mentalblog.com comments:
In the memoirs of the late R. Israel Jacobson (in Hebrew, published by KEHOTH) of Ch, there is a note that the great Mashpiah Reb Nissan Neminov urgerd Anash upon leaving Russia in 1946 not to abandon the kasket (Russian peasant cap) and not to wear the fedora. Only when they came to Pocking a DP camp in Germany did the Russian Lubavitchers feel strange as they wore difft head gear than the charedim from Hungary, Galicia and Poland. So they buckled under"peer" pressure and abandoned their levush that Stalin could not get them to change !
When Reb Mendel Futterfass came to the uS in 1962 he wore the kasket, later on there were about a dozen or so zikne Anash who still wore the kasket. Most Lubavitcher are into imitatio dei - that is copying the Boss and wore and still wear Al capone type hats.More and more younger Chabad people (since 1994) just wear a middle sized modern type yarmulka reserving the hat for ritual occassions.
As our blog host seems to be well versed with Moscow Jewish life in the 1980s etc, May I pose the following question : Who destroyed the beautiful wooden synagogue at Marina Rotschyna? I recall their rav Rabbi Noson Nota Olevsky was a old time Ukranian talmudist whose kesovim were later published in Israel. This shul withstood the Yevsek attack and the Stalin gangsterism . In the pre World war 2 era Moscow and its suburbs had at least 11 shuls. But it suddenly went up in flames just as it affiliated itself with a well known international Orthodox jewish group. Does anyone know what happened. Was it Anti-Semitism, urban renewal, insurance fraud "hooliganism" or the old age of the shul just gave in ?Was this old shul a Chabad shul in the 1930s-1940's ?Was Reb Getcha Wilensky a mekushar ?
I understand that Chabad is trying to gain control at the Choral Synagogue too. Is this true ?
Sorry Schneur, I was only ½ year during the eighties in Russia before I left (plus two weeks in 1988 ) Those pictures were taken when I went back right after the iron curtain dropped in 88. I do not know the details about the fire but I might ask Dovid Karpov in Moscow, he might tell us something. And by the way you asked about the "crippled man". His name was Reb Avrum (not sure about his family name). He was sweet soul. They do not make people like this anymore. I miss him a lot.
eehhh , definately ended up in the wrong site...can't stand that country.
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