Here’s My Story: The Buffalo Nickel

Dr. Jerry Kasle

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At about age 40, I had a religious awakening and I began — together with my wife Shaindel — to become Torah observant. Back then — this was in the early 1980s — I was in private practice as an ophthalmologist in Flint, Michigan, which is where I was born and raised. Life was good, but both my wife and I realized that if we wanted our two children to identify as Jews, we had to make Judaism part of our lives. We started attending a local Conservative synagogue and keeping kosher. But it was not until I chanced upon Chabad Lubavitch that we both began learning Torah and following Jewish law seriously.

This happened when my father — who unbeknownst to me had supported Chabad causes — became ill and Rabbi Berel Shemtov, the Chabad emissary in Detroit, came to visit him in the hospital. I saw how Rabbi Shemtov interacted with my father and I took an instant liking to him. One thing led to another, and Rabbi Shemtov dispatched Rabbi Yitschak Meir Kagan to learn Torah with me once a week.

During our study sessions, Rabbi Kagan never spoke about the Rebbe or Chabad activities, but one day in 1986, he asked if I would attend a meeting in New York of the recently-founded Machne Israel Development Fund — the group which raised money for Chabad institutions and projects. To be honest, I had no interest in this at all but, out of respect for Rabbi Kagan, I agreed to go.

The group that came to this meeting was comprised of the fund’s financial supporters. We had a meeting in 770, and then we were each granted an audience with the Rebbe. Now, I had no idea who the Rebbe was. I was not even familiar with the title “Rebbe.” It sounded similar to Rabbi or Rabbanan, so I figured this must be the leader of Lubavitch chasidim.

I will never forget the moment I saw him. I was standing in the lobby of 770 near the tzedakah box, when he walked in and the entire room fell silent.

He passed inches away from me to put a nickel — I vividly recall it was a buffalo nickel — in the box, without looking around the room, which was filled with high-powered donors. He was totally focused on the act of giving charity.

And in that moment, I instantly knew why he was the Rebbe. He had uncommon presence. Just seeing him was enough to know that this was a man of stature. The only way I can describe it is that there was greatness about him. And everything he did was a teaching moment. On another occasion, he explained why he was giving tzedakah upon entering the synagogue. He said that it’s always good to start the day with giving to charity because this mitzvah brings goodness and holiness to what follows.

After the prayer service, we each met with the Rebbe individually. I was very nervous and have almost no recollection of what he said to me at the time, but I do recall one key thing — that he interrupted himself in the middle of a sentence and the meeting was suddenly over. I had a sense that something unusual had happened but I did not know what.

Imagine my surprise, therefore, when six months later, I again attended the fund’s meeting and the Rebbe picked up in the middle of the very sentence that he interrupted the time before. And then I also remembered what he said before.

His message was that “a Jew has it in his power to change his community.” Rabbi Kagan was present and heard him, and he got very excited. “Did you hear what the Rebbe said?” he asked me afterwards. I answered vaguely that I heard the Rebbe speak about Jewish people doing good things. “No, he was speaking to you! You have the power to change your community.”

That led me to ask myself: What can I do? And I realized that I couldn’t do very much on my own and that I needed to recruit others for this cause. As a result, my wife and I brought Rabbi Yisroel and Rebbetzin Shainie Weingarten to Flint. At first, our initiatives faced some opposition but, little by little, the community was changed — as the Rebbe predicted it would be.

Establishing a Jewish day school was particularly important because the Rebbe stressed the role that education plays in furthering Judaism — that it is crucial to have as much education as possible. And we certainly took his instructions to heart.

From the time that the Rebbe gave the directive, “a Jew has it in his power to change his community,” we were committed one hundred percent. Anything that had to be done to make the school successful, we did. Together with the Weingartens, we got other people in the community involved, and we gave out scholarships to all of the kids whose parents lacked the financial means to pay the tuition.

In addition to the school, we worked with the Weingartens to establish a synagogue and built the first mikveh the city ever had. We offered Torah classes tailored to adults, and we created special programs for Russian Jews of whom many had settled in Flint.

And this is how — following the Rebbe’s vision for us — our community was changed, and not only our community but, eventually, the lives of all the Jews living in Flint.

From that entire experience, I learned that when the Rebbe gives you an instruction, you can be assured that you are going to be successful. And I also learned another thing — that as long as one follows the Torah, blessings are just about guaranteed. The Rebbe himself wrote to me about this when I asked for his blessing for the school. He answered that he didn’t have to give a blessing because G-d told Abraham, “I will bless those who bless you … and through you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

The Rebbe pointed out that we were in the category of those who are carrying on Abraham’s work, so we would be sure to be blessed by G-d.

Indeed, we were blessed and, along with us, our entire community.

Dr. Jerry Kasle is a retired ophthalmologist who used to practice in Flint, Michigan. He lives with his wife Shaindel in Detroit, where he was interviewed in July 2020 and March 2025.