by Miriam Metzinger
Shabbat and Sunday marked the anniversary of the liberation of Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn from Soviet prison in 1927. He was the leader (Rebbe) of the Lubavitch Chassidim and was known for making major strides in Jewish outreach, both in the former Soviet Union and America. The release of this righteous man was nothing short of a miracle, given the harsh punishment handed down by Stalin for disseminating Torah and Jewish observance at that time.
Under the Stalinist regime, any Jew who wanted to go to a ritual bath, circumcise his son, or teach his children the Hebrew alphabet was risking his life. For doing anything associated with Jewish life and observance or to teach others was a grave offense; people were either shot or sent to Siberia where they were forced to work under horrible conditions. Even to write a letter to Rabbi Schneersohn meant risking harsh penalties. This is what makes the survival and release of Rabbi Shchneersohn even more amazing.
His arrest and imprisonment is described in detail in The Heroic Struggle by Rabbi Yehoshua Metzger and A Prince in Prison * (Rabbi Schneersohn's own account of his imprisonment). He was interrogated night and day, but remained firm in his resolution to incriminate no one. At one point, a guard put a gun to his head. "This little toy has made many men talk." Rabbi Schneersohn was unfazed. "That little toy can only frighten one who believes in many gods and one world, but cannot frighten one who believes in one G-d and many worlds."
On the third day of the Jewish month of Tammuz, his death sentence as commuted to life imprisonment. Nine days later, a day before his birthday, he was miraculously released. He was told, however, that he had to leave Russia, and he embarked to America, where he set the foundations for the Lubavitch Chassidism in Brooklyn. His son-in-law, Menachem Mendel Schneersohn, became leader of the movement in 1950, after the passing of Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, whose release marked the liberation, not only for himself and his Chassidim, but, in his words, for "Any person who is called a Jew."
Shabbat and Sunday marked the anniversary of the liberation of Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn from Soviet prison in 1927. He was the leader (Rebbe) of the Lubavitch Chassidim and was known for making major strides in Jewish outreach, both in the former Soviet Union and America. The release of this righteous man was nothing short of a miracle, given the harsh punishment handed down by Stalin for disseminating Torah and Jewish observance at that time.
Under the Stalinist regime, any Jew who wanted to go to a ritual bath, circumcise his son, or teach his children the Hebrew alphabet was risking his life. For doing anything associated with Jewish life and observance or to teach others was a grave offense; people were either shot or sent to Siberia where they were forced to work under horrible conditions. Even to write a letter to Rabbi Schneersohn meant risking harsh penalties. This is what makes the survival and release of Rabbi Shchneersohn even more amazing.
His arrest and imprisonment is described in detail in The Heroic Struggle by Rabbi Yehoshua Metzger and A Prince in Prison * (Rabbi Schneersohn's own account of his imprisonment). He was interrogated night and day, but remained firm in his resolution to incriminate no one. At one point, a guard put a gun to his head. "This little toy has made many men talk." Rabbi Schneersohn was unfazed. "That little toy can only frighten one who believes in many gods and one world, but cannot frighten one who believes in one G-d and many worlds."
On the third day of the Jewish month of Tammuz, his death sentence as commuted to life imprisonment. Nine days later, a day before his birthday, he was miraculously released. He was told, however, that he had to leave Russia, and he embarked to America, where he set the foundations for the Lubavitch Chassidism in Brooklyn. His son-in-law, Menachem Mendel Schneersohn, became leader of the movement in 1950, after the passing of Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, whose release marked the liberation, not only for himself and his Chassidim, but, in his words, for "Any person who is called a Jew."
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