“In those days I was one of the many Jews who
felt angry, dispossessed, and full of poison.

“In those days I was one of the many Jews who
felt angry, dispossessed, and full of poison.

Post-Holocaust American Judaism Collections at the University of Colorado Boulder

2013

Stephanie Yuhas, Netanel Miles-Yepez, Deborah Fink, Sue Salinger, David Shneer, Andrew Violet, and Jacob Flaws.

This item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. In addition, no permission is required from the rights-holder(s) for educational uses. For other uses, you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

Portable Document Format

English

One day I found myself in an Orthodox study house in Antwerp, challenging the teacher to answer the many questions and doubts I shared with everyone growing up in the chaos of those times. The teacher, a very understanding and well-educated man, let me get rid of all my poison without cutting me off.

He then showed me that not only were my questions not
stupid, but that they were, in fact, legitimate ones raised
by others before me. He suggested that if I could feel
confidence in the way in which they raised those questions,
perhaps I ought to feel confidence too in the way they
answered them.

This approach led me into a world that was very, very
exciting. It turned out that my teacher was a Lubavitcher
Hasid. Because of him, I ended up coming to America
and attending a Lubavitcher yeshiva. My chance encounter
with the Hasid in Antwerp was my introduction to Jewish
mysticism.”

Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, First Steps to a New Jewish Spirit

Passport photo of Zalman Schachter taken in Belgium, 1940.