Rabbi Hillel Zaltzman Author

Rabbi Hillel Zaltzman was born in the city of Kharkov, Ukraine, in the year 1939. During the Second World War, as the Germans closed in on Kharkov, the Zaltzman family escaped to the city of Samarkand—present day Uzbekistan. Living under Soviet rule, Hillel had to received his childhood Jewish education in secret. His Jewish education came from the Chassidim present throughout his youth; his uncle the shochet, Reb Boruch Duchman and Reb Berke Chein who spent six years in the Zaltzman home while on the run from the authorities, and Reb Mendel Futerdas. Under their influence, his Chassidic perspectives formed properly.

When he was sixteen, the Chassid Reb Moshe Nissilevitch recruited Hillel to become involved with the communal work of an underground organization by the name of Chamah, founded to promote the teaching of Torah and Chassidic philosophy. In the darkest days of Communist Russia, just being a Jew put one’s life in jeopardy. This small group of courageous young activists refused to let the flame of Judaism be extinguished. At peril to their lives Chamah started as a clandestine group with the aim of strengthening Jewish identity and helping their brethren both physically and spiritually. 

In 1964, Hillel married Mussia Shoshana Esther, her father was Reb Efraim Fishel Demichovsky, a graduate of Tomchei Tmimim, and the nephew of the Rogotchover Gaon.

From his earliest days, Hillel Zaltzman remained deeply involved in activities and development of the Chamah. Over the years, Chamah grew to become an international Jewish organization working with Russian and Ukrainian Jewry conducting a broad range of humanitarian, social, and educational programs in Israel, Russia, and the United States. In 1971 Rabbi Zaltzman emigrated from the USSR to Israel and helped established the Chamah branch office in Israel. Two years later, in 1973, Hillel was asked to open the first Chamah branch in New York City. Shortly thereafter his family moved to join him in New York. He continued his work on behalf of Soviet Jewry, expanding Chamah’s operations to include medical aid, furthering Jewish education among Russian Jews in America and abroad. Today, Chamah International headquarters are located Manhattan and in Brooklyn and Rabbi Hillel Zaltzman is president of this international organization.