A moving moment aired Sunday on News 14’s "The Open Studio" when reporter Mendy Rizel surprised host Boaz Golan with an original dollar bill from the Lubavitcher Rebbe, given in 1985 and kept in a transparent sleeve. Rizel said he had promised on a previous visit that he would bring Golan a Rebbe dollar, adding, "When I promise, I keep it." The gift also included a gold frame designed to hold the note alongside a photo of the Rebbe.
Rizel explained that the bill had been given to him for Golan by his father-in-law, Rabbi Moshe Zeev Pizem, a Chabad emissary in Sderot. A video message from Pizem followed, in which he said, "I was happy to give from the dollars I received from the Rebbe. I greatly appreciate the work you do. You publish the truth."
Golan, visibly emotional, recalled visiting the Rebbe in 1992, when the Rebbe was ill. He said he saw him through a small opening in the window and described him as "radiant." Golan said the experience was impossible to describe and concluded, "Only someone who sees it can understand this event, and I was privileged." Rizel noted that the specific dollar was given to his father-in-law in 1985, a year before the Rebbe began the customary distribution of such bills, calling it "a rare item."
The broadcast also included a separate testimony from Shimon Tubul, deputy mayor of Beersheba, who said he had his own Rebbe dollar and credited it with saving his life during reserve duty in Gaza. He said an RPG was fired at his unit on the outskirts of Jabalia and missed by millimeters, adding that he later gave the dollar to another soldier fighting in Beit Hanoun, who also survived what Tubul called "open miracles."
