Rabbi Dovid Eliezrie, author of “Undaunted,” the upcoming biography of Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneerson – the Frierdiker Rebbe, visited Riga last week.
“We are digging into archives and looking for historical information all over the world for this new comprehensive biography,” explained Rabbi Eliezrie. The new book will document the Rebbe’s life from the early days in Lubavitch, his courageous stand against Communism, the interwar years in Riga and Poland and the Rebbe’s efforts in the US.
In Riga, Rabbi Eliezrie visited the sites where the Rebbe lived, met the local Shluchim Rabbi Mordechai Glazman and Schneur Kot, as well as historians, and the directors of both the Holocaust and the Jewish Museum.
Eliezrie has been working with a team of researchers as well.
“We have scoured archives in the US, Europe and around world in search of information about the Rebbe’s life,” Rabbi Eliezrie says.
The book will tell reveal new details about the Rebbe’s arrest, his amazing escape from Nazi controlled Poland as well as clandestine efforts to help Soviet Jewry.
“The Rebbe’s life is an astounding story of heroism,” says Eliezrie.
One of the important sources of information has been members of the Lubavitch community, Rabbi Eliezrie notes.
“We have uncovered documents, letters, and personal testimonies, both written and recorded, that provide a firsthand account of key moments in the Rebbe’s life,” he says.
Anyone who has information is requested to email [email protected].
Eliezrie explains that the Rebbe was a pivotal figure in 20th century Jewry. He faced unprecedented challenges, first standing up to a communist regime that was determined to destroy Jewish life, replanting Chabad in Western Europe in the interwar period, and in the last decades creating a Jewish renaissance in the United States.
Each period was different and difficult for a varied reasons.
“Still, the Rebbe adapted to each challenge, first creating a secret underground in Russia that sustained Judaism until the fall of the Soviet Union, in Riga and Poland expanding the horizons of the teaching of Chassidus and creating a Yeshiva system to create a new generation of Chassidim, and finally in the US where his goal was to remake American Jewish life,” he says.
Undaunted will be published in the coming months by Koren Publishing. Rabbi Eliezrie’s first book, “The Secret of Chabad” was a bestseller and recognized by the National Jewish Book Award.
Looking forward