The Miracle in Springfield

Rabbi Dovid Edelman – Springfield, MA
Nshei Chabad Newsletter

In 1910, the fifth Chabad Rebbe, the Rebbe Rashab, who was then based in the city of Lubavitch (although he traveled a lot), realized that there would soon be changes in the Russian government’s policies towards the Jews.

Like Yaakov in Mitzrayim, who sent Yehudah before him to establish yeshivos in Goshen, the Rebbe Rashab took the initiative to send Rabbonim to large cities in Russia to set up shuls and yeshivos. He foresaw that these places would soon become open to Jewish settlement, which had been forbidden by law until then.

The Rebbe Rashab also anticipated the vast exodus of Jews out of Eastern Europe in the early 1900s. He set Rabbi Zalman Havlin to Eretz Yisroel and Rabbi Dovid Mayer Rabinowitz to Boston, Massachusetts, where Rabbi Dovid Mayer became the Rov of a large Nusach Ari Shul. Before leaving to America, Rabbi Dovid Mayer and his two small sons, Peretz and Osher, had yechidus with the Rebbe Rashab, who blessed them in their Shlichus.

Growing up in America, the boys became educated in American ways. Osher got a job with the IRS and always took a lively interest in politics. Peretz became a lawyer and took up residence in Springfield, Mass. The brothers made many political connections over the years and used their connections extensively to help their fellow Yidden. My friend Peretz, who lived near me in Springfield, studied law, but his passion was Tanya. Chassidus was his lifeblood.

In 1920, the Rebbe Rashab was nistalek and his son, the Rayatz (later known as the Frierdiker Rebbe), became Rebbe.

When the Rebbe Rayatz was arrested, in June of 1927, his daughter Chana immediately sent several telegrams to several people who she hoped might help. The telegrams all said, “Tatte Arrestert”- Father has been arrested.

Rebbetzin Chaya Moussia was also very involved in rescuing her father. In fact, when it was publicized that the Rebbe Rayatz would be sent to exile in Kastroma, she went there ahead of him to try to arrange matters for him.

The third child of the Rebbe Rayatz and Rebbetzin Nechama Dina, Shaina, was then too young to be involved in rescue efforts.

When Rabbi Dovid Mayer Rabinowitz heard the news of the Frierdiker Rebbe’s arrest, he contacted his two sons and told them to use their political connections, lawyerly prowess, etc., to try and help. He even gave his sons $200, a fortune in those days, to use for the rescue operation. Osher immediately left his job and got on the train to Washington, D.C. Along the way it stopped in Springfield, and Peretz got on.

As soon as the brothers got to Washington, they went to the Supreme Court, to try to get an audience with the Supreme Court Justice, Louis Brandeis, who was Jewish. They could not get past the secretary, who said that court was in session for the next few months and he would be unable to meet with them. Osher, never one to be daunted by small things like the lack of an appointment, paced the hallway outside of the courtrooms, trying to figure out how to get in to see the Supreme Court Justice, who obviously had instructed his secretary not to let anyone in.

As Osher paced the hallways, knowing how the Rebbe was suffering in a communist prison, the Jewish Supreme Court Justice himself walked down the same hallway and came face to face with Osher. He recognized Osher and immediately asked him, “Have you come to visit me?”

Astonished but grateful, Osher quickly explained the situation, and Louis Brandeis listened. In response, the Justice summarized the situation as follows: “The Prince of Israel is in trouble.”

Brandeis immediately sent his closest confidante, a famous Jewish lawyer by the name of Benjamin Cohen (who was instrumental in the writing of the UN charter, written after World War II, which preached goodwill and justice and human rights) to go to the Senate and enlist the help of Senators William F. Borah (Idaho) and Robert Wagner (New York). He told the senators and his lawyer to have the Department of State send a telegram to Russia to pressure the Russians to let the Frierdiker Rebbe out.

Brandeis said that if anyone wants to know why the United States of America should bother with a rabbi in prison in Russia, they should be informed that the Rebbe Rayatz is the spiritual leader of over 300 Nusach Ari shuls in the United States. Thus, the spiritual wellbeing of thousands of Americans will be compromised if the Rebbe is not freed immediately.

Furthermore, continued the telegram, the congregants of these shuls are law-abiding US citizens who pay taxes and deserve to have their needs considered.

Brandeis then told the senators to send telegrams to all United States embassies in foreign countries and ask them to exert pressure on Russia, too, which many embassies did.

All these efforts, combined with the actions, Tehillim and tears of many brave and devoted Yidden all over the world, led to the miracles: the Rayatz’s sentence was first commuted from execution to life in prison, then to exile, and then was lifted completely.

In 1927, on Yud Bais Tammuz, the Frierdiker Rebbe was released from prison. On Yud Gimmel Tammuz, he went to Riga, Latvia. In 1929, he married his middle daughter, Chaya Mushka, to the future seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe.

From Riga the Frierdiker Rebbe moved to Warsaw, Poland, and then to Otvotsk. In 1940, the Frierdiker Rebbe left Europe for good. He came to the United States on 9 Adar II. Six months later, in time for Rosh Hashanah, he settled in 770 Eastern Parkway, and thus began a new era of Chabad outreach and influence on American shores.

And this is why in Springfield, they celebrate Yud Bais Tammuz for two weeks. And they say, “Kan mekor hanes”- Here is the source of the miracle.

Rabbi Dovid Edelman heard this story many times directly from Peretz and Osher Rabinowitz. Rabbi Edelman was sent to Springfield, MA, in 1950 as a Shliach of the Frierdiker Rebbe. He is the menahel of Achei Tmimim Lubavitch, a day school for children from early childhood through eighth grade, and head of all Chabad peulos in western Massachusetts.