For sixty years, R’ Uri Cohen worked assiduously to save Jews in various countries: Holland, Iran, Ukraine, Germany, while simultaneously founding schools in Holland. All this was done with the direct instructions of the Rebbe. He sometimes met privately with the Rebbe for hours and then would leave 770 immediately and disappear. He was a mystery man in his lifetime and after his passing too. * The man who worked for the Rebbe by retrieving lost Jews.
“One day,” Rabbi Shlomo Vorst of Kiryat Malachi related, “some of the bachurim noticed R’ Uri going to the office in 770 and then a few minutes later he entered the Rebbe’s room. He stayed there a long time. When he came out he rushed to leave with a taxi that waited to take him back to the airport so he could continue his mysterious missions for the Rebbe.”
***
R’ Uri Yehuda Cohen was born in 5670/1910 in Hamburg, Germany. His father was R’ Avrohom Aryeh, may Hashem avenge his blood. In his youth he learned in the yeshiva in Frankfurt where he remained until Hitler rose to power. Then he immigrated to Rotterdam in Holland where he opened a cheese factory. A few weeks before the outbreak of World War II, he married Rivka Jacobson, the daughter of the secretary of the Jewish community in Rotterdam.
On 2 Iyar 5700/1940, the Germans invaded Holland. Five days later, Holland was entirely under Nazi rule. The Jewish quarter was destroyed by heavy shelling and soon after, anti-Jewish laws went into effect. Jews had to register at Gestapo offices, Jewish businesses were confiscated, traveling on public transportation was forbidden for Jews, and shopping was permitted only for a few hours a day. These decrees and others oppressed the Jews of Holland but R’ Uri had a most pressing concern. Sh’chita was outlawed; what would Jews eat?
In a daring move, he rented a house in the section of town where the Nazi offices were located. The house was located between the offices of the German navy and the offices of the women’s Nazi organization. Twice a week, R’ Uri would bring a shochet there to slaughter enough chickens to feed all the Jews of Rotterdam.
There was no ghetto in Rotterdam, but for two years the Jews suffered from harsh decrees. On 16 Av 1942, two thousand Jews received orders to present themselves in the city square. A few hid but most of them appeared and were shipped off to “work” camps, which were nothing but extermination camps in Germany. After a few deportations, few Jews remained in Rotterdam. Among them was R’ Uri, his wife, and baby daughter.
In 1943, a son was born who died after a few weeks. R’ Uri arranged with a Dutch gentile to bring the body to the guard of the Jewish cemetery and that is how the baby was given a Jewish burial.
A short while later, the Gestapo knocked at his door and asked for the boy. R’ Uri told them he died. One of the Dutch policemen suggested they take the daughter instead, but the Germans, known for their orderly ways, said that their notes said a boy and not a girl, and so they left empty-handed. R’ Uri and his wife saw that it was dangerous to keep their daughter with them, so they gave her to gentile friends who cared for her until the end of the war.
Time after time, the Germans tried to catch R’ Uri but he was saved with open miracles. Apparently, he had important things he still had to do in his lifetime.
The first time the Gestapo came to his house, he told them, looking dejected, “It’s too bad about the good wine I have.” The Germans got the hint and were soon drunk. R’ Uri and his wife then ran for their lives.
Another time, the Germans came and as they knocked, R’ Uri and his wife quickly packed, went into an inner room and from there to a balcony from where they went to the next apartment and disappeared from the area.
A goodhearted Dutch gentile who was on good terms with Nazi officers would inform the Jews who the Germans planned to nab in the near future. One night, R’ Uri found out that the Germans would be coming to his house very soon. He and his wife immediately left their apartment. They hadn’t gotten down the stairs when the Gestapo pulled up and demanded to know where the Cohen family lived. R’ Uri pointed at one of the apartments. When the Germans went up the steps, R’ Uri and his wife ran for their lives.
