About 15 Russian officers and military personnel, some decorated with medals of excellence, arrived this week at the Lubavitcher town cemetery – to pray.
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The group of officers included several names familiar to the Russian public, including “Hero of Russia” (the highest title, awarded to only 1,094 people) Gassan Nadjapov Radzaf, General Alexander Ilyich Sabalier decorated with “Red Stars”, Colonel Alexander Ivanovich, owner of the Knight of the Order of the Red Star, chairman of the “Paratroopers’ Association” of the Smolensk region, Alexander Lukin and more.
Radzif, a native of Azerbaijan, was awarded the “Russian Hero” badge by presidential order of President Vladimir Putin, for his success on the battlefield in Chechnya.
The senior officers said that they had come to pray “for peace among the peoples of the region” and “to prevent war” in the Zionists of the Rebbe who owns the “Plant of Justice” and his son the Maharash Rebbe.
The officers told the Jewish worshipers who met them and were surprised that they heard prayers at the tombs of the Jewish righteous being accepted – so they traveled to the remote village, to pray that no more war would take place.
The guests also visited a monument in memory of the Jews of the town of Lubavitch who were murdered in the Holocaust and the restored historical buildings of the Chabad Chassidim scattered in the town.
Today, about 200 people live in Lubavitch, none of them Jews.
22 years ago, Rabbi Gabriel Gordon was appointed Chabad emissary in Lubavitch – and since then he has established guest houses, renovated the cemetery, and is constantly locating historical discoveries from the place’s Jewish past.
Rabbi Gordon also restores the historic buildings of Chabad Chassidism, with the assistance of the local government, the Chief Rabbi of Russia Rabbi Berl Lazar, and with the help of the Chabad Chassidim Association, headed by Rabbi Yitzchak Kogan.
Rabbi Gordon: “In recent years the town of Lubavitch has become a hotspot that thousands of people come to every month to pray, most of them Jews, but almost every day I also meet non-Jews who have heard of the place.
“They flock here from all over Russia and everyone who comes here is welcomed with joy and happiness. I believe that the prayers of the senior officers will also be accepted – and may prevent war. “