The latest installment of “From the Margins of Chabad History” presents a new letter and picture of the Frierdiker Rebbe, along with newspaper articles about his time in Riga and the short-lived Chabad yeshivah there.
By Shmuel Super
Introduction
The present article is devoted to information related to the Frierdiker Rebbe’s years in Riga. After being forced to leave Russia in 5688 (1927), the Frierdiker Rebbe settled in Riga. While Riga remained the Frierdiker Rebbe’s primary residence for almost six years, it was always considered a temporary residence, and the Frierdiker Rebbe spent much time traveling during this period.
Information about the Frierdiker Rebbe’s activities in Riga is collected in Toldos Chabad BePolin, Lita, VeLatvia, chapter 11–13 and chapter 44. This article collects some additional information related to this era that wasn’t included in this work.
First, we will present two Russian-language articles about the Frierdiker Rebbe’s travels from Riga, one of which includes a previously unknown picture of him. We then present an article from the Riga Jewish press about the short-lived Chabad yeshivah in Riga, and conclude with an unknown letter of the Frierdiker Rebbe, preserved in a Riga newspaper.
Leaving and Returning to Riga
The idea of settling permanently in Poland had been on the table since the Frierdiker Rebbe left Russia. One of the main considerations in favor of Poland was that the Frierdiker Rebbe wished to be near his yeshivah, which was centered in Poland. In the summer of 5691 it appeared that the Frierdiker Rebbe had decided to settle in Poland, and he traveled there for Tishrei.
Segodnya was a Russian-language newspaper, published in Riga, Latvia from 1919 to 1940. This newspaper was founded and owned by Jews, and many of its contributors were Jewish as well. As a result, the newspaper contained some well-informed articles about Jewish affairs, including about the Frierdiker Rebbe, who lived in Riga from 5688–5693 (1927–1933).
The first article we will read from Segodnya appeared on September 4, 1931, and it reports about the Frierdiker Rebbe’s journey to Poland for Tishrei of 5692, expressing the worries of the Riga chasidim that the move would be permanent. Here is the report, generously translated from the Russian by DeepL AI. Credit goes to Peretz (ben R. Dovid Abba) Mochkin for calling our attention to the Segodnya articles:
The Lubavitcher Rabbi has left Riga.
Perhaps the Rabbi will remain in Riga.
Yesterday afternoon the Lubavitcher Rabbi I. Schneerson left Riga. Already an hour before the departure of the Warsaw train, chasidim began to arrive at the station, and after some time the entire premises of the station, as well as the sidewalk in front of the building, were filled with a crowd of people seeing them off.
Of course, bearded men in wide-brimmed hats and long caftans predominated, but many women and young people were also visible in the crowd. A great deal of excitement was noticeable among the public. Everyone talked only about the rabbi and his departure, and everyone tried to explain to themselves and those around them the reason for the rabbi’s displeasure, who had decided just before the holidays to leave Riga, where he had lived for four years.
The railway administration could not complain about the affairs yesterday, since an innumerable number of platform tickets alone had been sold, not to mention the numerous tickets to Ogre, bought by especially zealous chasidim who had decided to spend as much time as possible in the rabbi’s company.
Fifteen minutes before the train’s departure, the rabbi arrived at the station, accompanied by his son-in-law Gurary and close chasidim. Those seeing him off formed lines, almost from the very entrance to the station to the second-class carriage in which the rabbi was to travel.
The crowd, which had behaved decently throughout, finally breaks down, and when the rabbi approaches the carriage, the entire crowd closes in around him and his retinue in a tight ring. Those standing closer ask the rabbi to say a few words of farewell, which he does, taking as an epigraph for his farewell speech a saying from the Bible. The speech, of course, is of a religious nature, and ends with the wish of a happy new year to all the Jewish people.
The listeners, who had been sitting motionless during the rabbi’s speech and eagerly catching every sound that came from his lips, piously and loudly responded at the end, “amen!” After this, the rabbi, followed by his escort, climbed into the carriage, and the crowd on the platform, which was constantly increasing, burst into stormy delight. Cries were heard: “Ride in peace!” “May G-d bless your steps!”
