History can be harsh to many, with even the greatest people in our past being nearly forgotten. Even so, it is often surprising how fast and abrupt the memory of some people can be forgotten – outside of select circles and found only in academic footnotes. One example in my mind is the great Rabbi Dr. Leo Jung (1892-1987), whose tireless activities to help world Jewry left its mark throughout the Jewish world, and whose efforts changed the course of entire communities and generations. I was thus excited this week to be able to acquire a letter written by the Rayatz, R. Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn (1880-1950), the sixth Rebbe of the Chabad Lubavitch chasidic movement, written in 1931 and addressed to Rabbi Jung that sheds some additional light in to his activities.
While nearly every correspondence of the Rayatz was collected and published for posterity in his Igrois Kodesh, this letter appears to be unpublished and the discussion within lost until now. Written on the 5th of Av in 1931, while the Rayatz was vacationing in Marienbad (in what is now the Czech Republic), famous for its spas and which attracted much of the elite of Eastern European Jewry in the inter-war years seeking a respite from city life. The Rayatz discusses the situation of Russian Jewry, then under Communist rule and the extreme hardships that the Jews there were facing. The Rayatz details many suggestions for Rabbi Jung in his attempt to help Russian Jewry both spiritually and physically.
Noted, for example, are Dr. Bernard Cohen, Dr. Schnitzler, Dr. Rosen and Dr. Rosman who should be contacted as potentials for political assistance. The Rayatz notes how a certain Dr. Abramowitz managed to escape Russia to Poland and gave over to the Rayatz details of the situation in Russia at the time. He ends his letter with a request that he be informed on any developments and prayers for assistance from G-d to save them from their troubles.
It is interesting to note, that nine years later, as the Holocaust was devastating European Jewry, Rabbi Dr. Leo Jung was instrumental in the resettlement of Lubavitch to New York and specifically in helping R. Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn escape Nazi Occupation to N.Y.
