After a post-midnight havdala at Chabad of Anchorage, Mr. Cliff Felig shared the story of his visit to the Rebbe with his father, Dr. Philip Felig, and the Rebbe’s extraordinary recollection of a letter his father had sent the Rebbe some months earlier.

By Anash.org reporter

After spending an uplifting Shabbos with over 100 tourists at Chabad of Anchorage, Alaska, led by shluchim Rabbi Yosef Greenberg and Rabbi Levi Glitsenstein, a guest shared a fascinating encounter he had with the Rebbe over four decades ago. After a post-midnight havdala, due to Shabbos times in Anchorage, Mr. Cliff Felig sat down to record his story.

It was 1979, and his father, Dr. Philip Felig, a professor at Yale University School of Medicine and named among “New York’s Best Doctors,” was flying to Europe from New York during Chanukah. In the airport, he ran into a friend and was talking to him, when he decided to stop by the Chabad booth at the El Al gate to light menorah. His friend, who hadn’t lit candles in years, joined him and lit a menorah.

So impressed by the work of the shluchim, Dr. Felig wrote a letter to the Rebbe, praising their efforts – who had helped not only him but also his friend, who had not lit in years – and received a warm response thanking them.

Several months later, in the summer of 1980, Dr. Fellig received a call from New Haven shliach Rabbi Moshe Yitzchak Hecht, inviting him and his son, Cliff, to a Yud Beis Tammuz farbrengen at 770. They happily agreed to join, and they brought along Philip’s brother, Judge Norman Felig, later a New York State Supreme Court judge.

At the farbrengen, they were seated on the stage behind the Rebbe. During one of the niggunim, Rabbi Hecht brought them over to meet the Rebbe personally. After introducing Judge Felig, he introduced Dr. Felig. The Rebbe immediately remembered Dr. Felig and said, “You once had a story with Chanukah?”

“My father was blown away and said, ‘You remember that?’” Cliff recalls. The Rebbe continued to tell them, “You must ignite with the light of Torah and mitzvos.”

“It was a story I’ll never forget,” says Cliff, “that the Rebbe had remembered that single letter. He had hundreds if not thousands of letters during that time period, but as soon as he heard my father’s name, he said, ‘You’re the one with the Chanukah candles!’”

Watch the Felig family meeting the Rebbe here.

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