From the Margins of Chabad History: After fake news was spread regarding the Rebbe Rashab’s words about anti-frum activists, the Frierdiker Rebbe wrote a letter to set the record straight. This previously unknown letter is presented here for the first time, with the full background of the event.

By Shmuel Super

A Letter of Denial

In the 22 Shevat 5670 (February 1, 1910) edition of the Vilna-based Hazman newspaper, a small box titled “Letter to the Editor” appeared:

In English translation, the brief letter reads:

As one of the listeners to the speech of the honorable Rebbe, the Rav shlita, in response to the words of Mr. Slutzki in Chernigov on the evening before the elections, I find myself obligated to state publicly that the report of the writer “Yemini” was a lie.

Yosef Yitzchak Schneerson.

Peterburg, Tuesday, Parshas Yisro, 5670

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Clearly, this is the Frierdiker Rebbe writing during the nesius of the Rebbe Rashab. But what is he responding to and labeling as “fake news”?

The False Report

In the newspaper of 10 Shevat (January 20), a report appeared from Chernigov. This article purportedly reports on a meeting of representatives from Chernigov in which an argument broke out between the writer Avraham Yaakov Slutzki (a leader of the Mizrachi) and the Lubavitcher Rebbe, the Rebbe Rashab.

This meeting was part of the preparations for the rabbinical conference of 5670 in S. Petersburg. The full background to this meeting is summarized in Toldos Chabad Berussia Hatzaris, chapter 138, including the visit of the Rebbe Rashab and the Frierdiker Rebbe to Chernigov. 

According to the article, Mr. Slutzki attacked the attitude of the ultra-Orthodox (“Chareidim”) towards the young Jewish writers and intelligentsia. He asserted that the Chareidim proclaim that these people aren’t part of the Jewish people.  

The article then claims to present the words of the Rebbe Rashab’s response to Slutzki: “You are all destroyers of the religion, ruiners of the Jewish people. You are not part of the Jewish nation.” The writer, who signs as “Yemini,” reports that the Rebbe’s words caused a great commotion among the participants in the meeting.

It was to this report—claiming that the Rebbe Rashab had said that anti-frum activists were not part of the Jewish people—that his son, the Frierdiker Rebbe, responded so sharply, declaring it a lie.

Further Denial

However, this was not the end of the matter. A few days later, another letter of denial appeared in the 25 Shevat (February 6) edition of the newspaper. 

This letter to the editor quotes the offensive line attributed to the Rebbe Rashab in “Yemini’s” report and states that it was entirely fabricated. The writer states that he was one of the six elected representatives of the Chernigov area and was present at the meeting in question. He writes that the Rebbe Rashab responded to Mr. Slutzki cordially and defended his position without using any coarse or offensive expressions.

The letter is signed אחד מהששה, “one of the six” (the original newspaper contains a typo), referring to the six elected representatives of the Chernigov region. The names of the six representatives are listed in an article in the 9 Shevat (January 19) edition of Hazman newspaper: Rabbis David Tzvi (Radatz) Chen of Chernigov, Menachem Mendel Chen of Niezhin, Hillel Arlozorov of Borsnahn, Zeev Volfson of Krolevitch, Isser Tumarkin of Starodub, and Mr. Yitzchak Schneerson of Chernigov.

Of the six, the most likely candidate for our anonymous letter-writer is R. Mendel Chen, as he was a close and trusted lieutenant of the Rebbe Rashab throughout the entire saga of the Asifas Harabbanim.

The True Story?

We now know what the Rebbe Rashab didn’t say. But what did he say in response to Mr. Slutzki? A possible answer to this question can be found through the final Chernigov district representative listed above, Mr. Yitzchak Schneerson of Chernigov.

A key player in the Asifas Harabbanim, Yitzchak Schneerson was the grandson of Harav Shalom DovBer, the Chabad Rebbe in Retchitza, who was himself a grandson of the Tzemach Tzedek. Yitzchak had moved away from the path of his ancestors. Rather than becoming a rav in the family tradition, he became a “rabbiner”—a government-sanctioned religious functionary.

Like most rabbiners, Yitzchak Schneerson was a maskil who advocated for religious reform. However, he still maintained genuine respect and understanding for the frum position, and a particularly strong respect for his relative and adversary, the Rebbe Rashab. Yitzchak Schneerson wrote a Yiddish-language memoir of his life, in which he devotes considerable space to telling the story of the Asifas Harabbanim from his perspective.  

