David Chase Correspondence Emerges as 770 Expansion Materializes

A fascinating collection of the Rebbe’s English correspondence with Mr. David Chase, the renowned supporter of Chabad’s global institutions who invited the Rebbe to the groundbreaking for the expansion of 770 and served as chairman of the Vaad Habinyan, has recently been released.

The letters cover a wide range of subjects, from an antisemitic incident in Warsaw that led the Polish President’s Office to write to the Rebbe, to the 1980 presidential “landslide,” as well as more personal exchanges, such as Mr. Chase being “singled out publicly” at a farbrengen.

They also cover a speech Mr. Chase gave, inspired by the Rebbe’s influence and message of hope, which drew major press coverage and was published in The New York Times. The Rebbe later commented on it.

The letters also discuss Mr. Chase’s dedicated support of Chabad-Lubavitch mosdos, including the purchase of 66 additional acres in Morristown, and the Rebbe’s call for Chabad institutions to expand.

Describing the year as “a time to build,” the Rebbe said: “Every Chabad-Lubavitch Center which does not have its own building should acquire or build its own facility, and wherever the property is already owned there is certainly room to build additional floors, rooms or wings.”

As is known, in 5748, Mr. Chase spearheaded the plans to expand 770 and invited the Rebbe to the groundbreaking, which the Rebbe ultimately accepted after making a deal with Mr. Chase. What followed was a remarkable sight, as the Rebbe stood and spoke to the Chassidim on the lawn of 770 and personally took part in the hanachas even hapina.

Unfortunately, the plans were stalled. Yet, remarkably, nearly forty years later, these letters to Mr. Chase are being published just as the first step of the expansion of 770 moves forward, the realization of the Rebbe’s vision, which Mr. Chase played a fundamental role in helping to advance.

Mr. Chase (1929–2016) survived the Holocaust as a teenager and came to America in 5706 (1946), settling in Hartford. He built Chase Enterprises and eventually became one of the wealthiest people in the United States. In 5729 (1969), he met the Rebbe through Rabbi Moshe Herson.

The Rebbe encouraged him to support the Lubavitch Yeshiva in New Jersey, which led to the purchase of the Morristown campus of the Rabbinical College of America. In 5741 (1981), the Rebbe asked him to put on tefillin every weekday and purchased three pairs for him, one for his home in Connecticut, one for Florida, and one for his yacht. In 5745 (1985), the Rebbe suggested he chair the Machne Israel Development Fund.

The letters show how closely the Rebbe followed his work. “From time to time I inquire after you through our mutual friend Rabbi Moshe Herson,” the Rebbe wrote.

In 5742, he told Mr. Chase that he was remembered in prayer at the Ohel of the Rebbe’s father-in-law. After the Rebbe’s 19 Kislev farbrengen that year, Mr. Chase wrote that he felt “singled out publicly.”

When the RCA bought 66 additional acres across from the Morristown campus, the Rebbe wrote of his “personal very generous pledge” and added the word “generous” by hand.

Mr. Chase lost around 60 relatives during the Holocaust, including his mother and six-year-old sister.

In one letter, the Rebbe writes to him that Holocaust survivors are “living witnesses of G-d’s miracles.” This applies not only to their survival, but also to their rehabilitation and the contributions they make “both materially and spiritually,” as “this has been exemplified so well by yourself and your family.” The Rebbe added that this is greater still when done “with strong religious motivation and with pride in one’s Jewishness.”

This is the background to the speech Mr. Chase gave at the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors in Washington in April 1983, attended by about 20,000 survivors. The speech generated significant media attention and was published in The New York Times.

The Rebbe later wrote to him that he was pleased to congratulate him “doubly so, both on the contents of your address and the spirit in which it was delivered.” The Rebbe also asked that it be published in local and regional papers, since “very often the local press is more effective in such matters.”

In his passionate and emotional speech, Mr. Chase commented on the influence of the Rebbe, saying: “For the past 18 years I have had the privilege to know our great Rebbe, whose philosophies and teachings of kindness, goodness and unquestionable belief in G-d helped me to find peace within myself.”

He added that he had been putting on tefillin each morning at the Rebbe’s request, and closed that part with: “I am grateful for the opportunity to know this great man. I am grateful that I am a Jew.”

In the fall of 1991, after an antisemitic incident outside a synagogue in Warsaw, Arkadiusz Rybicki, an Undersecretary of State in the Office of the President of Poland, wrote to the Rebbe on behalf of the President, expressing “deep sorrow” over the incident.

The booklet covers the correspondence between the Rebbe and the Polish President’s Office, which went through Mr. Chase, in which the Rebbe speaks about race and prejudice, writing that “no human being could claim superior ancestral origin,” and that recognizing this would make it easier “to cultivate a real feeling of kinship in all interhuman relationships.”

The collection includes many more letters, among them a Purim letter, a Chanukah letter, and a letter following the 1980 presidential election.

The teshurah was prepared by Rebbe Responsa and published in honor of the wedding of Mendel and Schejna Eisenbach. Most of the letters are being published for the first time.

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