Last Eyewitness of Previous Rebbe’s Liberation Passes
This past Sunday, Mrs. Rosa Melamed passed away in Israel at the age of 93. She was the daughter of Reb Yerachmiel Kugel, OBM, who was the Shochet of Kostroma, and she was the last living witness of the Chag Hageulah of Yud Beis Tammuz.
The Frierdiker Rabbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Schneerson, had been arrested by agents of the GPU and the Yevsektzia (“Jewish Section” of the Communist Party) for his activities to preserve Judaism throughout the Soviet empire, and was sentenced to death, G-d forbid. International pressure forced the Soviets to commute the sentence to exile and, subsequently, to release him completely.
Following his release, the Rebbe stayed at the home of Kugel family at 3 Nikotaskia St. for ten days, together with his son-in-law Rabbi Shmaryahu Gurary, Rabbi Eliyahu Chaim Althaus (a close friend of Beis Horav) and the Rebbe’s daughter Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka.
Mrs. Melamed, who was 12 years old at the time, remembered the events well and related “I remember when the Previous Rebbe arrived in Kostroma, there was much excitement in the town. Even non-Jews came out to greet this divine man. I remember people standing on the rooftops and fences. Our house hosted the Rebbe and his entourage. We had a big house and the Rebbe was given a special room there.”
”I even remember how all the Jews wanted to see the Rebbe and one even managed to have a ‘yechidus’ with him. Following his release on Gimmel Tamuz, he was granted a large compartment in the train that brought him to Kostroma.”
“Later the KGB interrogated my father about his hosting the Rebbe and his entourage. The interrogation appears in the files of the KGB. He was punished for it, and sent to exile in Siberia for 10 years.”
Mrs. Melamed also spoke of life under the Communist regime: “My father was a Lubavitcher chosid, a Shochet and Mohel by profession, who was sought out often by Jews in Leningrad and Moscow to perform a Bris. When they closed down the Shul in the city, the services took place in our house, despite the fact that they confiscated the Sifrei Torah.”
The nifteres leaves behind many descendents, of whom many were educated in the Ohr Avner institutions in Kostroma, which are being operated by the Shliach and Rabbi of the city Rabbi Nissan Rupo.
As she got older, Mrs. Melamed did Aliyah and moved to Israel together with many of her grandchildren, who continued their studies in Ohr Avner in Kfar Sitrin.
Click here to read more about the Frierdiker Rebbe’s stay at the Kugels’ home in Kostroma.
