Stories

When the Rebbe began to introduce the Jewish birthday campaign, many people were not even sure of the exact date of their Jewish birthday.

The Rebbe sent him to fetch a pen, and he ended up getting more than he could have expected.

These contemporary Chassidic stories about the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, give a kaleidoscopic picture of his leadership and provides many insights into his personality.

These contemporary Chassidic stories about the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, give a kaleidoscopic picture of his leadership and provides many insights into his personality.

I will forever attribute the first step of my restoration to sanity and self-respect to one man who, with unfathomable intuition and faith in humanity, made a selfless, precise therapeutic intervention in my spirit, and demanded neither my soul nor my bankbook as recompense . . .

"Tell him," said the Rebbe, "that not everything in the Dark Ages was dark"

Rabbi Hodakov, the Rebbe’s secretary, was on the line. “The Rebbe says to tell the young woman that there is a Jew in Brooklyn who cannot sleep at night because she intends to marry a non-Jew.”

I used to be in the police escort that once a week escorted the Lubavitcher Rebbe to the Montefiore Cemetery, where the Rabbi’s father-in-law and predecessor is interred. One time, I stood by door of his car when he got out, and asked him: “Excuse me, Rabbi, do you only bless Jewish people or non-Jews too?”

"How was the game?" asked the Rebbe. "By the sixth inning," the young fan confessed, "the Dodgers were losing nine-to-two. So we decided to leave."

He had everything he wanted, a wonderful wife, a happy family and then along came the Nazis and his life was destroyed, like so many others.

It was in Paris in the 1930s. Hitler had already risen to power in Germany. I was a student in the “City of Light,” and I was not having an easy time.

How a teenager adrift in Jerusalem was transformed into an internationally acclaimed scholar and educator.

Mr. Shalom asked, "Lubavitcher Rebbe, I do not understand you. Why don’t you write a letter to G‑d asking Him to send you the money."

Sitting in front of a classroom year after year challenges teachers to bring new enthusiasm to their students. Rabbi Yechiel Malov often found himself dealing with this difficulty.

400 apartments housing 1,200 people were destroyed or damaged. Tel Aviv hospitals were prepared to handle mass casualties

There was Mr. Schwartz in the newspaper! It was a small picture of him standing with two large policemen, one scratching his head in wonder looking at the bullet holes in the ceiling of the grocery

"This [dollar] is for your mother." Rabbi Hecht froze; his mother had passed away many years ago

"What is it?" he snapped. In the Bronx, it's proper etiquette to snap when greeting someone. I noticed the loaf of rye bread sitting on the table, definitely not a traditional Seder food. I said, "The Rebbe sent me."

The young woman left the room, but the Rebbe immediately told me to call her back in, explaining: "I don't want her to think that we are discussing her behind her back..."

In the wee hours of a sleepless night, Eli thought of the Rebbe.

The story of a lost-and-found child of Chassidic roots who had become a high-powered American attorney and advocate for Soviet causes.

She lived in Balaclava, and from her youth had felt a strong attraction to Judaism. Whenever she heard stories of the Holocaust, she was deeply touched...

In the 1970’s one of those we were acquainted with was facing a crisis: One of their children was engaged to a non-Jewish girl.

The Rebbe demonstrates his miracle-working technique to a group of high-school students

The Rebbe suggested that since we are financially secure, we should close our store on Shabbat and that G‑d will then send our daughter her bashert...

Mrs. Lipchitz had been advised by Jewish leaders that the phoenix is a non-Jewish symbol. How could it be placed in Jerusalem, no less? I was standing near the door to the Rebbe's office that night, when he called for me and asked that I bring him the book of Job from his bookshelf.

In 1965 the Rebbe requested of Rabbi Mordechai Schusterman, the owner of a printing press, to print a series of Rabbi Shalom Dovber’s scholarly discourses. Several weeks later, the Rebbe requested that the printing of the discourses be canceled. Read the story behind the story.

Throughout the years, Reb Yosef took care of Rabbi Levi Yitzchak’s gravesite. He’d visit, clear the weeds, and sit there reciting Psalms, often wondering sadly why the Rebbe, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak’s son, never came to visit.

“We have another son, who, unfortunately, is not well. He is autistic. He needs a blessing.”

I was told that I had a special mission, one that should take precedence over everything else I was doing. I was instructed to take as much time off from my studies as necessary.

Marguerite steeled herself and continued: "Dr. Frankl, the Lubavitcher Rebbe sent a message for you: Remain strong! Continue your work with complete resolve. Don't give up. Ultimately you will prevail."

On the way to a fundraiser in Canada via New York, the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, arranges for the rabbi to visit a lonely person.

The Rebbe's encounter with a group of disabled Israeli war heroes

Editor's note: In light of the recent tragedy which struck the Chabad-Lubavitch community, we find the following account, penned more than fifty years ago, particularly poignant--and most relevant

Following the established custom, Joseph composed a lengthy letter to the Rebbe.

A Mexican rabbi visiting Teheran; a Jew in Chittagong, Bangladesh.

The Rebbe sends a scientist to Russia to help Jews—whom the Rebbe had never met—move forward in their Judaism.

The day following the audience, my father received an alarming call from the secretariat. He was told that the father of the groom abruptly fled the Rebbe's office in middle of the conversation...

It was raining very, very hard. I would never have gone out, but it was the final day to pay some bills and I had to get to the bank.

It was a drenching downpour. Three minutes outdoors was enough to soak you to the bone. But the annual march proceeded as usual. We arrived at the park, however, only to find the gates closed and locked.

Louis had sadly become a drunk and had drifted away from family life. "Do you know if anyone might know how to contact him?" the Rebbe asked.

A special mission to inspire a Jew in the most isolated city in the world.

One sunny morning found quite a large group of chassidim gathered outside Lubavitch World Headquarters. There were more than the usual few spectators on that day, for word had spread that the Rebbe would for the first time be using a new stretch Cadillac that had been purchased for his use.

It was the 1960s, and a large synagogue in Toronto, Canada, had been set ablaze . . .

“I have a friend called Sarah,” said the woman on the other end of the line. “She’s pregnant and says she can’t afford another child, so she decided to have an abortion . . .”