Hendel was born in
Plyeshchanitsy,
Belarus (then part of the
Russian Empire) as Chenoch Hendel Futerfas. In 1925 he married Breina Freidman, with whom he had two daughters. Breina and the two girls were killed by a Nazi
Einsatzgruppe in 1941, in
Brahin,
Belarus, while Hendel was serving in the
Red Army. In 1946, Hendel left the USSR using forged Polish papers; afraid that the KGB would track him down, he changed his surname 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 Rabbi
Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe. ==Art==