The Visit that Spurred Sukkah Mobiles

When two Lubavitch students arrived at our door in San Francisco, California, in the early 1960s, my parents, Zalman and Chana Tornek, were among the few religious Jews in the city. I was five years old, and the Lubavitchers’ style of dress was unfamiliar to me, and I remember questioning it. The two young men stayed with us over Shabbos, and their visit changed our family’s life forever.

As told by Chaya Tornek-Klein, Clear Vision

When two Lubavitch students arrived at our door in San Francisco, California, in the early 1960s, my parents, Zalman and Chana Tornek, were among the few religious Jews in the city. I was five years old, and the Lubavitchers’ style of dress was unfamiliar to me, and I remember questioning it. The two young men stayed with us over Shabbos, and their visit changed our family’s life forever.

Rabbis Asher Zeilingold and Moshe Feller told my parents about the Rebbe and Chabad. My father was captivated, and when we moved to Los Angeles a few years later, he became close to Rabbi Shmuel Dovid Raichik, the Rebbe’s emissary to California. There, he actively helped Chabad, even coming up with the idea for the Sukkah Mobile, something now so closely associated with Chabad worldwide.

Later, my father received the Rebbe’s blessing to move to New York, where he opened a pizza store and, under the Lubavitch Youth Organization, launched Ha-M’orer, a Jewish youth club modeled after the Boy Scouts. The program flourished for many years in various cities, and eventually in Israel.

And to think that it all began with a simple visit from two rabbis to our San Francisco home so many years ago.

An excerpt from the forthcoming book Clear Vision: Living by the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s Guidance, available at ClearVisionBook.com.

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