I recently came across a fascinating story.

The recent daubing of Barclays Bank in Leeds City Centre is unfortunately the latest in a long stream of ill-judged actions by antisemites. Even BDS is nothing new - organised anti-Israel efforts go back as far as the beginnings of Israel.

In 1948, the Ford auto company decided that Israel was a good market for vehicle manufacturing—it was a new country, with great opportunities and they were going to build an automobile manufacturing plant in Israel.  When that news got to the Middle East, the Arab League announced that if Ford built in Israel, all member countries would boycott Ford. Unfortunately, the threat worked, and Ford capitulated and withdrew its plans of building a plant in Israel. 

This was a huge blow to the young country. Everyone knew that with Ford submitting to Arab pressure, every other major international corporation would follow suit and refrain from doing business in Israel. What’s more, Israel needed cars—and more important than that, Israel needed industry so that it could provide enough jobs to the thousands of Jewish Holocaust survivors who made it to the Jewish State. 

There was a Jew living in Europe named Ephraim Illin. Before Israel’s War of Independence, Ephraim had arranged for the purchase of a large vessel to transport illegal weaponry to Israel under the noses of the British, covered by sacks of potatoes and onions. Now, after Ford announced that it was changing its mind about building in Israel, the vice president of another auto company happened to forge a business connection with Ephraim Illin, and Mr. Illin asked him if he’d be interested in putting up a similar plant in Israel. 

Despite their backing, Ephraim Illin didn’t manage to recruit even one more investor—forcing him to put down $2 million of his own money. The night before he was going to sign off on his own personal $2 million investment, he was lying in bed and unable to fall asleep. He knew that he wanted to sign on the deal—but he didn’t have the courage to do it. 

Lying in bed, he recalled an episode from his youth. He had been born in Russia to a family with Chabad roots; when he was a young child, the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 broke out and his father decided that he’d send his son to the Holy Land before it was too late. 

Ephraim’s father had business interests in Russia, and he didn’t want to leave. But he knew that his son’s future was not in Russia, and so he wanted to send him off. But Ephraim’s mother invoked a veto: Either they all left together, or none of them went anywhere! She was not about to let her precious son sail off alone to some strange land.  

Ephraim’s didn’t know what to do, and torn, he approached his Rebbe, and the Rebbe told him to sell his business and take his whole family to the Land of Israel—and that indeed is what the Illin family ultimately did. 

As Ephraim Illin was lying in bed, unable to decide what to do he decided that he’d do what his father did when his father couldn’t decide what to do—he’d ask a Rebbe. 

It was the 1950. The sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe had passed away earlier that year, and our Rebbe had not yet accepted the mantle of leadership, but Ephraim managed to get an audience with the Rebbe in 770 Eastern Parkway. The Rebbe spoke to him in Russian, French and Hebrew. At first, the Rebbe was interested in his personal history. The Rebbe wanted to know about his Irgun fighting days, about his involvement in acquiring weapons for Israel, and so on—the Rebbe wanted to know everything. 

And then the Rebbe got to the subject about which he had come. Mr. Illin told the Rebbe about the auto factory that he wanted to build. The Rebbe said to him that while every car is made out of some 30,000 parts, it doesn’t mean that you need 30,000 factories.  

However, continued the Rebbe, you will need to build 3,000 factories—meaning, the Rebbe explained, that an auto factory is much more than just one factory. It’s a place that needs raw materials and pre-made items alike so that it can make its cars, and as such, a full-fledged auto plant would be the foundation for industry in Israel and would greatly strengthen the new economy. 

The Rebbe then said that he saw many ups and downs in Ephraim Illin’s life—and that despite them all, G-d was with him throughout. And so the Rebbe advised him, it would be good to sign on that dotted line and invest his money in the factory. 

And then, the Rebbe added that even if the deal doesn’t succeed (G-d forbid) the way he estimated that it would, he’d still find himself in Israel amongst fellow Jews and he’d always find a way to stand strong. 

Sixty years later, Mr. Illin related that he remembered more how he felt at his meeting with the Rebbe than what the Rebbe actually said. Being in the Rebbe’s presence gave him a sense of calm and peace—the Rebbe gave him the confidence and the strength to sign off on the business. 

He listened to the Rebbe’s advice and built the factory—and in the 20 years that the factory stood, all through the 50s and 60s, it produced close to 60,000 automobiles, with 60 percent of them sold outside the country. The factory proved to be a great success . 

In last week’s Chayenu publication, there was a letter from the Lubavitcher Rebbe to his father-in-law, the Previous Rebbe, asking for more stories from Chabad Lubavitch lore. The Rebbe addressed the idea that “in Lubavitch we do not hold miracles in esteem.” In earlier generations, the feeling in Chabad Lubavitch, as opposed to other Chassidic groups, was that one’s inspiration and connection should come through learning and understanding rather than miracle stories.

In the present age, the Rebbe said, “due to the distress of our times, people’s emotional potential has dwindled… this is difficult to correct [only] by intellectual means.”

As we approach 30 years since Gimmel Tammuz , many people will rightly wonder how they can connect to and channel the Rebbe’s blessings. The Rebbe addresses this in a diary note in Hayom Yom for the 24^th of Sivan – this past Sunday:
"You ask how can you be connected to me when I do not know you personally..."
"...The true bond is created by studying Torah. When you study my Chassidic teachings, read the talks and associate with those dear to me - the Chassidic community and the yeshiva students - in their studies and farbrengens, and you fulfil my request regarding saying Tehillim and observing Torah-study times - in this is the connection."

Whether through the stories, the studying or the farbrengens, the opportunities to connect and be inspired are many, we need to do our part. But more than anything, the Rebbe didn’t want followers. He wants leaders – for each of us to step up not just for ourselves, but for others who are in our sphere of influence.

And then we will merit to be vessels, for all the blessings and solutions that G-d sends us, both materially and spiritually.