Transcript
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In 1979, the government of
the Shah of Iran collapsed,
Khomeini came, and the
Jews were extremely panicked.
The stores were looted,
everybody came to the streets,
they burned our cars…
The Iranian community
got very nervous.
The US embassy in Tehran
has been invaded and occupied.
The Americans inside
have been taken prisoner.
Some reports say as many as
ninety Americans may be involved;
others say as few as thirty-five.
Besides for the fifty hostages,
there are fifty thousand
Jews trapped in Iran.
No doubt, nobody will be harmed;
God will guard them,
– especially with the guarantees
that have been given …
The only question is whether
there are 50,000, or 40,000,
or 30,000 Jews in Iran.
But less than 30,000
there certainly are not.
And if there’s “only” 29,000
– you can also say
a chapter of Psalms!
Not only you “can” – you must!
It was around 1978,
and I asked the Rebbe
to give me a blessing to go
for a summer assignment
to help Jews in Iran.
The Rebbe did give me
a blessing to go to Iran
and to go with the rabbi
of the Sephardic and Persian
community in Queens, Rabbi Hecht.
In August of 1978,
Hertzel Illulian and I boarded
a plane on Pan Am Airways
and we flew off
to Iran, to Tehran.
Two young Chabad
representatives came.
Hertzel Illulian was
of Persian origin
and he had studied
at Chabad Yeshivas.
I greeted them and
took them to my house,
and together, we
talked about everything.
At that time, there was a feeling
that the situation in
Iran was getting worse.
I asked the two of them if
when they get back to America,
they can try to
do what they could
to arrange visas for our children
as having been “invited,”
so that we could send them.
Forty, fifty, sixty friends
came to our hotel,
the Royal Garden Hotel,
and they wanted us to bring
the kids to New York, to Brooklyn.
Rabbi Shalom Ber Hecht went
to his father, Rabbi J.J. Hecht,
and he told him the whole story.
Rabbi J.J. Hecht said he
would speak to the big boss.
He received a very clear and
strong answer from the Rebbe
to create a framework
to bring the Iranian students
to the United States.
So, the door was open.
I said, “Rabbi Hecht, do you
know what you are doing?
This needs a lot of finances,
we need dormitories, we need
schools, we need cafeterias…”
So he said, “Financially, I don’t
have two pennies to my name,
so that I don’t have.
But whatever the Rebbe says,
that’s what we are going to do.”
We began to send the children.
We would receive visas
from Rabbi J.J. Hecht.
Everything would be in order
and completed, but without names.
We would fill in the names,
and whoever so desired,
would immediately
receive a visa to leave.
There was no money;
it was difficult in those days.
Among the Chabad families in
Crown Heights, each one of them
took two, three or four
children as their own.
They adopted the Persian kids
to live in their homes.
The Rebbe took on this project
as his own personal project.
He was in contact with
Rabbi Hecht on a daily basis,
– on just about a daily basis –
about dorm facilities,
about their studies
and about their
education developments.
Any time you had any
questions or something came up,
either within an hour or half
a day, we would get an answer.
All these kids
came to the farbrengen.
The Rebbe was very happy
and he said, let them sing a song
of their country – a Jewish song.
Since we have here some people
who recently came from Persia,
they should all
together say “l’chaim”
and everyone else
can help them out.
With a joyous song.
The first Passover that
the students were there,
Pesach of 1979,
we must have had
about a thousand students
between the boys and
the girls at that time.
And the Rebbe actually visited
the children who
were at the Seder.
He walked into the kitchen
and he opened up the pots
making sure that they had
cooked rice for the children.
The Rebbe had advised that
even though it is our custom
among Ashkenazi Jews
and among chasidim
not to eat rice during Passover,
but because Oriental Jews
and especially Persian Jews
have a delicacy
of rice on Passover,
he said to make sure
to cook rice for them,
which they had
cooked rice for them.
The Rebbe came over
to give his blessing
and he asked me to translate.
Then the Rebbe asked how to say
in Farsi, in their language, “Amen.”
So he looked at me and asked me
how to say “Amen” in Persian.
So I said “I think it’s ‘inshallah.’”
So everybody said
“Inshallah” to the Rebbe
and the Rebbe was
radiant and happy, it was…
I still can see that picture of
the Rebbe’s smile in those days.
You don’t expect from
a Rebbe who sits in Brooklyn,
whose job is
leading his community
and teaching
theology and Chasidism,
to suddenly act as a US consul
and an immigration officer
or as a Jewish agency
to bring children
and to finance them,
and to put them in
different schools,
and to help them.
He was the fire, he was the
engine, he was the accelerator
to all the people under him.
From Rabbi J.J. Hecht
to Rabbi Shalom Ber Hecht
to me personally and to all
the other volunteers who worked
for this tremendous project.
