My husband and I directed an organization in Cleveland, Ohio to help Jewish immigrants from the Former Soviet Union with their physical and spiritual needs. We heard a story from a couple who had faced a family crisis in the 1970's. One of their children was engaged to a non-Jewish girl.
The parents tried time and again to convince their son to end the relationship. They explained the importance of Jewish continuity and the graveness of ending the Jewish family lineage. They explained that while right now his relationship with his fiance is clouded by fiery love, with time, and when faced with real issues and decisions, the Jewish factor will be a problem.
| "All people are created equal, we are no better than anyone else," he dismissed their badgering. |
Although the parents spoke passionately, the son would not hear any of it. He had not received a Jewish education when living in communist Russia and this may have been the first time they'd ever discussed their Jewish heritage.
"All people are created equal, we are no better than anyone else," he dismissed their badgering.
With their son refusing to budge despite their tears, pleading and explanations, the parents travelled to New York for a private audience with the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, of righteous memory.
The meeting was short and the couple disappointed. The Rebbe told them to encourage their son to come for an audience himself.
The father was not happy, "I came to ask for advice on what to do. Why would my son listen to some rabbi he doesn't know when he refuses to listen to me?!"
The father adamantly refused to pass on the Rebbe's message to his son. But as the wedding approached, he became more and more agitated. Their conversations became more and more impassioned until late one night the father finally blurted out that the Lubavitcher Rabbi wanted to meet him.
The son willfully agreed, looking forward to some more debate and the father arranged an audience with the Rebbe.
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