In a small apartment on a busy Crown Heights intersection you can find 92-year-old Reb Mottel Lifshitz. Affectionately known as “Reb Mottel the Shochet,” he spends his days quietly studying, writing, and ... still enjoying herring. Born during the final years of Czar Nicholas II’s reign, Lifshitz not only survived two world wars, the Russian gulag, and Communist rule, but also lived to see his enemies perish.
Survivor of the Gulag
In a small apartment on a busy Crown Heights intersection you can find 92-year-old Reb Mottel Lifshitz. Affectionately known as “Reb Mottel the Shochet,” he spends his days quietly studying, writing, and … still enjoying herring. Born during the final years of Czar Nicholas II’s reign, Lifshitz not only survived two world wars, the Russian gulag, and Communist rule, but also lived to see his enemies perish.