My Encounter Scans Fascinating Letter

A few weeks ago the My Encounter team received a lead to interview an 80-year old woman who received a fascinating letter from the Rebbe in Adar I, 1951 – just 5 weeks after the Rebbe assumed the mantle of leadership of the Chabad Lubavitch Movement on 10 Shevat.

The My Encounter team quickly contacted her and learned of 3 powerful private audiences that she and her husband had with the Rebbe in the early 1950s! Within a few days, the My Encounter crew was out in NJ to conduct the interview, as part of their push to interview 100 individuals by Gimmel Tammuz.

The story:

Mrs. Dena Horn (nee Mendelowitz) was 7 years old when her father passed away in 1940. Dena’s mother had lost her family in the Holocaust and had no real family members to consult with.

Dena’s mother, heartbroken, was looking for help and a shoulder to cry on – “a yoetz” – advisor, as Dena describes it. A few years later, a friend suggested she visit the Rebbe – at the time, the previous Rebbe’s son-in-law. And so it was. Dena’s mother began to visit the Rebbe periodically for encouragement and advice.

In 1950, at the urging of her mother, 18-year old Dena went to yechidus. The Rebbe mostly spoke to her mother about her issues, but for a few minutes the Rebbe asked Dena about her studies in NYU. She told the Rebbe that she was involved in the Jewish Culture Foundation, which was much like today’s “Hillel.” They would cater to the Jewish university students.

A few weeks later, she was amazed when she received a letter from the Rebbe. Addressed to Miss Dena Mendelowitz at the Jewish Culture Center at NYU, for Dena, it was proof that “The Rebbe took notice of me and sent me a letter. I was shocked that the letter was written out to me and to my address in NYU, not to my mother. It inspired me then and continues to inspire me until today. I have it hanging up on my wall over my desk.”

After receiving the letter, she took her role of Vice President of Jewish Culture Foundation at NYU with more focus and enthusiasm. She shared the letter with her contemporaries and they added more Torah classes and programming for the Jewish students.

An excerpt of the letter:

Blessing and Greetings:

Your visit some time ago gave me the pleasant opportunity of touching upon an important topic, which deserved more time than I had at my disposal. I trust that the next few lines may put the subject in bolder relief to make up for the unavoidable brevity.

Any thinking person must frequently ask himself, “What is my life’s purpose?

…The life’s purpose of every Jew, man or woman, has been clearly defined as far back as the Revelation at Mount Sinai more than 32 and a half centuries ago, when we received the Divine Torah and became a nation. We were than ordained as “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” This means that every one of us must be holy in our private life, and in our association with the outside world every one of us, man or woman, must fulfill priestly functions. The priest’s function is to “bring” G-d to the people, and to elevate the people to be nearer to G-d. Similarly, every Jew and Jewess fulfill their personal and “priestly” duties by living a life according to the Torah.

This is your duty and privilege as one of the student officers in relation to your coreligionist colleagues and student body in general. I would also like to convey this message to your colleagues in the JCF. You are all no doubt aware of this, but perhaps there is room for added emphasis and the conviction that “it cannot be otherwise.”

No Jewish individual ought to be satisfied with the fact that as far as he personally is concerned he is doing his best to improve himself. He owes it to the next fellow to help him improve himself, too…

This is just one story. There are so many beautiful stories like this on their list to interview. You can help them record stories like these by joining the Dollar Per Interview campaign. Every month, partners in the campaign receive an exclusive report and summary of the new interviews conducted. Click here to join.