They went to a gentile friend. R’ Uri told him firmly, “You have no choice. I am staying the night. If I stay longer, you have the right to hand us over to the police.”
Early in the morning the couple left and went from one hiding place to another until they managed to find a gentile who agreed to hide them for a long time in exchange for money. They remained there until the end of the war.
***
During the war, a few Jews remained hidden in Rotterdam and they needed immediate aid to pay the gentiles who hid them and for food. For this purpose, R’ Uri worked with the communist underground that was fighting the Nazis. The members of the underground supplied him with food coupons for him to distribute to starving Jews while he provided the underground with mechanisms for explosive devices. He even came up with a daring idea of how to obtain weapons, uniforms, and documents of Nazi soldiers.
R’ Yochanan Safranai of Kfar Chabad related:
“R’ Uri asked a friend, the owner of a confectionery, to prepare two batches of chocolate confections. In one he put poison and the other was ‘regular,’ in a different wrapping. R’ Uri gave these confections to people in the Dutch underground. Dutch girls with these chocolates went for strolls with German soldiers.
“During their walk together, the girl would lead the soldier to a place that was prearranged with the underground where she would offer him a chocolate. She would eat the regular chocolate and would give the poisoned one to the soldier. Within minutes, the German would fall down dead and the men from the underground, who were waiting not far away, would remove his uniform, take his papers and weapon, throw his body into the canal and disappear.
“Dozens of German soldiers were killed in this way and R’ Uri won the hearts of the underground who in turn provided help to Jews in hiding. I heard this from R’ Uri himself.”
During the war, the Nazis destroyed almost all the shuls in Rotterdam but the cellar of the central shul remained intact since it was a particularly strong structure. In the cellar were the archives of the Jewish community which included records of the marriages in the community, Torah crowns, and many other valuable items.
The Nazis locked the cellar with a simple lock because they did not dream that anyone would dare to enter the cellar without their permission. However, R’ Uri was very daring. He took advantage of the fact that he was German born and spoke fluent German. He dressed in German style and always walked around Rotterdam with a German newspaper under his arm. This enabled him to walk around without fear and go to the cellar with a friend and empty it out. He understood the importance of the marriage records of the community and gave it for safekeeping to the city’s archives. Although the mayor was appointed by the Germans, the director of the archives agreed to keep the Jewish community archives in his possession.
The Torah crowns and other valuable items were sold on the black market and the money was used to pay gentiles who hid Jews. He also began distributing food to Jews. Every morning he went about the streets on a milkman’s bicycle. His “pitchers of milk” were full of food packages which he gave out, thus saving about three hundred Jewish families from starvation every day.
A Jewish girl once asked him to find for her a hiding place. She said that she had gotten engaged before the war broke out and her fiancé was hiding in a cellar. Of course, she could not stay with him and so she needed another hiding place.
As usual, R’ Uri came up with a daring idea. He arranged a wedding for the two young people and then the bride was able to hide with her groom.
Spring 1945. The war was over and the Jews of Holland discovered that 90% of Dutch Jewry had perished, including R’ Uri’s parents, his wife’s parents, and many other relatives who had been sent to extermination camps.
By the end of the war, the Jews of Rotterdam and the authorities recognized R’ Uri as the leader of the Jewish community. It was a natural continuation to his saving the lives of Jews during the war. R’ Uri took the job seriously and devoted himself to the lofty goal of rebuilding the shattered remnants and breathing life into the Jews of Rotterdam and Holland in general.
R’ Yochanan Safranai tells of the steps R’ Uri took to rehabilitate the community:
“The first goal was renovating the sole remaining shul in Rotterdam. R’ Uri obtained the keys of the shul from the government and along with Rebbetzin Sarah Vorst (the mother of R’ Yitzchak Vorst, a shliach in Holland) they fixed up the shul and arranged minyanim once again.”
R’ Uri began rebuilding the communal institutions in the community. He opened a yeshiva in a small town for bachurim whom he smuggled into Holland from refugee camps across Europe. But soon, government officials, who were influenced by the Nazi propaganda, began to undermine Jewish institutions and even destroyed some of the mosdos that R’ Uri opened for the refugees.
