The story of the Frierdiker Rebbe’s shiduch was only recently told in an obscure Israeli newspaper. Marking the day of the Frierdiker Rebbe’s Tno’im on 28 Sivan 5656 (1896).
By Anash.org writer
The Frierdiker Rebbe’s Tenoim, marking his engagement with Rebbetzin Nechama Dina, was held on 28 Sivan 5656 (1896), in the town of Alivka.
Who was the shadchan? This detail has come to light from the obscure memoirs of a poet in Eretz Yisrael, published in a little-known newspaper in recent years.
Emanual Novogrobelsy was a young boy who grew up in Nikolayev at the turn of the century. He was an Althaus grandchild and great-nephew of a famous chossid, Reb Asher Grossman, better known as “Reb Asher Nikolayever.”
Emanual – who later changed his last name to Harusi – wrote an article with his memoirs, recording many stories about the Chassidim in his family and in his city. In his section about his uncle Reb Asher, he writes this fact:
“My Uncle Asher was devoted to the Lubavitcher Rebbe [the Rebbe Rashab]. When the Rebbe wanted to marry off his son and searched for an appropriate bride, he heard about one young woman, a Schneerson herself, who lived in Bessarabia. The Rebbe turned to my Uncle Asher and asked him to go there to see her and to offer his opinion whether she was appropriate as a wife for his son who would one day inherit his role.
“Uncle Asher went off to Bessarabia, met the bride and her family, and having a positive impression, sent a letter to the Rebbe in her praise. Uncle’s suggestion was enough for the Rebbe to approve of the match.”
(Barda-Guberg Teshurah, Teves 3, 5779 pg. 60)
Balivka, not Alivka