Frierdiker Rebbe’s Telling Letter Regarding Citizenship Ceremony

Welcome to our weekly Motzei Shabbos program.

A couple of days ago was Tes Adar. Tes Adar is the day that the Frierdiker Rebbe came to America to settle. He came with eleven people, as we spoke many times. He came the first time in 1929 as a visitor, and now he came to settle in America. He came from Riga, and then Sweden, and then he went on a boat. He was on the boat thirteen days. It was a very hard journey that he had on the boat.

So, talking about the Frierdiker Rebbe - I want to - I found two notes. One note I found from Rabbi Mindel that I want to share with you, and the second I will share with you, I hope, if I have time today - notes from the Frierdiker Rebbe. He wrote to Rabbi Mindel in 1949. This was a year and a month before the histalkus, before he passed away. I don't think I ever shared this with anybody. This is something new, and I'll tell you soon. But first I want to share with you a note from Rabbi Mindel.

Rabbi Mindel writes - I don't know when it was, but he was very close with the Mindel family, with Mrs. Mindel, with the family, through Mana the nurse [?] - we won't speak about it. So he spoke to the Rebbetzin - he came over, or by telephone - and the Rebbe and the Rebbetzin said to him that the Rebbe is worried, the Rebbe is concerned about something. The Rebbe doesn't know where the siddur is.

So Rabbi Mindel said to the Rebbetzin - he saw from the Rebbe also, I guess, when he went, that the Rebbe was concerned. So she asked him does he know where the siddur is. He said he doesn't know, but maybe he'll try to think about it. He came back a day or two later and said, "Maybe you should ask Rabbi Lieberman." Rabbi Lieberman was an attendant [?] of the Frierdiker Rebbe. He was a librarian - maybe he would know.

So she called Rabbi Lieberman, and Rabbi Lieberman said he'll try to find it. He found it - the siddur was in a suitcase of the Frierdiker Rebbe's, together with other manuscripts that the Frierdiker Rebbe had. So when the Rebbe was told by the Rebbetzin - the Rebbetzin told the Rebbe - the Rebbe was very relieved and happy, and thanked Rabbi Mindel for finding out where the siddur is. He was very relieved. I think that suitcase - I don't know, maybe it was from when he went to Chicago, he went with the suitcase - I'm not sure, but it was in that suitcase.

Now, about the siddur - how it got to the Rebbe is a different program which I'm not going to get into: how the Rebbe got the siddur.

Now I will share with you notes of the Frierdiker Rebbe that he wrote. I don't know if you'll be able to see it. This is written with a pencil. All these pages - maybe two, three, four, five, six, maybe twenty-five pages, on both sides - the Frierdiker Rebbe's handwriting, it's unbelievable. This was a year before the histalkus, and he had a beautiful, beautiful handwriting, and he wrote this by pencil. He was holding all these papers full of the Frierdiker Rebbe's writing, all different inyanim that he wrote to Rabbi Mindel - different inyanim. I won't have time to share with you even one page, but I'll try, and of these pages I'll share with you one page that has to do with the Frierdiker Rebbe's citizenship papers - the citizenship, I mean - and the basic guidelines that the Frierdiker Rebbe wanted.

I know that I saw on JEM that they had a picture of the citizenship ceremony - we know that - but the story behind the citizenship, why the citizenship happened a year before, why not before that - that's something I don't know if I'll share with you today, but I will try to share with you what the Frierdiker Rebbe wrote - just one page.

But before that, I want to make a hakdama. This letter that I will share with you, that the Frierdiker Rebbe wrote to Rabbi Mindel, reveals several important insights about the Frierdiker Rebbe's leadership, his style, and the dynamics in 770 at that time, in 1949. And I wrote down here, before I read it:

Number one, clear organizational boundaries. This we can learn - the heads of organizations can learn from what he wrote how we should be - the role of leadership in organizations, the people that are the heads of schools, principals or directors, [unclear], the heads of Chabad houses - how they should deal with other people. And that will prevent machlokes also - presidents of shuls, or heads of teachers, or heads of camps - from this we can learn.