At that time, as tens of thousands of refugees wandered the streets, hungry and in need of shelter, R’ Uri opened his home to them unconditionally. His daughter-in-law, Rochel Cohen, tells of his hospitality:
“There were always huge pots on the fire in his house. He hosted many Jews he found on the street. When I once asked him how he was able to host unwell people, many with rather unpleasant body odors, he said, ‘Can a Jew be left hungry?’ Every Jew who came to Rotterdam knew that the address for hospitality was R’ Uri Cohen. It was so well known that when the trolley would stop near his house, the driver would announce to the Jews, ‘Here is Cohen’s house, this is probably where you want to go.’”
For years, he hosted traveling fundraisers from the Chabad yeshiva in Brunoy, France. They told him about Chabad and about the Rebbe who had just taken over the Chabad leadership. As a result, he became interested in Chabad Chassidus. He learned Chassidus, wrote to the Rebbe and even traveled to 770 many times. He had many private meetings with the Rebbe.
He was able to host people and donate generously toward the mosdos after going into business. He did not always see blessing in his business dealings and he sometimes sustained serious losses, but even during those difficult times he continued to host people and donate generously. In a letter that the Rebbe wrote to him dated 6 Shevat 5713, the Rebbe thanks him for his help to the fundraiser from Yeshivas Tomchei T’mimim and blesses him with material wealth.
As the years passed, the community in Rotterdam shrank and R’ Uri moved to Amsterdam. In Tishrei 5735, the mashpia R’ Mendel Futerfas visited relatives in Amsterdam. In honor of R’ Mendel, R’ Uri held a Melaveh Malka in his house. During the meal, R’ Mendel said in astonishment that as he walked the streets of Amsterdam, he saw a boy from a religious family on his bike whose yarmulke fell off. “The child did not pick up the yarmulke immediately, but continued riding a little and then went back to pick it up.” R’ Mendel was saddened by this. “This happens because there is no chinuch al taharas ha’kodesh in Holland.” He insisted that someone present commit to opening such a school.
Nobody was willing to take on such a task other than R’ Uri. R’ Mendel challenged him, “Where will you have the kochos from to do it?” R’ Uri replied, “I was a partisan in the Dutch underground.” R’ Mendel gave him a long look and then said, “If so, we need to put your kochos to the test.”
R’ Mendel poured a cup of mashke and told him to drink it down. When he finished one cup, he gave him a second, and then a third. When he finished three cups and it did not look as though it had affected him, R’ Mendel was pleased and he said, “We see that you were indeed a partisan.”
Only a few days later, the school was up and running. R’ Uri allocated two rooms for the school, out of the four in his home. There were four students, R’ Yitzchok Vorst’s two sons and two other boys. The first teacher was R’ Uri’s wife, who taught the boys the alef-beis.
In Tishrei 5736, a formal school was opened and today it operates proudly in Amsterdam and has several hundred pupils. R’ Uri ran the school until the late 90’s when R’ Daniel Meyers, a Lubavitcher Chassid in Holland, took over.
With the opening of the school, war was waged against R’ Uri. Some of the leaders of the community in Amsterdam maintained that since a Jewish school existed in the city for many years, opening a new school was only for the purpose of creating division and conflict. Indeed, there was a Jewish school, but aside from the student body being Jewish, there was nothing Jewish about the school, certainly not in the curriculum.
Pressure was exerted and there were threats made against R’ Uri. When he went to shul every day, he was yelled at. One of his opponents even slapped him in the face in front of everyone. When his opponents saw that he wasn’t afraid of them, they threatened to kill him and his family. Throughout this time, R’ Uri and his family lived in terror, fearing for their lives.
