Right from the beginning of its creation, the Lubavitch Hassidic movement distinguished itself by the fact that its followers were guided to apply and practice religious prescriptions in every detail of life * If the Gruzian Jews have maintained their Jewish identity and strong religious feelings and practices in spite of over 50 years of Communist propaganda and persecution, I am convinced that this is the result of the great efforts invested by Rabbi Levitin * The majority of Shochtim in England, France, Italy, the Scandinavian countries and Belgium are former students of our Yeshivot * When the Aliyah from Morocco was very high, there was a consensus of opinion by all concerned that the youth coming from our institutions in that country are the best element * This is obviously a very succinct description of our activities overseas, since otherwise it would require hundreds of pages… * What Does Lubavitch Do?
In the aftermath of World War II, the Frierdiker Rebbe established the Lubavitch European Bureau and appointed Rabbi Binyamin Eliyahu Gorodetsky to lead the organization; the organization was tasked with ensuring that all needs of the refugees are met and they are resettled in Chabad communities across the world. This work was done with the financial aid of the American Joint Distribution Committee.
However, Lubavitch wasn’t satisfied just with providing material support for the refugees, and immediately set out to create an infrastructure of Chabad organizations to spread the light of Judaism wherever it may be needed. Rabbi Gorodetsky was in charge of developing Chabad activities in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.
In this week’s installment we present a series of documents from 5736 (1975-1976) which detail just part of the tremendous work that he was directing in Europe and North Africa at the time, specifying the various cities where Shluchim were operating and their institutions which were sponsored by the JDC.
These documents reference over sixty years that Chabad worked hand-in-hand with the JDC, starting from World War I when the JDC sent money to the famed Mashpia Rabbi Shmuel Levitin who was then in Georgia (Gruzia).
These fascinating documents are part of the JDC Archives (which were digitized and uploaded online, thanks to a grant from Dr. Georgette Bennett and Dr. Leonard Polonsky CBE).
The Memorandum That Should’ve Been Hundreds of Pages
On December 21, 1975 [17 Teves 5736] Rabbi Gorodetsky submitted to the JDC offices a three-page “Memorandum on Lubavitch Overseas Activities” which included a summary of most social and educational activities being organized by the Lubavitch European Bureau and the Shluchim:
The Lubavitch Hassidic movement was founded some two hundred years ago by the Holy Rabbi Zalman of Ladi, a small town in White Russia which became famous among Jews all over the world since the Rabbi was called Rabbi Zalman Me’Ladi.
This movement is very well known among Jews because of the many books, including historical research, published on the subject. Therefore, I do not think it necessary to relate here its history. The purpose of this memorandum is rather to bring out the various aspects of the Lubavitch movement activities and its relationship with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee for the last sixty years.
Right from the beginning of its creation, the Lubavitch Hassidic movement distinguished itself by the fact that its followers were guided to apply and practice religious prescriptions in every detail of life, including the social and economic ones, like helping Jews to become craftsmen, farmers or workers in small industry cooperatives. This way the Lubavitch followers and Yeshivah students could earn a decent living and at the same time observe the Mitzvot.
This kind of activity brought our movement in contact with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee when this latter organization began to work in Russia after World War I. In 1913 the first JDC financial assistance for Jews in Russia was sent to the Lubavitch Yeshivot in Gruzia and namely to Rabbi Shmuel Levitin, the then Chief Rabbi of Gruzia and representative of the Lubavitch Rabbi for that region (as well as my father-in-law who, by the way, passed in New York at the beginning of 1975 at the age of 94, active, alert and conscious to the last minute). Rabbi Levitin worked for Gruzian Jewry for many years and created there a chain of Jewish religious and social institutions which produced generations of Rabbis, teachers, Shochtim and other religious functionaries. If the Gruzian Jews have maintained their Jewish identity and strong religious feelings and practices in spite of over 50 years of Communist propaganda and persecution, I am convinced that this is the result of the great efforts invested by Rabbi Levitin and the financial assistance granted by the JDC so many years ago.
