28 siven Farbrengen Memories of The Rebbe & Rebbetzin In Vichy and Nice - Dr Sungolowsky

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.