How JEM Gets Them to Talk

By Rachel Bachrach – Mishpacha Magazine

Yechiel Cagen is the director of “My Encounter with the Rebbe,” a video collection of interviews with people who interacted with the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson ztz”l. The project is being carried out under the auspices of Jewish Educational Media, Chabad-Lubavitch’s audio, video, and photographic archive and production house.

1. “My Encounter with the Rebbe” launched in 1998. What is the project’s objective, and is there an end in sight?

We’re aiming to record stories of the Rebbe’s impact on people around the globe. What we’re looking for is the one-on-one, the conversations, and the counsel. There are thousands of people from all walks of life — gedolim, community leaders, simple people, professionals — whom the Rebbe guided or inspired in his conversations with them. Our goal is to get everyone, to document it all. We’re really just getting started!

2. How many people have you spoken to so far?

To date, we’ve recorded 536 video testimonies. We have about 1,825 hours of footage, which comes out to about 15,200 pages of transcribed interviews.

3. This large-scale project to digitally record the Rebbe’s legacy may herald the changing face of rabbinic biographies. Why did you decide to use video interviews, and what will you do with the footage?

A video gives you the raw information, and it also shows you the person, the voice behind the story. Jewish Educational Media is already using these videos to produce short clips for weekly newsletters, and historians have started using the information for research. We have a number of documentaries out, and we have many others planned, based on these interviews.

4. How much does each interview cost? Who covers it?

We’re filming in HD and to a professional standard. We research, transcribe, and archive everything, so it ends up being about $1,500 an interview. Sponsors fund the project. Families will often sponsor their grandparents’ or parents’ interview. It’s a win-win situation, because we bring the expertise to record the testimony, and the family has those memories for posterity.

5. Doesn’t this project further the perception that Chabad is a “personality cult,” a branch of Judaism that is all about one person, the Rebbe?

The Rebbe inspired untold numbers of people, and we’re trying to continue that inspiration through the people he touched. A talmid is always passionate about discovering and getting his rebbe’s message out. You know, there are plenty of fascinating stories about gedolim in all circles. But a lot of the stories are fabricated — and they grow beards, they grow wings, and they’re just not true. We’re trying to get the real stories from the people they happened to.

6. How do you know the stories you’re being told are accurate?

As historians, we need to make sure we’re getting good information. After a pre-interview, we discuss the material: Does the story add up? Does it make sense? We’ll check with other people, knowledgeable people, to make sure the person isn’t misremembering. Then, after the interview, we’ll verify anything else that might be questionable. There are some stories we’ve recorded that we don’t use because they don’t pass.

7. Are people willing or eager to be interviewed, or do you find you need to persuade them?

For the most part, they’re very excited to do it. Some people, we need to convince a little. The hardest part is that this whole thing is really a race against time. Many of the people who had the longer, in-depth conversations with the Rebbe — that were earlier in his life, say, in the 1940s, ’50s and even ’60s — and they’re aging. Unfortunately, we’ve missed out on documenting many of their experiences.

8. Many of the people you’re interviewing are elderly and not necessarily used to being filmed. What do you do to ensure that your subjects won’t freeze on camera?

It’s all about the beginning. The idea is to get the person comfortable, to make him ignore the lights and the camera and the hype, and not to worry about how the audience will judge him. So we start by asking the subject about himself, his family, his parents — everybody loves talking about that! — and then we’ll segue into his personal memories with the Rebbe. At that point, he’s more at ease.

9. Do you feel like you’re spending all your time in the past?

Not at all! We’re working with the newest technology, like green screens, lighting, lenses, monitors, and that’s definitely not the past. Sometimes we hear things the Rebbe told someone sixty years ago, and we see how relevant it is today. What we’re doing is bridging the past and the future.

10. Many young Lubavitchers are on shlichus all over the globe. Does it ever bother you that you’re doing this instead of being out and about?

What shluchim do is inspire others to learn Torah and do mitzvos. We’re helping inspire the shluchim, and they in turn share that inspiration and guidance with others. So I feel I’m doing the same thing they are — inspiring and teaching. The shlichus I’m doing is very important.