A young yeshivah student in Otwock, Poland, Shmuel Dovid Raichik awoke one morning to the sound of German bombs falling on the idyllic resort town.
As the world he had known burned before his eyes, he fled, first to Vilnius, Lithuania, then to Kobe, Japan, and finally to Shanghai, China, where he helped lead the Lubavitch yeshivah in exile.
After the war, the sixth Chabad Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, and later the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, appointed him "shadar," a title bestowed on select individuals who traveled the world at the Rebbes' behest, promoting Torah education and observance.
As the first "shluchim" on the West Coast, Rabbi and Rebbetzin Raichik touched thousands of lives and influenced a generation of Jews.
Their extraordinary story is told here for the first time, complete with hundreds of photos and documents.