Friends of Refugees of Eastern Europe (FREE) was founded in 1969 by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson. It was led by a group of young ex-Soviet "partisans" to cater to the broad range of needs of Jewish refugees from the Former Soviet Union. FREE has helped tens of thousands of these Jews, who often arrived in the U.S. with nothing but the clothes on their back, and precious little else.