb Tzvi Telsner, dayan of the Lubavitcher Kehillah in Melbourne, and let me tell you, זיי האבען זיך נישט וואס צו שעמען from the other Kehillos there, שכבודם במקומם מונח. So after seeing that YWN had a gallery of their own I was curious to see if RZHT was also pictured there, or did I have an exclusive picture here? Lo and behold! The picture wasn't there. You figure that in small out-of-town places like Melbourne there would be some sort of achdus, but look at some of the faces here, the discomfort, the unease when Rabbi Telsner speaks; poor guys... SO why is it that davka his picture didn't make it to the official gallery? Was it the photographer who never bothered with Rabbi Telsner? did he take it and not send it in? did he send it in and it was rejected by YWN?

So, we're not part of כלל ישראל because among other things we don't attend events such as these, but when we do we don't get the coverage because we're not part of klal yisroel because we don't attend...

Once upon a time Lubavitch & Adass co-existed in Melbourne...

Not that they don't "co-exist" now either, it's just that it's all they do... Like any two ethnic groups co-exist in a city today... They don't live together like they really could and should. But that's for another time. In the meantime enjoy the article, and if you're from Melbourne, and have anything to say on the topic, I'd love to hear your comments - both on the article and on the matzav there today.

Early Days in the Establishment of Adass Israel Congregation