Rebbe’s Visit Location Discovered

By COLlive reporter

An orphanage for Jewish boys that was visited by the Rebbe following the Second World War was discovered in the northwestern suburbs of Paris, France.

The Yeshiva of Eragny was founded by Rabbi Zalman Schneerson, a descendant of the Tzemach Tzedek, who led a relentless effort to provide shelter for Jewish children whose parents had been interned or deported.

Operating under the A.I.P. (an acronym translated to Association of Orthodox Jewry in France), it housed some 60 children, among them Rabbi Shimon Lazaroff, today the Regional Director of Chabad Lubavitch of Texas and member of Agudas Chassidei Chabad International.

During the Rebbe’s visit to Paris following the war, he was invited to visit the institution which was located a 30-minute train ride away in a commune named Eragny-sur-Oise.

“The Rebbe didn’t answer because he was busy with acquiring documents for his mother,” recalled Rabbi Aharon Mordechai Zilberstrom, who served as the director of the Yeshiva of Eragny.

The needed permits were soon granted to Rebbetzin Chana Schneerson with help from Rabbi Zalman Schneerson and the Rebbe was able to make the trip to “College Tmimim” at 20 route de Neuville in July 1947.

During that rare visit, the Rebbe spoke to the children about the Midrashic teaching that the Jewish people promised to Hashem that “Baneinu areivim ba’adeinu” (our children are our guarantors) that the Torah will be kept for eternity.

The book “HaRebbe B’Paris,” by Rabbi Shmuel Butman, says the Rebbe was shown around the building that had 2-3 floors of bedrooms and that the Rebbe spent some 20 minutes alone in the shul that was located on the ground floor.

In a letter to the institution’s administration dated 15 Av 5707, the Rebbe wrote about his immense enjoyment of the visit and the package of books he is sending for the 6 outstanding students he tested in learning. One of them was R’ Yaakov Tzvi Holtzman.

Holtzman has recently guided Paris Shliach Rabbi Levi Azimov to find the location of the institution for the new history book about the connection between Chabad Rebbes and French Jewry.

The search led them to Cergy-Pontoise, an agglomeration community in the Val-d’Oise and Yvelines departments, that consists of 13 small towns, one of them being Eragny.

Rabbi Azimov and his son discovered the address of the institution to be 75 Chemin de Halage, 95220 Herblay, France, facing the 776-kilometre long Seine river, an important commercial waterway within the Paris region.

Based on Holtzman’s descriptions, Rabbi Azimov found the structure that served as a kiosk, the covered well and a renovated room that was where the students greeted the Rebbe during those troubled times. It is now used as offices.

A full account of the visit will be published in the new book Admurei Chabad V’yahadut Tzarfas, authored by Rabbi Zusha Wolff, and being sent to print this month.

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