Last week (the 9th of Adar) marked 80 years since the arrival of the Rebbe Rayatz – Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe – in New York. After suffering through months of Nazi bombardment and occupation of Poland, the Rebbe was able to escape thanks to his followers in America who interceded with the U.S. government.
Through amazing miracles, the Rebbe and his family, together with close aides and their families were permitted to leave Warsaw and travel through the lion’s den of Berlin to Riga, Latvia, where they arrived in mid-December 1939. It took three additional months for U.S. entry visas to be approved and travel arrangements to be made, but, with Hashem’s kindness, they eventually crossed the dangerous Atlantic Ocean and reached New York.
It wasn’t the Rebbe Rayatz’s first journey to America. Ten years earlier, he had visited for 10 months. Officially, he came to alert the public to the deteriorating plight – both material and spiritual – of Soviet Jewry and to fundraise to alleviate its sufferings. But he was also interested in spiritual conditions here in America.
European Jews at the time called America the “treifene medina” due to the low standards of Jewish observance in this country, but the Rebbe Rayatz saw great potential for turning the tide. The sorry state of traditional observance dated to the first large immigration of Jews to this country, from Germany, after 1848. Under Reform influence, they were already half-assimilated and their “temples” resembled churches. Services were often held on Sunday instead of Shabbos, men prayed bareheaded, and distinctive Jewish practices like Shabbos and kashrus were seen as outdated.
When great waves of Eastern-European Jews started arriving here in 1881, fleeing pogroms and persecution, they found a Jewish establishment here that, not only was non-observant, but actually looked down at “primitive” Ostjuden (Eastern-European Jews) who still clung to their “outdated” religion.
Often the new immigrants were not super-conscientious about their Jewish observance (anyone deeply religious was naturally apprehensive of changing his observant environment, and didn’t rush to emigrate). They were easily influenced by their “cultured” predecessors to reduce or abandon any desire they may have had to live a full Jewish life in America. At public school their children learned to ape non-Jewish classmates and grew up with scant Torah knowledge. Jewish day schools did not yet exist, and the earliest ones that formed later catered to but a tiny minority of children.
The Rebbe Rayatz was deeply interested in American Jewry from the moment he succeeded his father as leader of Chabad in 1920. Although busy organizing and overseeing a vast underground movement to maintain Yiddishkeit in the Soviet Union, he asked his tiny handful of followers in America to report on American Jewish communities and urged them and others to stimulate and reinforce Jewish observance in the U.S.
During his visit here in 1929-1930, the Rebbe Rayatz visited dozens of cities, drawing large throngs of Jews. Many of these were observant or traditional-leaning, but he also inspired many who had long abandoned Torah observance to do teshuvah.
He also encouraged rabbinic leaders and those who wrote English well to disseminate knowledge of taharas mishpacha and other practical mitzvos. He later declared that he was most impressed with the sincerity of American Jewish youth, in whom he saw tremendous potential.
Certainly, the Rebbe viewed America, even then, as a potential new base for the Chabad movement. Apparently, though, he felt the time was not yet ripe. He wished to remain close to his many thousands of followers still confined in Soviet Russia, continuing to send them material aid and encouraging them both in their personal observance and in continuing the activities he had initiated for maintaining Yiddishkeit in the USSR. He also felt that Chabad Chassidus could provide great inspiration for youth in Poland and other European lands.
After returning to Europe in 1930, the Rebbe Rayatz continued corresponding with American Jews and spiritual leaders to inspire them to strengthen Yiddishkeit in America and continue initiatives he had launched during his trip.
When Europe erupted in flames in 1939, the Rebbe realized that Divine providence was forcing him to leave for the New World. Upon arriving here, he declared that his mission was to recreate Europe’s great centuries-old Torah centers in what was now the world’s largest Jewish community. Despite the new challenges he faced here – which were utterly unlike he had encountered in Europe – he was resolute in pursuing that goal. Indeed, within 10 years, he had succeeded beyond anyone else’s wildest dreams.
All American Jews – indeed, Jews around the world – owe the Rebbe Rayatz a deep debt of gratitude.