In general it is an accepted fact that the Lubavitch movement is the only Jewish religious organization in Communist Russia which has been active in the religious-cultural and social fields for so many years, at the beginning legally and then illegally. The former Lubavitch Rabbi, my father-in-law, myself and other Lubavitch people were at one time or another either sent to prison or to Siberia, but our activities always continued and still continue in Russia to this day. I have been directly involved in this work for the last 52 years and am in a good position to state that all this has been done with the precious financial assistance of the JDC.
POST WORLD WAR II ACTIVITIES
The experience in illegal work in Russia has helped us to bring out some 4,000 Lubavitch members from that country in 1946, to the DP camps in Germany and then to France. In France we provided them with the material means to live and helped them to find work in accordance with their capacities. Some of them were helped to learn trades and to open little workshops for knitting, tailoring, etc. Others, in accordance with their background and Toranic education, were appointed as Rabbis, teachers, scribes, Shochtim and Chazanim in our various religious-cultural institutions created in those years and which have since become famous all over Europe, like the Yeshivah at Brunoy, the Bet-Rivka Teachers’ Seminary for Girls and the Bet-Rivka School for Girls at Yerres, a chain of Talmudei-Torah and day-schools in Paris and its suburbs as well as in the larger provincial cities of France, like Lyon, Marseille, Toulouse and Nice.
I believe the following two facts, among others, will illustrate both the kind of our work and our close cooperation with the JDC:
1. In 1948 the Irish Government made the JDC a gift of 3 million pounds of meat to be distributed among Jews in the DP camps and in Israel. In this connection there arose the problem of finding Shochtim and Rabbis to handle the Kashrut of this large quantity of meat. The JDC then entrusted us with this gigantic job, and I organized a group of 50 Rabbis and Shochtim who went to Ireland for this purpose. Moreover, I used this opportunity to send with them a number of Yeshivah students to learn the profession of Shechita.
2. In 1949 or 1950 the JDC received some 1,200 Sifrei-Torah from Germany, which the Nazis had confiscated from Jews all over Europe. Again it was our scribes who were charged with the task of examining these Sifrei-Torah with regard to Kashrut and, if necessary, make the needed corrections since there were no other scribes available in Europe in those days. Their work enabled the JDC to distribute these Sifrei Torah among Jewish communities all over Europe and a certain number was sent to Israel.
Our activities in France served also as a springboard for our similar activities in other countries, like Israel, Morocco, Tunisia, the City of Melilla, Madrid, Italy, Turkey, the Scandinavian countries and even Australia. In all these countries we carried on and still carry on in most of them religious-cultural and social activities (in Israel also vocational training at Kfar-Chabad) which include Yeshivot, Talmudei-Torah, all-day schools for boys, Bet-Rivka Schools for Girls, Youth Centers and Student Centers with a Kosher restaurant in Madrid. In addition, our former Yeshivah students who emigrated to such countries like Canada, England, Italy, Norway, Sweden, etc., hold responsible jobs as religious functionaries in those communities and the majority of Shochtim in England, France, Italy, the Scandinavian countries and Belgium are former students of our Yeshivot.
It should also be noted that during the early 1950’s, when the Aliyah from Morocco was very high, there was a consensus of opinion by all concerned that the youth coming from our institutions in that country are the best element and that their integration in Israel was much easier than that of other Jews from Morocco.
PUBLICATIONS
Our activities in France include also publication of books and booklets in French on religious topics for the French speaking countries in Europe, for North Africa, Canada and up to recently also for Lebanon.
This is obviously a very succinct description of our activities overseas, since otherwise it would require hundreds of pages. However I believe that even so it shows clearly the positive role played by our movement in maintaining and strengthening the religious spirit and Jewish values among Jews in Europe, North Africa and other countries.
I wish to conclude by emphasizing once again that the success obtained in our tremendous work in the various countries was due mainly to the assistance and sympathetic attitude and understanding on the part of the JDC leadership towards our organization during all these years, for what I am truly and deeply grateful.
