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28 siven Farbrengen Memories of The Rebbe & Rebbetzin In Vichy and Nice - Dr Sungolowsky
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Transcript
Auto-generated transcript. Not time-synced to the video.
So to begin with the with the nest of
we are privileged to have with us
Rabbi Dr. Joseph Sangalovski was the
professor of French literature at Queens
College
Dr. Sangalovski's
father was Rabbi Aaron Garin who was
avaz
invaded Belgium in 1940
his family fled
to Vishi France and as we know the story
of how the Reb and the Rabbit came over
from Europe to America is that they ran
from Paris to Vishi and they spent some
time there and eventually from Vishi the
rabbbitson went through Portugal and
came to America while in Vishi
that's where
Dr. Solowski's Mishbah and his father
got to be acquainted with the Reb and we
would like to ask Dr. Solowski Rabbi Dr.
to share with us his memories of the Reb
from that time.
>> Be careful.
Good evening everyone.
Uh first of all I wish you all y good
yontiff because this this is a special
yont we're going this is going has been
the theme of uh my last
relationship with the recently
relationship with
and it's a real pleasure to be here. Um
the uh presenter Rabbi was
>> Rabbi
>> Cayman
>> Cayman Rabbi Cayman has already alluded
to part of my my biography but there is
a little more to say because it's a um
these are there are memories that uh
remain always very much alive.
Um
I would like to uh explain two things.
First of all that um in a way my
presence here is a result of uh of um uh
is the is the result of um coincidences
co coincidences
and coincidences apparently don't really
have a relationship one to the other but
they came together. The very first one I
want to make a I want to have have make
illusion to it and this is the meeting
that I had um not long ago just around
after Pesak I think uh in Queens because
I live in Queens with
who is here and has been taking care of
this whole program and taking care
actually of bringing me in closer to the
Lubabidum although they are they are not
they were not they are not known to me
they are not known to my family and I
will explain it
because as the the rabbi had just
explained before
um it's um when we came when we fled
from Belgium to France uh and it was uh
it was very dangerous a very dangerous
period the the beginning of World War II
um it was uh we didn't know exactly
where to go and how to and how to how to
do it. So uh finally we we came we we
kind of established ourselves over
there. But uh this was like a a renewal
of a contact not really renewal because
I have a very long connection with uh um
very wonderful friends and wonderful
people wonderful
wonderful marim. Uh but the fact that I
met this uh the Rabbi Kain, it was a
really great real pleasure me because I
started speaking to him and whenever I
see these group sometimes I very often
go over to them and I say to them uh are
you people speaking French and many
times they were speaking French and this
gentleman was speaking French and that's
magnificent and then I asked him for his
name and then he said that he's the
grandson of he's the grandson of uh of
Rabbi Matazov of Tulus and um uh I I
reminded him how wonderful
really uh in the Lubavich tradition uh I
u I I I
was I was received I was was welcomed by
by Rabbi Matazov. It was it was a matter
it was a matter of uh of being uh um to
spend Shabas in Tulus because I was uh
leading a group of students from the
university in in in New York and
bringing them to France and and visit
and visit France and um I had to stay
shabas uh and so Rabbinson said to me
you know if you stayed in Tulus then you
should contact Rabbi Matov and you will
everything will be taken care of and
they had to be taken care of because the
next day Sunday I had to meet the group
in Paris and then be there. So Ra said
don't worry about it you are going to be
there and sure enough Sunday morning he
got me a plane and I was in Paris at
10:00 in the morning which was the time
that I was to be there and uh everything
went wonderful. So uh that was a great
that was a great adventure
very typical of a lubabiche type of a
welcome. The other thing is something
that is concerning this is more belongs
this is this is history but uh but that
is far back into history and that's the
meeting with the with the Reb uh with
the Reb did this place that's very
interesting when we came to Vishi my
family went to Vishi Vishi was a place
where Jews gathered at the beginning of
World War II and Um there was a place in
Vishi, a hotel where people where people
met people who were refugees themselves
and they came there because they wanted
to establish contacts to look for
people. It wasn't a hotel. It's called
the hotel charl and I remember when I
spoke in the in the video I didn't uh I
didn't remind myself of the uh of the of
the of the name of the hotel. The hotel
name was Charal. Many people came and
among these people that used to come
many of them were speaking Russian. I
remember they were Russian speaking.
there was a rabbi and the name of this
rabbi is Rabbi Schneerson and uh turned
out that he was a cousin of the rabbi
and this uh this rabbi
um the
lived there for a little while for a
little while didn't last long because
Jews had to be expelled from Vishi
because it became the uh it became the
seat of the um the collaborationist
government that was collabor
collaborating with Hitler and all the uh
the foreigners had to to leave to leave.