The one who supported him throughout this time and gave him tremendous encouragement was R’ Chaim Mordechai Isaac Hodakov, the Rebbe’s secretary, and director of Merkos L’Inyanei Chinuch. He spoke nearly every night with R’ Hodakov, who urged him to maintain the one Jewish school in Holland. The Rebbe often got on the line and listened in to their conversations.
When things quieted down somewhat, R’ Hodakov wrote to him, “We were happy to read that, with Hashem’s help, the matters of the new school are being arranged in a good way and in peaceful ways. Many thanks for the picture of the school that you sent us which shows the shining faces of the students. Regards to all your friends who are involved with the school.”
His son, R’ Uziel, recalls some events that occurred at that time:
“Those were very difficult years. There was a daily battle and the difficulty was double since even friends turned their backs and fought against us nonstop. All this was happening at the same time that my father had to raise funds to maintain the school. The number of students grew within a short time. It’s important to mention that the Rebbe sent significant sums of money to maintain the school.
“The school was in our house for a few months. My father tried to get a suitable building from the authorities but nothing worked out. Things went on in this way, with much effort, until my father did something radical. One morning he took the students and entered a nearby school building that had not been used for a long time. Requests and demands from the government that followed for them to leave the building did not help. My father insisted that the Dutch government had to provide them with a suitable building.
“It was only after the number of students grew significantly that the school gained official recognition from the Education Ministry. This resulted in much help from official sources.
“But then there was a new problem. Dutch law forbade Jewish studies in a school supported by the government. This was based on the equal rights law. One of the clauses of that law stated that a school could not designate hours to teach religion (see sidebar). My father asked senior people at the Dutch Education Ministry to allow them to have Jewish studies, but they claimed they had no authority to change the law. Having no choice, he spoke with the Education Minister and after long conversations and pressure, the Minister agreed to change the law and he allowed religious studies in Dutch schools. My father got the law of Holland changed because of one school.
“The wars during the first years stopped once the school was established. The opponents realized that the school was not something they could close down. Only then did the pressure and threats cease.
“My father ran the school for decades. He took care of budgets and buildings while leaving the education in the hands of a professional staff. He supervised from afar and only got involved when necessary.
“I will conclude with an anecdote about a sensitive situation that happened back then. In those days, my father traveled to the Rebbe a lot for various reasons which even I don’t know about. One time, he went to New York to be with the Rebbe but before he got to 770 he spoke by phone to a colleague in Holland and found out that certain people in the opposition were planning to take certain steps that would be very harmful for the school. My father did not wait, but went right back to the airport and got on the first plane to Holland so he could frustrate their plan.
“When R’ Hodakov found out that my father left immediately, without even entering 770, he praised my father and said, ‘Yashar ko’ach for doing so.’”
R’ Yaakov Eliezer Friedreich of Antwerp was R’ Uri’s right hand man in founding and running the school. R’ Friedreich lived in Antwerp but would travel, sometimes even three times a week, to the school in Amsterdam.
“I helped R’ Uri start the school. Not many know that the name ‘cheider’ was given by the Rebbe himself, and the Rebbe looked out for the school all the years. The Rebbe was personally involved. I remember that in the early years the school faced enormous difficulties. For example, Dutch law stated that in official schools there had to be a minimum of 164 students while we had only 24. One day, R’ Uri was told that the Rebbe said he should make connections with government people so he could gain recognition for his school. It was completely illogical, but R’ Uri did as he was told and the connections he made helped and we gained government recognition!”
Over the years, the school expanded. A girls’ school was started too. R’ Uri did not rest until he finished constructing a beautiful complex which contained buildings for both the boys and the girls.
This construction did not come easy either. He endured many challenges until he was finally given a suitable lot and then he began fundraising 15 million dollars to build the complex. Despite his age at the time, 84, he himself thought of every detail, even special elevators for handicapped students. The building plans were first given to the Rebbe who reviewed them and gave his blessing for success.
