Hendel Lieberman

Who was Hendel Lieberman?

Chenoch Hendel Lieberman, born Chenoch Hendel Futerfas, was an Orthodox Jewish Russian-born, Chabad hasidic American artist. He was the brother of the famed Mashpia Rabbi Menachem Mendel Futerfas.

He was born in Pleshchenitsy, Belarus. In 1925 he married Breina Freidman, with whom he had two daughters; all three were killed by a Nazi Einsatzgruppe in 1941, in Brahin, Belarus, while he was serving in the army.

In 1946 he left the USSR using forged Polish papers; afraid that the KGB would track him down, he changed his name to Lieberman. After short stays in Paris and London, in 1951 he settled in Brooklyn, New York, where he became a devoted Hasid, follower of the Lubavitcher Rebbe.