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| Volodymyr Zelensky |
The Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, MH"M, was born in Nikolaev, Ukraine; and raised much of his childhood in Dnipro -- where today the largest Jewish Center in the world, operated by Chabad, was constructed in the past 10 years.
About the new president of Ukraine, it was written:
“Imagine, a pure-blooded Jew with the appearance of a Sholom Aleichem protagonist wins by a landslide in a country where the glorification of Nazi criminals is enacted into law,” Avigdor Eskin, a Russian-Israeli columnist, wrote in an analysis published earlier this month by the Regnum news agency.
The French-Jewish philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy also referenced Ukrainian Jews’ bloody history in an interview with Zelensky, the 41-year-old son of scientists who lived near major Soviet army bases in Ukraine.
“His Judaism. It’s extraordinary that the possible future president of the country of the Shoah by Bullets and Babi Yar is a self-affirmed Jew from a family of survivors from Kryvy Rih near Dnipro – the land of pogrom if ever there was one,” Levy wrote in an article published earlier this month in Le Point.
Ukraine to become first country outside Israel whose president and PM are both Jewish
Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson (1878-1944), was born on the 18th of Nissan in the town of Podrovnah (near Gomel) to his parents, Rabbi Baruch Schneur and Rebbetzin Zelda Rachel Schneerson; his great-great grandfather was the 3rd Chabad Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Lubavitch.In 1900 Rabbi Levi Yitzchak married Rebbetzin Chanah Yanovski, whose father, Rabbi Meir Shlomo, was the rabbi of the Russian city of Nikolaiyev. In 1902, their eldest son, Menachem Mendel, later to be known as The Lubavitcher Rebbe, was born. Rabbi Levi Yitzchak lived in Nikolaiyev until 1909, when he was appointed to serve as the Rabbi of Yekatrinoslav (today, Dnepropetrovsk). In 1939 he was arrested by the communist regime for his fearless stance against the Party's efforts to eradicate Jewish learning and practice in the Soviet Union. After more than a year of torture and interrogations in Stalin's notorious prisons, he was sentenced to exile to the interior of Russia, where he died in 1944.
For more on Rabbi Levi Yitzchak, including the story of his valiant battle for Yiddishkeit, his arrest and exile, see Rebbetzin Chana's biography
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Also today in Jewish History, Lubavitcher Rebbe's Brit (1902)On the eighth day following his birth on the 11th of Nissan, the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, MH"M, was entered into the covenant of our Patriarch Abraham.
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The new president of Ukraine, Mr. Volodymyr Zelensky, is in close contact with Chabad in Ukraine, is proud of his Jewishness and participates in the events of the Chabad House. On the eve of the Passover holiday, he met with Chabad emissaries and received a Shmurah Matzah for the Seder. Am Yisrael Chai!
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The world’s largest Jewish center opened in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine several years ago, in the town where the Lubavitcher Rebbe's father was the Chief Rabbi, and one of the towns where the Rebbe grew up in his childhood. Built at a main intersection between the left and right banks of the Dnepr River, the 22-story, seven-towered, 538,000 square foot "Menorah Center" now sits, under the direction of of Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetzki. As airplanes fly across the Ukraine sky at night, they can see what looks like a giant Menorah from a distance.
Kamenetzki, director of Chabad of Dnepropetrovsk, said that while in the past the city had been associated with suffering and persecution – the Rebbe’s father, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson, of righteous memory, was arrested and the Rebbe’s brother and tens of thousands of other Jews were shot during a mass slaughter by Nazi forces – the whole world can witness a resurgence of the city’s Jewish life.
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"Reb Levik" Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson (father of the Lubavitcher Rebbe) was considered one of the greatest Talmudic and Kabbalistic scholars of his generation. He served as the chief rabbi of the city of Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine, during the bloody Bolshevik revolution and the subsequent Communist oppression. Despite terrible persecution directed at religious leaders in those days, he remained fearlessly defiant in strengthening Jewish learning and practice in his city and throughout the Soviet Union. Rabbi Levi Yitzchak was eventually arrested, tortured, and subsequently banished to exile in a remote village in Kazakhstan. His spirit, however, was not extinguished, even while his body was broken and eventually gave way to his early passing.His selfless efforts for Jews and Judaism even in the face of a sadistic superpower regime determined to leave no trace of them were later tenderly nurtured by his son and disciple, the Rebbe. The Rebbe conducted Soviet Jewry’s affairs clandestinely from afar, and eventually saw the decades of his father’s effort blossom into full bloom upon the fall of the Iron Curtain and the public resurgence of Jewish life there.
