Iron Faith- Tisha B'av 2021

I want to tell you a story about Rebbetzin Jungreis. She was a person who loved Klal Yisrael. She embodied the theme of what Project Inspire is all about. To love your fellow Jew and to be willing to do for them. To go out of your comfort zone. And after the wars in Eretz Yisrael, she would get on planes and go visit soldiers in the hospital. On one visit, she's visiting soldiers and she comes into a room and there's a soldier lying in bed, and he's wrapped up in bandages and she goes over him. She wants to give him a present, a Hineni medallion. And she puts it down on the night table next to his bed and she starts talking to him. But he ignores her and the nurse pulls her over to the side and says, “Rebbetzin, this soldier was so badly burned in a tank battle, he's so depressed, you can't talk to him.” She goes back to him and she says, “I want to talk to you, I want to tell you who I am. I came in from America to speak to you, to give you Chizuk.” "Lady from America! take your medallion and go away!" And she says to him, “One day, you know you're going to get married. You're going to give this medallion to your wife to hang on her neck.” And the soldier laughs a bitter laugh and he says, “Lady, look at me! No one in their right mind is going to marry me.” And she says, “You're wrong! This medallion is for you because you're going to meet the right girl. And she's going to look past it. And she's going to know you're right for her when you meet her. And when you meet that person, you tell her what I said.” And she left the medallion on his night table. A year later, the Rebbetzin returns to Eretz Yisroel and she's visiting a center of recuperation for soldiers and she's on the stage, and she gives a speech. And after the speech is over, a soldier in a wheelchair is wheeled over to her and he has a bouquet of flowers to give to the Rebbetzin. And he says to her, “Rebbetzin, do you remember me? And the Rebbetzin says, “You look familiar, help me out.” And he points to the nurse who is pushing the wheelchair and he says, “Rebbetzin, I want you to meet my wife.” And around her neck was the Hineni medallion. She became Rebbetzin Jungreis because she said, “What can I do for my people?” That's how every great person started, by asking that question. “What can I do for Klal Yisrael?” And that's the message and the question I want to take with us through this film. We look around us. We see people, we see people that we know. What can I do for these people who are so thirsty for what I have to give them? It's Tisha B'Av, people around the world are gathered together watching films that bring out something to work on, something to take home with them for the rest of the year. This year, the focus is on communist Russia. This is a time where regular people stood up and said, “I will not let a government dictate to me how I should live my life. I am a Yid (Jew). I know there's a Torah, even if I don't know a lot about it, but I know it's there and I am going to do whatever is in my power to be a good Jew.” Now you have to remember, we're talking about a time― There's an iron curtain. People can't get out. Millions of Jews are trapped. They don't know what to do! But you know what happens? Unbelievable! That spark, that Jewish spark, that refuses to die out says, “I don't care. Maybe there's going to be a knock on my door. Maybe tonight the KGB will come and knock at my door and say, ‘We are taking you to Siberia.’ But you know what? I don't care. Because I refuse to give in when somebody tells me you can't be a Jew. I am a Jew and I will do whatever it takes.” I want to ask you a question. Let's say it was 1970, 1978, 1983, there's an iron curtain. There are people living their lives in Russia, trying to learn Torah. And there are people flying from other places around the world trying to help them. What would I have done if I was there at that time? I want you to ask yourself that question. Would I have found the strength and the courage to get on an Aeroflot plane. and to risk my life for my brothers and sisters? I was born in 1947 in Riga. It was the capital of Latvia. I was under the influence of communist Stalin ideology. The communists were creating a new phenomenon, a Soviet citizen, which has no past, no religion, no nationality. With the rise of communism, they essentially were looking to obliterate everything that was Jewish: schools, Yeshivas, synagogues, Shechita, Mikvah. You name it! My father told me about some of his experiences. He said, “We live 24 hours in fear.” You can imagine that you go to sleep in fear, you wake up in fear. They can knock on your door anytime, arrest anyone. Everyone knows that if you're going to say something wrong they don't like, they're going to put a gun to your head. One day, I come home from school, and I see my friend Gena, who was tied to tree. He was in the fourth grade and about 20 his schoolmates, older than him, playing a game that they called pogrom. Pogrom! And they looked at me and said, “Oh, another Jew! Let's catch him!” So I learned how to run fast at that time. So, that's what it means to be Jew in the Soviet Union. These people who were born after the communists took over, they