The policeman and the conductors were called upon to calm the dispersing public and protect the steps of the carriage from the storm of the chasidim who have rushed after the rabbi. On the step of the carriage, a few minutes before the train’s departure, the writer of these lines manages to interview Mr. Gurary.
“For now we are leaving for Warsaw for the holidays,” says the rabbi’s son-in-law, “but in a month we will come back to Riga and then it will be decided whether we will remain here or move permanently to Poland. Our decision depends on the readiness of the people of Riga to host the Lubavitch yeshiva. As you know, some rich people from Riga are begging the rabbi not to leave Riga, and are promising to establish and maintain a yeshivah here. If they keep their promise, we will remain in Riga.”
There are only a few seconds left before the train departs. The carriage is filling up with chasidim, who are accompanying the rabbi to Ogre, and some even further. At the head of these escorts are Del. M. Dubin, Sh. Wittenberg and some other leaders of Latvian Orthodox Jewry. A huge crowd has filled the entire platform. Everyone tries to squeeze forward, everyone wants to get closer to the window of the carriage from which the rabbi looks out.
The whistle sounds, the train starts moving. At that moment the rabbi stretches out his hands and blesses the crowd remaining on the platform from the carriage window. The chasidim watch for a long time the ever-smaller train carrying the rabbi out of Latvia, and then slowly begin to disperse. Some furtively wipe away a tear.
***
Accompanying the article is a picture taken on the scene. This picture hasn’t been noticed by Chabad researchers until now, and we present it here for the first time to the public. If anyone can identify some of the chasidim in the picture, please leave a comment after the article.
The next Segodnya article is from a few weeks later, October 23, 1931. It reports that after the yamim tovim, the Frierdiker Rebbe returned to Riga. But the Poland move plan was still active, and the Riga chasidim were doing everything in their power to have the Frierdiker Rebbe stay in Riga. As part of their efforts, they were opening a yeshivah. Here is the article, in English translation:
The Lubavitch Rabbi has returned to Riga.
He wants to go to Poland, but will he stay in Riga? A Lubavitch yeshivah is opening.
Yesterday, after a 7-week absence, the Lubavitch Rabbi returned to Riga. The Rabbi spent the holidays in Poland, in Otwock, among numerous Polish chasidim and students of the local Lubavitch yeshivas.
The Rabbi arrived accompanied by his wife and younger son-in-law. A large crowd of chasidim, led by Dep. M. Dubin and the chairman of the “Agudah” A. Volshonok.
The question of the future place of residence of the rabbi has not yet been clarified. As has already been reported, the Polish chasidim want to influence the Lubavitcher to move to Poland. The Riga chasidim want to convince the rabbi to remain in Riga. Between Warsaw and Riga, a stubborn struggle has been going on for a long time on this matter, with varying success. During the rabbi’s last stay, he almost agreed to move to Poland, where there are three Lubavitch yeshivos.
The rabbi arrived in Riga with the plan to move to Warsaw in 4-5 weeks. But the Riga Hasidim are taking all measures to ensure that the rabbi remains in Riga. With this aim in mind, the establishment of a Lubavitch yeshivah was set about with feverish haste, and the first batch of yeshivah students—about 15 young people—recently arrived from Lithuania to Riga and were placed in residence with local wealthy Hassidim. The new yeshivah will be called “Tomchei Tmimim” and will be headed by famous rabbis who came from Soviet Russia: The Rabbi from Monastyrshchina and Rabbi Osherov from Dribin.
***
The “Rabbi from Monastyrshchina” mentioned in the article is R. Avraham Yitzchak Tavarisky. Born c. 5633 in Smargon, he learned in the yeshivah in Volozhin under R. Chaim Brisker, and went on to serve as the rov in Monastyrshchina, Russia for 34 years. After his tenure in the yeshivah in Riga he moved to Eretz Yisrael and served as the rov of the town of Magdiel. He passed away in 5695 (see Shaarei Tziyon, year 15, no. 7–9, p. 44; Kol Torah, year 4, no. 9–10, pp. 24–25).
