Rabbi Dovid Raskin, Born in Babruysk, Belarusas severed chairman of the Lubavitch Youth Organization, spearheaded many educational campaigns instituted by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, of righteous memory. He also read the Torah for the Rebbe for over 40 years., Rabbi Raskin grew up in a Jewish home infused with religious dedication and self-sacrifice, but under the constant watch of Soviet authorities. His parents, Rabbi Yaakov Yosef and Draizah Raskin, were forced to move the family to Leningrad, Russia, today known as S. Petersburg, after his father – a ritual circumciser who performed secret circumcisions in contravention of official prohibitions on Jewish religious practice – was imprisoned for his dedication to strengthening Judaism.

Rabbi Raskin was also a faculty member of the Lubavitch yeshiva and was later appointed to the boards of Agudas Chasidei Chabad, the Chabad-Lubavitch umbrella organization; Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch, the educational arm of Chabad-Lubavitch; Machne Yisroel, the social service arm of Chabad-Lubavitch; and the Beth Rivkah girls school. Rabbi Raskin passed away at the age of 84 years old and was buried near the gravesite of his dear Rebbe in the Montefoire cemetery in Cambria Heights Queens.

Read a short biography on Rabbi Raskin: Longtime Lubavitch Youth Leader Passes Away, Rabbi Dovid Raskin, 84

Mrs. Chaya Mushka Pearson, OB"M was born in New York, and lived and raised her six children in Philadelphia where she was a school teacher and an active participant in Nishei Chabad. At the age of 14, Chaya Mushka was in a near fatal car accident. After the doctors gave up on her, her father, Reb Dovid Raskin OB"M, gave her over to the Rebbe. The Rebbe in turn oversaw her medical treatment daily and finally, with the Rebbe’s bracha, Mrs. Pearson emerged from a 12 week coma. For the next 30 years, Chaya Mushka referred to herself as the Rebbe’s child, and in that vein, was truly a devoted chassid of the Rebbe—and an exemplar of emunah and bitachon in Hashem—until she succumbed to a lengthy illness at the age of 44.