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By Avrohom Rainitz, Beis Moshiach Magazine

Winter 5752. The Soviet Union broke up into the fifteen countries it was comprised of and ceased to exist. Each country had to run its own affairs. This was a revolution that shook the entire world.

The Russian Federation, which we now know as Russia, which was the dominant country of the Soviet Union, was dealing with a very serious economic crisis at the time. The lack of proper leadership, corruption, and other reasons caused this large country, with numerous resources, to plunge into economic chaos. Food was rationed and the lines for food were long. Citizens stood on line for hours, sometimes in freezing weather, to obtain basic food items.

At this point, when Russia was no longer a threat to western countries, some of these countries, led by the United States, decided to offer help to Russia. They began shipping huge food deliveries as humanitarian aid.

Americans are goodhearted and willing to help, but they don’t like being be fooled. Supervisors from the USDA were sent to Russia to ensure that the food would be distributed properly. They were astonished to discover that the distribution system to citizens was barely operable. Most of the food had been stolen by government people and those who were ‘close to the pot.’ What they themselves didn’t take they sold on the black market at inflated prices.

American government agencies were furious. They had spent hundreds of millions of dollars to help the Russian people and in the end, the people didn’t get it. The Americans announced that they would cease to work with Russian government agencies and said they were looking for an American organization, with branches in Russia, that would take responsibility for distributing the food throughout Russia.

A long time passed and finally, in 5755, an American organization that met all the strict requirements of the US government, was found. Surprisingly, the one that won the bid was none other than the Chabad organization called Chamah, which had been founded, in part, thirty years earlier by underground Chassidim in Samarkand.

Now, the formerly pursued, became distributors of the food and the decision-makers for hundreds of tons of food, like Yosef who left prison and became the supplier for all of Egypt.

REALITY IS STRANGER THAN FICTION

How did a group of Chassidim from Russia manage to develop the necessary connections with senior, American government figures? How did they step into such a prominent role, something that only well-established and high-level organizations with yearly budgets of tens of millions of dollars, were able to reach? And who was it that activated a well-oiled ‘lobby’ on their behalf?

It turns out that this turn of events fits the well known aphorism that truth is stranger than fiction. For real!

In order to understand the events of those days and get a full picture about that episode, I spoke with Rabbi Hillel Zaltzman, one of the founders and administrators of Chamah. R’ Zaltzman is familiar to readers of Beis Moshiach thanks to his memoir which was published in these pages and later compiled into the book Samarkand. After speaking to him, I once again saw the truth of the saying, “When G-d wants, even a broom can shoot.” When Hashem wants it, the most amazing thing happens and even a Chassidishe yungerman who never spent time in university, manages to produce position papers and budget proposals that meet all the standards.

RETURNING TO RUSSIA

Most Chabad Chassidim left Russia during the years 5706-5707 (1946-47). Only a few dozen Chabad families remained behind the Iron Curtain. They were scattered among central cities in the Soviet Union. They continued observing Torah and mitzvos with mesirus nefesh despite Stalin’s draconian rule.

After Stalin’s death, a quieter period ensued and despite the enormous fear of the government, the persecution diminished somewhat. The young men in the Chabad community in Samarkand established a Chassidic underground called Chaburas Mezakei Ha’rabim (that acronym of which is ChaMaH), and in that framework founded an underground yeshiva and secretly arranged learning programs for Jewish children in Samarkand and nearby places, as well as many other activities.

About fifteen years later, at the end of the sixties, another crack opened in the Iron Curtain for a few years, until the beginning of the seventies. During this period, most Chabad families left the Soviet Union.

The young men who started the Chamah organization continued their work in Eretz Yisrael and America. They worked to help the Jews who remained behind, as well as to draw close the immigrant families in Eretz Yisrael and the United States. One of those men is Rabbi Hillel Zaltzman, who now lives in Crown Heights and runs the Chamah offices in the US.

HOW CHAMAH’S CHESSED ACTIVITIES BEGAN IN MOSCOW

“When I left the Soviet Union,” says R’ Zaltzman, “I was reminded of the aphorism that we’d say, that the acronym of the Soviet Union (in Russian), SSSR, was the numerical equivalent of ‘Mitzrayim’ (380). I felt, literally, like it was yetzias Mitzrayim, and just as in the exodus from Egypt, when Hashem promised the Jewish people, ‘You will no longer see them again, forever,’ I had no doubt that I would never return to the lions’ den.

