New Volume on History of Chabad

Kehot Publication Society released a new Hebrew volume on the history of Chabad in Poland, Lithuania and Latvia.

Toldot Chabad B’Polin, Lita v’Latvia, fifth in a series on the history of Chabad, was compiled by Chabad historian Rabbi Shalom Dovber Levine, director of the Central Chabad-Lubavitch Library and Archive Center, in New York.

Spanning 156 years (1790-1946), the book covers historical events and personalities connected to Chabad-Lubavitch since its establishment by Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi (1745-1812) until the decimation of Polish Jewry in the early 1940s.

The volume traces the growth of the Chabad movement, from its early beginnings in Lithuania (a stronghold of the anti-Chasidic mitnagdim), to the establishment of a Chabad community in distant Latvia and the Chabad community in Poland in the 1800s.

As well, the volume documents the period in which the sixth Chabad-Lubavitch leader, Rabbi Yosef Y. Schneersohn, established the movement’s headquarters in Poland (1928-1940), first in Warsaw and later in Otwock. During those tumultuous years, the Rebbe continued to grow the movement by transplanting the Central Chabad Yeshiva to Poland, while continuing his efforts to sustain and support Russian Jewry under persecutory, communist rule.

In the pages of this volume, hundreds of rabbinic students who perished in the Holocaust are memorialized for the very first time.

The well-researched book is based on original documents and memoirs, housed in the Central Chabad-Lubavitch Library, making it an invaluable resource for the historian and layman alike.

Some of the chapters include:

·A description of the Chabad communities in Vilnius, capital of Lithuania, during the early years of the Chabad movement

·The Chabad communities in Riga, capital of Latvia

·The community in the town of Widz, in Lithuania

·The early Chabad Chasidim in Warsaw

·The establishment of the Central Chabad Yeshiva in Poland

·The various branches of the Yeshiva

·A description of the escape and rescue of groups of students during WWII

·The history of the Chabad Library the (“Schneersohn Collection”) during the said era in Poland

The handsome 8 ½” x11” 370 page volume is nicely complemented by photos and facsimiles of various historic manuscripts and documents.

Other books in this series, by the same author, and also in Hebrew, include:

History of Chabad in Soviet Russia—1918-1940; History of Chabad in Czarist Russia 1770-1820; History of Chabad in the Holy Land—1776-1940 and History of Chabad in the United States—1900-1940.

The books are available online, at: www.kehot.com.