Homesick for Lubavitch

By Homesick for LubavitchReligion & Spirituality Judaism

Homesick for Lubavitch episodes

September 01, 2024 Ep. 40 // "May We See The Rebbe" w/ Mrs. Tzivia Jacobson
Mrs. Tzivia Jacobson grew up in in the 1930s in a Lubavitch family in Kutaisi, Georgia under Soviet rule.
Nobody in her family had ever seen a picture of the Rebbe at that point, let alone met him, but every night her mother would put her to bed with a blessing that one day they would see the Rebbe.
Her family would eventually escape the USSR and make their way to Brooklyn where Mrs. Jacobson would be one of a handful to see the beginnings of the Lubavitch story in Crown Heights and up to this very day.
Along the way, Mrs. Jacobson and her husband, Mr. Gershon Jacobson a"h, would found the yiddish newspaper The Algemeiner Journal and pioneer a new way of communicating the Rebbe's ideas with the broader world.
In this episode, we discuss her growing up in the Soviet Union, what changed for her family and community when they moved to the United States but also what stayed - and always stays - the same.
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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] with BentziWebsite | https://www.yuvlamedia.com
2 hr
August 25, 2024 Ep. 39 // "Working With What I Have" w/ R' Yossel Mochkin
Reb Yossel Mochkin grew up in Crown Heights in the 1960s and 1970s, living in the cloistered world of his immigrant parents and their friends but surrounded by a fast changing and exciting world around him.
Never finding it easy to fit in to the milieu around him, Yossel had to ask on his own questions about the direction his life was to take. These questions were never fully resolved, but a yechidus with the Rebbe gave Yossel a blueprint his is still continuing to implement.
In this conversation we discuss the never ending journey of finding one's place, the private wrestling with one's faith and the ability to grow through it all.
1 hr 50 min
August 18, 2024 Ep. 38 // “Finding the Rebbe’s Softer Voice” w/ Rabbi Berry Farkash
Rabbi Berry Farkash is a Shliach in Issaquah, Washington and director of Chabad of the Central Cascades.
Several years ago, a local crisis led Berry into the world of psychotherapy where he became a certified clinical psychotherapist and practices Hypnotherapy and other Transpersonal modalities. Today all of his clients are fellow Lubavitchers, many of them shluchim.
In this conversation, we discuss his own journey toward finding the Rebbe’s softer voice and the need for forgiveness and compassion.
We also discuss the importance of companionship - especially highlighted by the Rebbe’s “bakosho nafshis” to find a mashpia, or in other words, to talk about real and weighty issues with someone else.
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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
2 hr 6 min
August 11, 2024 Ep. 37 // "The Need To Move Forward" w/ Mrs. Toby Hecht
Mrs Toby Hecht is the director of Shabtai, a global Jewish leadership society at Yale University in New Haven.

Toby grew up on shlichus in Seattle and was finishing up her senior year in Beth Rivka High School in Crown Heights when she and her friends were swept up in the collective grief of Gimmel Tammuz.
In this conversation, Toby reflects on the feelings of that time, the emergent awareness of needing to move forward and the responsibility we have today to take decisive ownership of the future.
1 hr 50 min
July 14, 2024 Ep. 36 // "Making the Past Present" w/ Rabbi Dr. Shmary Brownstein
Rabbi Dr. Shmary Brownstein is a shliach in Davis, California where he also wrote his doctoral dissertation on the famous series of maamorim, Bosi Lgani.
In this episode, we discuss Shmary's growing up in Crown Heights in the early 90s and his decision to leave for Brunoy.
We discuss how the conception of past changed over those years and how some of the ideas of Bosi Lgani might inform how we ought to approach staying connected to the past without becoming lost in it.
2 hr 50 min
July 07, 2024 Ep. 35 // "Do You Notice the Narrative?" w/ Rabbi Peretz Chein (Bonus conversation w/ Chanie Chein)
Rabbi Peretz and Chanie Chein both grew up in Crown Heights and are the shluchim today at Brandeis University near Boston, Massachusetts.
They have also recently founded M54, a program founded on the relational connection between learners as they embark on shared yet individual explorations, resulting in profound outcomes.
In this conversation, Peretz and I discuss his growing up in Crown Heights in the late 80s and early 90s and his pivotal decision to leave Crown Heights to study in a yeshiva in Israel, only returning after the Rebbe's stroke two years later.
We discuss the power narrative holds over us and the need to ground oneself in narrative, but also the need to notice the narrative and to pay attention to one's own thoughts and experiences.
2 hr 34 min
July 01, 2024 Ep. 34 // "Fantasy of Going Back" w/ Rabbi Moshe Greenwald
Rabbi Moshe Greenwald grew up on shlichus in Long Beach, CA and is on shlichus today in Downtown Los Angeles.
In this episode, we discuss his childhood memories of coming to 770 for Pesach, his coming of age during the turbulence of 1992 and the questions he's had to wrestle with since.
The conversations leads us to questions about the possibility of a Chossid's living with uncertainty.
2 hr 58 min
June 23, 2024 Ep. 33 // "He Believed in Me" w/ Rabbi Pinny Andrusier
Rabbi Pinny Andrusier lives in Cooper City, Florida where he is a shliach for more than thirty years.
Growing up, Pinny found his place less in the structure of yeshiva and more in the adventure of shlichus, which is where he hoped to find his place after marriage.
But when the time came, he struggled to find a place in shlichus and almost gave up on his dream, until a note from the Rebbe a few days before 27 Adar changed everything.
In this episode, we discuss the challenge of fitting in, both back then and today, and how believing in the other is often the biggest gift we have to offer.
1 hr 15 min
June 16, 2024 Ep. 32 // "Shock of Yud Shvat" w/ Rabbi Shmuly Avtzon
Rabbi Shmuly Avtzon is a Mashpia in the Yeshiva of 770 and director of Sichos In English, an organization founded by his late father and my uncle, Rabbi Yonah Avtzon a"h.
In this episode, we compare and contrast our childhood experience and recollection of 27 Adar and 3 Tammuz, him growing up in the thick of the Rebbe's neighborhood of Crown Heights and me growing up across the world on shlichus in Hong Kong.
We discuss the shockwaves these events had on our childhood, and whether or not they can be traced to earlier events in Lubavitch history and specifically the history of Dor Hashvii.
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As a sidetone, I recently worked with Shmuly on a documentary about SIE's new release of Likkutei Sichos in English.
You can see more about the project here: https://www.sie.org
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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
1 hr 54 min
May 26, 2024 Ep. 31 // "The Image I Remember" w/ Marc Asnin
Marc Asnin is a documentary photographer who lives in New York City. Over the years, Marc has photographed all kinds of subjects, from the most marginizaled people on death row to his own Uncle Charlie.
In 1992, Marc was commissioned by the New York Times to photograph the Lubavitcher Rebbe and the Crown Heights community as part of a feature essay, The Oracle of Crown Heights. Just a few weeks before the stroke, Marc’s pictures are from the last and most iconic pictures of that year.
In this podcast, we discuss Marc’s first impressions of the Rebbe and the Lubavitch milieu, his reflections on that photograph and what he thinks has made it such a lasting testimony.
1 hr 34 min