Sruli Besser realizes his life-long dream...

.... Well, one of them, perhaps. Namely, to write about Zalman Levine. I have my theory as to why... I know it sounds like a strange dream, but hey! To each his own. If  only I saw what the big fascination with them is. Seems like all those who have their issues with Lubavitch look to Zalman and his father to justify their qualms. Just look at the last paragraph... Angel. maMASH. But if it means that Lubavitch gets a little knock, why not? So... why is it that the son of the man who was SO HOLY and called all Litvaks Apikorsim and worse had a son who looked like a Slabodker Bochur?

We may never know. But do read it.

  Levine by Hirshel Tzig on Scribd

Munkacs profiles אד"ל

See pages 8-11. It looks like they bought into it, hook, line and sinker. All it takes is buying the Satmar Newspapers over the years and you're sold on what they sell you. I would expect the publishers of this journal to know better. But I guess since Minchas Elozor writes a nice letter to him... and since he was a zealot like the ME, it's all good. Whatever.

  Haichud - Beis Sivan 5775

Bentzion Weberman was toastmaster for an event featuring Rav Kook, and other fascinating links

BZW was the Williamsburg lawyer who found one Avrohom Ber Levin in a Catskills hotel and liked what he saw. He made sure all his kids knew about this man. He was a zealot, you might say. He didn't subscribe to the new style of Judaism being developed in America. But yet, he did what the headline here says he did. Well, I guess you could excuse it by saying that the event wasn't for RAYK himself, to honor him or anything, but for the Yeshivos in Europe. But we all know that a TRUE zealot would today not attend an event also attended by an adversary and ideological opponent such as the Yaffer Rov. Or maybe a true zealot could see the forest despite the trees and not be distracted by trivial matters such as who is attending. You might say just like RAYK himself, who left the comfort of the Holy Land to travel to the US to save the Yeshivos in Europe.

Click Here for an old newspaper clipping
In Boro Park don't distribute snuff during the Rov's derasha
Weberman/Schorr wedding

PHOTO SOURCE

R. Rakeffet tackles the Malochim and Torah VoDaas

Rabbi Rakeffet: Throw Them Out!

Laced with the good Rabbi's inevitable mistakes, but nice to listen to, even if not completely accurate.

POTD - Williamsburg

Menu: Shtop Gentz with Goulash
Mashpia: Lemel Shvartz
Sugya: על הגאולה פרק ז
Conclusion: Nishtakcho Toras... from the era of the Tzemach Tzedek
Nigunim: רבינ'ס זעקסטע הקפה ניגון for a Freilekhs and רבינ'ס שלום עליכם ניגון for התעוררות
Dancing: Bonfire burning Volumes of חסידות מבוארת

בדרך צחות, כמובן

לא לחנם הלך הזרזיר אצל העורב - יתד נאמן כותב על קבוצת "המלאכים" כאילו מ'האט אנדעקט אמעריקא

?אבער ווי שטימט עס מיט לעיקוואוד

ס'איז געווען אידישקייט אין אמעריקא פאר די קלעצקער זיינען געקומען אהערצו? דאס אז די יתד דרוקט עס איז נישט קיין חידוש, אפילו בזמנינו וואס זיי ווייזען אז היינט איז נישט ווי אמאל. אבער שרייבען אזא ארטיקל, מלא שגיאות און שטותים פאסט נישט פאר א צייטונג. נאר וואס דען? ביי זיי איז רעדן פון חב"ד ווי ביי מיר רעדן פון סאלוניקא פאר 200 יאר צוריק. צו אפשר נאך ווייניגער. ווי א האן אין די בני אדם. אבער, בכלל, דאס אז גערטנער וויל שרייבען וועגן זיין זיידען איז זייער א גלייכע זאך. און איצטער זאלען אלע קומען און נעמען פון דעם וועבזייטל און חלילה נישט געבן קיין קרעדיט

נפטר געווארען הרב מאיר וועבערמאן, רב קהל נתיבות עולם - "מלאכים" וויליאמסבורג

Some info - in Yiddish - on Ivelt forum

I don't know much about him. He was quite the zealous type. True to this pedigree. He was 94 years old, so he still saw R' Avrohom Ber Ilyer as a bachur and was mekabel from him. The picture is from a demonstration (in 1980?) against the State of Israel, where he spoke in English for the press. His "love" of Lubavitch was legendary. He would cross out the Rebbe's name from Chabad seforim like Tanya and Alter Rebbe's Shulchan Aruch well into his old age. Some of his children are even more extreme than him, some even joining NK.

What else?

(belated post) הגה"ח ר' אליעזר צבי זאב ע"ה צירקינד

Sometimes important milestones or stories go by unnoticed here, where in the past we'd surely have covered them. That's due either to lack of time or information, or both. Or sometimes we think that either you guys wouldn't be interested or would miss the point. In the case of Rabbi Zirkind lack of time and information at the time of his passing was the factor. And usually it's עבר זמנו בטל קרבנו, but not in this case! We'l make up for it now!

I don't think I ever met or even saw Rabbi Zirkind, despite having been around Lubavitch and 770 for quite some time. But that's often the case. You can go through life and not meet people that spent many of the same occasions with you. But here I think it was more of an intentional low profile being kept which kept him from being recognized and known by many in the younger generation. Having said that, everybody knew that there was a father to all those Zirkind children somewhere in Crown Heights. The father runs a very tight ship. He lights candles at like chatzos or plag haMinchah on Friday afternoon. He doesn't step into Oholei Torah on Eastern Parkway or send his kids to school there because it was a Conservative temple. He wears "Polish style Chassidic clothing" as the website Collive so "eloquently" put it, and so do his children and grandchildren, something most unique in today's Lubavitch.  He was the founder of the Zirkind "shevet," if you will, all very recognizable. Others made mention in the obituary, if you will, of the fact that he was drafted into the Korean War and had his beard forcefully removed because it was against Army regulations, while being held down by 5 guys.(!) Or that he would translate the sichos to English-speakers who could not understand the Rebbe. Or that he reported all his cash earnings to the Government! But you get the indelible feeling that this only scratches the surface. That it's בבחינת מגלה טפח ומכסה טפחיים. I just don't have the answers. Maybe you all can fill in the blanks?

Some parting words on Collive

Photos courtesy of Chabad Lubavitch Archives

א באשרייבונג וועגן ר' יענקל שארר'ס הייראט צערעמאניע

די חתונה פון ר' יעקב שארר ​​​​ איז אפגעראכטן געווארן אזוי ווייט ווי אין נארטה קאראליינע, צוליב דעם וואס הרב שארר האט חתונה געהאט מיט גאר א יונג מיידל וואס איז אינגאנצן אלט געווען נישט מער פון 15 יאהר, און דארט איז די נענטסטע שטאט צו נוא יארק ווי הייראטן איז ערלויבט אין אזא יונגן עלטער. עס האט, ווייזט אויס, געשאפן א סענזאציע אין די צייטונגען און קריטיק אינערהאלב די שארר פאמיליע. די צייטונג ציטירט אנטריסטישע קאמענטארן פון אן אומאנגעבליכער ברודער, איז דא באקאנט ווער עס זענען געווען די ברודער זיינע חוץ וואס מיר ווייסן פון הג"ר גדלי'?

לינק

Reb Yakov Schorr's Wedding

Habad Portraits - Excerpts: The "Malakh"

Not all of it, but enough to give you a taste...