Historic Chofetz Chaim Video Almost Unnoticed For Over A Decade

Downloaded with permission and courtesy given to VIN News by the "University of South Carolina – Moving Image Research Collections".

A southern college that maintains an archive of news dating back almost 100 years had no idea that one of the videos in its collection was a historical gem of major significance to the Jewish community: a silent newsreel showing the Chofetz Chaim at the first Knessia Gedolah in Vienna in 1923.

The video, titled “World Congress of Agudah Yisroel--outtakes” has been circulating recently on Jewish media outlets and on What’s App and is the only known video footage of the Chofetz Chaim, Rabbi Yisroel Meir Kagan, who died in 1933.

Despite its relatively recent popularity in the Jewish community, Scott Allen, a media archivist at the University of South Carolina’s, Moving Image Research Collection in Columbia, South Carolina, estimated that the almost five minute clip has been available for public viewing at the MIRC’s digital video repository for approximately 15 years.

“It’s funny how many, many people can see something over time but then one person sees it and recognizes its historical significance,” Allen told VIN News.

The footage was shot by Fox News cameraman Hans Von Pebal, who covered assignments in Czechoslovakia, Austria, Romania, Yugoslavia and Hungary.

Benjamin Singleton, a production manager at the MIRC, said that Von Pebal worked for Fox News, which had cameramen in over 20 countries, from 1919 through at least the mid 1930’s. Von Pebal’s nitrocellulose negative, which was taken on 35 millimeter Agfa film, was placed in a metal can and shipped to the Fox News’ headquarters on Manhattan’s West Side.

Fox developed and edited the footage, with the outtakes negatives cataloged via the Dewy Decimal system, where they remained in a can for 57 years.

“This film was among many thousands of reels given to the University of South Carolina in 1980 by 20th Century Fox,” said Singleton. “The films were cataloged and viewed by the University library system and made available to the public. The university now keeps the film in an underground vault. The air is kept very dry and very cold to preserve the negative.”

Singleton said that the footage has been available for study and licensing through the university since 1981. The MIRC’s YouTube-style website was launched in 2012, giving its catalog an even wider exposure to the general public.

The footage shows various delegates arriving for the Knessia Gedolah at the Zirkue Strasse Congress Building on August 15th, 1923, the first day of the historic ten day convention.

The clip, which the MIRC says has been verified for authenticity, shows the Chofetz Chaim, who was 84 years old at the time, arriving to the Knessia Gedolah accompanied by several men.

The Chofetz Chaim can be seen walking towards the camera for 13 seconds before the camera is blocked by a hand, obscuring further view. Footage shot inside the building shows dozens of men seated inside at tables on benches with banners bearing the Hebrew words “B’ruchim Habaim” and “Shaalu Shlom Yerushalayim.”


“The original documentation was not likely shot by anyone Jewish,” said Allen, who noted that the MIRC transferred the original negatives to video. “They put down whatever they have and kept going.”

The MIRC site offers possible identification for some of the delegates in the video, including the Chofetz Chaim, Rabbi Chaim Sechor, chief rabbi of Romania, Rabbi Lowenstein, chief rabbi of Zurich, and Rabbi Permutier, chief rabbi of Warsaw. Allen said that much of that information was not available when the footage was originally posted to the site.

“Over time people have contacted us and added names,” said Allen. “Even the original documentation doesn’t have all the names that are there now.”