Podcast · Devotional & Spiritual

Homesick for Lubavitch

by Homesick for Lubavitch · English · Devotional & Spiritual

An exploration of Lubavitch identity in 2023, hosted by Bentzi Avtzon.

New episodes: Weekly
Typical length: 1 hr 41 min
Latest: 6 Sep 2026
Language: English

Latest episode

6 Sep 2026 · 1 hr 35 min

Ep. 100 // "LIVE Q&A" moderated by Shaul Wolf

To celebrate the 100th episode, HFL hosted a live event in Crown Heights attended by friends and listeners of the podcast with a Q&A of HFL host, Bentzi Avtzon, moderated by Shaul Wolf.In this episode, we share the recording of the Q&A where Bentzi answers questions about the inspiration behind the podcast and lessons he learned along the way.____Support this podcast at: https://www.hflpodcast.com/donateIf you would like to sponsor an episode or advertise on the podcast please reach out to: [email protected]____Homesick for Lubavitch is a project of Yuvla Media, a boutique video…

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Earlier episodes 29 most recent

30 Aug 2026 · 2 hr 4 min
Ep. 99 // "What Will Bring Moshiach?" w/ Rabbi Heschel Greenberg
Rabbi Heschel Greenberg is the rabbi of The Jewish Discovery Center in Buffalo where he is a shliach for more than fifty years. In this episode, Rabbi Greenberg shares memories of his father and late Rosh Yeshiva in the Morristown Yeshiva, Rabbi Meir Greenberg a"h. He discusses growing up in a home surrounded by Torah learning and the lessons he took with him to his studies in Lubavitch yeshivos and beyond. ____ Support this podcast at: https://www.hflpodcast.com/donate If you would like to sponsor an episode or advertise on the podcast please reach out to: [email protected] ____…
S1 · E98 · 23 Aug 2026 · 1 hr 17 min
Ep. 98 // "Montreal Shlichus" w/ Rabbi Berel Mochkin
Rabbi Berel Mochkin grew up in Tashkent and came to Montreal as a boy where his father, Reb Peretz Mochkin, served as the community mashpia. In this episode, Rabbi Mochkin shares how activities of Tzach that he began running as a bochur became a city wide shlichus that has now marked more than sixty years.He shares how on more than one occasion the Rebbe told him to stay in Montreal and how the mission that began then continues to this very day.____Support this podcast at: https://www.hflpodcast.com/donateIf you would like to sponsor an episode or advertise on the podcast please reach out…
S1 · E97 · 16 Aug 2026 · 1 hr 44 min
Ep. 97 // "One Student At A Time" w/ Rabbi Uri Perlman
Rabbi Uri Perlman grew up in Kingston, Pennsylvania and founded the Wilkes Yeshiva which is now based in the nearby town of Canadensis. In this episode, he shares what it was like growing up in a small town community and his crisis of identity that ultimately led him on the journey that would culminate with him opening the yeshiva. We discuss how the position and tone of yeshivas towards bochurim are changing and need to change more even if the core mission stays the same. ____ Support this podcast at: https://www.hflpodcast.com/donate If you would like to sponsor an episode or advertise on…
S1 · E96 · 9 Aug 2026 · 2 hr 16 min
Ep. 96 // "My Journey to Bittul" w/ Rabbi Moshe Genuth
Rabbi Moshe Genuth grew up in Cleveland and Eretz Yisroel and today works as a secretary to Rabbi Yitzchok Ginsburgh at the Gal Einai Institute. In this episode, he shares his own journey to the study of chassidus, his initial hesitations to becoming a chossid and what led him to move past them. We discuss his thinking on ego and bittul and how this translates into a world immersed in self-reflection and inner dialogue. ____Support this podcast at: https://www.hflpodcast.com/donateIf you would like to sponsor an episode or advertise on the podcast please reach out to:…
S1 · E95 · 2 Aug 2026 · 2 hr 14 min
Ep. 95 // "The Years Gone By" w/ Rabbi Zalman Lieberow
Rabbi Zalman Lieberow grew up in London, England and is a shliach today in Flatbush.In this episode, we discuss his memories of how his grandfather, Reb Mendel Futerfas, dealt with the tragic events that shaped Zalman's early life.We also discuss his arriving to 770 as a bochur in the late 80s and the events in the subsequent years that shaped his perspective.____Support this podcast at: https://www.hflpodcast.com/donateIf you would like to sponsor an episode or advertise on the podcast please reach out to: [email protected]____Homesick for Lubavitch is a project of Yuvla Media, a…
