Zev Segal (father of Nachum Segal) is missing

Motek

Tue, Mar 11 2008, 2:00 pm

Quote:

... He left his birthplace of Saratov, Russia for the Holy Land with his family in 1919, at the age of two. By a miracle, he was "out of town" during the massacre of Jews by axe-wielding Arabs that rocked his community in Hevron in 1929. By 1939, he had arrived on the shores of the United States, soon to be ordained at the Skokie Yeshiva in Illinois, followed by a stint as a spiritual leader in Los Angeles.

The long-time Rabbi of the Young Israel of Newark arrived in New Jersey in 1945, and led his congregation till his retirement in 1978. It was a time in which American Jewish youth transformed from "greenhorn immigrants" who wanted nothing more than to assimilate, into proud Jews with strong attachments to the State of Israel.
The moment of Nachum's father entering the studio was filled with emotion. A father coming to honor his son.

From 1968 to 1971, Rabbi Segal also served as president of the Rabbinical Council of America, which represents about 1,000 Orthodox rabbis in 14 countries. He had served as a vice president for the RCA for a decade.

... He was a man that all his children looked up to, 6'2" -- including his 6'7" son, radio personality Nachum Segal, host of the most popular Jewish music and news radio program in the US, JM in the AM on WFMU in Jersey City.

... A spiritual leader at a time in which the challenge of keeping the Sabbath collided with the challenge of staying fed, Rabbi Segal gracefully bridged the gap between observant and secular Jews, "a brilliant scholar" who had one foot in both parts of the world.

"It was in a time when many 'traditional' people were not able to keep the mitzvos or didn't care to anymore, but not that they were the Conservatives or Reform Jews necessarily. It was more the non-observant Orthodox people, or those who had little knowledge," Weingast explained.

"See, unlike now, back then you had a lot of people who were Orthodox but didn't follow everything. They had to work on Shabbos. Nowadays many of the so-called 'gedolim' or their people wouldn't give them the time of day," said Weingast, who added that Rabbi Segal enjoyed a very close relationship with the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, as with "all of the true gedolim of the previous generation."

It was his warmth that Weingast remembers most, however. "He was a quiet and unassuming man, but yet very powerful. He was always very welcoming. He could draw people in with his words and actions, never berating. He welcomed all."

In addition to Esther, his wife of 60 years, Rabbi Segal leaves behind two daughters, Leah Aharonov and Penina Rabin, both of whom live in Israel, as well as four sons, including Nachum, Rabbi Nate Segal of Staten Island, NY, Rabbi Moshe Segal, NY and Rabbi Yigal Segal, a resident of Jerusalem.

http://www.israelnationalnews......25507

Motek

Thu, Jul 03 2008, 12:58 pm

By Dovid Zaklikowski

"The Rebbe was not only the leader of our generation," Rabbi Segal said. "He will be the leader of generations to come. Many, many generations will benefit from what the Rebbe [gave] the people of Israel."

Although he wouldn't talk about the specifics, Rabbi Segal confirmed that he would carry out missions at the Rebbe's request.

"The Rebbe had a certain amount of confidence in me," said Rabbi Segal. "He shared with me things that I was amazed [that he did], and probably [because he knew that] I am not seeking publicity."

Rabbi Segal was careful to arrive on time for morning services at his synagogue. If he ever did arrive late, his congregants knew that he had been with the Rebbe through the wee hours of the night. His late-night audiences had at times lasted over five hours. "When you talked to him, there was nothing in the world in existence except you. I mean, it's only he and you; that's it," he said.

"And his inquiries, [the] questions that he asked that you never thought of," the rabbi describes his audiences with the Rebbe, "You experienced it but you never were able to articulate, you have to give certain answers and you have to accumulate events that you have experienced but there are novelties in those events, not every individual was able to do that. Words are not enough to express the experiences. It's amazing."

"I said that the Rebbe should know that it was not an easy task". On one occasion, the Rebbe found out that Rabbi Segal was traveling to "a certain country" and asked him to undertake a "very difficult assignment." When he arrived back in the United States, the rabbi was granted a private audience with the Rebbe.

"I said that the Rebbe should know that it was not an easy task," Rabbi Segal recalled.

The Rebbe responded: "Since when did you make a contract with the Almighty for an easy life?"

Rabbi Segal said that that moment stuck with him, and provided a lesson in how one should approach responsibilities and challenges.

As a vice president and, later, the president of the Rabbinical Council of America in the 1960s, Rabbi Segal met frequently with the Rebbe. They would discuss the status of Jewish communities all over the world, and the Rebbe would direct Rabbi Segal about missions to accomplish during his travels.

"The Rebbe had a tremendous amount of knowledge [about] what's going on in the Jewish community [everywhere]," Rabbi Segal once said. "It's amazing how in one human being you [could] have all these areas of knowledge.

"One of the major accomplishments of the Rebbe was that he was able to maintain an underground in the Soviet Union and I can tell you that the Jews that I met under the Soviet regime, when they were aware of someone who ever saw the Rebbe, he became a very important individual to them. So in spite of the lack of overt communication, there was a tremendous amount of binding between the Jews in the Soviet Union with the Rebbe and the Rebbe was a tremendous amount of encouragement to them."

On several occasions, Segal served as a liaison between the Rebbe and Israeli government officials.

"The Rebbe was extremely informed of everything that was going on to the most minute detail in every aspect of Israeli life," he said of his audiences following his visits in the country. "He was extremely knowledgeable about every individual in the Knesset and every committee of the Knesset and he knew of every government meeting on every subject—what they had discussed and he knew who was against and who was for."

"I mean, it was an amazing experience to listen and see how deeply he was involved in it like [as if] he would be sitting there; he was talking about government meetings like he was there. He was talking about situations in the parties and individuals and their views like he was talking to them yesterday."

The Rebbe would frequently single out Rabbi Segal for attention. Once, while walking to Lubavitch World Headquarters on the day before Passover, the Rebbe met Segal and engaged him in conversation on a street corner for a half hour.

"As far as I'm concerned, he was the individual most responsible for the construction of Jewish life after the holocaust." "Whenever we discussed certain areas of problems in individual countries," the rabbi said, "including Arab countries, including Eastern European countries, whenever there was a discussion, he knew all the personalities involved; he knew all the reactions of various parts of the Jewish community."

"I learned that he was one of the very few individuals, if not the only one, who had a tremendous amount of insight and knowledge of what's going on in the Jewish world – globally, not only locally – and he was very extremely informed.

"As far as I'm concerned, he was the individual most responsible for the construction of Jewish life after the holocaust."

"You don't have a group in Jewish life that has the self sacrifice, the mesirat nefesh, as the shluchim [emissaries] of the Lubavitcher Rebbe," said the rabbi, "And that was motivated by the Rebbe. They give away their soul in order to preserve Jewish life. This is the impact the Rebbe made."

[ur]http://www.chabad.org/therebbe/article_cdo/aid/694407/jewish/When-Leadership-Can-Be-Difficult.htm[/url]