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A Secret Mission From My Neighbor, the Rebbe

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A Secret Mission From My Neighbor, the Rebbe

A fatal car accident, infidelity, and a kind rebbetzin catapulted Hensha from Ohio to Chasidic Brooklyn, where she married a widower with five children and settled across the street from the Rebbe.
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Genendl Wallingford, CT August 17, 2026

This is the woman interviewed in Lis Harris’ Holy Days in the ‘80s. I loved that book. Reply

Susan Weintrob Charleston, SC August 17, 2026

Dear Chana, I was so pleasantly surprised to hear your interview with Hensha Gansbourg. I had spent a week with her and her husband Hersh in Crown Heights as I was making my journey to observance. She and Hersh were so welcoming, so understanding and so supportive. When I returned to Indiana, where I was then living with my husband and children, I wrote 3 articles for Jewish newspapers, where I wrote a weekly column. I then told my husband that I was ready to join an orthodox synagogue, go to the mikveh and think about moving to a more Jewish area. In fact when I was interviewed for an administrative role in a Brooklyn yeshiva, I stayed with the Gansbourgs. My husband had also returned from a trip. At an airline stop, he encountered a Chabad rabbi, put on tefillin for the first time since his Bar Mizvah, and had separately come to the conclusion that he was ready to move ahead on our religious journey. You interview brought back all these wonderful memories. Thank you Chana Reply