S1 · E94 · 26 Jul 2026 · 1 hr 35 min
Ep. 94 // "Talking the Unfathomable" w/ Rabbi Mendy Katz
Rabbi Mendy Katz grew up in Miami Beach as part of what was then a very small Chabad community and lives today in Surfside where he works as a director of programs at The Aleph Institute.In this episode, we discuss his growing up in Miami Beach and leaving in the mid 1980s to study in yeshiva in Los Angeles and then Crown Heights.We discuss the euphoric atmosphere in Crown Heights in the late 1980s and early 1990s and the devastating impact of the events that followed.____Support this podcast at: https://www.hflpodcast.com/donateIf you would like to sponsor an episode or advertise on the…
S1 · E93 · 19 Jul 2026 · 1 hr 22 min
Ep. 93 // "American Chinuch" w/ Rabbi Herschel Lustig
Rabbi Herschel Lustig was the dean of Oholei Torah Yeshiva, the largest Chabad boys school in America, for more than forty years and today serves as the Dean Emeritus. In this episode, he shares his own personal background of how his family came to Lubavitch and how he studied in different yeshivos before coming to 770. He shares memories from the formative years of Oholei Torah yeshiva that began as a very small cheder, and the input he received from the Lubavitcher Rebbe and Rabbi Hodakov in how to build a new kind of school with old home values but in America. ____ Support this podcast…
S1 · E92 · 12 Jul 2026 · 1 hr 47 min
Ep. 92 // "One More Bochur in Yeshiva" w/ Reb Yitzchok Gniwisch
Reb Yitzchok Gniwisch survived World War II as a young infant together with his father and lives today in Montreal with his wife, children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. In this episode, he shares his heartwarming story of the years after the war where he was welcomed into the world of Lubavitch by countless individuals who were excited to have "one more bochur in yeshiva." This is a story about a world of kindness, generosity and friendship. ____ Support this podcast at: https://www.hflpodcast.com/donate If you would like to sponsor an episode or advertise on the podcast please…
S1 · E91 · 5 Jul 2026 · 1 hr 24 min
Ep. 91 // "Where Are Today's Baal Teshuvas?" w/ Rabbi Ronnie Fine
Rabbi Ronnie Fine is a shliach in the Queen Mary neighborhood of Montreal.He grew up in Toronto in a secular Israeli family, and his exploration as a teenager took him to Ohr Sameach in Jerusalem, then to Ner Yisroel in Toronto where he met Rabbi Ezra Schochet who was teaching there at the time.In this episode, Rabbi Fine compares the journeys of the baal teshuvas of his time with those of today, namely the difference between changing your life because of an idea or because of your identity.Rabbi Fine's Shiurim can be found online at: https://www.youtube.com/tanyarabbi____Support this…
28 Jun 2026 · 2 hr 15 min
Ep. 90 // "A Bochur in the 60s" w/ Rabbi Yosef Minkowitz
Rabbi Yosef Minkowitz is the dean of Academie Beis Rivka in Montreal, Canada. In this episode, he shares his memories growing up in Paris in the years following World War II before moving with his family to Brooklyn, NY where he studied in the famous Bedford and Dean yeshiva and then 770. He talks about being part of the first group of bochurim sent as shluchim to the Yeshiva Gedolah in Melbourne, Australia, and what it was like to be a Lubavitch bochur in the 1960s. ____ Support this podcast at: https://www.hflpodcast.com/donate If you would like to sponsor an episode or advertise on the…
17 Jun 2026 · 2 hr 39 min
Ep. 89 // "In A Distant Place" w/ Rabbi Lazer Gurkow
Rabbi Lazer Gurkow is a shliach in London, Ontario where he serves as the rabbi of Congregation Beth Tefilah. In this episode, Rabbi Gurkow shares his memories of growing up in Boston in the home of two parents who themselves grew up in the Soviet Union, and his leaving home at six years old to study in Brooklyn. He discusses the difference between being a parent then and today, how a chossid has to adapt to his times, and how this informs his own perspective today. ____ Support this podcast at: https://www.hflpodcast.com/donate If you would like to sponsor an episode or advertise on the…
S1 · E88 · 12 Apr 2026 · 2 hr 42 min
Ep. 88 // "A Baal Teshuva's Eyes" w/ Reb Simcha Gottleib
