Shliach Discovers First Namesake of the Rebbe’s Father

This past Shabbos, Rabbi Yitzchok Minkowicz, director of Chabad of Southwest Florida, called up an unfamiliar face in Shul for an Aliyah. When he asked the man his Hebrew name, he replied Levi Yitzchok ben Chaim Yosef Dovid.

The Shliach was intrigued by the fact that the guest had a distinctly Chasidic name. He approached the man after Davening, and asked him if he knew who he was named after, thinking that perhaps he was named after Reb Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev.

To the Rabbi’s surprise, the Jew said he was named after the Rebbe’s father – Reb Levi Yitzchok Schneerson of Yekatrinoslav. It turns out that this Jew was the first baby to be named after the Rebbe’s father!

He went onto to explain that after his mother gave birth to him, Rebbetzin Chana asked his parents – Mr. and Mrs. Chaim Yosef Dovid Nemotin, who had greatly assisted the Rebbe’s father – to name their son after Reb Levik. They did so gladly.

Levi Yitzchok Nemotin and his older brother Yehoshua were invited at the Shul’s Kiddush to share their childhood memories of life behind the Iron Curtain.

They spoke of the secret Mikvah in their home, which their father would spend the whole day heating with firewood in case a woman would request to use it in the evening. When the family left the Soviet Union, the Rebbe instructed them not to sell the house, so they gave it to another Jew to watch and maintain.