Shana Tova Greetings

Rosh Hashana Special: collection of Elul correspondence between the Rebbe and his representatives and the JDC, wishing each other a happy new year * The Rebbe’s thanks to the JDC * Shana Tova greetings in the name of 150,000 Chabad Chassidim in the USA * The JDC hoping to reduce the help for the next year * And More 

The American Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) worked hand-in-hand with the Chabad movement for almost 100 years, supporting the work of the Rebbes in Russia and across the world.

Each year before Rosh Hashana, the Rebbe would send a “New Year Greeting” to the JDC directorate, thanking them for their help, and wishing them a sweet new year. The JDC would respond in kind. The JDC Archives include some of these letters, and some of the letters that the JDC sent to the Rebbe in response.

The Archives also include letters sent by Rabbi Binyamin Eliyahu Gorodetzky, the Rebbe’s personal representative to Europe, North Africa and Israel, who communicated with the JDC on behalf of the Rebbe.

In honor of Rosh Hashana we present a sampling of these letters from the JDC Archives (which were digitized and uploaded online, thanks to a grant from Dr. Georgette Bennett and Dr. Leonard Polonsky CBE).

“My Appreciation of the Cooperation”

The Rebbe’s letter to Mr. M. Beckelman, the General Director of JDC – Europe, on Erev Rosh Hashana 5712 (1951):

My dear Mr. Bekelman:

I take this opportunity to extend to you my prayerful wishes for a Kesivo Vachasimo Toivo, for a happy and blessed New Year, materially and spiritually.

On this occasion I also wish to express my appreciation of the cooperation which you have extended to us in the past, in our work in the fields of education, the dissemination of the Torah, and the perpetuation of our sacred heritage. I sincerely trust that your participation in our public endeavors will be continuous and growing.

With heartfelt wishes for a Happy and successful New Year

Cordially yours,

[The Rebbe’s Signature]

JDC New Year Wish For 5711

A year earlier, in Tishrei 5711 (1950), the Rebbe sent a letter to Mr. Beckelman wishing a happy new year, and Mr. Beckelman responded with an interesting wish:

My dear Rabbi Schneerson:

Thank you very much for your recent letter regarding the participation of the JDC in the work which Rabbi Benjamin Gorodetski is responsible for in France.

I am very glad that we have been able to assist him in the past in these very worthwhile activities and I hope that our financial resources in the coming year will permit us to continue to do so despite the increasing demands which are being made upon us from many other directions.

I also hope that the need for this work can be decreased as the people concerned become established and independent.

Let me thank you also for your good wishes for the New Year which I heartily reciprocate.

Condolences on the Passing of Rebbetzin Chana

On Erev Yom Kipur 5725 the directorate of the JDC sent a letter of condolence to the Rebbe upon the passing of his mother, Rebbetzin Chana OBM:

Dear Rabbi Schneerson:

On behalf of the officers and directors of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee we want to send you our sincerest condolences on the death of your mother.

Very truly yours,

Edward M. M. Warburg – Chairman

Moses A. Leavitt – Executive Vice-Chairman

A few days later, on Erev Sukkos, the Rebbe responded:

Greeting and Blessing:

This is to acknowledge gratefully your kind expression of sympathy and condolence on my bereavement. Please convey my appreciation also to the other officers and directors.

May the Almighty grant the speedy fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy:

G-d will destroy Death for ever, and will wipe the tear from every face… and they that dwell in dust shall rise and sing G-d’s praises – to which our Sages add – Resurrected by a Great Light from Above.

Wishing you a Happy Yom Tov,

With blessing,

[The Rebbe’s Signature]

150,000 Chabad Members & 200 Synagogues in the USA

Before Rosh Hashana 5708 (1947), the Rashag, Rabbi Shmaryahu Gourary, who served as the chairman of Tomchei Tmimim Lubavitch and Vice-President of Aguch, penned a letter to Mr. Paul Baerwald from the JDC:

My dear Mr. Baerwald:

May this serve to express my sincerest best wishes to you and yours for a Happy and Prosperous New Year.