Reb Simcha Gottleib lives today in North Miami Beach where he practices Chinese medicine and works on different literary projects. Back in the 1960s he lived on a probiotic farm in Binghamton, NY where he and his friends sought refuge from the excesses of both the cultural standard bearers and the hippies that sought to tear them down. It was there that he met Reb Meir Abuhesera which would lead him and many of his friends to end up, of all places, in the Lubavitch community of Crown Heights. In this episode Simcha shares his fascinating journey and we discuss the gift of openness the…
S1 · E87 · 29 Mar 2026 · 1 hr 20 min
Ep. 87 // "99 Years of Lubavitch" w/ Mrs. Hadassah Carlebach
Mrs Hadassah Carlebach was born in the Soviet Union less than a decade after the Communist revolution to Rabbi and Mrs Shneur Zalman Schneerson, second cousins of the Rebbe Rayatz.In this episode, she shares vivid memories of growing up during those times, as observed from the unique vantage point of her family, before leaving for Paris with her family just several years before World War II.She speaks about immigrating to the United States after the war, the visits she made to the Rebbetzins as one of their few surviving cousins, and her impressions of a Lubavitch that was changing but at…
S1 · E86 · 22 Mar 2026 · 1 hr 41 min
Ep. 86 // "Australian Balebos" w/ R' Don Wolf
Reb Don Wolf grew up and lives today in Melbourne, Australia where he runs a real estate and construction business.The child of Holocaust survivors, Don grew up in a traditional household that slowly became closer to the Lubavitch community in Melbourne at the time, a group of fascinating individuals led by Reb Zalman Serebryanski, Rabbi Itche Dovid Groner, Reb Nochum Zalman Gurevich and many more.This relationship led Don to study at the Yeshiva Gedolah which he thought would be followed by several years of studying at 770, only for a surprising Yechidus to change those plans.In this…
S1 · E85 · 15 Mar 2026 · 1 hr 42 min
Ep. 85 // "In Defense of Temimus" w/ Rabbi Shlomo Yaffe
Rabbi Shlomo Yaffe lives today in Springfield, MA where he serves as the rabbi at Congregation Bnei Torah.In this episode, we discuss the "temimus," the simple faith, of his grandfather who served in the British armed forces during World War I, and how one can work to retain that simple faith.We also discuss the chassidic approach to temimus, how intellect can sometimes seem to threaten simple faith, and how the two can work together.____Support this podcast at: https://www.hflpodcast.com/donateIf you would like to sponsor an episode or advertise on the podcast please reach out to…
S1 · E84 · 18 Jan 2026 · 1 hr 41 min
Ep. 84 // "When We Run Out of Answers" w/ R' Gershon Schusterman
Reb Gershon Schusterman grew up in Brooklyn and today lives in Los Angeles. Almost forty years ago he was on shlichus in Long Beach, California when his first wife and mother of their eleven children suddenly passed away. In the years since he remarried, raised his children and continued to build his life, but he has also spent his time thinking about the religious and chassidic approach processing tragedy. Not just what the texts say about it, but what they can't say, the space of faith that is beyond answers. In this episode we discuss his upbringing and how it framed his approach to…
S1 · E83 · 11 Jan 2026 · 2 hr 4 min
Ep. 83 // "On The Topic of Closeness" w/ Rabbi Leibel Korf
Rabbi Leibel Korf grew up in Crown Heights and is a shliach today in Los Feliz, a neighborhood in Los Angeles.In this episode, we discuss what it was like growing up in Crown Heights in the home of the famed chossid Reb Pinye Korf a"h and his father Reb Sheia Korf a"h, all in close proximity to the Lubavitcher Rebbe and the environment of 770.The episode is a beautiful survey of three generations of chassidim, all growing up in vastly different epochs and yet all connected by a through line of commitment, closeness and devotion.____Support this podcast at: https://www.hflpodcast.com/donateIf…
S1 · E82 · 14 Dec 2025 · 41 min
Ep. 82 // "Wheelchair At The Rebbe's Farbrengen" w/ Tzvi Burston