“However, as the Yiddish saying goes, ‘Ah mentsch tracht, un G-tt lacht.’ In 5749, Hashem’s hashgacha brought me back to Moscow for a Jewish book exhibit that we held there, together with my colleague, R’ Moshiach Chudaitov. This was, of course, after receiving the Rebbe’s bracha, ‘kedai [linsoa], v’azkir al ha’tziyun.’ The Rebbe also gave us a bottle of mashke for the farbrengen that took place on the Shabbos before we left for Moscow.

“The book exhibit was just a taste of what Hashem’s hashgacha had planned for us in Russia.”

Rabbi Hillel Zaltzman and Rabbi Moshiach Chudaitov at a meeting with government officials in Washington.

During his stay in Moscow, R’ Zaltzman met R’ Dovid Karpov. At that time, he was a chemistry student who was exposed to Judaism a few years before. He was gifted with a rare talent for public activism on behalf of the Jewish community. He told the guests that one day, he hung a sign in the central shul on Archipova Street, that said any Jew who needed help could contact him. “The phone rang nonstop,” he said helplessly, “and I can’t help everyone.”

Karpov understood that if he wanted to help the needy in the community, he had to get helpers. At first, he turned for help to Mrs. Gerta Ellinson. She’s a very smart woman whose parents were scientists who invented the jet fuel propulsion system which enables missiles to be sent into space. Her parents were considered national treasures and personal bodyguards were assigned to every family member. Even when she went to school, two guards accompanied her like a shadow. She herself is very talented and has an extraordinary memory. She didn’t need a phone book since she remembered all numbers by heart.

As smart as she was, that’s how goodhearted she was. She was full of feeling and compassion toward needy Jews and when she heard from R’ Dovid about the need for help, she left her senior position editing a Russian encyclopedia and joined his chessed activities.

R’ Dovid told the guests from America about the work that had been done until then and asked Chamah to take on the aid work in Moscow. He thought that as an American organization, it surely had plenty of money.

“The truth is that in those days, the financial situation wasn’t that great,” says R’ Zaltzman, “but we couldn’t turn him down. We decided to open a brancha of Chamah in Moscow. In the end, the process of opening a branch took a year and a half, and it was in 5751 that we managed to get through all the bureaucratic red tape and officially open a branch of Chamah in the Soviet Union. Even we didn’t dream back then how influential this move would be down the road…

“It was some time after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and for us, it was a moving closing of a circle. Our life’s work, that began with underground activity in the Soviet Union, had turned into an official office, recognized by the authorities.”

THEY SHOWED RESPECT

As mentioned earlier, when the American officials discovered that the American food shipments were not reaching Russian citizens, they stopped collaborating with Russian government agencies. They began looking for an American organization with branches in Russia that could undertake the major operation of distributing food throughout Russia.

Since Chamah had this all set up and was an American aid organization with a branch in Russia, the directors decided to apply for the position, thinking that they would be able to help Jewish communities throughout Russia. The Jews of these communities, who were still not part of any cohesive unit, mainly the elderly, were literally starving for bread.

R’ Zaltzman decided to try his luck. He called the US Department of Agriculture to find out more information and the officials there told him that they planned on expanding the food distribution to other countries in Asia, Africa and South America. They were going to have a meeting with representatives from every country. They invited him to attend as a representative of Russia, in order to receive updates about the criteria necessary for being chosen as the organization responsible for food distribution in Russia.

“This was the first time I was attending a meeting with senior government officials in charge of distributing humanitarian aid around the world,” said R’ Zaltzman. “Of course, I stood out with my Jewish appearance, head-covering and beard. I saw how they all respected this.”

WERE WE READY FOR THE BIG LEAGUES?

After he got the Americans’ list of requirements, R’ Zaltzman flew to Moscow in order to check with the local Chamah workers. Could the organization take responsibility for something so large? It was a project that demanded massive logistics. Russia is vast, with hundreds and thousands of places where the food had to be distributed.