This is when we left and we went and we
went to Nice. So when we met uh Raashan,
my father found out that had a minion on
Shabas and my father went to D there. I
was a little boy um but I understood
what things how things were going on and
I was very much interested in it myself.
Therefore I was very very close to my
father and wanted to know all kinds of
things and that's why many of these
memories have remained
are part of myself so to speak. So um he
came home one on Shabas afternoon and he
said to the people in the family you
know I ded in the bish of son and over
there I met the the son-in-law of the
well we knew what the the the son of we
knew about the son of the
because my mother very often uh referred
to to to to to the to the the
son-in-law.
So, it wasn't a foreign name to us. And
my father said, "And this uh this young
rabbi, whoever he was, is is the
son-in-law of the Berb and is a
tremendous
and that made a tremendous impression on
me. Look at that." I said, "We just came
from from from Belgium. were refugees
and all that and have a contact with the
with with such a well-known such a
well-known person. This was the first
meeting and the first a kind of a kind
of also a um uh
a coincidence so to speak. So uh we met
him and um that's it. That was no he
came home. That was the end of that. Few
days later, we knew that we had to leave
because as I just explained, we were
going to we were we were we were being
expelled. Um
um we we said my father said, "Oh, you
know what? Uh I'm going to take you for
a walk. We're going to go for a little
walk in prominad." In French we call it
prominad. and you take you you take your
children on a walk and we walk on this
main street in Vishi and all of a sudden
the son-in-law
was on that street under the same
sidewalk. I remember it very well and uh
he saw my father and he stopped and he
had a conversation with my father. My
father was holding me by the hand and um
uh they had a conversation. I I uh don't
know what what were they talking about
too uh too too too much of a child to
understand content but they they were
talking about something I think Rabbi
asked me the other day do you remember
what he said what the what said to your
father I said you know I'm sorry to say
but I didn't because I was watching the
traffic and uh I couldn't
I wouldn't have understood Anyway, but
this was the second meeting this this
coincidence that I had that we had that
my my family had and this strengthened
the already the beginning of the
relationship that my family had with
with with
so we came to Nice. So we moved to Nice
and sure enough uh shortly after the reb
himself he was not the rabbi yet he came
to N also and he came to Davin the shul
I explained while we were traveling the
car that was only one Ashkanaz sh in N
at the time the other one was a separ
and um
this is where most of the people who
were who came to
who were thinking that they were they
would be able to find friends or able to
indicate places where they could they
would be um protected during the war.
They used to meet in this hotel and they
used to and they used to talk to one
another. So we we um the so the as a
matter of fact did follow so to speak
the crowd and he came himself and he and
he uh waited he stayed in this for about
a year or so because he was waiting uh
for his uh for the acceptance of the
papers that were arranged for him to go
to the United States.
And uh and uh again there was some sort
of a conversation
and um I remember I remember the cherab
who became the cherab he say he stayed
there and for he stayed in east for
about almost a year and um he kind of uh
trusted my father very much so there was
not he didn't they didn't know they
didn't know uh uh they didn't know each
other that much but he had this this in
inward trust that he had for my father
and uh uh at one point the rabbitson the
rabbis uh the the the wife of Dulab
came to our house or there was an
amazing or an amazing arrangement that
was made whereby the rabbiton wanted to
attend how the um how you get the milk
from a cow on a uh on on a farm to have
Israel. And she asked my mother if she
would accompany her. And my mother said,
"Yes, why not?" And she went with her
and she also uh took advantage of this
uh of this particular
uh hidom mitzvah so to speak. So this
was this this was a second contact and
then there was another one. Oh, this was
in Nice. Um it was Pesak was coming
around and uh the the Reb said to my
father, you know, I have a problem. I
have to have wine for the abacosis and I
have no wine. So my father said, don't
worry, we will arrange that. and he went
to buy uh raisins raisins and he made
wine and there was enough for for for
for abacis and my sister I have an older
sister who lives in Jerusalem today
uh uh um and she went and she brought
the the the
wine to the rabbi for Pesak and uh after
that of because uh the situation not
going into the detail situation were
very difficult. The French police was
persecuting Jews, taking away their
business and they were they were they
were called they were there were laws
that were established by those who were
collaborating with the Germans. They
forced the French to obey their own laws
and that meant take away the business
from the Jews and so on so forth and
persecuting them. And despite that
Jewish life, Jewish life was going on.