Tzvi Burston grew up in Crown Heights and lives today in Los Angeles.After an accident during his birth, Tzvi was diagnosed with cerebral palsy which resulted in his being wheelchair bound the rest of his life.In this episode, Tzvi shares what it was like growing up as a boy with disabilities in Crown Heights in the 90s, what it was like to interact with the Rebbe and 770 despite his limitations, and how he related differently to the ideas of miracles and even Moshiach.____Support this podcast at: https://www.hflpodcast.com/donateIf you would like to sponsor an episode or advertise on the…
S1 · E81 · 7 Dec 2025 · 1 hr 26 min
Ep. 81 // "The Case for Optimism" w/ Rabbi Mendel Cohen
Rabbi Mendel Cohen grew up in Montreal and has been on shlichus to Sacramento for over thirty years.In this conversation, he lays out the case for optimism for Chabad chassidim thirty years after Gimmel Tammuz, why younger chassidim should be encouraged to think about their strengths and not what they're missing and how his commitment to study hours of Torah each day helped him come to this outlook.____Support this podcast at: https://www.hflpodcast.com/donateIf you would like to sponsor an episode or advertise on the podcast please reach out to [email protected]____This week's episode…
S1 · E80 · 30 Nov 2025 · 1 hr 24 min
Ep. 80 // "The Temptation to Spiritualize" w/ Rabbi Meni Even Israel
Rabbi Meni Even Israel was born and raised in Jerusalem and lives there to this day.In this episode, we hear what it was like to be raised by his parents, Rabbi Adin and Chaya Even Israel (Steinsaltz), and how their iconoclastic personalities fit and didn't fit into the general Chabad identity.We discuss a number of fascinating anecdotes from his father's interactions with the Rebbe, and the Rebbe's insistence that their relationship stay grounded in the world of the here and now.____To find out more about the new Steinsaltz Rambam please visit:https://www.steinsaltz-center.org.Use the code…
S1 · E79 · 23 Nov 2025 · 1 hr 41 min
Ep. 79 // "Aiming for Higher" w/ Rabbi Michoel Gourarie
Rabbi Michoel Gourarie grew up in South Africa and today directs Binah, a center of adult learning and growth in Sydney, Australia.In this episode, we discuss his parents very different Chabad family histories and what led them to South Africa.We discuss how the study of Chassidus impacts an individual, the potential and the limits of engrossing the mind in the study of G-d, and the need to measure ourselves against impossible standards.____This week's episode is sponsored by Jnet, a project of Merkos 302.Join over ten thousand volunteers sharing their Torah knowledge with fellow study…
S1 · E78 · 16 Nov 2025 · 1 hr 47 min
Ep. 78 // "We Need To Ask & Question Everything" w/ Rabbi Mendel Zirkind
Rabbi Mendel Zirkind grew up in Crown Heights and was recently appointed to fill the position of his late grandfather, Rabbi Yitzchok Dovid Groner a"h, as Moro D'asra of the Chabad community in Melbourne, Australia. In this episode, we discuss the challenge of "filling the shoes" of such an enormous personality and on a more general level, finding our own place in a heritage with such a rich past and endless future. Along the way, we discuss the growing need for courage, not certainty, in a world and time that forces us to challenge all assumptions and make them our own. ____ This week's…
S1 · E77 · 10 Nov 2025 · 1 hr 45 min
Ep. 77 // "The Ability To Adapt" w/ Rabbi Dovid Eliezrie
Rabbi Dovid Eliezrie is a shliach and author in Yorba Linda, California.In this episode, we discuss his recently published book, "Undaunted: How the Sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn Saved Russian Jewry, Reimagined American Judaism, Ignited a Global Jewish Renaissance."We discuss his approach to learning and writing about a Rebbe's life and the lessons he learned from the Friediker Rebbe's ability to adapt to a life of many varying challenges.Book can be purchased on Amazon____This week's episode is sponsored by Jnet, a project of Merkos 302.Join over ten thousand volunteers…
S1 · E76 · 3 Nov 2025 · 1 hr 32 min
Ep. 76 // "The Mystery of Emunah" w/ Rabbi Yitzchok Kaufmann
Rabbi Yitzchok Kaufmann grew up in Minnesota and today is a teacher and lecturer at The Mayanot Institute in Jerusalem. In this episode, we discuss the elusiveness of Emunah, how what seems so obvious to one person seems impenetrable to the next, and how we all struggle to fully define it.We discuss the importance of an embodied Emunah, one that resides in the lived experience and history of the individual, and in every aspect of his life. ____ Support this podcast at: ⁠https://www.hflpodcast.com/donate⁠ ___ This week's episode is sponsored by Jnet, a project of Merkos 302. Join over ten…