Rabbi Osherov from Dribin is R. Avraham Eliyahu Osherov, a talmid of Tomchei Tmimim in Lubavitch who served as a rov in the town of Dribin, before moving to Riga. He was a shochet and mashpia in Riga, until he was killed by the Nazis in the Holocaust.
As an aside, it is interesting to note that a short time later a big-name Rosh Yeshivah was brought in from Telz, Lithuania—the famous young Litvishe gaon R. Mottel Pogromansky. His appointment was excitedly reported in the local press (cited in Toldos Chabad).
Inside the Riga Yeshivah
Information about the short-lived Riga yeshivah is presented in Toldos Chabad. But an article in the Riga-based Yiddish Batog newspaper gives us a fuller perspective and more detailed information than the sources collected there. Following is the article from Batog, 2 Iyar 5692 (May 8, 1932) in English translation:
One of the quiet, aristocratic streets of Riga, Albert Street, once exclusively inhabited by barons, counts, and high-ranking German nobility, now houses the headquarters of the Lubavitcher yeshivah bochurim in Riga.
The Lubavitcher Rebbe himself resides on Weidendamm Street, while the yeshivah is located in a building directly across from his residence. The dormitory for the yeshivah bochurim is situated on Albert Street.
On the building where the yeshivah bochurim live, a sign catches the eye among the various family names displayed: “Seminaria”—indicating that on the fourth floor of the building the Lubavitcher seminary students reside.
Previously, a German baron lived in this house. Decades ago, he was a very popular personality in Riga and was known as a man of distinguished aristocratic lineage. He was not fond of Jews, and he would never have dreamed that in his home Lubavitcher bochurim would one day gather for shalosh seudos and to chazer chasidus. . . .
The German baron’s house turned out to be perfectly suited for the Lubavitcher yeshiva, which had been searching for a suitable dormitory for its bochurim, as the yeshivah administration insisted that the dormitory should be near both the yeshivah and the Lubavitcher Rebbe himself.
Today, about a dozen yeshivah bochurim live in this apartment—two or three per room. The majority of these bochurim come from Lithuania, primarily from Rakishok. This is because Rakishok is a chasidishe shtetl, and just last year, the Lubavitcher Rebbe personally visited the chasidim there, and they subsequently sent their children to the Lubavitcher yeshivah.
The first thing that strikes you as you enter is the telephone and the overall grandeur of the apartment—beautiful, though not newly renovated, rooms. This is something that would be completely unfamiliar to a bochur from a Poilishe yeshiva, or even to a bochur from Slabodka and Telz.
The appearance of the Lubavitcher yeshivah bochurim is also quite different from that of their counterparts in Litvishe yeshivos. Here, one sees beards of all kinds—long beards, short beards, and facial whiskers. One bochur with a blond beard, another with a dark beard, and also younger boys whose untrimmed facial hair has just begun to sprout.
According to chasidus, every hair of a beard holds deep significance, and for the yeshivah bochurim, wearing a beard and learning chasidus is obligatory.
This is precisely what distinguishes the Lubavitcher yeshivah from the Lithuanian yeshivas. The bochurim must daven with a minyan every day, go to the mikvah from time to time, and, of course, attend the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s teaching of chasidus.
The chasidus that the bochurim learn must be repeated word-for-word, without omitting or altering a single expression. “By the Rebbe,” the bochurim say, “every letter is counted.”
But the bochurim do not learn chasidus only for themselves. They are also sent out to various chasidishe minyanim, where they deliver a chasidishe maamar during shalosh seudos, repeating what they heard from the Rebbe.