In Shevat 5754, the Jewish community in Amsterdam celebrated the inauguration of the new complex. Many rabbanim and public figures attended the event, either because of the celebration in general or because of R’ Uri in particular. Government ministers and the queen’s sister (who fills her place in her absence) attended too. The school’s twentieth year was noted. The speeches all praised R’ Uri Cohen for working to expand the school despite his advanced age.
R’ Uri never thought about himself. His thoughts were focused on other Jews. Not surprisingly, he came up with numerous creative and sometimes daring ideas to help Jews in distress.
At the beginning of the 50’s, R’ Uri wanted to arrange for the emigration of Jews from distressed countries and settle them in Dutch colonies in South American islands. When he told the Rebbe his plans, the Rebbe told him it was not worthwhile. Although his plans were detailed and fully formulated he dropped them.
At that time, he came up with an idea to take Jews out of three totalitarian Arab countries: Syria, Algiers, and Morocco. He wrote to the Rebbe who responded: About your idea of taking Jews out of Morocco and Syria, regarding Sephardic Jews, this is a great responsibility since they are in a country where they lived G-d fearing lives for hundreds of years. However, the other problems are pressing and therefore, they must be taken out of there.” The Rebbe then thanked him for getting involved in this.
These plans did not end up working out, but they were never fully dropped. In the 80’s, R’ Uri smuggled out many Jews from Iran. After Khomeini rose to power and the Shah was deposed, the government came down hard on the Jews and at the same time, did not allow them to leave the country. The Jews suffered and many of them tried illegal ways of crossing the border.
One day, a certain Jew was able to escape from Iran and reach another Arab country. He contacted R’ Uri and asked for his help. R’ Uri realized the man had gotten into deeper trouble since the country he had reached did not allow people out. After making inquiries however, R’ Uri concluded that escaping this country was still easier than leaving Iran.
R’ Uri went to that country and managed to extricate the Jew to a safe place. Following this, connections were made with contact people in that country and they helped smuggle Jews from Iran to them, and from there, R’ Uri got them out to free countries like the US and Eretz Yisroel. After they arrived in safe countries, he made sure that the children of these families would attend proper Jewish schools as per the Rebbe’s letter about preserving the Jewish culture they had lived all the years.
R’ Uri raised huge sums of money to cover the costs of traveling, like passports, visas, and other documents, residence permits in countries of passage and more. All this was in addition to the great danger that he was constantly in.
One time, while traveling in one of the extremist Arab countries, he was suddenly arrested by the local secret police. He had been talking on the phone with a rabbi in a western country who mistakenly referred to Eretz Yisroel. Apparently, there was a phone tap because he was arrested shortly thereafter. It was only after a lengthy, exhausting interrogation that he was released. The arrest did not scare him off and he continued working to save Jews.
Of course, all these activities were done without publicity and in utter secrecy. Hundreds of Jews owe him their lives, materially and spiritually.
We can only write very briefly about this operation, since most of the details are shrouded in secrecy at the family’s request, in order not to expose contact people who helped R’ Uri and are still involved in these matters.
In 5746, there was an explosion and fire at the nuclear reactor near Chernobyl in the Ukraine. This released large quantities of radioactive particles into the atmosphere, which spread over much of the western USSR and Europe. Thousands died and hundreds of thousands became seriously sick.
Western European countries came up with special projects to absorb groups of children from the affected areas. The goal was to save the children who were affected the most since radioactivity is particularly harmful for a developing child.
R’ Uri also began working on extricating Jewish children from the Chernobyl area to Eretz Yisroel. In the summer of 1990, he went to the Soviet Union where he checked out various possibilities. He spent months traveling between government offices in Russia and visiting the homes of Jewish families in Ukraine and White Russia.
R’ Yitzchok Kogan, the “tzaddik of Leningrad” joined him in this work. They both went from house to house and checked the Jewish identity of the children. At the same time, they began negotiating with the government offices to ensure that the children could make aliya. While involved in these activities, R’ Uri went to the Interior Minister who was in charge of emigration, the police and the KGB. From the start, the minister hugged R’ Uri like an old friend and pushed an envelope with $1000 into his suit pocket (that was a huge sum at that time). In another meeting with a mayor from whom R’ Uri needed help, the man gave him his personal fax machine. Another time he went to that city, the mayor was waiting near the airplane ramp for him!
