A battle to regain precious Jewish works that disappeared behind the Iron Curtain more than ninety years ago is being waged by a group handpicked by the last Lubavitcher Rebbe. The sefarim of two Chabad Rebbes have lain in silence on the shelves of two Russian libraries, some since the early days of communism. But what chance does even one of the largest Jewish groups in the world have when going up against the kleptostate of the modern Russian Federation?
Ami Magazine takes an in-depth look at the Lubavitch library and manuscripts in Russia, how it got there and why was there a need to have a United States court weigh in on seemingly a Russian issue.
In a discreet building adjacent to Lubavitch World Headquarters, in what was once the study and office of the Lubavitcher Rebbe zt”l, is the Ohel Yosef Yitzchak-Lubavitch Library, known outside of Chabad as the Lubavitch Library and in Chabad as “The Rebbe’s Library.”
Quiet and modest in design, this library’s contents belie its exterior. Within these walls is one of the most prestigious and largest private collections of sefarim and Judaic manuscripts.
Collected by the last two leaders of the Lubavitch movement, the sixth Lubavitch Rebbe zt”l, known as the Rayatz, and the seventh Lubavitch Rebbe, the collection has such rare items as pages of the Talmud handwritten before Rashi’s explanations became standard glosses on the side and the prayer book of the founder of the Chassidic movement, the Baal Shem Tov.
The library, united from the two Rebbes’ collections in 1987, contains more than 250,000 volumes, and tens of thousands of manuscripts and artifacts. The Rebbes’ efforts saved many volumes from destruction or theft by some of the most powerful countries of their times. But there are still some things missing.
A set of rare sefarim that belonged to the fifth Chabad Rebbe, known as the Rebbe Rashab, and thousands of manuscripts of the Rebbe Rayatz are sitting in a state library in Moscow, composing what should be a third section of the Lubavitch Library. This collection was the focus of a court trial intended to force the Russians to allow long-awaited books and manuscripts to come home to the Chabad library.
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Ami is a new magazine, not affiliated with mishpacha. The editor in chief and founder is yitzchok frankfurter – who used to be an editor and writer for mishpacha. He’s actually the one that wrote the article on Krinsky.
“Some of Ami’s competitors won’t publish antyhing about Lubavitch.”
Not true, Hamodia featured 3 Tammuz last year, Mishpocho featured Krinsky and now the kinnus. I think that Ami is owned by Mishpocho though.
Yated is not a competitor of Ami. Yated is a newspaper and as such, Hamodia (and the Jewish Press) is its competition. Ami is a magazine. Its main competition is Mishpacha. In fact, the publishers of Ami, the Frankfurters, were editors for Mishpacha and then left to make their own magazine.
And Yated regularly refers to Chabad because Lifschitz the editor has championed the cause of SM Rubashkin.
It has a picture of Rabbi Berl Levine and in the caption it says that he is “Rabbi Cunin”
The Yated
“Some of Ami’s competitors won’t publish antyhing about Lubavitch.”
Like who? Mishpacha regularly writes about Lubavitch. HaModia magazine regularly writes about Lubavitch. I don’t know of any English magazines for the frum world that ignores Chabad.
Just remember, they are a new magazine and just getting off their feet. Give them a break for a few small errors.
In general, this magazine is a breath of fresh air. The content is very intellectual and intriguing. The design is very contemporary. I can’t believe it came out with 3 magazines – the main one, women (and food), and youth. You can tell a lot of work goes into this publication.
A lot of nit-pickers on this site. It is a wonderful piece. If there were some typos, big deal!!!!!
Let’s not knock our friends. Some of Ami’s competitors won’t publish antyhing about Lubavitch.
His name is Nathaniel.
I am very impressed with this new magazine. It’s like the 4th article that mentions Chabad and this is not a chabad magazine. This article doesn’t just mention Chabad, though, it’s all about Chabad! Kol hakavod Ami! You are really uniting “Ami” – my nation! I bought every copy and I see every week is about belz, satmar, chabad, litvish (like shafran’s articles), and modern orthodox. last week’s was about Genack from OU (a Brisker) – which btw mentioned chabad as well.
Every article is going to have a couple glitches.
It’s a great article and profoundly interesting. Written really well. Many things in there I did not know of this story. Author went very in depth.
on page 6 of the article there the picture is of Berel Levin not Shlomeh Cunin
schochet not shochet!!!! research and get your facts right.
This is terrible journalism. Nat Lewin’s name is Nathan (not Nathaniel), and that picture is Rabbi S.B. Levin (not Rabbi Cunin).
I’m surprised that Abrahamson put his name on this.
(I didn’t read the article, I just looked at the pictures).
quote “Rabbi Yaakov Yosef
Schneerson, the Rebbe Rayatz, became the sixth Lubavitch
Rebbe”