[vc_row][vc_column][vc_tta_accordion active_section=”-1″ collapsible_all=”true”][vc_tta_section title=”Location, Location” tab_id=”1624966232619-d34fa254-bfdc”][vc_column_text]The Lubavitcher Rebbe King Moshiach Shlita’s emissary in Vancouver, Rabbi Yitzchak Wineberg, was considering the most appropriate location to build the Chabad House. He asked the Rebbe King Moshiach Shlita whether to choose a location near the university, or in the residential area of the city. With his question, he included a map of the city, showing the main areas of population, the shuls, the university, and the main Jewish residential area. The King Moshiach Shlita underlined the words “residential area” and circled a point on the map in its center, at Oak St. and 41st Ave.
Over the next five years, Rabbi Wineberg looked into purchasing several buildings. Nevertheless, Moshiach always had reason to reject the acquisitions.
One day, Rabbi Wineberg was informed of a large parking lot that was up for sale. The location seemed attractive, but unfortunately the price was not. The owners were asking half a million dollars for the land. Rabbi Wineberg knew that the subsequent construction would cost even more.
Rabbi Wineberg favored seeking further alternatives. At that time, most other Chabad Houses in North America had taken over existing structures, rather than undertake the burden of building their own. And Moshiach himself had advised Rabbi Wineberg to be conservative when it came to the cost of a building. Once when Rabbi Wineberg had proposed purchasing an existing building that would require a mortgage of $2000 a month, Moshiach had told him that the people in Vancouver might consider this too great an expense. Nevertheless, he consulted Moshiach about pursuing the parking lot option and Moshiach answered in the affirmative.
Together with one of his supporters, a Vancouver businessman named Jack Diamond, Rabbi Wineberg made a trip of several hours to the city of Calgary to visit the company which owned the parking lot. Devout Christians, the owners were impressed by Rabbi Wineberg’s cause and reconsidered their offer, lowering the price to $375,000. Rabbi Wineberg told them he would consider the matter and returned to Vancouver.
For Rabbi Wineberg, $375,000 was also a steep price and moreover, the owners wanted the entire sum to be paid immediately. Unsure of how to proceed, he again consulted Moshiach who gave an encouraging answer. “Continue in this direction. We are now in the month of Adar when we intensify our joy. Plant with joy; sow with joy, build with joy. Success and blessing.”
After writing to Calgary to express his interest, but explaining his desire to negotiate regarding the terms, Rabbi Wineberg received a modified proposal from the parking lot owners which certainly must have made him joyous.
The owners agreed to deduct seven thousand dollars from the price. In addition, they asked for a down payment of only $75,000, of which they promised to return $50,000 to the Chabad House as a donation, and they agreed to receive the remainder over an extended period of time at a low interest rate. Moreover, they promised to return the interest as a donation to the Chabad House, on the condition that it continue to function as a charitable organization.
The down payment was made with the help of local Lubavitch supporters, plans were quickly prepared for the building, and construction began shortly afterwards. It was completed in the month of Adar, the month of joy, and the first public function in the Chabad House was a Purim celebration.
Once, while going through his papers, Rabbi Wineberg happened to notice the original map of the city which he had sent Moshiach. Until this time, he had assumed that by making a mark, the Rebbe King Moshiach Shlita was indicating the general area where the Chabad House should be located. Now, standing in the building of the Chabad House, he saw that it had been constructed on the precise point of the map which Moshiach had marked.
“As our activities expanded,” Rabbi Wineberg concluded, “we realized that we could not have hoped for a more central and convenient location.”[/vc_column_text][/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section title=”Home for Life” tab_id=”1624966232628-da408ac8-677e”][vc_column_text]The year 1971 was a fateful one for Rabbi Shlomo Aryeh Niasoff and his family. Rabbi Niasoff was born and raised in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, where he married and raised a family. After many years of living under communist rule, he decided that it was time to start a new chapter in his life.
He submitted a request to the government for an exit visa for himself, his wife and their four children, and prayed that he would be one of the lucky ones to get out from behind the Iron Curtain. In those days Rabbi Niasoff worked in a factory owned by Rabbi Menachem Mendel Gorelick, who also submitted an application for an exit visa at the same time.
