Homesick for Lubavitch

Rabbi Mordechai Avtzon is my father and the first shliach in the Far East, which is where he and my mother founded Chabad of Hong Kong and China forty years ago.

Fifteen year ago, Nissen Goldman was a teenage son of a rabbi in Johannesburg, South Africa finding his own way.

After leaving high school, Nissen ended up spending time in Cape Town where his sister and brother in law where on shlichus and ended up in a relationship with the daughter of their shul’s president.

Fast forward fifteen years, and Nissen is on his shlichus at University of Cape Town with his then girlfriend and now wife, and has come to the kinnus for the first time as a shliach, together with their eldest son.

In this episode, we discuss Nissen’s improbable journey away from shlichus and back, how one can end up in the same and yet completely different place, and the value and risks of writing your own story.

This week's episode is brought to you by "This World Is A Garden," a new film and live concert production by Yuvla Media based on the Rebbe's first talk, Bosi Lgani.

Combining beautiful cinematography with a live performance by a string quartet, this production is a meditation on hope and holding on to a vision even as time passes by.

Now you can bring this groundbreaking experience of Bosi Lgani to your community.

For more info please visit: https://www.thisworldisagarden.com

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Homesick for Lubavitch is a project of Yuvla Media.

Bentzi Avtzon is a filmmaker who specializes in telling the stories of thoughtful and heartfelt organizations. Business inquiries only: [email protected]

Connect with Bentzi

Website | https://www.yuvlamedia.com

Rabbi Nissan Mangel was ten years old when he came face to face with Dr. Joseph Mengele at the gates of Auschwitz and was miraculously spared the fate of too many others.

Rabbi Yaakov Winner grew up in Brooklyn and has been the mashpia in Yeshiva Gedolah of Melbourne, Australia for thirty five years.

Rabbi Dov Yona Korn grew up in Morris Plains, NJ in a “very Reform” Jewish family and is today the shliach in NYU and several other schools in the Bowery district of NYC.

In this episode, we discuss his discovering Chabad in the months after the Rebbe’s passing and the difference this timing made in his own understanding of the Rebbe and Lubavitch.

We also discuss how the Rebbe’s ideas are filtered through layers of communal understanding, and how this communal understanding is sometimes in tension with the literal understanding of the individual.

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Mendel Treitel grew up on shlichus in Montreal and is today a modern art painter living in Sydney.

In this episode, Mendel shares his journey through yeshiva and how a number of special teachers helped him reconcile his artistic disposition with the norms of the Yeshiva.

We discuss the challenges in being both a chossid and an artist, the question of individuality and how the art a chossid paints today should be different and unique from the art a chossid painted generations ago.

Mendel's work can be found at:https://www.mendeltreitel.com

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Homesick for Lubavitch began a year ago as a small passion project and has grown into an important conversation in the Lubavitch community.

As we look forward to year two and iyH the years after that, I invite the listeners and viewers of this podcast to take part in ensuring this podcast is sustainable and continues to grow.

To help support this project please visit: https://www.hflpodcast.com/donate

____

This week's episode is brought to you by "This World Is A Garden," a new film and live concert production by Yuvla Media based on the Rebbe's first talk, Bosi Lgani.

Combining beautiful cinematography with a live performance by a string quartet, this production is a meditation on hope and holding on to a vision even as time passes by.

Now you can bring this groundbreaking experience of Bosi Lgani to your community.

For more info please visit: https://www.thisworldisagarden.com

____

Homesick for Lubavitch is a project of Yuvla Media.

Bentzi Avtzon is a filmmaker who specializes in telling the stories of thoughtful and heartfelt organizations.

Business inquiries only: [email protected]

Connect with Bentzi

Website | https://www.yuvlamedia.com

Rabbi Yosef Katzman grew up and lives in Crown Heights, where for many years he hosted the "Cable to Jewish Life" television show.

In this episode, Rabbi Katzman reflects on different pivot points through the years and how these relate to the community's changing attitude towards asking questions.

He also reflects on Rosh Hashana "back in the day" and where this leaves us going into this new year.

____

Homesick for Lubavitch began a year ago as a small passion project and has grown into an important conversation in the Lubavitch community.

As we look forward to year two and iyH the years after that, I invite the listeners and viewers of this podcast to take part in ensuring this podcast is sustainable and continues to grow.

To help support this project please visit: https://www.hflpodcast.com/donate

____

This week's episode is brought to you by "This World Is A Garden," a new film and live concert production by Yuvla Media based on the Rebbe's first talk, Bosi Lgani.

Combining beautiful cinematography with a live performance by a string quartet, this production is a meditation on hope and holding on to a vision even as time passes by.

Now you can bring this groundbreaking experience of Bosi Lgani to your community.

For more info please visit: https://www.thisworldisagarden.com

____

Homesick for Lubavitch is a project of Yuvla Media.

Bentzi Avtzon is a filmmaker who specializes in telling the stories of thoughtful and heartfelt organizations.

Business inquiries only: [email protected]

Connect with Bentzi

Website | https://www.yuvlamedia.com

Rabbi Naftali Silberberg grew up on shlichus in Detroit and today lives in Crown Heights where he is the co-director of curriculum for JLI and host of the Let's Talk Tanya podcast.

In this episode, we trace Naftali's years in yeshiva that took him to Oholei Torah in the late 80s and then to Kfar Chabad, where he discovers a life long love - almost despite the yeshiva - for the study of Tanya.

We discuss what makes the narrative of Tanya so unusual and how a thoughtful study of the Torah Shebichsav of Chassidus makes it more, not less, relevant for our own day and age.

Presented in honor of 18 Elul - the birthday of the Baal Shem Tov and the Baal HaTanya.

____

Homesick for Lubavitch began a year ago as a small passion project and has grown into an important conversation in the Lubavitch community.

As we look forward to year two and iyH the years after that, I invite the listeners and viewers of this podcast to take part in ensuring this podcast is sustainable and continues to grow.

To help support this project please visit: https://www.hflpodcast.com/donate

____

This week's episode is brought to you by "This World Is A Garden," a new film and live concert production by Yuvla Media based on the Rebbe's first talk, Bosi Lgani.

Combining beautiful cinematography with a live performance by a string quartet, this production is a meditation on hope and holding on to a vision even as time passes by.

Now you can bring this groundbreaking experience of Bosi Lgani to your community.

For more info please visit: https://www.thisworldisagarden.com

Homesick for Lubavitch is a project of Yuvla Media.

Bentzi Avtzon is a filmmaker who specializes in telling the stories of thoughtful and heartfelt organizations.

Business inquiries only: [email protected]

Connect with Bentzi

Website | https://www.yuvlamedia.com

Rabbi Michoel Seligson is a teacher and author who lives in Crown Heights. He is also the son of Dr. Avrohom Abba Seligson, a"h, who was known as the Rebbe's doctor.

Rabbi Levi Avtzon grew up in Crown Heights and lives today in Johannesburg, South Africa where he is a rabbi at the Linksfield Synagogue.