Ten Years In, ‘Here’s My Story’ Still Telling Fresh Stories of the Rebbe

This week marks a milestone in sharing the Rebbe with the world through meaningful first-person accounts. For a decade, Jewish Educational Media (JEM) has been publishing a weekly story for the Shabbos table.

The stories, culled from thousands of hours of My Encounter interviews, give readers a window into the Rebbe’s interpersonal relationships with everyone from world leaders to young children penning their first letter to the Rebbe.

Titled Here’s My Story, the publication began when Rabbi Elkanah Shmotkin, JEM’s director, shared a newly-recorded story with the members of his shul, and they loved it. People shared it with their friends and family, and soon, he began to share an unknown Rebbe story from the interviews of the My Encounter project each week.

Seeing the interest in these stories, and wanting to share them with the world, JEM’s My Encounter project, headed by Rabbi Yechiel Cagen, began a weekly series in 2013. They published a story online and in print, distributing them to households, shuls and Chabad centers around the world.

For ten years, these stories have inspired and uplifted people of all walks of life. “It’s now 525 weeks since Here’s My Story began and countless lives have been changed by these stories of the Rebbe,” says Shmotkin. A story, he explains, “is the most basic way to perceive the way of the Rebbe, where everyone is equal. The greatest Chosid and the simplest child can absorb a story equally, and can be inspired equally.”

For a generation that hasn’t merited to see the Rebbe, these first-hand stories are a lifeline. “Reading the weekly Here’s My Story reflections gives us an inside front-row seat with the Rebbe—one we never had ourselves,” says Moshe Zweier. “We can almost fly back in time and join the interviewee to experience his care and deep insight. Reading these accounts often brings me to tears.”

“More people than ever are being inspired by the Rebbe,” says Rabbi Yecheskel Posner, director of Here’s My Story. “Over the past decade, people have come to look to JEM as a reliable source for accurate and inspiring Rebbe stories.”

“Here’s My Story is a unique opportunity to gain insight on how the Rebbe had such a vast impact on the lives of so many individuals whether Chassidim or otherwise and the flow-on effect,” says reader Izzy Josefsberg. “It’s a most enjoyable read to say the least.”

“When we first started publishing Here’s My Story in 2013,” shares Cagen, “we could have never imagined what it turned into today: a staple in so many homes, shuls and Chabad Houses all over the world. Let’s continue to share these inspiring stories of the Rebbe with those that don’t see them.”

Bring the weekly inspiration to your inbox: JEMCentral.org/HMS