Grand Rabbi B. Gorodetzki
Director-General for Europe, Israel and North Africa
The List
Attached to the memo was a short two-page list of all the educational activities under the auspices of Rabbi Gorodetsky (aside for the Aid to Russia program, which was kept “off the books” for obvious reasons), which were sponsored by the JDC:
PRESENT RELIGIOUS-CULTURAL AND SOCIAL ACTIVITIES OF THE LUBAVITCH MOVEMENT WITH JDC FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE
FRANCE
1. Yeshivah at Brunoy with full board and lodging, including a school for Shochtim – 88 students.
2. Bet-Rivka Teachers’ Seminary for Girls at Yerres, with full board and lodging – 68 students.
3. Bet-Rivka Primary and Secondary all-day school for girls at Yerres with full board and lodging – 102 students.
4. All-day school in Paris – 69 students.
5. All-day school at Aubervilliers – 85 students.
6. All-day school at Orly – 40 students.
7. Chain of 46 Talmudei-Torah in Paris and the suburbs with a total of 985 students.
8. Chain of 51 Youth and Student Centers in Paris and the suburbs with a total of about 1,000 persons.
9. Two Kindergartens in the suburbs of Paris with a total of 45 children.
10. Bet-Rivka all-day school at Lyon – 160 students.
11. Youth and Student Center at Lyon with a total of about 80 persons.
12. Youth and Student Center in Marseille with a total of about 70 persons.
13. Youth and Student Center in Strasbourg with a total of about 50 persons.
14. Youth and Student Center in Toulouse with a total of about 50 persons.
MOROCCO
1. Yeshivah at Casablanca, including vocational school for Tefilln and Sofrim, with full board and lodging – 46 students.
2. Bet-Rivka Teachers’ Seminary for girls at Casablanca – 210 students, the large majority of whom receive full board and lodging.
3. Bet-Rivka all-day school for Girls at Casablanca with full board – 315 students.
TUNISIA
1. Yeshivah (Primary and Secondary all-day school for boys) in Tunis – 205 students.
2. Teachers’ Seminary for Girls in Tunis – 80 students.
3. All-day school for Girls in Tunis – 90 students.
4. Evening classes in Tunis with an attendance of 80 persons.
5. Summer Courses with an attendance of about 200 persons.
6. Yeshivah with full board at Djerba – 115 students.
CITY OF MELILLA
1. All-day school – 72 students.
2. Evening classes with an attendance of about 40 persons.
3. Summer courses with an attendance of about 80 persons.
The Trust and Faith in Rabbi Gorodetzky
Rabbi Gorodetsky’s memo circulated among JDC officers and on February 16, 1976 [15 Adar I, 5736] we find the following letter from “a Hassid of Lubavitch” Mr. Theodore Feder (JDC – Europe) to the Executive Vice President of the JDC, Mr. Ralph Goldman:
As a hassid of the Lubavitch and especially of Rabbi Gorodetzki I plead prejudice in his favor.
Although it would seem that because a report was suggested by the JDC it would automatically follow that he would try to sing our praise. Yet in the many years that I have worked with the Rabbi, and it goes back to the forties, one thing constant about the Rabbi was his willingness at any time to give us a noticeable credit line, in large print and usually at the beginning of his report. This, as opposed to a number of our subventioned organizations who tack on the credit line at the end in small print.
What cannot be said by Rabbi Gorodetzky, and I will say it, is that the trust and faith we have of him and his organization is no less than we have with any of the JDC offices and staff. It is indeed a most unique relationship and one that all of here treasure. You have got to see and hear it to believe it.
This does not mean that we automatically agree with the Rabbi when he comes up with his projects. On the contrary, we are always in a discussion state with the Rabbi; but his understanding of our problems and our strictures makes it easy for us to deal with his organization.
Ralph, if you had not asked me for comments, you would have not gotten this letter. So, ask…