RABBI CHAIM OZER GRODZENSKI, LETTER TO RABBI HILLEL MEDALIA, MENTIONING THE LUBAVITCHER REBBE. ...

RABBI CHAIM OZER GRODZENSKI, LETTER TO RABBI HILLEL MEDALIA, MENTIONING THE LUBAVITCHER REBBE. 1933.

Letter by Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzenski regarding efforts to enable Rabbi Shmaryahu Yehuda Leib Medalia to leave the Soviet Union in 1933. The letter is addressed to his son, Rabbi Hillel Medalia, later Rabbi of Antwerp, who was then studying at the Chevron Yeshiva. Rabbi Chaim Ozer mentions having passed on the letter to the Lubavitcher Rebbe, who was in Berlin at the time.

Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzenski (1863-1940), son of Rabbi David Shlomo – Rabbi of Iwie and son-in-law of (I) Rabbi Eliyahu Eliezer Grodzenski of Vilna (son-in-law of Rabbi Yisrael Salanter) and (II) Rabbi Meir Atlas of Shavel. Appointed Rabbi in Vilna in 1885 and gradually became recognised as the principal rabbinical leader of Lithuanian Jewry and one of the greatest Torah personalities of the pre-WWII era. Author of Achiezer.

Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneerson (1880-1950), son and successor of Rabbi Shalom Dovber of Lubavitch. As a young man, his father appointed him director of the Tomchei Temimim Yeshivos. Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak succeeded his father as Rebbe to large numbers of Lubavitcher chassidim in Russia and around the world and established an extensive network of underground Yeshivos and Talmud Torah schools operating under the atheistic communist Russian regime, despite the risks involved. He was arrested for these activities in 1927, but released after international intervention on his behalf, and left for Riga, Latvia in 1928. In 1932 he moved to Warsaw and then to Otwock in Poland, and was miraculously smuggled out from German-occupied Warsaw to New York in 1940. In America, he continued his efforts to strengthen Orthodox Judaism through the establishment of Yeshivos and schools and through a network of representatives in communities across the country.

1 side. 21.5 x 28 cm. Condition generally good. Tears repaired.