In his account, Yitzchak Schneerson provides us with a description of the exchange between the Rebbe Rashab and Mr. Slutzki. Schneerson generally presents the Rebbe Rashab’s positions fairly and accurately, and his account of the episode is compatible with the statements made by the Frierdiker Rebbe and the other letter-writer cited above. Here is his account, translated into English from Leben Un Kampf fun Yidden in Tzarishen Rusland (pp. 325–326):

We gathered again at 3:00 PM and began engaging in casual scholarly discussions about contemporary issues in Jewish life. Everything proceeded smoothly, even though some of the maskilic “rabbiners”—including A.Y. Slutzki—formed an opposition to the ultra-Orthodox circles. Nevertheless, everything remained in order.

That was until, suddenly, the rabbi of Novozyvkov [R. Avraham Chen] delivered a speech that offended the maskilim, accusing them of being destroyers of religion and the like.

This move provoked a sharp response from A.Y. Slutzki, who, in his reply, expressed deep offense over Rabbi A. Chen’s remarks. According to him, at a time when we are all striving to strengthen the national sentiments of our people and educate them in the spirit of the nation, such attacks and accusations against the intelligentsia only serve to exacerbate divisions among Jews.

To this, the Lubavitcher Rebbe responded with the following words:

“These tears you shed now are nothing but crocodile tears! First, you laid the gunpowder, and now—when you see sparks that may lead to an explosion—you weep, miserable ones… But you must not forget that you are the ‘generation of enlightenment’ that has extinguished all religious feeling, and anything sacred in Israel is abhorrent to you! And now, seeing that Judaism is—G-d forbid—heading toward ruin, you have suddenly become saints who wish to save it. First, you ignited the fire, and now you have become firefighters rushing to put out the blaze!”

These words, spoken by the Lubavitcher Rebbe with deep inner conviction, stirred great excitement among the rabbis and ultra-Orthodox circles but, at the same time, provoked strong protest and resistance from our side. I had to make considerable efforts to calm the inflamed tempers. Here, too, I was aided by the rabbi of Niezhin, Rabbi Mendel Chen, of blessed memory. With his sincerity and genuine fear of Heaven, he helped bring about some peace between the agitated sides, so that by evening they were once again able to sit and converse together.

As for me, in an attempt to divert attention from the disputes and conflicts, I casually asked the Rebbe whether they were now about to daven Minchah…

When the davening began, A.Y. Slutzki and the other intellectuals realized the “trouble” they had gotten themselves into and reproached me for entangling them in this matter.

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This appears to be a more accurate account of the events at the contested Chernigov meeting.

We conclude with a brief note about Yitzchak Schneerson. After fleeing Russia after the Bolshevik Revolution, Yitzchak Schneerson settled in Paris. He worked as an industrialist in Paris, and during World War II, he established the Center of Contemporary Jewish Documentation, which collected and preserved critical evidence of the Nazis’ crimes against the Jewish people. The CDJC later merged with the Mémorial de la Shoah, the Holocaust museum in Paris. He passed away in Paris in 5729.

To view all installments of From the Margins of Chabad History, click here.

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Addendum

A previous installment of this column recounted the story of R. Leib Nelkenbaum, a talmid of Tomchei Temimim in Poland, who was part of the group of Chabad bochurim that managed to escape Europe via Kobe, Japan, and survive the war. A letter published in the recent Loewenthal-Halberstam teshurah (p. 82) sheds additional light on the story of this tomim.

R. Yosef Rodal was another member of the Chabad group who escaped to Kobe, and in 5702, he was one of nine bochurim who received visas to Canada and established the yeshivah in Montreal. In a letter written during Chanukah 5702, shortly after arriving in Montreal, R. Rodal inquired of his friend R. Moshe Pinchas Katz in Brooklyn regarding R. Leib Nelkenbaum. Here is the relevant piece, in English translation:

“Write to me more frequently about the news by you. . . . Has our friend Mr. Leib Nelkenbaum already arrived in your place? Do you have anything from him? He is an upstanding yungerman, who received many favors from us. He writes letters to me from time to time.”

The way R. Rodal refers to Nelkenbaum suggests that, while he was part of the Chabad group in Japan, he was somewhat of an outsider. This is consistent with the information in our earlier article, that Nelkenbaum had learned in the branch of Tomchei Temimim in Chelm, and when the war broke out, he ended up in Vilna and joined the Chabad group there.

Most of the Chabad group had been talmidim of the central Yeshivah in Otvotzk, and were significantly younger than him. Both in age and socially, Nelkenbaum was somewhat on the periphery of the group, and his Lubavitcher identity may also not have been as strong. Nevertheless, he was welcomed into the group and assisted in every way. He evidently maintained contact with Chabad for a period of time in New York, but eventually seems to have fallen out of touch.