770 Communications Room Gets New Floor, Purpose

Crown Heights icon Rabbi Chaim Baruch Halberstam has moved from his Shlichus in WLCC to a new shlichus; this time it is in the room where he started off.

Reb Chaim Baruch was from the original group of those who recorded and transmitted the Rebbe’s Farbrengens and Sichos across the globe. It was the catalyst to Rebbe’s Sichos entering into the world of modern technology.

Many of those that started in WLCC continued to other projects in technology, such as Rabbi Y. Y. Kazen, who founded Chabad.org, and Rabbi Eli Winsbacher, who works for ‘Chassidus on the Line’ for Heichel Menachem.

Reb Chaim Boruch then went into filming and photographing the Rebbe during many occasions. He then opened a store which sold his videos, photos and audio cassettes of the Rebbe.

“To me it wasn’t about the money,” he says, “I let everyone take my pictures and do as they please. The Kfar Chabad magazine always used my pictures for free and until this day they used the pictures I gave them for free, with my blessings. I have no problem.”

For the most part Chaim Baruch’s name was never credited, he always asked for them to credit “Chibah,” an acronym of his Hebrew name, which translates in Hebrew as ‘affection.’

He notes that today he has sold his collection to JEM, and whoever purchases pictures from them has to ask them their policy.

Since selling his collection to JEM he has been focused on his duplication and digitizing service, with his longtime partner in WLCC Rabbi Shalom Ber Eber.

But this morning Chaim Baruch was overseeing another project, a new floor for the nostalgic recording room of the Rebbe’s Farbrengens. On the wall could be seen lines of telephones and recording devices. And today, it is his private office and – in his words – his new shlichus. “After the age of 65 I retired,” he says about his leaving WLCC and moving into 770, “not one day later.”

He says that his office has now become a spot for visitors to come and put on Tefillin; “everyday I get several groups to come in here and put on Tefillin.”

He says that his room in an attraction, “there is no other space like this in 770. All you could say here the Rebbe stood, here he gave out dollars. In this room you could actually see the history, it is alive.”

He says he has lots of plans for the room and has hired a contractor to revamp the room. “I will have videos playing about 770 and the many books out there about the Rebbe in a bookshelf.”

In short Chaim Baruch has opened the first Chabad House in 770.