Soviet Jewry, however, is not alone in the debt of gratitude it owes to Rabbi Levi Yitzchak. His personal example, demonstrating how Judaism will survive against all odds and how we must adhere steadfastly and proudly to its ideals, serves as a shining beacon of inspiration for all of us today, and for all generations to come.
We are likewise collectively indebted to Rabbi Levi Yitzchak and his life’s partner, Rebbetzin Chana, of righteous memory, for giving us the Rebbe, whose application of their teachings and way of life to all the rest of us changed the very course of world Jewry.
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After her husband had been imprisoned, tortured and interrogated for nearly a year, Rebbetzin Chana, the Rebbe's mother, was informed that her husband and one of the great kabbalists of the generation, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson, had been tried in Moscow for his “criminal activity” of spreading Judaism, and sentenced to five years of exile in the far-flung village of Chi'ili in Central Asia. There he would be completely isolated from other Jews. He was 61, and after his horrendous prison experiences his health was in such a dreadful state that he was nearly unrecognizable.Rebbetzin Chana, then 59, could have stayed home and tried her best to get food sent to her husband. Instead she decided to go into exile to be with her husband and support him, no matter what that entailed. Upon arrival, she realized just how dismal the situation was. She arrived early spring, “when the ground turns into deep mud, making it difficult to walk in the street. But to obtain life’s most basic necessities, it was necessary to walk a long distance, although it was virtually impossible to get out of the quagmire. When you put your foot down, it became bogged down in the sticky morass, and you needed the strength of Samson for every step you took.” The moisture and warmer weather brought swarms of fleas, mosquitoes and other biting insects. Clothing would become covered in black dots within hours, soiled by the fleas. Rebbetzin Chana burned a type of fuel made from mud, dried-out grass and straw she had gathered, which didn’t provide light or fire, but a thick black smoke to keep the insects away. Often, the strong night winds blew that awful smoke in their faces.
Every season was extreme. Summer brought unbearable heat that forced everyone indoors for cover, and winters were beyond frigid. It wasn’t uncommon for people to freeze to death. Rebbetzin Chana gathered assorted types of “bricks” and fashioned a crude furnace to help keep warm.
Rebbetzin Chana and her husband moved to a few different shacks while in exile, each place with its own challenges. The shacks were made of clay, with muddy floors, and were often darkened by swarms of mosquitoes. They were damp, moist and small, often without dividing doors between the rooms, offering no privacy. Bigger shacks with the luxury of a wooden floor meant more people with whom to share the space. In one place, they had only roach-infested cots to sleep on.
It was forbidden to purchase food; everything was government-regulated with ration cards and quotas, requiring long daily treks and endless lines. Throughout their years in exile, the Rebbetzin and her husband suffered severe hunger, at one point going without any bread for a month! Their health deteriorated, and Rabbi Levi Yitzchak became extremely weak and frail.
These were the conditions of exile. Yet Rebbetzin Chana was there to take care of her husband and keep up his spirits. It was due to her resourcefulness and determination that she was able to get food whenever possible and physically care for her husband, literally saving his life. She knew that more than bread for survival, he urgently needed materials to write down his copious thoughts of Torah and Kabbalah. She was determined to obtain such supplies. She taught herself how to make ink from various herbs and grasses, and presented her homemade ink to her overjoyed husband. He wrote along the margins of the few holy books and notebooks she had brought him.
When Passover neared, she spent days traveling to find a utensil for Passover, knowing Rabbi Levi Yitzhak would not eat otherwise. She successfully obtained a tin-plated pail made from new materials.
Once, to their surprise and joy, they received a package with white flour, and she set some aside to make two hamantashen for the holiday of Purim. Rebbetzin Chana expressed how important and meaningful it was for them to be able to observe even a minor custom. She exerted tremendous effort to enable herself and her husband to celebrate any and every observance.
