Gems From The Schneerson Library: The Invitation From Riga That Got The Frierdiker Rebbe Out of Russia

The Library of the Frierdiker Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneerson, was confiscated by the Bolsheviks and placed in Russia’s state library. CrownHeights.info presents a series of gems discovered in the library and made available to the public.

Mordecai Dubin put a great deal of effort in rescuing the Frierdiker Rebbe when he was arrested in summer of 1927. Here are two official letters written in late August 1927 and signed by Dubin, one in Hebrew and another in Russian.

In those letters the Jewish community of Riga kindly asks Harav Schneerson to take up a position of the communal rabbi and to move to Riga together with all his family, promising to bear all his expenses in Riga. The Russian variant, probably intended initially for the authorities, is a more general version of the invitation. The Russian invitation states that it was an unanimous decision of the Jewish community of Riga, and does not contain any mention of costs or family coming with the Frierdiker Rebbe to Riga.

Fortunately, the initiative of Dubin was successful and the Frierdiker Rebbe managed to escape the Soviet Union and to arrive safely to Riga together with his family.