While living in Berlin, Germany in 1928 the Chabad Lubavitch Rebbe made the acquaintance of a Jewish businessman named Yitzchok Meir Ferstenberg. Rabbi Chazkel Besser of Agudas Yisrael of America later heard these recollections from Yitzchok Meir
Here is a small excerpt:
“While we talked one time, he [Ferstenberg] mentioned he knew the Lubavitcher Rebbe from Berlin . . the Rebbe was a student at the university . . he was very impressed. For me it meant a lot, because he [Ferstenberg] generally was a critic. I very rarely heard from Itche Meir, praise about someone; rather the negative side. And over here, he was full of praise.
“He told me, by the way, “the Rebbe never changed. He always wore a hat or a beret or something,” which in Germany was unusual. Here [in the USA] you don’t understand, but in Berlin, in Germany, you couldn’t enter a bank without taking off your hat, or go to a drug store – you had to take off your hat - They would tell you that you have to do it – And he [ the Rebbe] had a beard, uncut, untouched. But that was not the greatness for him to tell of the Rebbe, that he did have a beard. He saw more in the Rebbe then these trivialities….”
The Chabad Lubavitcher Rebbe Rebbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson didn't change since the time I knew him in Berlin, Germany around 1929. He had a untouched uncut beard, always covered his head - this was unheard of in Berlin at the time One had to remove their kipa, yarmulke, hat, head covering when walking into many important places, I saw that the Rebbe never removed his hat, Kippah, Deutsch
