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Stories & Memories of Tzion Goldstein

By: Berel Prager, Tzion's dear brother-in-law August 7

Gentle always, yet brave and heroically spirited when the moment calls for it.

Some 22 years ago, I was in 770, as Rabbi Marlow, our highly respected and important Rav was immersed in his davening at the Amud. Suddenly, a tall black man known to be a convert and a Lubavitcher as well, walked into shul. But this time, he wasn't wearing his Lubavitcher Garb. Strangely, he was fully dressed In African garb instead. Curious what he was up to, I, along with many others, observed him from the corner of my eye. We see him slowly approaching the direction of Rabbi Marlow. We continued watching, unaware of what would happen next. Suddenly, he reaches unto Rabbi Marlow's tallis and was standing there like a statue. Nothing bad happened yet, the man was just standing there. So we just continued observing, not sure if we should step in or not. As time passed, we realized this may not be such a friendly gesture, so we started thinking/discussing with each other that maybe we should do something. As we were debating what to do, all of a sudden, out of nowhere, came this big, tall guy, grabbed the black guy around the neck, grabbed him like this, and shlepped him out of 770, like this attacker was a massive guy! He was no small guy at all!! And as he pulled him out, he yelled at him super loud: "GET OUT!!!" In his spanish accent. That brave, strong guy was none other then Tzion Goldstein. That was that black guy's last time in 770 let me tell you that!

 
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