A recent discovery on an 8mm film of a recording of a choir in Jaffa, Israel, sheds light on an innovative program initiated by the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, of righteous memory.
In the late 1950s, Rabbi Benyomin Levin of Kfar Chabad, Israel – a cantor by profession and a teacher in the Chabad school in Jaffa – received a letter from the Rebbe requesting that he organize a school choir—which he promptly did.
Levin was born into a cantorial family in Communist Russia, and was educated in the underground Chabad school system. His father, Feitel, an accountant, also served as cantor in one of the synagogues in Nevel, Russia. Levin once relayed that his home in Russia was always filled with music, as the family would sing and harmonize together.
Levin married Freidah Rivkin, and they moved to Tashkent after the Germans invaded Russia. Though they did not have much money, the Levins assisted students in the city's underground Lubavitch school system as best they could with meals and provisions.
In 1945, they escaped from the USSR to Austria, and in 1949 they moved to Israel, where they were among the first to live in the newly-founded village of Kfar Chabad, not far from Tel Aviv.
Levin studied agriculture and found cantorial positions during the holidays in Ramat Gan and Bnei Brak. Levin would also travel to Europe to fundraise for the Lubavitch Yeshivah. When his travels included a Shabbat stay, he would serve as the cantor in the local synagogues.
At one point, he was offered lucrative cantorial positions in England and Geneva. Levin wrote to the Rebbe about the prospects and the Rebbe responded that he should stay in Israel and become a teacher in "the Reshet," the Oholei Yosef Yitzchak Lubavitch school system.
Levin was amongst the organizers of the famous chassidic gatherings in the village of Kfar Chabad in the 50s and early 60s. Many guests participated throughout the years, including Knesset members, prime ministers and presidents. At the gatherings, Levin's choir would sing chassidic melodies for the crowd.
The choir later traveled several times a week to kibbutzim in Israel, where it would captivate often-secular audiences with Chabad melodies. Over the years, the choir made appearances before hundreds of thousands across Israel. One member of the choir was charged with explaining the meanings behind the melodies, as well as other concepts in Chabad philosophy.
In 1964, at the young age of 44, Levin suddenly passed away. Many of his children and grandchildren have followed in his footsteps by teaching young Jewish children.