knew nothing. Religion was, was forbidden. There was no such thing. It was being drummed out of them. They weren't allowed to practice. They were quite willing to let a Jew live so long as he wasn't nothing to nobody. It was a real struggle― a small group of people against a massive empire. I was born in Moscow in a very regular Soviet Jewish family. We didn't know anything about Yiddishkite. I did not know about Shabbos, about Rosh Hashana, about Yom Kippur... So I believe that was the beginning and the end of my Jewish education. When I was a child of ten, my father was arrested on a false accusation. You can imagine a small family―mother, three children―lost altogether. And then all of a sudden I felt that I can help my father. I start telling something like, “Please! Please! I beg you help my father out from the prison! I will do whatever you demand! I promise you!” Certainly, it was my first prayer. Nobody told me that there is a God. I discovered myself. I remember the first time biology as a science was introduced, the first class was about why this science proves that Marxism is right and everything else is wrong and why religion is bad. So she was telling about how biblical stories about Noah and the ark and the animals are contrary to science and cannot be true. And I for the first time in my life heard about Noah. And I asked my grandma. I said, “Where can I read?” And she said, “You know, it is in our Torah.” I asked her, “So where can I find it?” And she said, “Okay, you can go to synagogue.” And so I remember the first time in my life I went to a synagogue because of a class of atheism in a Soviet school. And I bought, I bought a book in Hebrew with Russian translation and I started reading it. Yeah, that was the beginning. For the first time I met Jewish friends and those around that brought me to the synagogue on Rosh Hashana. So I asked friends, “When’s the next time the Jews will have another holiday?” And imagine what it was― a new year in 10 days. So, when on Yom Kippur staying outside, some people told me, “Come next week! Succoss!” I thought, “What a beautiful religion! Every week they have another holiday!” It’s how I became unconsciously a part of a Jewish community. And imagine it was like 1964. My name is Eliyahu Esess. In my story, it was, I started with Hebrew, not with Torah. I didn't know about Torah too much. But then two years later, I already knew Hebrew quite freely. And then I found some elderly Jews who secretly started to teach me. And then I heard that a famous American rabbi will come to the synagouge. Before the Tisha B'Av he came. So this was the beginning. My father, Rabbi Pinchas Tiets, made 22 trips to Russia from the mid-sixties until the mid-1980s. My father was immediately taken with him. Someone who was born into a desert and chose to develop his Torah and his Yiddishkeit. And he wanted to be knowledgeable, you know? And he was willing to really take chances going to these secret meetings, learning Hebrew, learning Torah, learning, you know, and preparing he wanted to, he wanted to get out! I would say that there was a bond of love between them that was very, very strong. I went on Tisha B'Av to the synagogue. I was the only young person who was going to the synagogue. And he suddenly came up to me in the end after the service and said, “Whats your name? You are a young person, very interesting.” And he invited me to go with him. And this walk made me not only an observant Jew, but a teacher of Torah. I wanted it, but he gave me the push! 1967, the six day war breaks out in Eretz Yisrael. And somehow, miraculously this small army of Jewish people― the IDF―managed to turn the tide with the hand of Hashem, Hakadosh Baruch Hu's help, and fight back. And you know what happened? It was a great miracle. They won the war. And you know, it caused something inside them. It caused them to feel proud. Jews around Russia, they found the courage and they start somehow to learn Alef beis. Somehow to connect to their heritage. But you can't destroy the Jewish spirit. It's always going to be there. It's always going to find a way to reignite and to burst into flame. This is what happened. The story of those people who stood up and said, “I know I may be forced to go to a labor camp. They may take away my wife and kids. I will not bend. I will not budge. I will stand up and say, ‘Ani Yehudi,’ ‘I am a Jew.’” And a movement begins. After the six day war, Jewish identity in the Soviet Union skyrocketed. It created a renaissance of Jewish life in a country that was atheistic and that prohibited religion. The Jews in Russia were ashamed of being Jewish, sometimes even trying to conceal the fact that they are Jewish. And all of a sudden, you know, other people thought, “Oh, the Jews are strong people! Courageous!” So I say, “I myself am too a Jew!” My father, Gershon Jacobson, used to broadcast what was called, “Radio Free Europe.” And radio was the only way that the people in the Soviet union could hear what's going on in the West. We had a shortwave radio that in Moscow was the only way to get some true information. And I heard about the war. The Jews there, maybe they couldn't mouth everything, but deep down it was all there. You