As to the main problem, “First, we had to find storage space for tens of thousands of tons of food. Then we had to check out the possibility of setting up a logistical system of trucks to ship the food to about fifty cities throughout Russia and, of course, afterward, to supervise the distribution to citizens through the local municipalities, hospitals, and Jewish community centers.

“In Moscow, I met with an American representative, an Italian goy by the name of Lawrence Steven Barbieri. He went over all the details I had already heard in Washington and expressed great doubt as to whether we would be able to meet all of the Americans’ demands. He said, “In particular, you need find secure storage sites so nobody will steal the food.’ Storage sites like these were easy prey for the Russian mafia that was rampant everywhere, who sought to line their pockets with a fortune of money.

“The truth is that the Chamah activists in Moscow didn’t dream that we would actually be given responsibility to distribute all the food from America. They hoped that we’d at least get some ‘crumbs’ from the huge budget and that they this would suffice for the thousands of Russian Jews. My ‘hasagos’ were also limited. I figured that if they approved fifty tons of food for us, that would be more than enough. I didn’t realize that to the American government, that was nothing.

“I was new to all this. When I asked Betzalel Stein, one of our workers in Moscow, who had served in the Logistics Corps in the Russian army, whether we could undertake such a huge operation, he said, ‘Sure! Don’t worry, you can learn anything and we will learn their requirements and do them.’ Then he added, ‘If only we get something from them.’”

Chamah in Moscow

In those days, the situation in Moscow was terrible. Chamah’s soup kitchen in Moscow lacked basic items.

“I remember that before I went back to New York, we held a meeting with our people in Moscow. Rabbi Shmuel Levin came from Eretz Yisrael too. During the meeting, they showed us their budget proposal which amounted to a sum total of $18,000 a year. That wasn’t a lot of money, but our situation in New York wasn’t rosy in those days. It wasn’t a very large amount, and yet, I simply couldn’t commit to sending them that amount every year.

“I candidly told them that I hoped to obtain the money for them but I couldn’t promise anything. They found it hard to accept my answer and asked, ‘What will we do if you can’t provide the money?’ I told them, ‘We are in America for eighteen years already and always live with hope and trust in Hashem, and you also need to live that way.’ I saw that it was hard for them to accept. After all, when I arrived from America, they thought that the boss of the Chamah organization, who was something like the legendary Uncle Sam, would easily be able to cover all the expenses. Well, in America, money doesn’t grow on trees.”

THE AMERICANS APPROVE THE BUDGET I SUBMITTED

After the American government looked into the management of Chamah in the United States, they requested an itemized budget so it would be possible to get things moving. Usually, preparing a budget for such a huge project requires experts, professionals who know what to write and how to write it and mainly, what not to write. R’ Zaltzman and his people made inquiries into a law firm in Washington to find out how much it would cost and they were told, $30,000 (nowadays, that would be equivalent to $100,000!).

R’ Zaltzman asked whether they guaranteed the proposal would be accepted and the answer was: no. The directors of Chamah concluded that spending that kind of money on something which wasn’t guaranteed was a waste of tzedaka money. It would be better to write the budget request on their own and if Hashem wanted them to succeed, they would succeed.

“And that is how I, little Hilke, who didn’t graduate elementary school and never went to high school, and never entered a university, sat in the Chamah offices until late at night and prepared a budget. Hashem helped and it was accepted!

“At the time, I still didn’t realize the amazing accomplishment in that I succeeded in preparing an official ‘budget proposal’ that would be accepted by the government. It was only few years later, when I met with a famous lawyer to ask him to donate toward Chamah, that I wanted to impress him and I showed him our agreement with the US government about the shipment of tens of thousands of tons of food to Russia. He asked, ‘Which law firm did you work with?’’ When I said I did it myself, he asked, ‘I mean who interceded on your behalf?’ I pointed at heaven to indicate that Hashem helped us! He said, ‘I meant to ask who is the expert who prepared the budget proposal for you?’ Once again, I answered that I did it myself. He simply couldn’t believe it.”

CHAMAH DISTRIBUTES TONS OF FOOD TO RUSSIAN CITIZENS

After the American government approved the budget proposal, Chamah was authorized to receive a food aid package in enormous quantities, which were beyond belief to the Chassidim. Tens of thousands of tons of flour, rice, vegetable oil, cans of salmon, and various kinds of legumes.