So u
that was the end of that and the Reb
luckily um was able to leave and this
has been been told in the in the
biographies. So um we didn't meet him
until we we as my family eventually uh
decided to move to the United States.
And when after we moved, my father said,
"Oh, we have to go and pay a visit to
the Reb on Yehides." And that was one of
the early periods in in the life of the
Reb when he was granting
to special people. We had to go to Grand
Heights and we waited until about 1:00
in the morning until we were able to get
the yidas and that's it. those days it
was not so so dangerous to to travel
from from wherever we were in New York
to Brooklyn. It was a nice Jewish
neighborhood and uh we were there and
during the that was then there was the
third and there was the the third
contact that we had with the Reb who was
very wonderful and were very very
brotherly so to speak. I I think I
mentioned it in the in the video if you
had a chance to to to see it. Uh the Reb
had a tremendous amount the tremendous
amount of um uh what you call altruism,
a sense of altruism. to be Mhhamabad.
Anyone to be Mahab and not to show any
kind of a of a of a distinction by the
fact that he was the s of such a of of
such a great family. Uh to him it would
he was giving every was everyone the
same offers. I would say that much and
this was and this was the the contact
that we had with him. Um uh I would like
to say that uh that that that this these
memories have remained very very very
strong with us and it's true that the
from
uh used to come to our house whenever
they came to to France and the first
stop that they would come when they come
to Nice they would come to our house. So
there was like an ongoing contact an
ongoing contact between my family and El
Babage and that's why uh I always feel
good like I just feel tonight with all
of you here uh to be so so nicely
welcomed. Um I would like to say two
things. Uh I uh the the um I I'd like to
say two things in a way in a way I feel
that I emulate the rebulate
the rabbi
the reb came to the United States and it
was very very difficult all it's all
described the uh the the the what he had
to gone through until he was able to to
to leave until he was able to And there
was also
alp
in there one after another. But he came
because because because the rebon
probably reserved for him a certain role
and he fulfilled the role. the
establishment of this this
way he has done it and to have brought
the whole group of not only the
philosophy theidas the the the learning
of Torah the approach to Yiddish he was
he was designated to do that and that's
why there was a hashg proise on the part
of of the of the of the to see to it
that the uh that that he came there
himself and uh that's why I say it's
it's it's it's humor but I said I
emulated the rebel the same way the reb
felt the need to come to the United
States in order to preserve to preserve
Yiddish kite and to do that the same way
I came also for that purpose because
I'll explain to you why I'm in a
completely different field it is a very
uh It is a very it's a field I am I I
happen to be a Mus but but after I I I
ended my after after my I went into the
academia and in academia I always always
uh was proud of the fact that I had this
background and I never I never hid it
for anyone. So in a way I say well I I
think I learned something from the rabbi
and that and that's the way I conducted
my life. So uh I uh I want to wish you
all Yeah. I would like to add this. I
would like to add this. Uh after all we
are celebrating a hug.
Uh it's it's interesting that it happens
that it's a thought that came to me uh
recently that still during the month of
Son in months of Sivon in the months of
Sivon there is always like a
prolongation of the of the of the
atmosphere of Kabala
and this is this this is goes until this
goes for a long time for for for for
seven days after we don't say and so on
so forth. But uh but the the the point
is the point is that uh we we uh we we
we we are happy we should be happy that
it happens again in this period in this
period that is still uh that is still
penetrated by the atmosphere of Kabala.
So therefore uh I want to wish you all
uh hats and in in in all your
enterprises in your learning in youridas
and may we always meet all of us in of
similas and in similas where we
celebrate kadusha and
habosa. Thank you very much.
On behalf of all of those that are
sitting here at the faban and those that
are watching online via the live
broadcast, we thank you for sharing with
us these precious rear for us. It's
amazing to hear
uh a live gurus from the Reb from those
days
and we hope that these special memories
and encounters and shas with theb should
be for as for you and your family for
many many lang.