The Story Behind This Rare Photo

By COLlive reporter

The Sunday Dollars, when the Rebbe would stand for hours at 770 Eastern Parkway or at his home on President Street and hand out a blessing and a dollar to be given to charity, was a chance for many to interact with the Rebbe.

Those brief yet precious encounters are well documented in photos and videos that are now the property of Jewish Educational Media (JEM) and available for viewing on the weekly Living Torah video and the website thelivingarchive.org.

Yet, there is one uncommon photo that has the Rebbe looking directly at the camera and smiling. It is being shared on social media based on the diary of the chossid from England, R’ Zalmon Jaffe, of blessed memory.

Here is his entry between Shavuos 5751/1991 until Shavuos 5752/1992:

“We were looking forward to seeing the Rebbe at the Dollars Distribution on Sunday. Over the course of many years, we had obtained some very beautiful photographs of Roselyn and me and also with our grandchildren and great grandchildren, but all showed only the profile of the Rebbe. On none of these scores of pictures was the Rebbe facing the camera.

“I had written to the Rebbe and explained that all of our family and every one of thousands of my readers wanted to see the face of the Rebbe – and not ours. I appealed to the Rebbe that when we arrived at his side on Sunday, we would be eternally grateful if the Rebbe would turn around for a second and face the camera.

“I had warned Chaim Boruch (Halberstram) that I had begged the Rebbe to do this for me and that he should be prepared to take this photograph.

“On the next page is the result and it is one of the very few pictures ever taken at Dollars Distribution when the Rebbe is actually facing the camera.”