New Video of Rebbe’s Historic Visit

After coming to America in 1941, the Rebbe spent his every single day working tirelessly on behalf of the Jewish people from his office in 770 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn.

On only three occasions did he leave New York City limits, each time to visit Camp Gan Israel in the Catskill Mountains, NY.

This is newly discovered archival footage of the Rebbe’s third visit to the camp on 15 Tammuz, 5720 – July 10, 1960. Narrated by Rabbi Tzvi Telsner, a camper at the time.

Camp Gan Yisroel, which is currently located in Parksville, has recently paid a visit to the first location of the camp in Ellenville, where the Rebbe visited as well 59 yeats ago.

At a glance, the parcel of land hardly seems unique, but to Gan Israel, it most certainly is. This is the site of the very first Machane Gan Yisroel, in 5716. These are the grounds that the Rebbe himself took time off his busy schedule to visit, days before camp began.

Each of the more than 400 Camp Gan Israels worldwide can trace their roots back to these unassuming fields and forests.

On Friday, 17 Tammuz, the very day that the Rebbe visited camp 59 years ago, the entire Camp Gan Yisroel – campers as well as staff – visited these grounds. In advance of their visit, the grounds were landscaped and prepared, and though precious few signs of the camp that was still remain, the visit was suffused with an atmosphere of both nostalgia and the here and now.

This was largely due to the camp director Rabbi Avraham Shemtov and the camp’s founder Rabbi Moshe Lazar, who accompanied camp on this historic visit.

Both shared memories of their time in these grounds as well as words of chizuk that apply to this day as they did all those years ago.

Lined up on the playing fields, the campers and staff joined in pesukim and camp songs, once again making the sound of Torah heard in the place that started it all.