My Gulag Life: Stories of a Soviet Prisoner

Rough-hewn and unpretentious in his Russian cap and bushy white beard, Reb Mendel Futerfas was a legend in his own time. He endured eight years in the Soviet Gulag and a seventeen-year separation from his family--punishment for his work in Chabad’s clandestine network. Released from the Soviet Union in 1963, he would eventually rebuild his life as a mentor in Israel, where he drew on his experiences to inspire a new generation of Chasidim. Interweaving Reb Mendel's moving stories and biographical sketches, My Gulag Life offers a nuanced portrait of an iconic Chasid.