As chairman of the executive committees of the United Lubavitcher Yeshivoth and of the Agudas Chasidei Chabad of the United States and Canada I want to take this opportunity of thanking you for the invaluable philanthropic work the illustrious organization you head, has done for our brethren.

During my recent tour of the DP Camps I had the opportunity of seeing at first hand the great assistance you are rendering to our helpless people. I know that you will be glad to hear that – at every opportunity – I have not hesitated to publicize the herculean efforts you are expending in Europe especially, under the fine leadership of my good friend, Dr. Joseph Schwartz.

In the name of our 150,000 members and 200 constituent synagogues in America, I offer the prayer that the Almighty continue to bless you and yours with long years of happiness and health.

Very sincerely yours,

Mr. Moses Leavitt from the JDC responded with this letter:

In the name of the Joint Distribution Committee as well as in my own name, I wish to thank you very much for your kind letter of September 8th in which you extended to us for the coming year the good wishes of the United Lubavitcher Yeshivoth and of the Agudas Chasidei Chabad of the United States and Canada. I note with great pleasure the fine impression you had of our overseas program which you were able to observe at first hand on your recent trip to Europe.

May I take this opportunity to extend to you and to all your constituents our most cordial wishes for the New Year.

The Work of the JDC will bring the Geulah

Before Rosh Hashana 5745 (1984), Rabbi Binyamin Eliyahu Gorodetzky, sent a letter to Mr. Henry Taub, the president of the JDC, wishing a happy new year and hoping that the merit of the work of the JDC will hasten the redemption:

On the occasion of the approaching Jewish high holidays, I have the honor and pleasure of expressing to you, on behalf of my organization as well as in my own name, our best wishes of a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year.

Permit me to take advantage of this opportunity to extend to you also a hearty Mazal-Tov on the occasion of JDC’s celebration of its 70th anniversary. As you know, the number 70 has played an important role in the history of the Jewish people. Our Patriarch Jacob arrived in Egypt with a family of 70: “… all the souls of the house of Jacob that came to Egypt were threescore and ten.” (Genesis 4.6 – 27). However, when they left Egypt they were about three million since men alone between the ages of 20 and 60 and apt to carry arms — not counting women and children as well as men beyond the age of 60 — amounted to six hundred thousand, as mentioned in the Bible: “And the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth about six hundred thousand men on foot, beside children.” (Exodus 12 – 37).

The same symbolic interpretation of the number 70 is also expressed in the Haggadah of Passover: “Few in number” — as was said by Moses to Israel “With but seventy souls thy fathers went down to Egypt, but now the Lord thy G-d has made thee as the stars of the heavens for multitude.”

I believe it is not difficult to make a comparison between the 70 year period of JDC activity and the situation of the first 70 Jewish souls and their descendants in Egypt. They were forced to do hard work, were oppressed and ill-treated and their children often slaughtered or drowned in the Nile. The JDC too had to carry on its activity of alleviating Jewish sufferings in extremely hard and dangerous moments of our history – in World war I, in World War II and up to now, I think that your organization as well as the entire U.S. Jewish community, on whose behalf you have been acting, can be proud of what your fine institution has accomplished in favor of our suffering brethren all over the world during these last seventy years.

Let us therefore hope that the merit of JDC’s charitable and devoted work will plead with the Almighty to perform the same kind of miracles as He has already performed at the time of the Jewish exodus from Egypt and which He has promised through the mouth of His Prophet Micah:

כימי צאתך מארץ מצרים אראנו נפלאות (מיכה ז – ט»ו)

«As in the days of thy coming forth out or the land of Egypt will I show unto him marvelous things.» (Micah 7 – 15).

Once again with the approaching Jewish high holidays I wish you and your family as well as all the JDC staff and their families a Very Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year

Sincerely yours,