The Rebbetzin on 12 Tammuz

Rabbi Berl Junik was involved in many aspects of life at 770 and in caring for the needs of the Rebbe and Rebbetzin. Over the years, he recorded many of the ideas, stories, and instructions the Rebbetzin shared with him.

At the recent wedding of Simcha and Mussa Vogel, Shamshon Junik shared stories and memories from his father. Included there are notes of conversations that Rabbi Berl Junik had with the Rebbetzin and the Rebbe. 

In addition, in honor of the beginning of the centennial of the Rebbe Rayatz’s release from prison, and the the 100th year since the birth of Rabbi Junik on the 6th of Av, the Junik family, presents the Rebbetzin’s recollections, as related to Rabbi Junik, about the events surrounding Yud-Beis Tammuz. 

Rabbi Junik noted that he heard the account from the Rebbetzin on the 4th of Menachem Av, 1977:

“Even though so many years have already passed, I remember the whole arrest from the 12th of Tammuz, 1927, in Leningrad [today St. Petersburg], as if it were yesterday.

“When my husband [the Rebbe] accompanied me home, we saw that [it something was happening, as] all the rooms in the house were lit up.

“I went into the house, and my husband remained outside. Through the window I quietly told him we had ‘guests.’ My husband [understood the message that the police were in the home and] went off to [the Rebbe Rayatz’s aide] Reb Chaim [Lieberman’s home].

“Reb Chaim lived on the ground floor, [the Rebbe was] afraid to enter the apartment, so he knocked on the window and told him [Reb Chaim] that ‘they’ had come to the Rebbe, etc. [As anticipated] soon after [the Rebbe left], they came to arrest Reb Chaim.

“While Reb Chaim was with the interrogator, the latter stepped out for a moment, and he removed a letter from the papers [the investigator gathered] that could have done him a great deal of harm and swallowed it.

“People tell a lot of stories that never actually happened. [For example the Rebbe] did not go to any embassy to notify people abroad about what happened [to the Rebbe Rayatz].

“Within five minutes [after the police arrived], Chassidim were already standing on every corner, watching, because no one knew which way they would take [the Rebbe Rayatz, assuming that they wanted to catch a glimpse of him as he left].”

Read the Shamshon Junik’s stories.

Read what the Rebbetzin said in Yiddish.