The iconic photo and painting of the Chofetz Chaim used by the Chofetz Chaim Heritage Center and many other haredi organizations isn't really the Chofetz Chaim, a period newsreel shows.
Above left: actual photo of the Chofetz Chaim (screengrab from period newsreel). Above right: a painting based on a now-iconic photograph that actually is not the Chofetz Chaim, right
The Chofetz Chaim (Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan) is the very small old man wearing a Russian style cap (kassket) near the end of the first clip in the first video.
Also note the very high number of haredim who are clean-shaven or who have mustaches or goatees. The full-bearded black-robed haredim are largely hasidim from Poland.
Rabbi Shaul Shimon Deutsch of the Living Torah Museums first spoke about this footage a decade ago – and was attacked by haredim for doing so. In the following video shot this month, he explains that controversy and notes that the iconic photo of the Chofetz Chaim isn't actually the Chofetz Chaim at all: