Ben Gurion University of the Negev
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Ben Gurion University of the Negev Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Department of Hebrew Thought The Role of Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, the Sixth Admor of Lubavitch, in the Creation of Modern Habad in the USA 1930‐1950 Thesis submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts by Roland Julian Mureinik Under the Supervision of Prof Jonatan Meir October 2018 Dedicated with love to Inez, without whose support, patience and understanding this thesis would not have been completed My grateful thanks to Professor Jonatan Meir, who introduced me to the fascinating world of Hasidism and Habad. Contents Introduction and Historical Background .............................................................................1 Biography of R Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn ...................................................................2 Bringing the Sixth Admor to live in the USA ...................................................................5 Historical Development of American Jewry ....................................................................6 Chapter 1: R Yosef Yitzchak’s efforts to manage Habad from afar .....................................9 1.1 Initial Attempts to Organize (1920-1930) .............................................................. 10 1.2 The Impact of Rayatz’ Visit (1929-1930) ............................................................... 17 Chapter 2: Consolidation and Expansion of American Habad under Rayatz .................. 26 2.1 Ideology and Leadership ....................................................................................... 28 2.2 Hakeriah Vehakedusha ......................................................................................... 31 2.3 The Organization ................................................................................................... 33 2.3.1 Machane Israel .............................................................................................. 33 2.4 Mercaz Le-Inyanei Chinuch (“Melach”) ................................................................. 39 2.4.1 Hayom Yom ................................................................................................... 41 2.4.2 Mesibot Shabbat ......................................................................................... 43 2. 4.3 Bet Sarah/Bet Rivka........................................................................................ 43 2.5 Kehot ...................................................................................................................... 45 2.6 Yeshivat Tomchei Temimim ................................................................................... 50 2. 6.1 Yeshivat Tomchei Temimim as a Habad-Identity Enhancer ........................... 55 2. 6.2 Chederim ........................................................................................................ 56 2.6.3 Not only New York and its Periphery .............................................................. 58 2.7 Strengthening Habad Identity: Using USA Jewry as a ‘Whipping Boy’ .................. 58 Chapter 3: The Religious Message of Rayatz .................................................................. 62 3.1 Defining Rayatz’ Target Audiences ........................................................................ 62 3.2 Divrei Elohim Haim ................................................................................................. 65 3.3 Teshuva and Messiah ............................................................................................. 70 Chapter 4: Conclusions – Rayatz and His Heritage .......................................................... 77 4.1 Rayatz as Manager ................................................................................................. 77 4.2 Rayatz as Head of a Corporate Conglomerate ...................................................... 80 4.3 The Habad “Business Plan” ................................................................................... 82 4.4 The Rayatz Heritage .............................................................................................. 84 Appendix 1. Pictures and Reproductions ......................................................................... 86 US Dept of LaborMemorandum: Agudas Chasidei Habad .......................................... 87 Nameplate of the first issue of Hakeriah Vehakedusha .............................................. 89 Appendix 2. Organigram: Rayatz’ “Corporate” Habad: 1940-50. ................................. 90 Glossary of Terms, Expressions, Transliterations and Explanations ................................ 91 References ....................................................................................................................... 93 1 Introduction and Historical Background Late in 1939, following the Nazi invasion of Poland and the bombing of Warsaw, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, the sixth Admor1,2 of Hasidut Habad was spirited out of German-occupied Warsaw, with the assistance and support of US government agencies and reportedly in an operation involving high-ranking Nazi officials (Rigg, 2004, 2016; Altein, 2002), and sent on his way to a new life in the USA. Regardless of the immense historic irony that it was Nazi involvement that would enable the emergence in the USA of a dynamic movement of Jewish revival, it is indisputable that unless circumstances had been created for R. Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn (Rayatz) to transfer his leadership of Habad to the USA, the face of present-day world Jewry, Hasidism and especially Habad Hasidism, would be completely different. Rayatz found in the USA a relatively small and loose association of Habad communities not having any particular influence on the larger Jewish and general communities in the USA. Nonetheless, by the time of his death in 1950 and the eventual transfer of leadership to the seventh Admor, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneersohn (The Rebbe), the institutions of Habad had been considerably enlarged and revitalized. It was these institutions that provided the platform for the much greater expansion in the size and influence of Habad that took place later under the leadership of the Rebbe. The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of the R Yosef Yitzchak in the creation of modern Habad in the USA by preserving and consolidating the existing organs of Habad community that he found there, and by expanding and deepening the range of their activities. The outcome of his actions was to affect Habad worldwide. The dramatic expansion of Habad under his successor was only to become possible because of the measures undertaken by Rayatz to revitalize the movement in the USA, as well as in Canada where for the geopolitical reasons valid at the time the local community was strengthened by Lubavitcher refugees from Europe. This study thus concentrates on Rayatz’ kernel activities in 1930-50 in North America, his initiatives 1 Habad is a Hasidic dynasty in which the leadership role has been held by only seven leaders, Admorim (transliterated Our Lord, Teacher and Rabbi). The first leader and ,אדוננו מורנו ורבנו the abbreviation of the title ,אדמו''ר from the Hebrew founder of Chabad was R. Shneur Zalman of Liadi (1745-1812), known as the Alter Rebbe (the Old Rabbi). He was succeeded by his son, R. Dovber Schneuri, known as the Mittler Rebbe (the Middle Rabbi, b 1773, d 1827; served as Admor 1812-1827). The third Admor was R Menahem Mendel Schneersohn, known as the Tzemach Tzedek (b 1789, d 1866; Admor 1831-1866). He was the grandson of R Shneur Zalman, the son of R Shneur Zalman’s daughter. The Tzemach Tzedek was succeeded by his son R Shmuel Schneersohn (b 1834, d 1866; Admor 1866-1882; known as Ma’harash). His son, the fifth Admor, was. Rashab was succeeded by his son, R Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, the subject of this dissertation (b 1880, d 1950; Admor 1920-1950). R Yosef Yitzchak was referred to as Rayatz or as the Frierdiker Rebbe (the previous rabbi) in distinction to his successor, the better known and last Chabad Admor, known simply as the Rebbe, R Menachem Mendel Schneerson (b 1902, d 1994; Admor from 1950, and according to some Chabad circles, continuing to serve as Admor to this day) was the son-in-law and cousin of Rayatz. 2 Although Habad has endeavoured to show that the process of successions flowed smoothly, in many of the transitions, there were losing competitors who split off and formed their own followings or disappeared. Some of these splinters called themselves Lubavitcher Hasidim. Their history is beyond the scope of this thesis, but there is ocassional need to refer to a few of these splinter streams in this study. 1 and the religious philosophy which drove his actions that were aimed at establishing Habad as a dynamic religious force in the USA and abroad. Biography of R Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn Although several authors have written on the life and times of Rayatz, most of these are hagiographic descriptions of a revered leader (for example: Booklet of Mercaz Yeshivos Tomchei Temimim Lubavitch 1945; Mindel 1961; Glitzenstein 1966; Segal 1990; Kaminetsky 1996), and there appears to be no authoritatively researched biography of R Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn. In many instances, his life and times are presented almost as a necessary footnote in explanations of the life and times of his successor, R Menachem Mendel Schneerson even though Rayatz was a major personality in his own right. The biography of Rayatz presented here was collated from a