After months of work, he was able to arrange a large group of children whom he hoped to save from radiation. He contacted Chabad mosdos in Eretz Yisroel and asked them to take in the children. The administrations of these mosdos did not know how to handle this. Once they received a positive response from the Rebbe, Aguch began working on it. R’ Uri accompanied the children until the last transit stop in Europe.
At that point the project gained momentum and Tzach continued with the project. From then until the beginning of the new millennium, about 2000 children made aliya. Some became Lubavitchers and have Chassidishe families.
From the time that R’ Uri became acquainted with Chabad and the Rebbe, he followed the Rebbe’s instructions in his personal matters and general undertakings. For over forty years he was in close contact with the Rebbe, via letters, phone calls, and many private meetings. Many people asked him to write on their behalf to the Rebbe. His son Uziel has a thick file folder with responses for those people.
Despite all that has been said, not much is known about his activities. R’ Uri was a modest, low-key individual and he did not talk about his work. He hardly ever spoke about his interactions with the Rebbe and the Rebbe’s secretaries.
As a result of the (almost impossible!) attempt to locate more information about him, I learned that many people were in touch with him but all of them were separate from one another, compartmentalized, being involved in the myriad activities that he did throughout his life. We were only able to glean a few tidbits about him from speaking to his associates.
Whenever R’ Uri would travel to the Rebbe, he would stay with R’ Itche Gurewitz. R’ Gurewitz told us that R’ Uri was constantly in touch with R’ Hodakov, the extent of which is known to no one. He had yechidus numerous times and stayed in the Rebbe’s room for relatively long periods of time. He also received many letters. “After he left yechidus, he would usually return to our home, and it would only be natural for him to tell us something, but he would always remain silent. Just one time, after leaving yechidus, did he tell me about a difficult undertaking he was involved in, which is why he came to the Rebbe.
“He said that the Rebbe had asked him to quickly come from Europe to New York for yechidus. At that time, France was about to sell a large quantity of weapons to Syria. The Rebbe wanted him to speak to the Dutch ambassador to the UN so he would convince his friend, the French ambassador to the UN, to cancel this deal. R’ Uri did what he had to do and a few days later he returned to Holland. I don’t know what happened with that weapons deal.”
His grandson, R’ Leibel Cohen, writes:
“If my grandfather saw this article, he would not be at all happy with it. In any case, my grandfather wrote many letters to the Rebbe, sometimes one day after another. He wrote about everything, about askanus and his personal life. He once told my father that often, after sending a letter to the Rebbe, things worked out even before he received a reply.
“Aside from that, the Rebbe would send him many letters. In many of them, the matters being written about are not specified, and it seems that at least some of them are about secret matters. Only recently, I found out about some prisoner exchange or citizen exchange that my grandfather was involved in on the Rebbe’s shlichus, but he kept it to himself.”
R’ Yochanan Safranai relates that he heard that at one yechidus, when R’ Uri walked into Gan Eden HaElyon (the Rebbe’s room), the Rebbe stood up for him.
His son Uziel adds, “My father once walked into 770 in the middle of a farbrengen. There were thousands of Chassidim there and the beis midrash was full but when my father walked in, the Rebbe noticed him immediately and addressed him, ‘R’ Uri, say l’chaim.’”
In the Rebbe’s letters, much can be learned from the few words the Rebbe writes by hand (in addition to the typed letter). For example, in a letter of blessing that he received on the birth of his grandson, the Rebbe added to the title in his own handwriting the words, “rav pe’alim” (great in deeds) and the word “ha’Kohen.”