know, the excitement. But what does it mean to be a Jew? Me and some other friends decided to establish an underground Jewish educational movement to prevent assimilation. And I remember that one of the friends told me, “You know what we are doing is illegal. We can be arrested.” I am not afraid. You know, I looked at him strangely, you know, how can you be afraid doing something that you enjoy, you know? You have other ways to do it? Enjoy your life, be a Jew and be involved in illegal activities. So what? As a matter of fact, it turned out that not only our group exists in Riga, there are groups like ours in Moscow, in Leningrad, in Minsk, in Harcourt. So finally, in 1968 we managed to establish a nationwide underground Jewish movement for Jewish education. I asked my friends and acquaintances, “Do you want to learn Torah?” They said, “So, what is Torah? I do want to know Torah, but what is Torah?” I said, “Torah is our life.” So the first students were fifteen young people. And then half a year, thirteen became religious, observant, and teachers. It made no sense. There were two, three, four, five people around who still knew something. And all of a sudden it began growing again. They got an underground magazine called “Tarbud.” So it was written, “Dear reader, This is your constitutional right to know more about your Jewish culture and religion. Read it openly and proudly. Don't hide it under the blanket.” And then there is a signature underneath that: Eliyahu Esses. [Speaking Russian] Street 10, apartment 26. It was the most amazing―like why does this person who does such a work as publishing something underground, puts his name. And when I came to him I said, “Eliyahu! I heard that you’re teaching Thursday night classes about Judaism. I would like to join.” And of course I thought, “He will embrace me and say, "Of course!" Instead, I was surprised. Eliyahu said to me, “Sorry, I can't.” I said, “Why not?” He said, “Because I don't teach students. I teach only teachers. He said, “Because you know, there are 3 million Jews in the Soviet Union and the communist government is destroying spiritually all of us.” “If I'm going to teach 10 students, it will not make a difference to 3 million Jews. So I would rather teach 10 teachers who will teach 10 teachers and it will create a chain reaction.” And for the first time in my life, I felt the pain for other Jews because I felt his pain for 3 million Jews. So I had to invent methods how to teach. In simple words, you don't have to be or pretend to be a professor, but it has to go into the heart. Eliyahu Esses started out mostly teaching Hebrew himself. And he went from one step to another and he gathered students. When I came to him in ‘79, I think he had anywhere between 12 and 14 students. When I came to him later that year, he already had 40, 50. When I came to him in ‘81, he already had 50, a hundred, and it mushrooms because his students became the teachers of the next groups. When I started my course in teaching Torah, I took my group and with a Chumash in Russian Translation. And we come together to― I felt that the best place to teach Torah is a synagogue. Older people that certainly were part of KGB agents, they were surprised, you know? Young people of age 19, 20, are coming to the synagogue. What are they doing? They looked at our books, they were Chumashim. I went to a college called, “Moscow Telecommunication Institute.” I remember entering the classroom and the person who welcomed me, let me call him “Alex.” We became very good friends. And I was actually sharing with him, who was a Jewish boy, my discoveries of what does it mean to be a Jew. And one day he says to me, “You know, I was offered to become a member of an auxiliary force.” He says to me, “You know what? They gave me a very important assignment. And if I will pass this assignment, they will accept me like really a staff member of the KGB.” And what was he supposed to do? He needed to go there as a Jew coming to shul on Rosh Hashana, sitting on the bench, and waiting for someone to come and tell them, “Do you want to learn Hebrew? Do you want to learn Torah? What is your name? What is your telephone number? What is your address?” And these people will be arrested! And he said to me, “Don’t go this Rosh Hashana, because you know, you may be arrested.” So I stayed home. In the middle of the day, there was a ring on the door. I opened the door and see him and tears on his eyes. So he said, “You know, in the shul, in the synagogue, I heard this melodies that people were singing, the praying and something moved in my heart. And in front of my eyes, I began remembering things that I never thought I know And then I heard some kind of a noise. It was like a scream: A traitor! Are you spying on your nation? I got scared. I started crying and I ran away and I come to you and I say, ‘Please, can you teach me Hebrew and Torah?’” I was very moved and surprised at the time. I have to tell you that the KGB didn't let it go simply. He was arrested, but he remained a strong Jew. When he left, whatever, you know, the tortures were given to him, he became one of the greatest teachers. If a regular Jewish citizen in Soviet Russia would discover that we are