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Lubavitch Archives: A Glimpse into Days Gone By

by Hirshel Tzig

This may be one of the reasons why Facebook was created. Rabbi Dovid Zaklikowski has created a beautiful Facebook page/group, where Lubavitch Archives features many never-before-seen vintage pictures of happenings in the Lubavitcher community and within Chabad’s activities.

These pictures are usually without captions, save for sometimes giving a general caption or idea that tells you the general date or time or place of the event. Visitors are then asked to identify the individuals in the pictures. Take for example this picture of the revered Chossid Reb Shmiel Duvid Raichik, OBM, of California (see first picture below); where else would you see such a picture? Nowhere. And where else would you have such a Chossid? only in Lubavitch. Elsewhere he’d be a Rebbe already.

Then you have a picture of two gedolim, Rav Shlomo Wolbe, Mashgiach Ruchani of the Mir Yeshivah; Rav Mordechai Schulman of Slabodka (see second picture below), and you wonder what’s the Lubavitch angle in this picture? Are we now claiming Rav Wolbe, or perhaps the Slabodka Bnei Brak Rosh Yeshiva as one of our own? No, silly, it’s the man in the center Rav Yakov Yisroel הי“ד Zuber that made this picture appear in the archives. He was a Lubavitcher Chossid.

The picture is apparently from the time that Rav Zuber was Rov in Stockholm, or maybe not. Rav Wolbe was from Sweden, but we don’t know if RMS was ever in Sweden. So maybe it’s from a time that Rav Zuber traveled to Europe. There are pictures of him with Reb Lazer Yudel Finkel in the archive as well. He later immigrated to the United States and was killed by a drunk sheigetz around New Year’s of 1953.

And here we have a wonderful picture of the Chossid Reb Bentche Shemtov at a family simcha (see third picture below). Those who know could tell you that at a certain point of any simcha or farbrengen Reb Bentche would get up and make himself heard. Here he was probably calling out some other chossid, telling him that he’s a no-good bum, for one reason or another. That he wasn’t mekusher to the Rebbe and is therefore not worthy of breathing the air on G-d’s green earth. To his left was his brother-in-law, the unforgettable Reb Mendel Futerfas. Reb Bentche was married to Reb Mendel’s sister Esther Golda. Reb Mendel is sitting with kabolas Ol, but you might say that he doesn’t look very happy. Simches were a whole lot heimisher back then.

Rabbi Shmuel Dovid Raichik
L-R: Rav Shlomo Wolbe, Rav Yakov Yisroel הי”ד Zuber, Rav Mordechai Schulman of Slabodka.
Reb Bentche Shemtov

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10 Comments

  • vildkeit

    so this act of standing on the tables that yisroel shemtov has us a yerusa from his father

  • Vintage Mobsters

    Look like gangsters from the 50’s!

    Why is it that all these Yeshivishe rabbis, who force their students to dress black and white, themselves dress like mobsters of old when they were younger. One can’t even tell they are Jewish or religious. Hat cocked arrogantly to the side, head held at a jaunty angle, no beard…

    • K. Grant

      No one is “forced” to do anything. Chassidim dress and live this way because they want to. Those that don’t, usually find their way out of the community, into Reform or Conservative Judaism. There is no need to make such disrespectful comments.

  • beautiful

    what about those of us who don’t have and don’t want facebook
    how do we get to see these pics

  • Mrs. Leah Edelman

    the picture of Rabbi Jacob Yisrael Zuber. who was my father was taken in Sweden in the summer of the early 40’s to be exact this happened in Skarppy,our summer home in the arcepelagos. Rabbi Wolbe was definitly not on the Chassidshe side, however, Rabbi Schulman was a great man

  • to #2

    you can still see the facebook page if you click on the link above but you won’t be able to comment there without a facebook account

  • moish 2

    one does not need facebook to see the pictures. bookmark the page and check it daily.

  • AA

    To #2 (Vintage Mobsters):

    It looks like you’re mainly talking about R. Schulman, since neither of the other two people in that photo has their “hat cocked… to the side.”

    Well, in that case, note that R. Schulman was from Slabodka. Anyone who knows anything about the yeshivah there knows that indeed its mashgichim demanded that the students dress respectably (in European style), as they held that this would increase people’s esteem for them (and therefore also give them a proper sense of self-worth). Obviously this approach was (and is) far from universal in the Jewish world, but your comparison is quite uncalled for.