Another personal touch is seen in a general-personal letter from Erev Shabbos, Parshas Ki Sisa 4725. The Rebbe adds at the end, “As far as the question about the yeshiva that you wrote about, it pays to consult with G-d fearing askanim whom you know - whether they will find teachers, a principal, etc. With blessings for good news in general and in particular, including expansion of parnasa, materially and spiritually.
His grandson, R’ Aryeh Leib, tells of R’ Binyamin Klein’s visit to his grandfather:
“Once, out of the blue, the secretary, R’ Binyamin Klein, came to my grandfather’s house and they closeted themselves in a room and spoke privately. Of course, they did not reveal what they spoke about. He only said this, ‘R’ Klein was on a quick trip to Europe so he hopped over to us in Holland.’”
Despite his advanced age, R’ Uri continued to work tirelessly on various fronts. In the last months of his life, one of his friends who worked to save Jews, called from abroad. R’ Uri told him, “If you need my help I will come immediately to whatever country I am needed in.”
His friend, who was located overseas, was incredulous and said, “But you recently celebrated your ninetieth birthday! How do you manage to continue working with such energy?”
In the last months of his life, he began working on a unique project, a modern kollel in which men would learn Gemara and poskim with the aid of computers and other technological means. While staying with his son in Yerushalayim he told the family, “All I need is a million dollars to get the kollel running and if I was younger, I would raise the million within two weeks.”
But the kollel was delayed because his wife was sick and he took care of her devotedly. He spent hours at her bedside in the hospital until she passed away on 12 Cheshvan 5761.
After her passing he continued with renewed vigor trying to establish the kollel, but in Kislev he suffered a heart attack and was hospitalized. He told his family and friends, “I won’t make it to my ninety-first birthday.”
He passed away on 20 Kislev 5761. Hundreds attended his funeral but there were no eulogies. He said the previous Yom Kippur, “Do not eulogize me at the funeral. At the Shloshim, eulogize me briefly, for five minutes only.”
Shrouded in mystery in his lifetime and in his passing.
REDEEMING CAPTIVES
When the communists ruled the Soviet Union, there were Breslov Chassidim who endangered themselves by traveling to the gravesite of R’ Nachman of Breslov in Uman, Ukraine.
When they heard that in Holland it was relatively easy to obtain forged passports, groups of Breslover Chassidim began going to Holland. At some point, one of them was caught.
R’ Uri got a phone call from a Dutch lawyer who told him, “A Breslover Chassid was caught at the airport with twenty forged passports. I was appointed by the government to represent him but he refuses to cooperate, since he does not want to say why he has these forged passports and who sent him here. The prosecution told me that because of his silence he will sit in jail for many years.” The lawyer asked R’ Uri to get involved.
The next day, R’ Uri met with government ministers and officials and explained that the Chassid was not a criminal. He just wanted to get into the Soviet Union and visit the grave of a holy man he believed in.
To the amazement of all those involved, the Chassid was unconditionally released that same day.
THAT IS HOW R’ URI DREW ME TO CHABAD
R’ Yochanan Safranai of Kfar Chabad tells how R’ Uri brought him to Chabad:
“I was born in Rotterdam to an irreligious family. After I became involved in Judaism, I met R’ Uri as one of the people who davened in the shul. He came over to me and began talking, and after that he would talk to me often about Jewish topics. He even invited me to his home for Shabbos meals and after a while, he began learning Torah with me.
“At a certain point, he told me about the Chabad movement and about the Rebbe. One day, he suggested that I go to learn in the Chabad yeshiva in Brunoy. At first I was hesitant, but R’ Uri convinced me. I packed my suitcase and went to France.
“To say it was easy, it certainly wasn’t. I spoke Dutch, German, and English and the bachurim spoke only French and Yiddish, and I had no idea what they were trying to explain to me. It took time until I caught on to the pronunciation of the language. After learning in yeshiva for a long time, I understood what a Chassid is and I became a Chassid of the Rebbe. That was all thanks to R’ Uri who sent me to learn in Brunoy.”