Unpublished Berlin Photo of the Frierdiker Rebbe Released

In honor of Chai Elul and the chassunah tonight of Shmuel Avraham (Jordan) Michelson and Rivkah (Allison) Galynsky, a never-before-published photograph of the Frierdiker Rebbe is being released by Menachem Lewis and his father, Yaakov Lewis.

The photograph appears to date from the late 1920s or early 1930s. The print was among photographs sent to Rebbetzin Nechama Dina while he was away from home.

A stamp on the reverse, “gedr. W. TALBOT Berlin,” indicates that it was processed at Walter Talbot, a substantial Berlin photo business with branches at Jerusalemer Straße 42 and Tauentzienstraße 1.

Walter Joseph Talbot (1876–?) was a major Berlin photographic dealer and photo-processing business. His father, Romain Talbot, had been in the photographic trade since the 1850s. Walter took over the photographic retail division of the family firm around 1905–06 and operated independently as Walter Talbot, Berlin.

The precise date and the location in which it was taken have not yet been definitively determined. Given the special occasion, the photograph is being released while efforts to clarify those details continue.

The photograph came to light as part of the father-son team’s ongoing research, which draws on archival collections, historical photographs and documents, municipal archives and local archivists, architectural plans and records, and other period sources.

For the father-son team, bringing to light previously unknown and unpublished photographs of the Rebbeim and tracing their origins adds another dimension to their learning and hiskashrus. A previous project traced photos of the Frierdiker Rebbe’s trip to Purkersdorf.

Anash.org readers who may have information that could help establish when and where this or other photographs were taken are invited to contact them at [email protected].