The government personnel were so nice that one of the people in charge called R’ Zaltzman to let him know that he had nothing to worry about regarding the kashrus of the salmon since they would be bringing fish with kosher certification.

These enormous quantities of food were going to be sent from the US by ship in about 200 containers of forty tons each.

“Anything to do with shipping via ship was foreign to me,” said R’ Zaltzman with a smile. “I didn’t know shipping companies and had no idea how manage a process like this.

“However, I saw siyata d’shmaya in this too. To my surprise, the government personnel took care of it and informed me that they were taking responsibility for it. They arranged all the details with the shipping company which dealt with the entire process from alef to tav, from loading the containers in the US, obtaining the release of the containers from Russian customs at the port in Odessa, and transporting the containers to the storage places that they had rented in Rostov. They took care of loading the containers on a train that stopped near Rostov and from there, via a special rail system until the entrance to the storage unit.

“The American government also gave us money for all the expenses of the distribution system, starting with buying trucks to bring the food from Rostov to the cities where the food was distributed, to cars and computers (which cost a fortune back then) and other office equipment needed to operate the diverse system. They simply arranged everything for us.

“That’s how we began operating distribution points throughout Russia. Naturally, we brought food to all the Jewish communities and to the Joint’s distribution points. Then we continued with public schools and hospitals in fifty-four large cities throughout Russia.”

At a certain point, R’ Zaltzman went together with R’ Chudaitov to survey the various distribution points. Wherever they went they were received with great honor, bordering on open admiration, by Russian government officials.

“I thought in wonder about the miraculous turnabout that happened to us. As Chabad Chassidim, we had been persecuted for many years by the Russian government. Now, we had become the food providers for the Russian people. It reminded me of the story of Yosef HaTzaddik who spent many years in jail and in the end, was the big food provider for the Egyptian people.”

SURPRISE INSPECTION AT THE SOUP KITCHEN

One day, an American official by the name of Al Arasoz appeared at Chamah’s soup kitchen. He introduced himself as someone from the USDA and said he was sent to inspect the management of the various players in the food distribution, from the government offices to the organizations who were involved. He came to investigate in depth the management and capabilities of Chamah in Moscow. This was an in-depth inspection.

Prior to this, Chamah had been told that he had first visited Russian government offices and the answers that the officials provided him with so angered him that he tore up the papers they gave him.

After that, the people at Chamah were very nervous but they welcomed him graciously and offered him lunch from the soup kitchen. He sat down to eat and he looked like he was enjoying the food which was fresh and tasty, of a higher standard for Russia of those days. Despite the lack of basic food items, they managed to get the most from what they had, and he, who was familiar with the situation, was pleased.

When he finished eating, he asked, half-suspiciously, “Does everyone get portions like I got?” They told him, yes, and suggested that he speak directly with patrons. He spoke with them and they told him how happy they were to come to Chamah’s soup kitchen and how, every day, they received nutritious, tasty food. These conversations made a good impression on him.

Then, they showed him around the building and at the end of the tour, they asked him to come into the office in order to see the documentation. To their great surprise, he said, “It’s not necessary to see the paperwork. What I saw at the supper and tour satisfied me. I am very pleased with your organization.”

HIJACKING ATTEMPTS

What they feared, happened. The mafia, which ruled then in Russia without restraint, set their sights on the huge amounts of food which was worth a fortune to them. They looked for any way to get their hands on the food, or part of it. They looked for the weak points and they found them.

They realized they couldn’t gain control over the storage places because they were strictly guarded. They decided to ambush the delivery trucks.

Once, as a truck traveled on an intercity trip, gangsters came with a car and tried to stop the truck. They pulled up alongside the truck and shouted at the driver to stop. Fortunately, these trucks were also accompanied by an armed guard and next to the driver there always sat an armed security person. The driver stopped at the side of the road and the guard got out and began shooting warning shots. The would-be robbers fled.

Another time, a group of ruffians went to the Chamah offices in Moscow and introduced themselves as Latvian businessmen who asked that food be sold to them. This was illegal, to do business with the food which was designated for distribution. The Chamah people knew this, but then one of these ‘businessmen’ casually lifted his coat, revealing a revolver in his belt. The message was clear; if you don’t go along with us, we have ways of forcing you.