doing that, they would tell, “Don’t they understand? KGB knows everything! Why they are not afraid?” And just for it, for the reason, you know, that we are not afraid, we’re able to do that. The network of our studying was about 20 cities in the Soviet Union under the eyes of KGB. I want to stress, it's not so easy under the eyes of KGB. I came to understand that educating hundreds, or maybe thousands, will not solve the problem of complete assimilation. For at that time, we had around 3 million of Jews in Soviet Russia. So it was obvious to me that the only possible ways to break out, to get out from Soviet Russia and open the gates for freedom of immigration, even illegally. So in Riga, in fact, a certain man called, “Hillel Budman,” Alav Ha’Shalom, come up with the idea to hijack a Russian airplane and try to escape. When we were arrested red-handed in the airport to accuse us in high treason, when being sentenced for 15 years of imprisonment, of betraying Russian motherland in Siberia. Normally, you are not permitted to keep Shabbos in the prison. You have to work. But, um, I discovered a way to bribe a certain prisoner that was in charge. One day, after several days of this practice, I heard their heavy steps. So I tried to escape, but my way was blocked by several officers. And, the head of the prison, Major Felderoff, enjoyed taking me by surprise. And he told me in a very mild voice, “Mendelevitch, why are you not working? Would you like to eat? You have to deserve your food. Please go to work.” So I would pretend like I'm going to work, but I understood that now they are trying to compulse me to violate Shabbos. So I answered him with some, you know, soft voice. I told, “You know, Major Felderoff, I am a Jewish, Jews don't work on Shabbos.” “What!? You are in my hands! If you don't go to work, I will put you under the ground and you will die there!” I told him very patiently, “Don't yell me, I'm not afraid of you. I have my Commander, my L-rd. He doesn't permit me to work.” So two Russian sergeants come to escort me to the prison. For I know that the Ribono Shel Olam loves people that are being― suffering for keeping Shabbos. So being there for, for a week, you know, so what? So they sent me to a special prison called, “Vladmir Prison.” The first question I asked the officers that accepted me: What kind of jobs they have in the factory? To figure out how can I escape violating Shabbos? And then the officer told me, “There is no occupation for you!” Like it's the biggest punishment. You have to stay in your cell for three years, no occupation. I thought, “Ribono Shel Olam, what a privilege!” You know? “You granted me for the possibility to keep Shabbos quietly for three years!” I was in the metro underground and I saw another Jewish boy. He was with Cappy. I see that he studies Mishnayos. It's quite a difficult subject. I didn't know who is he. But he was a student of my student. And I didn't know him. And this was an achievement. One day, the moment I opened the door, the telephone rang. I picked up the phone and I heard a voice. “I'm talking to you from the KGB and we would love to speak with you.” Of course, when a person hears that the secret police wants to talk to him, you know, there's a feeling of fear, of course, which I was kind of scared. I said, “Okay, when do you want to speak?” “Right now.” I said, “Where?” “We're waiting for you downstairs.” It means that they followed me. So I come downstairs. There is a black car like KGB cars. Someone who introduced himself as Boris. He said, “The government and Kremlin made the decision to destroy all of you. You all will be sent to Siberia and rot to death. All of you will die there. No one will ever hear that you even existed. But you personally have an amazing opportunity. You see my pants? You will wear the same uniform as me.” And of course I was pretty scared at the time, because like it means pressure. And then suddenly what came to my mind? “I am a Jew. You cannot give them a hint that you will ever cooperate with them.” So after four hours of interrogation and different questions, he asked me, “Please explain why don't you want to work with us and cooperate with us?” Well, obviously every Soviet citizen, it was a dream to make a career, and make a career meant to be part of the mafia that ruled the country. Like, why don't you want to do it? I said, “You forgot. There was a country called Egypt. And we also wanted to immigrate from Egypt to Israel. And we said, ‘let my people go.’ And we were refused. We became refuseniks in Egypt. And you know what happened to Egypt?” They said, “What?” “Collapsed. And do you know what's going to happen to the Soviet Union? It will collapse.” And to my surprise, the interview ended and they didn't bother me anymore. “Incredible.” That's the word to describe what happened, but it wasn't just in Russia because slowly but surely news of this movement filters out from the USSR, from behind the iron curtain. And people in other countries, Jews in America, Jews in Europe, Jews in Eretz Yisrael, Jews everywhere, hear about what's going on. And they say, “I too want to be part of this. If these Jewish people can find the courage to stand up against such a terrible regime, I too can find the courage to get on a plane and to help them.” And that's what happened. The person who sent me was someone named Ernie Hirsch or in those days they called him “Gingy.” He's one of those people who should be part of the Hall of Fame. He himself had been there, but he was tossed out. He chanced upon a group of people sitting and learning. And that was Esess. He was dazzled and he came back to the shul and he gave a clop and he said, “Rabosai! There are people Shomer Torah Mitzvot in Russia who need our help. We must help them.” It was an extraordinary moment. After the six day war, the Israeli government sent in month by month two people to maintain contact with Jews there. So the first thing is we have to meet a character who nobody spoke about, but those of us in the in knew who he was. He had an office in Tel Aviv, in a nondescript building. We were given our instructions. We're going to Moscow, Lenigrad, and Kiev. We were basically going to teach Torah. In May of 1979, we decided we are going to Russia to meet them, greet them, bring them things, even in the face of whatever dangers lurked out there. On my block, where I lived, in borough park was living Rabbi Yaakov Polak. He gave us a few things to do, a number of people to meet. Shlichus. My father always looked to find opportunities to celebrate Jewish life. So 1971, he decided he was going to visit the Soviet Union― his own birthplace. It was not so simple because the Soviets were not easy. You know, they saw him immediately as a spy. He actually spoke fluent Russian. So that made it even more suspicious. He was always watched, they followed him. But my father was a bearded yarmulka guy, you know, and he went. Rabbi Polak sent me three Ezras Torah calendars. They’re the big ones that hang in the shul, after a month you tear it and it has all the halachas on it and everything. One for the shul in Moscow, one for Leningrad, and one for Keiv. How do you get that in? I came off the airplane, they were up my sleeves. I could not bend my hands by the passport control and I just went through. My troubles started at the airport. They took everything out of my suitcase and the cutlery was wrapped in yesterday's Maariv. [Laughs] I saw it! I knew this is it! Gold is at the end! It's going to be the Gulag, Siberia, who knows? Even have Sharansky as a cellmate. Anyway, as soon as he sees it, this guy says, "Everi!" “Hebrew!” And before you know it, they have me surrounded. I personally thought I was going to have a heart attack. I wasn't going to get out of there. Finally, we got out and we know already that they're going to be following us. We get to our hotel. It's the first night of Chanukah. So we light candles and we began our mission. My particular mission was to teach as many of the people as they could set up. I myself recall a surreal moment. One of the group, his name is Ari. I was learning with him, Yavamos, and at a level that would not embarrass a full-fledged yeshiva bachur. And so in the middle, I said to myself, “I'm sitting with a Russian from no place learning Torah as If he would have been been brought up in Yeshiva, and I could see the Kremlin from the window!” It was something that was surreal. The summer that I went with my father, it was a very exciting experience and we were so happy we finally arrived in Moscow. We came to our hotel and then he leaned forward and said to me in a very conspiratorial tone, “We will not discuss anything in the room.” We never made phone calls from the hotel. We never called the taxi from the hotel because we knew the rooms were bugged and they were. He was wise. For example, the first thing he did when he came to Moscow, he went to all the embassies. He went to the U.S. embassy and the French embassy to make sure that they know he's here. He's a journalist. You know, he made them―the Russians wouldn't just, he suddenly disappears or something. You were always be “ןָׁשיִי אֹלְו םּונָי־אְֹל הֵּנִה” They had in the Kremlin, there was one room with a light on always. That was the KGB office because the guardian of Russia never sleeps nor slumbers. Oh, they were learning Hebrew, they were learning Torah. And I came into the one Gemara shiur in the city of Kiev and they were learning the second half of Masechet Pesachim. And that's all, you know, korbanos and all sorts of other stuff. So I asked the fellow saying the shiur, “Why are you learning this? Start something easier with them.” So he looks at me and he says, “In all of Kiev, there’s only one Gemara. Steinsaltz, second half of Masechet Pesachim.” That’s all they had to learn from. I was in the Marina, Russia Shule. And as I walked in, a bochur comes over to me and says, “Would you have a pair of tzitzis for me?” And I pulled off mine and I gave him the tzitzis. I probably had one, another one, in the hotel. And even if I didn’t I would have given it to him because he needs it. He's going to wear it for, for many, many, many years even. And I have a tzitzis, in a week to come in America. I remember where, when he met us, one of his first cousins, the first time. So they were suspicious that he was a Russian spy. The Russians were suspicious that he’s an Israeli spy. So they went