In a video interview, Rabbi Menachem Gerlitzky, a familiar figure in Crown Heights and 770, shared his story, from his family history forged in prewar Poland, to the many years and memories from being by the Rebbe in 770, to the Rebbe’s campaigns he would have the zechus to lead.

Born in Montreal to R’ Moshe Eliyahu Gerlitzky, a tomim who survived the war and helped found the city’s first Lubavitcher yeshiva, Rabbi Menachem Gerlitzky grew up steeped in Chassidus and came to 770 as a young bochur. He was sent on shlichus to Los Angeles, spent time in Kfar Chabad, and eventually settled in Crown Heights.

Along the way, he shares vivid memories of the early Mitzvah Tanks, his role caring for Jewish children airlifted from Iran after the Shah’s fall, and the behind-the-scenes moments that defined life around 770 in those years.

He also spoke about his personal correspondence with the Rebbe, including the answer he received after a gunman fired point-blank at his car on a Crown Heights street – the very night of the first-ever Rambam siyum.

“They showed me the bullet hole right where the side mirror is. It was a miracle he didn’t pick up his hand a millimeter higher,” he recalls. The Rebbe’s answer pointed to a tzedakah pushka, which he happened to have under the seat.

Rabbi Gerlitzky speaks at length about Siyum HaRambam – how he launched a daily shiur shortly after the Rebbe announced the Rambam learning cycle, and how, working directly under the Rebbe’s written guidance, he built it into a worldwide celebration.

“It’s my best hour of the day; I close my phone,” he says about the daily Rambam shiur. “Any question we have, there are so many people learning together, and everyone gets an answer on the spot.”

That daily shiur has run every single evening for 42 years, and the siyumim – which began as roughly 14 a year – grew by the Rebbe’s direction to over 100 annually.

“We’re too small to understand what this is. But the Rebbe really liked it.”

Rabbi Gerlitzky speaks about his plan to go on shlichus and the Rebbe’s rejection of each place he brought up. When he wrote to the Rebbe about running a Kolel Tiferes Zkeinim Levi Yitzchok for retired residents in Crown Heights, the Rebbe immediately approved.

He shared how the kolel has three locations in Crown Heights (one in Yiddish and two in English), and pays retirees a stipend to learn every day. Through his work with the retirees, he became involved with mivtzoim in nursing homes, and he tells the special story of the first time he brought them to the Rebbe.

Among Chassidim is a podcast by Derher, hosted by Rabbi Yossi Kamman, director of A Chassidisher Derher. The podcast captures the vibrancy of dor hashvi’i through immersive, in-depth conversations. To view all episodes, visit here.

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