The Chamah people played along and said there was what to talk about and they should come back the following morning. After the gangsters left the office, Chamah called the police. The next morning, the Chamah people went to the office accompanied by two police cars. As they approached the office, they could see the gangsters waiting. As soon as the gangsters saw the police, they disappeared.

THE ‘MESSIAH’ OF THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE

From this point on, a new era began for Chamah in Russia. After a long time in which their soup kitchens operated on a limited scale, suddenly, there was an abundance of food. Salmon was served as the main dish and they also made delicious fish soup out of it. The American government allowed them to switch some of the products on the local market for fruits, vegetables and chicken. Likewise, flour was given to bakeries and in exchange, the soup kitchen was given rolls.

Since this was a government program to distribute food, R’ Zaltzman had to fly to Russia occasionally to verify that the food was reaching its intended destination.

On one of those visits, he was invited to the office of the Humanitarian Aid Commission. This was a government department established by the Russian government to oversee the food donations from many countries.

R’ Zaltzman tried to avoid visiting the government office because he didn’t know how they would react to his obvious Jewish appearance, including hat and beard. And in general, a Jew who had left communist Russia doesn’t rush back to government offices of his own free will. However, Betzalel Stein insisted that R’ Zaltzman join and said, “They are really waiting to see you and you will be like the ‘Messiah’ to them.”

As he anticipated, that’s how it was. They were so grateful for the help being given to the Russian people and they asked that Chamah continue to work with them in the future.

DEVELOPING CONNECTIONS WITH GOVERNMENT PEOPLE

Not surprisingly, because of the abundance, Chamah’s power of influence grew in other venues. Suddenly, the organization became an important and respected entity to the Americans who intervened on their behalf in various matters. For example, when food shipments encountered bureaucratic difficulties or when the ship with the food shipment got stuck in Ukraine, the Americans intervened and suddenly, everything was quickly released.

“There were also the opposite instances in which we, the small organization, helped the American government. For example, when a representative from the USDA was in Ukraine and wanted to visit Russia, the Russians didn’t allow him to enter just like that. The USDA contacted us with a request that we procure an official document for him, as though he was invited by us for a consultation about the food distribution. Only after our office in Moscow sent the official request did he get an entrance permit.

“In those years, we formed friendly ties with the consulate staff in the American embassy in Moscow. The relationship with them began following a problem of one of our workers in Moscow, Mrs. Gerta, who wanted to visit her son who had emigrated to the US. The American embassy refused to grant her a visa since they were afraid that she would not come back to Russia.

“I told Senator Alfonse D’Amato that we were a Jewish organization that worked with the American government and we needed our worker to attend a seminar in New York in order to improve her social work in Moscow. Within a short time we got a response that he would help us.

“After the senator spoke with the American embassy on our behalf, they granted Mrs. Gerta her request. Interestingly, from then on, we began to get special treatment from them. Every time they refused to grant a visa to someone we knew, I would send a letter to the embassy in which I wrote briefly about our organization and our joint work with the American government, thanking them for their help. Toward the end of the letter, I was ask them to give so-and-so a visa to the US. Boruch Hashem, they never denied a request.”

THE SEVEN YEARS OF PLENTY ENDED

After Putin rose to power, he wanted to get the Russian economy out of the mud and give Russia the honor it deserved among the nations of the world. After all, Russia is rich with natural resources and deposits, with global capacities. It’s just that corruption was ruining everything.

From the start, Putin sought to join as a member in the international market but other countries turned him down, saying that a country that received American aid couldn’t have the identical standing as other countries in the modern international market. Putin decided he’d rather forgo the aid.

Officials from the Humanitarian Aid Commission contacted Chamah in New York and pleaded to continue sending food shipments even without the support of the American government, but of course, the local office couldn’t continue with this huge project without the financing that they got from the American government. The food project had ended.

“In hindsight,” concludes R’ Zaltzman, “that period of abundance for us in Russia lasted exactly seven years, from 5755 until 5762, just like Yosef. Those were the ‘seven years of plenty,’ in which we were able to provide food in abundance to dozens of Jewish communities in Russia.”

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