for a walk and they spoke for hours. But then they discovered that my father was legit. My father would give shiurim usually in the shuls, and the people would come and they would lap up everything he said. They, they just, they loved it. It was something that they looked forward to. As soon as they heard that Rav Tietz came, “When is he giving a shiur? We want to be there.” And they came in pretty large numbers given― but it entailed for them to be able to come out and make their presence known. Not only did they gain the knowledge, they were inspired. They were inspired to keep on going and to keep on trying and to become more and more Jewish and hopefully to get free. That was their big hope. In the morning I was in the shul and I hailed a taxi. And as soon as I walk out of the taxi, I have two people grab my arms and they push me into another car. I knew right away this is the KGB or something similar. I said, “Where are you taking me?” “You will see, you will see. Do you think your G-d is going to help you now?” And I said, “I most definitely do.” One major problem was I had in my pocket booklets about tefillin, about tzitzis, about Shabbos, about this... I had it in my trench coat pocket, my left pocket. They're going to come there. They’re going to ask me to take out things from my pocket. So I was concerned, quite concerned about that. And then all of a sudden something hit me. As we were driving, I was pulling out these pamphlets and burying in between the seats. I must've thrown in about 20 pamphlets. They took me actually to the woods. There was a cut off stump. And the first thing they tell me is, “Empty your pockets.” So what did I have? A few rubles, I had nothing very important. “Take off your shoes.” They look in my shoes, but I'm thinking to myself, “G-d, please don't tell me to take off my socks.” In my socks I had all my information―names, telephones―of whoever I have to see here or wherever. So in Moscow already, everything was on a paper in my socks and they didn't tell me to take off my socks. And then they sat me down on the stump and they started to, you know, question me and actually attack me. So after a while, they put me back in the car and they're taking me back to the hotel and they told me, “You are never going to come back to Russia again.” Nobody talked and nobody slept. Absolute silence. On the trains, absolute silence. And on one of my train rides, I'm going with [Russian Name]. They were learning Bava Basra. And here we are in the train, not a word. Everybody's quiet. And he starts talking out loud about the the Tosfos in Bava Basra, Lamed Gimal, and he wants to know Pshat. And I’m terrified! “Are you crazy!?” Nah, he doesn’t care about anything! I said, there were two miracles that happened on that train that night: First that we survived this. It was such courageousness. The second miracle was I knew the Tosfos, you understand? My father would always talk fondly about his conversations with Russian Jews. When he went to the Moscow synagogue. I remember with tears in his eyes, he shared with me how the Jews there are still holding onto their Judaism, but they don't know anything. They barely know an alef and a beis. And on Simchas Torah they would come and they didn’t know the prayers. So one Jew would say, “Aleph!” And everyone would yell, “Aleph!” In other words, their sincerity, their purity, their innocence. And my father talked much about that. How the Jews―like literally they did not let the Jews go to any schools. They were completely uneducated and didn’t know the language anymore, but they still knew they were Jewish. And they held on like― there's an expression, “Like the burning embers of a building that's been on fire.” But it's still―there's still some fire. There's still some spark. The New York Philharmonic was going to be going to Russia, as part of the cultural exchange that was beginning to signal a little more openness between the Soviet Union and the United States. And my father used his powers of connection, persuasion, and whatnot, to bring the, a whole case of these siddurim to the Philharmonic. He spoke to them and he said, “Could each of you take one and make sure that it's left in a synogogue?” Every member of the New York Philharmonic traveled to the Soviet Union with a siddur! The Russian Jews were as tough as steel, and yet had the most deep and intense Regesh and feelings that you can imagine. Friday, we come to a train station near where we're going to spend Shabbos. As we get out, we see from other doors young people, many of them wearing kippot. And we’re all walking in the same direction. This was to the home of Slava and Mark Shiffrin Their Friday night seuda took just about six hours because davening mincha and Kabbalas Shabbos was done by the whole group word by word. You understand? “...