On the occasion of the Sheloshim (one month anniversary) of the passing of the Mashpia Rabbi Eliyahu Meirav ztvk”l, we bring you a rare and fascinating excerpt from an interview which Rav Meirav gave to “Hitchadshut” magazine in the year 5776 (2016), in which he tells about his travels to Uman in the years of the Iron Curtain:

The Rav in his shiurim never ceased to arouse longing for Uman.  So one day, my wife and I decided to travel to Uman with our six children to Rabbeinu HaKadosh. When talking about small children, from one year old and up, and when talking about during the height of the Soviet regime, the story takes on another significance… We knew that it would not be easy, and it wasn’t at all certain that we would make it, but we did our part.  Accompanied by the encouragement of Moreinu HaRav shlit”a, we left Israel for the direction of Bucharest.  When we arrived at the Soviet Union, they began immediately with suspicions.  We wanted to reach Kiev.  From there, it would be easier to reach Uman, but the Russians didn’t consent.  The only destination which they allowed us was Moscow, and when we saw that we had no choice, I turned to them with a little naivety and asked explicitly to travel to Kiev by way of Uman, just for a few hours.  “Escort us and you’ll see that we don’t have anything else; we’re not doing anything frightening or illegal.”  However, the Russians didn’t allow us in any way to travel to any other destination except Moscow.  So, lacking anything to do, we returned to Israel. Around the year 5743 (1983), Rabbi Yitzchak Weitzhandler, who was heavily involved in these holy trips, turned to me and informed me that he was planning to travel to Uman, had already taken out a visa in his name, and in the end, was not able to travel.  “If you are interested, you can travel on my passport,” he said.  Rabbi Yitzchak had an American passport under the name Nachman Hominer.  The resemblance between him and myself wasn’t much… but one doesn’t pass on such an opportunity.  I travelled together with Rabbi Alon Dimermans, who held a genuine French passport, and with Rabbi Ori Channan Labartovsky, who also had an authentic passport.  Only mine was counterfeit.  When we arrived in Russia, they took us to Moscow.  There, they began to interrogate me about “my” passport.  “This isn’t you,” they said to me.  “This is someone else in the picture.”  However, I was adamant that this was in fact me.  They began to interrogate me about my personal details over and over, but I didn’t become confused at all, because outside of the name which I mentioned as it was registered in the passport, I related to them only true details from my life.  Over time, I began to “befriend” them.  I offered them cigarettes, and I also took out whiskey, but they told me that it was forbidden for them to drink during worktime.  In the end, after a long investigation, they said to me, “We know that this isn’t you, but nevertheless, we are going to release you.”  And so, through Hashem’s kindness, I merited to reach the grave of Rabbeinu HaKadosh.  Thus, the Rav’s blessing – stating explicitly that I should not hold back and that with God’s help, I would arrive – was fulfilled in me. After that trip, I realized that it wasn’t reliable to try each time using dangerous methods, and I decided to take out a passport under my own name.  But how is such a thing done?  I don’t have foreign citizenship.  I went to Yeshivat “Or Sameach” to try to improvise [a way to get] a passport.

Through open miracles, I met there a righteous convert who studied at the yeshiva, a British citizen, whose non-Jewish name was Jimmy Peter McAlmer.  He agreed to give me his identity…  The plan was that with the details of his identity, I would go to the British Embassy and present myself as McAlmer.  I would say that I lost my passport and am requesting to take out a new one, and here is my picture…  The first problem with that story was that the same McAlmer was the name of a well-known person in Britain, and my accent didn’t all resemble that of an English person.  For this purpose, I went with a close acquaintance, who spoke instead of me.  We explained that because I was suffering from a severe throat infection, it was difficult for me to talk.  They accepted the explanation, and told us that according to the procedure, they had to send my picture to Britain for verification, and then I could receive a new passport.  This caused me great anxiety.  What will happen if they revealed that my picture isn’t at all similar to the McAlmer who is known to them?  Then this could cause complications also with the authorities.  However, with God’s help, after a few days, they called me from the embassy [to tell me] that everything is fine and that I should come to take my new passport…  That passport served me for a period of ten years during the trips to Uman.  It wasn’t that with this passport that it was always possible to reach [Uman].  Many times, the authorities stopped us for various pretexts, but we almost always succeeded in reaching there in the end.

This article is courtesy of “Hitchadshut” magazine.

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