S1 · E75 · 8 Sep 2025 · 1 hr 42 min
Ep. 75 // "45 Years On Shlichus" w/ Rabbi Yosef Levin
Rabbi Yosef Levin is a shliach in the Silicon Valley from before it was known as the Silicon Valley. Before that he grew up in Belfast and Sunderland and went to yeshiva in Brunoy, Kfar Chabad and Morristown. In this episode, Rabbi Levin shares his recollections of his years in Yeshiva, the hanholo in Brunoy who didn't believe there can be spoiled milk, the first hookups with the Rebbe's farbrengens, as well as his first and hardest years on shlichus in Northern California, the "valley of very dry bones."____Support this podcast at: ⁠https://www.hflpodcast.com/donate⁠___If you would like to…
31 Aug 2025 · 1 hr 36 min
Ep. 74 // "Thinking The Unthinkable" w/ Prof. Eliot Wolfson
Elliot R. Wolfson is a scholar of Jewish studies, comparative mysticism, and the philosophy of religion and lives today in a suburb of S. Barbara, California. He is also the author of, "Open Secret: Postmessianic Messianism and the Mystical Revision of Menahem Mendel Schneerson."In this episode, we discuss his upbringing in Brooklyn and his first encounters with Chabad and Chassidus, his decision to leave the yeshiva for academia and his constant returning to the works of Chabad Chassidus.We discuss the limits of language, the limits of those limits, and the companionship one finds at the…
S1 · E73 · 24 Aug 2025 · 1 hr 38 min
Ep. 73 // "Today We're All The Same" w/ Rabbi Binyomin Scheiman
Rabbi Binyomin Scheiman grew up in Brighton Beach and is the shliach today in Des Plaines, Illinois.In this episode we discuss his introduction to Lubavitch as a young teenager and his very gradual immersion into this new way of life.We discuss his work today as a shliach who focuses on helping Jewish prisoners in the Illinois prison system and running camps for young Lubavitch children: the differences between these two groups and the similarities. ____Support this podcast at: ⁠ https://www.hflpodcast.com/donate⁠ ____This episode is sponsored by "Beyond Breadwinning," a new twelve hour…
S1 · E72 · 17 Aug 2025 · 1 hr 43 min
Ep. 72 // "A Tomim In Montreal" w/ Rabbi Joseph Polak
Rabbi Joseph Polak is the Av Beis Din of Boston and served for over four decades years as a university chaplain at Boston University.But before all of that he spent over a decade studying in the Lubavitch yeshiva and Beis Medrash in Montreal where he encountered famous personalities like Reb Volf Greenglass and many others.In this episode we discuss how those years in Yeshiva formed his identity as a chossid that remains with him to this very day and how Chassidus inspired his work on campus and his life in general.____Support this podcast at: ⁠https://www.hflpodcast.com/donate⁠____This…
S1 · E70 · 10 Aug 2025 · 1 hr 31 min
Ep. 71 // "50 Years on Shlichus" w/ Mrs. Esther Goldstein
Mrs. Esther Goldstein was born in Williamsburg to parents who had both survived the Holocaust.Though her family were not Lubavitchers, a year after her marriage to Rabbi Aharon Goldstein she arrived to University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan.But unlike her husband and the other shluchim in those days, her first day on the job was also the first time she encountered shlichus.In this episode, she shares her unique journey from the shteibel to the Chabad House and the decades since.____Support this podcast at: ⁠https://www.hflpodcast.com/donate⁠____If you would like to sponsor an episode…

About Homesick for Lubavitch

An exploration of Lubavitch identity in 2023, hosted by Bentzi Avtzon.

Homesick for Lubavitch is a English devotional & spiritual podcast from Homesick for Lubavitch. Melo plays each episode straight from the publisher's own feed — no ads added, no account needed — and remembers where you stopped, in this browser only.

Publisher: Homesick for Lubavitch
Language: English
Category: Devotional & Spiritual
New episodes: Weekly
Typical length: 1 hr 41 min
Latest episode: 6 Sep 2026
Feed: RSS — paste into any podcast app
Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1707572106
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