הָנְּנַרְנ ּוכְל” Everybody daven together. It was a scene. Unbelievable! And then they started singing, “Yirushalayim.” And I see these young people, the tears... They’re crying. The Friday night before I was in Yerushalayim, and had a Shabbos sueda together with girls from a girl seminary. And they sang the same song, but you know how they sang it? “Yirushalayim, da, da, da, da, da, Yerushalayim.” A jazzed up... These kids in Moscow that Friday night didn't jazz it up. That was their lifelong yearning. That was an experience unmatched, young people, young people... It was Motzei Shabbos and we went to Eliyahu Esses and we set up― they set up a Malava Malka and he had, I would say altogether, about 25 people, something like that, men and women. And we―the table was set. Oranges, which is a hard thing to get in Russia. They had no ideas what a Melava Malka is about? So I gave them an introduction. What is a Malava Malka? Seudas Dovid HaMelech, the idea of singing zmiros... Everyone was so moved to tears, really, to tears. To see that there is somebody out there that cares for us, somebody that came to give us things, to help, to teach us, to show us, to guide us, and just to support us. Just to put a hand on their shoulders. My father came back. I remember it was very emotional for him. It was like literally going to visit your brothers and sisters in the prison that for 70 years was keeping Jews confined and limited, and so on. When he returned, he went in for a long audience with the Lubavitcher Rebbe. And my father brought hundreds of letters, hundreds. And when he gave it to the Rebbe, the Rebbe opened them up like, these letters were like, the Rebbe held them like little children. Tenderly, and began to read as you have people pouring out their hearts and soul. And it was― my father said the Rebbe began to sob, he said, “uncontrollably.” And he saw the Rebbe just reading these letters. I mean, these were letters from the coming from the heart and gut, and the blood, sweat, and tears of Jews in Soviet Union. A story that still reverberates in me to this day, and what was it? It was probably 50 years ago. My parents went to the apartment of this, of this elderly Jew. They wanted to say goodbye because they were leaving the next day to go back to the States. As they were shaking hands to say goodbye, suddenly the man embraced my father and he said, [Speaking Yiddish] “Rabbi Rabbi! Save my soul!” That's why my father kept going back. Because he wanted to see what he could do for these people to encourage them, to give them a basis in Yiddishkeit and to get freedom. Chanukah class of 1980, about 30-40 people were sitting in the room. One of my friends was sitting right near me when the bell rang. So he came to open the door and there was a big bang! Like, he was like, flew to the opposite wall. And a second later we saw police storming the room. “Don't move! Hands on the table! You're under arrest!” It was a scary moment. I remember how my soul sank somewhere. “And remember if you don't follow the orders, we will use force against you!” And they said this to Eliyahu Esses and me. The KGB expected us to have a discussion and debate about should we go willingly or should we allow them to use force against us? And instead, Esses quietly said to us, "Let's continue the class.” “Let's continue the class.” And people were very quietly listening to what he was saying. And he said, “You know, these people outside the door, they’re like the ancient Greeks who came to stop us from learning Torah. And the same way we overcame the Greeks, we will overcome this darkness as well. And one day we'll be all in the Land of Israel learning Torah together.” That was a very powerful message. It was a great Z’chus to meet the Jews of the Soviet Union. A great, great Z’chus. These are people that we can be in awe of. These are people who saw the fire, stood before the abyss, and stood strong. This represents the best of what Jews are. I mean, what could you say? I'm in awe of such, of such people, such individuals. Fast forward, if you will, what is it, 30 plus years. My husband and I had gone to the Kotel to daven Vasikin and I see Rabbi Esses! "Oh my goodness! I just now said Yizkor for my parents and here I see you!” I said, “You're a living, Baruch Hashem, you're a living memory for my father.” I get emotional when I think about it now! And he said, “That's so funny because I was just thinking of your father, too!” It was such a beautiful meeting because he said, "You can't imagine the influence that he had on me!” This Rabbi Tietz, if there’s somebody I have to say is my greatest teacher, I will say him. I was like in a desert― on the moon. I didn't know about Tshuva movment. And he's explained to me that this is the movement in the world! Jews are learning, coming closer. We were told in Russia that everything is materialistic. You live and then you die, put into the earth, and that's it. No, it’s not, “That’s it.” Jewish soul is forever. As we say, “Am Yisrael Chai!” “Is alive all the time!” It's the biggest privilege in life to be Jewish! That's so, you know, how you can stop being Jewish? The end of the story nobody could believe! This group of Jews brought down one of the greatest empires in world history! It's unbelievable! We're empire breakers! “Nations keep coming, nations keep going, passing like shadows wiped off the earth. Egypt enslaved thee, Babylon crushed thee, Rome led thee captive, where are those nations? Mighty and fearsome!” We were present in the world at the birth of all the great empires and we were also the one who said the Hesped at their Lavaya. So, “Iron Curtain,” I think was coined by Churchill. “An iron curtain has descended across the continent. Behind that line...” But the Talmud says, “...