The Early Years 1902-1931 A documentary exploring the childhood & youth of the Lubavitcher Rebbe The Lubavitcher Rebbe’s leadership and Torah scholarship has been the subject of many an essay or article. But his private life has been shrouded in mystery. His childhood and youth have particularly enigmatic. For the first time in film, The Early Years explores the early life of this Jewish leader. The film features interviews with individuals with first-person knowledge of the central events and personalities of the Rebbe’s formative years. Subtitled in: English, Hebrew, French, Spanish, Russian. To order The Early Years I, click here.   Yehuda Chitrik Posted: 2/15/06 Kharkov, Russia - 1926 Yehuda Chitrik was born in 1899. Here he recalls his first meetings with the Rebbe in 1926 and '27. This interview appears on The Early Years l. To order My Encounter DVDs, click here. Yona Kese Posted: 9/26/05 Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine - 1921 Yona Kese grew up in Dnepropetrovsk at the same time the Rebbe was there. He was a writer, who later became a member in the Israeli Parliament, the Knesset. This interview appears on The Early Years l. To order My Encounter DVDs, click here. Shaar Yashuv Cohen Posted: 9/26/05 Luga, Russia - 1927 In 1927, the Previous Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, was arrested in Leningrad for counterrevolutionary activity – spreading religion. Shortly thereafter Rabbi Menachem Mendel, his son-in-law to be, was forced into hiding. Shaar Yashuv Cohen is the Chief Rabbi of Haifa, Israel. This interview appears on The Early Years l. To order My Encounter DVDs, click here. Chana Shapiro Posted: 9/26/05 Dnepropetrovsk, 1909 In 1909, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak, Rebbetzin Chana and their three sons moved to Dnepropetrovsk, a huge military city 520 kilometers from Kiev, where Rabbi Levi Yitzchok became the rabbi of the city’s 25 synagogues and 50,000 Jews. He turned to Rabbi Zalman Vilenkin, asking him to teach his sons. Chana Shapiro is Rabbi Vilenkin’s daughter, recalling her parents’ descriptions of the children in their home. This interview appears on The Early Years l. To order My Encounter DVDs, click here. Rabbi Yisroel Gordon Posted: 9/26/05 Warsaw, Poland - 1928 Rabbi Yochanan Gordon traveled from Dockshitz, Russia, to the Rebbe’s wedding in Warsaw. His son, Rabbi Yisroel Gordon, recalls his father’s reports of the wedding. This interview appears on The Early Years l. To order My Encounter DVDs, click here. Rabbi Moshe Gerlitzky Posted: 9/26/05 Otwock, Poland - 1931 Every year, from Berlin, and later from Paris, the Rebbe and the Rebbetzin would visit her father, the Previous Rebbe, for the festive month of Tishrei. Rabbi Moshe Gerlitzky was a student in the Lubavitch Yeshiva at that time. This interview appears on The Early Years l. To order My Encounter DVDs, click here. David Fakler Posted: 9/26/05 Paris, France - 1937 On January 30, 1933 Hitler was elected the German Chancellor. For a couple who was foreign and Jewish, it was time to get out of Germany. The Rebbe and his wife Chaya Mushka moved to Paris, where the Rebbe continued his studies at the University for Polytechnic at Mont Rouge and the prestigious University of Paris, known as “the Sorbonne.” David Fakler studied French with the Rebbe at the Sorbonne. To order My Encounter DVDs, click here. © 2001-2005 Jewish Educational Media For the book My Encounter with the Rebbe by Zalmon Jaffe visit myencounter.com