A Familiar Face in an Unlikely Place

by Rabbi Asher Zeilingold, Clear Vision

It has always been in me to listen to others and try to empathize with them. From a young age, some of those I became acquainted with, took a liking to me and we became close. In Brooklyn, I had met Sol and Sadee Cohen at their small shul, where I would read from the Torah on Shabbos. We continued to keep in touch when I was in Montreal. 

One time Sadee wrote to me that she was going through difficult times, “I have great faith in your belief, you are a pious man who has done no wrong …. I so want you to pray …. I believe so much in you that no matter what your blessings are, they will come true.”

I didn’t know what to make of the letter, but I believed that the Rebbe would be the right person for them to see. When they agreed, I called 770 to organize an audience. In June 1958 they went to the Rebbe. They reported that the visit “with the Rebbe was very exciting and [it was] a great thrill to sit and talk with him. The Rebbe made me feel quite at ease and [I] got a little smile out of him too. I took very little of his time and saw many people waiting to see him.”

Rabbi Moshe Feller continues the story:

I was once invited to a conference in Estes Park, Colorado. Before I left, the Rebbe told me to look for Jews there. I was there for a few days, and I had no clue how I would find any Jews. I thought that the best way to find out was to go to the local newspaper office and ask if they have any ideas. There they told me that there was one Jew in the town, who owned the local gas station.

I went there and asked if there were any Jews. A man appeared and started to holler, “Moshe, how are you?” When I looked puzzled, he told me that he had been at my wedding. Many times I would walk with Rabbi Zeilingold to the shul in Bedford-Stuyvesant where he would read the Torah. There I met this man – Mr. Cohen – and invited him to my wedding. He also had donated to the fund that I had established to send children to overnight camp.

His wife had health problems, and their doctor told them to move to Colorado. He was happy to see us, and to know that the Rebbe cared even about a Jew in a small town.

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