לֶזְרַּב לֶׁש הָציִחְמ ּוּלִפֲא” Which means, “An iron curtain cannot separate the Jewish people from G-d.” The god of atheism was Soviet Russia. There was no way in the world that it could fall, disintegrate, no way. And one day we just woke up and it wasn't there. It's something to sit and to ponder about, how Hakadosh Baruch Hu, how He casts darkness into the world, and how the darkness always seems endless, and one day it’s just gone. You know, there's something about the soul of a Jew, it says, “.רע יבלו הנשי ינא” “I may be asleep but my heart is awake.” So their hearts woke up and look, each one of them is a miracle story of their own. A Jewish soul also has to eat. And Jewish soul has to eat the food stuff of the soul. And this “food stuff” is Torah. And I will not share it with my brothers and sisters? It's a criminal act not to share. During the late seventies and eighties, those people that went over to Russia, there was a great element of risk. But we had a mission to help. We had a mission to teach. We had a mission to care, to show brotherly love to our fellow Yidden. It's an example that there is nobody that can say, “Well, I don't have any special talents.” If you care, then you have the talents. We are here to help continue changing the world and usher in what the Jews have always fought for and always believed in: Mashiach! A world peace and eradicating war and famine and injustice, and that's what we stand for. And as a Jew today, in the 21st century, if we don't feel that way, there's something seriously lacking. Purim 1981, a miracle happened, we received permission to immigrate. I remember speaking to Eliyahu Esses and he said to me then, “Remember, the direction is more important than the speed.” So my direction in life was and is teaching teachers. I'm learning so much faith and I learned how to believe in people from my students. They really inspire me. And the need to reach out to those that otherwise will fade away, need to be conveyed again and again. I see real heroes of our generation, people who invite their neighbors, people who sacrifice their lives, sacrifice their comfort. And they do so much to bring other Jews back to their Yiddishkeit. And if this feeling of pain and responsibility and commitment will be conveyed and become the spirit of the generation, we have so much hope and we can do so much together because together we can overcome anything. I have a few questions for all of us. I'm talking to myself, just like I'm talking to you. Why was it so important for, frum people around the world to get on that plane and to travel to the Iron Curtain to help their fellow Jews? Why was it so important? You know, when Klal Yisrael sees each other as part of one nation as all brothers, as all part of that one family, you know, that's what happened there. There's no end to what we can accomplish when we look at ourselves that way, that's the story if you think about it. It's a story of people in America and in England and in Eretz Yisrael feeling like part of one nation with the people stuck in the USSR. So then that leads me to a question: Is it only in a time of danger? We're free to live our lives as Yidden today. So what? Because it's not dangerous, so therefore we don't feel the need to get on the plane? But we could do it also! What's stopping us? There are so many opportunities for every Jewish person to help their brother. Yeah, maybe the brothers are not across the world, they're not behind the Iron Curtain. Maybe they're down the street, they're across the street. They live next door to you. They live― there's an Iron Curtain separating us, but really there's no Iron Curtain at all. You know, those Jews in Russia, they were Moser Nefesh. They put their lives in danger to help each other. Well, what are we prepared to do? Are we prepared to put our lives, not in danger necessarily, but to go out of our comfort zone to help Klal Yisrael? This is Tisha B’Av. We just watched a very inspiring movie. We don't want to let that inspiration disappear. Isn't this a time now to ask ourselves, “What can I do to take the message I just saw and make it part of me?” Is going to come, that knock on your door? And they're going to ask you to be there Klal Yisrael. Are you going to say, “But it's out of my comfort zone,” and they're going to say, “Well, so what?” It wasn't the comfort zone of those people went to the iron curtain. They put their lives in danger. They could have been arrested. They could have been sent to Siberia, but they did it anyway. Well, you know what? That day has come everyone. This is your chance. Pick up a phone. Let’s take the messages of this film and bring it home to us. Pick up the phone, call Project Inspire and say, “What can I do? Who can I learn with? I want to be there for my brothers.” You know you want to do this. This is who we are. We're brothers. We're part of one whole. If the Jewish person in Russia could do this and the Jewish person in America could do it, then the Jewish person in America today can also do it. We all can do it. So let's do it.