It is interesting to note that among the Lubavitcher yeshivah bochurim, there is not a single native of Riga. Among the hundreds of chasidim in Riga, there are only a handful of young men who consider themselves true chasidim—meaning that they have integrated with the older chasidim, attend the Rebbe’s shalosh seudos, engage in chasidishe discussions, daven with deep kavanah, and emulate the conduct of the elder chasidim.
It is said that when the Lubavitcher Rebbe was in America, he sent a telegram to such a young chasid—a son of a Lubavitcher chasid from Riga—ordering him to immediately travel to Warsaw to study at the Lubavitcher yeshiva, Tomchei Temimim. Naturally, the young chasid obeyed the Rebbe and immediately left for Warsaw.
The Lubavitcher yeshivah has introduced a new system that has not yet been adopted in other yeshivas. In the past, yeshivah students would “ess teg” [hosted every day from meals by a different local family], but this practice has long been discontinued. Nowadays, yeshivos provide students with a monthly stipend, known as “chalukah,” from which they must manage their own expenses.
However, in the Lubavitcher yeshivah in Riga, a dormitory system has been established. The bochur does not have to worry about his sustenance—he is, so to speak, on “full board.” Lubavitcher yeshivah bochurim receive a room, three meals a day, and also a monthly stipend of a few lat for other expenses.
Overseeing all the yeshiva’s provisions is a young, dark administrator whom the bochurim call “Leizer der Roiter.” It is somewhat puzzling why a dark-bearded young man would be called “Leizer the Red,” but the bochurim explain that in Lubavitch, there once was an administrator with that name. His name became well-known among chasidim, so now, they use the same name for their current administrator.
As I was preparing to leave the Lubavitcher headquarters, the telephone rang—a call from the Lubavitcher court with news of a maamar chasidus…
***
For reasons that aren’t completely clear, the yeshivah in Riga failed to take root, and a year later in Cheshvan 5693 (November 1932) the yeshivah was closed.
[Legends are related in Litvishe yeshivos about the supposed reasons for R. Mordechai Pogromansky leaving the yeshivah in Riga (see Harav Mordechai Pogromansky, pp. 87–93). But the true reason seems much simpler: the yeshivah closed down just a few months after his arrival.]
The yeshivah in Riga learned maseches Nedarim during its brief existence. This Gemara bearing the yeshivah’s stamp was used by Eliezer Zev Tabakin, a sixteen-year-old bochur from Birzh, Lithuania. He later learned in Slabodka and was killed in the Holocaust (see Mimaamakim, vol. 1, p. 234). Thanks to Rabbi Mordechai Glazman, the shliach to Riga, for providing this picture.
A Letter to the President
Two years later, ahead of Tishrei 5694, the Frierdiker Rebbe finally moved permanently from Riga to Poland. A few years later, just before Rosh Hashanah 5698, the Latvian dictator Kārlis Ulmanis celebrated his 60th birthday. Led by the Frierdiker Rebbe’s chasid R. Mordechai Dubin, the Jewish community of Latvia had a positive relationship with Ulmanis.
Under the fit-for-a-dictator headline “The entire nation blesses the leader for his 60th birthday,” The Yiddish Riga newspaper, Haynt, devoted its front page to celebrating Ulmanis’s birthday and conveying the best wishes of the Jewish community.
The article concludes with the birthday wishes sent by the Lubavitcher Rebbe. This letter of the Frierdiker Rebbe was not published in Igros Kodesh.
In English translation, the letter reads:
With this, I hereby express my blessing to His Excellency on the occasion of his birthday, the day that will complete sixty years, may he live long days and years. May the G-d of heaven and earth send the angels of life and peace before His Excellency, the President of the Republic of Latvia, to bless him, strengthen him, and encourage him, to continue walking in the paths of peace and the pursuit of the welfare of humanity, without distinction of religion or nationality, that His Excellency has charted. In all his endeavors for the benefit of the country and humanity, without distinction of religion or nationality, may he be wise and successful.
Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn
***
(While this article was being prepared, this letter was also discovered by Yisrael and Shlomo Barda and published in Ginzaya journal, no. 23.)
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It’s pronounced Sevodnya.