Newly Discovered Document about the Rebbe’s Past

The newly-released film from JEM (Jewish Educational Media), The Early Years Volume III, chronicles the lives of the Rebbe and the Rebbetzin in the years before they arrived in the United States. The film documents the years 1937-1940, when the Rebbe lived in Paris.

Like Early Years Volumes I and II, Volume III includes first-person accounts and testimonies, never-before-seen documents, and a wealth of fascinating information that answers questions about this little-known period.

Click Here to see other new revelations in the film.

A vital historic document, which was recently discovered by the Early Years team, is the official record that evidences the Rebbe’s studies at the University of Paris, know as “the Sorbonne.” This document was secured through the extraordinary efforts of JEM’s Parisian researcher, a French professor of Film. Professor Carol Shyman searched intensively through the records of the Sorbonne for months on end, in an effort to determine whether the Rebbe’s studied in the Sorbonne, and the nature of such studies. Like so many before them, JEM’s efforts bore no fruit. She was about to resign herself to failure. However, in light JEM ‘s discovery of the Rebbe’s studies at another Paris school – The Special School for Mechanical and Electrical Engineering – which he completed in 1937, the Early Years staff directed her to focus especially on the period following those studies, from 1937 onward.

Finally, after additional weeks of rummaging through French State archives, she finally came upon the Sorbonne’s original registration book, with the Rebbe’s enrollment recorded, in his own handwriting. A translation of the French-language entry reads:

Name of Student: Schneerson, Mendel
Date of Birth: March 1, 1895; Nikolayev, Russia
Nationality: Russian refugee
Student’s Address: 9 Rue Boulard, 14th Quarter, Paris
Date Paid: November 30, 1937
Receipt Number: 15670

(The Rebbe’s official papers listed 1895 as his date of birth, although he was born in 1902.)

The University of Paris stands not far from ESTP in Paris’s Latin Quarter. The Rebbe registered at the Sorbonne during two consecutive years – in November of 1937, and November of 1938. The 1937 entry shows his main field of study as mathematics – in particular, differential calculus, a field of analysis which investigates motion and rates of change. Many of the Sorbonne student records were destroyed in a fire caused by student riots in 1968, so at this time, we do not know more about his studies there. But the courses the Rebbe signed up for would have qualified him for an additional degree in advanced mathematics.

The newly-released Early Years Volume III sheds light on some further details of this period, from the testimony of Reb Moshe Ze’ev Reitzer, who studied pharmacology at the Sorbonne and attended some lectures together with the Rebbe. In the course of an interview that appears in this film, his son, Reb Yoel Reitzer, relates the following:

…and there, he met a Jew – at the time he didn’t even know who he was; later he became the Lubavitcher Rebbe. My father was in awe of him. The Rebbe would come straight to the lectures; and he didn’t speak with anyone. He would come in, and as soon as the lecture ended, he would leave. He was very impressed by him. He was extremely careful, my father told me, to guard his eyes, not to see anything impermissible. He spoke to almost no one, and if he did say something, it was very brief.

He got to know the Rebbe a little. My father was a Torah Jew, he was still single. And apparently, the Rebbe appreciated him. One day, the Rebbe said, “Would it not be a good idea… There are a number of young boys wandering around Paris, they have nowhere to study Torah. We need to ensure that they remain good Jews. Would you teach them privately?” My father agreed. For my father it was a windfall, as well, because he needed to eat. And the Rebbe pulled (the class) together – this child, another one…

Later, my father had a class at night with a whole group of boys. My father used to say, that when he left Paris and he moved to Lyon – later when he got engaged – the children were really crying. My father really loved children and had a deep love of Torah. The children became very attached to him.

To order the Early Years Volume III or any other Early Years volumes, please visit: www.JemStore.com or call JEM at: 718.774.6000.