Monthly Archives: January 2013

“When I asked my neighbor, Reb Kalman, to tell me some stories about the Satmar Rebbe, he told me the following story which he recently heard from a Chassidic friend in Willamsburg, who is involved in real estate. His friend was examining a building at the edge of Wiliamsburg, and an elderly African American man approached him and asked in Yiddish: “Did you know Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum, the Satmar Rebbe?” When his friend said that he indeed had the privilege of knowing the Rebbe, the man replied: “You didn’t really know him; no one really knew him.” And he proceeded to tell the Chassid the following story which took place during the early years of the Satmar community in Williamsburg:

As a young man, he had lost his job and couldn’t find work. Things got so bad that he didn’t even have a place to live. One day, he just sat on the staircase of a house in Willamsburg and began to cry, as he had no place to go. Although he didn’t know it, this was the home of the Satmar Rebbe. The Rebbe was returning home with a group of his followers, and he noticed the young man who was crying on the staircase of his home. The Rebbe didn’t speak English well, so he sent his assistant to ask him what he wanted. The assistant spoke to him, and when the assistant relayed to the Rebbe the sad story, the Rebbe invited him into the house. The Rebbe told his assistant to tell him that he will have a room in the house, and that the Rebbe will give him a job helping the Rebbitzen (the Rebbe’s wife) with all the various communal functions. He accepted the offer of the Satmar Rebbe, and he eventually learned how to speak fluent Yiddish!

After telling the Chasid his story, the elderly African American added: “I worked for him many years, and throughout that period the Rebbe and his family always treated me with great respect.”

Source: http://www.shemayisrael.co.il/publicat/hazon/tzedaka/Tales_of_Tzedakah-6.html