Uman Rescue – Part 3 of 5

Uman Rescue – In 1979 the Soviets planned to destroy Rebbe Nachman’s grave in Uman to make way for a housing project. The leaders of the international Breslov community appointed Rabbi Michel Dorfman zal as spokesmen to avert this threat.

Rabbi Dorfman traveled from Jerusalem to New York where he joined Rabbi Nasan Maimon to enlist the support of the Jewish community. They met with Rav Moshe Feinstein zal and received personal encouragement and guidance from him. They also met with Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum – the Satmar Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson – the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Moshe Sherer, Rabbi Pinchas Teitz, and Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan. Each of these Gedolei Torah contributed his support and unique insight to the mission.

Assisted by White House Counsel Robert J. Lipshutz, Rabbi Dorfman and Rabbi Maimon finally succeeded in presenting the Jewish community’s petition to then United States president Jimmy Carter. This unified effort was blessed with Help from Above to the point that the petition to save Rebbe Nachman’s gravesite was included in the agenda for Carter’s meeting with then Soviet  Premier Leonid Brezhnev at the international S.A.L.T. conference (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks) in Vienna (June 1979).

Through a series of miracles, a “minor negotiation point” became the only concession granted by the Russian government to the United States, and the gravesite of Rebbe Nachman was preserved. This “small gesture of good will” between heads of state also resulted in the protection of the nearby mass grave for an estimated 30,000 Jewish martyrs of the Chmielnitsky massacres.

B”H, through this remarkable series of events, hundreds of thousands have been able to visit this holy site since that time.

In 2011, Rabbi Nasan Maimon presented a five-part lecture series to document these events.

These recordings and their content are © 2011 by Rabbi Nasan Maimon and may not be shared, reproduced, or incorporated in other works, print or digital, without his written permission.

Indexing and Notes by S.Y. Wurtzel.