One day, Rabbi Gorelick approached Rabbi Niasoff and asked him to accompany him on a trip to the gravesite of Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneersohn, the father of the Lubavitcher Rebbe King Moshiach Shlita. Rabbi Levi Yitzchak had spent the final years of his life in exile in Kazakhstan and was buried there, in the city of Alma Ata. “Among Chassidim, there is a rumor that praying at the gravesite of Rabbi Levi Yitzchak has a spiritual power that will help us get an exit visa,” Rabbi Gorelick told Niasoff. “Would you like to join me?”
Rabbi Niasoff happily agreed, and the next day both of them went on their way. They heard that in Alma Ata there was a Chassid named Yosef, who maintained a kosher mikvah in his house. When they reached the city, they found Yosef’s house, where they were greeted warmly and granted permission to use the mikvah. From there they made their way to Rabbi Levi Yitzchak’s grave, where they poured out their hearts in intense prayer.
Within two days, Rabbi Niasoff received an envelope in the mail from the consulate: His family was entered into the list of visa holders. Just like that.
Over the next few weeks, as his family frantically prepared for their emigration from the Soviet Union, Rabbi Niasoff undertook a project of his own: to renovate the gravesite of Rabbi Levi Yitzchak. The neglect in the area was terrible. The gravestone was covered with thick mud and weeds. There was a great need to clear the debris and restore the gravestone.
Rabbi Niasoff found a friend, Gavriel Ochonov, who was just the right person for this job. However, at the time he was very ill and was unable to travel to Alma Ata to complete the work. Rabbi Niasoff explained to him the great spiritual power of prayers said at the gravesite of the tzadik. This gave Gavriel the strength to overcome his illness and make the trip to Alma Ata.
Amazingly, within a short time, Gavriel himself was helped by this matter. He quickly recovered from his illness and even received a limited visa to leave the Soviet Union. Years later, after both families had settled in Israel, Rabbi Niasoff and Gavriel Ochonov became relatives through marriage: Gavriel’s only son married one of Niasoff’s daughters.
After receiving his exit visa, Rabbi Niasoff and his family moved to Israel, and the absorption ministry assigned them to live in Dimona, a southern Israeli town set up for immigrants. However, Rabbi Niasoff wished to live in a Chabad community, which did not exist at the time in Dimona.
At the time, a Chabad neighborhood had recently been constructed in Lod, and friends of Rabbi Niasoff suggested that he apply to settle there. Rabbi Niasoff turned to Rabbi Ephraim Wolf of blessed memory, the head of the development, who told Rabbi Niasoff to write a letter expressing his desire to live in a Chabad community.
A few months passed, and the Niasoff family moved in temporarily with friends of theirs in Bnei Brak, awaiting a response from Rabbi Wolf. But time dragged on with no reply.
Their salvation came from a completely unexpected direction. Rabbi Gorelick, the former employer of Rabbi Niasoff in Uzbekistan, had likewise received an exit visa and was then in New York, visiting Moshiach. Rabbi Gorelick, knowing the straits of his friend Rabbi Niasoff, mentioned his problem to Moshiach. In response, Moshiach took a piece of paper out of his desk drawer, wrote something on it and told Rabbi Gorelick that when he would reach Israel, even before going home, he should deliver this paper to Rabbi Wolf in Lod.
Apparently, in the letter Moshiach instructed Rabbi Wolf to accept the Niasoff family into his development. Shortly after Rabbi Gorelick delivered the letter, Rabbi Wolf contacted Rabbi Niasoff and informed him that he was welcome to move into the Chabad neighborhood in Lod.
However, even after he was accepted Rabbi Niasoff still had another problem: how to pay for an apartment. The solution came quickly, no doubt thanks to Moshiach’s blessing.
Rabbi Niasoff approached the Jewish Agency and asked for their help. “We need 40,000 lira,” he explained to the agent. This was the full sum required to buy an apartment. The agent had compassion on this family of recent immigrants and granted them the full sum.
Rabbi Niasoff and his family live to this day in the apartment that he bought then, on Tzemach Tzedek Street in Lod. “I feel that this apartment is a gift from Moshiach for life, in exchange for my help in restoring the gravesite of his father.”[/vc_column_text][/vc_tta_section][/vc_tta_accordion][/vc_column][/vc_row]