So first of all, I want to say: number one, the Frierdiker Rebbe is very precise about roles and responsibilities. He emphasizes that since his son-in-law - meaning our Rebbe, Harav Schneerson - handled the citizenship matter, only he and several others chosen by him should be there. This shows the importance of clear lines of authority and not overstepping one's assignment.

Clear and emes - also we see from this that the Frierdiker Rebbe is clearly trying to prevent discord, to prevent machlokes or hurt feelings. He is worried that if too many people get involved, or if the wrong people are included, it can create unnecessary friction, and he is being protective in managing this delicate situation.

So before people hire anybody for any job, they have to deal with it in this kind of way - that's what I look at in this now. Despite his refined manner - he used to write, like, "I am asking you, please" - he is always extremely direct and firm. He doesn't hint; he states clearly what he wants and what he doesn't want, clearly. When something bothers him, he expresses his surprise directly, but without attacking anyone's character. That's what we can learn from this.

We can also learn from here giving the benefit of the doubt. Even though he's clearly upset - and that was regarding Mr. Kramer, I'll read it to you - who misrepresented his wishes, he writes, "certainly this is a mistake," giving the benefit of the doubt. That's how people should deal with other people.

Also, about his secretary - he asked Rabbi Mindel to write this, and he trusts him, that whatever he'll write will be correct, and how to handle this whole matter - this is the way the Rebbe did it. This teaches us the importance of clarity in organizational matters: Rabbi Mindel writes, respecting boundaries, preventing machlokes before it starts, and being direct yet respectful in communication.

Now I will read to you what the Frierdiker Rebbe wrote, word for word. I'll read it to you the way he wrote it, in Hebrew and in Yiddish, and I'll translate it into English. This is addressed to Rabbi Nissan Mindel - he wrote on both sides of this paper.

I'm just reading one page of this, before he got citizenship - Judge Frank [?], George Kleinfeld, and he mentions Rabbi Kazanovski - that's how he writes - to Rabbi Mindel. As I'll continue, soon I'll translate into English what I read:

"I am asking you to kindly telephone my friend Mr. Kramer, to find out if he has already confirmed the appointment with the judge and his assistant for this coming Thursday at 1:00. Of course, our esteemed friend Judge Kleinfeld will also be there, and more people besides Rabbi Kazanovski and my son-in-law, Harav Schneerson, who has worked on this matter the entire time and brought it to order."

Now the Rebbe writes - about a certain person or people, and it's not important to name who it was - that certain people have no connection to this whatsoever. Those people who have no connection to it - he hears this from Mr. Kramer. In other words, the Frierdiker Rebbe is writing to Rabbi Mindel, and he's speaking about Kramer - that Mr. Kramer came and said to him to telephone - that the people who are not supposed to be there wanted publicity, that they should publicize it.

I'll translate: the people - the people that were not supposed to be there - came to tell me that you, Mr. Kramer, wrote to him and telephoned to schedule the time when to come to arrange everything, and that your dear friend requested that Mr. Morgans [?] must be there, and that these people who were not supposed to be there should arrange the necessary newspaper publicity. This greatly surprised me. I know well that you are considerate and of proper conduct. How can you say such a thing? Certainly this is a mistake.

So the Frierdiker Rebbe wanted to tell him how he could do such a thing, but he says maybe it's a mistake. I mean, the way the Frierdiker Rebbe wrote - he's again writing to Rabbi Mindel and speaking about Kramer, and he mentions the judge, Judge Kleinfeld, Rabbi Kazanovski - only these few people, nobody else, should be by the citizenship papers. I don't know - this is amazing. Mr. Kramer, Judge Kleinfeld - except Judge Kleinfeld, Rabbi Kazanovski, and Mr. [Kramer] -

Now I'll translate into English: "I am asking you, Mr. Kramer, dear friend, to fulfill my request and see to it that no other people, besides the above mentioned - our friend Judge Kleinfeld, Rabbi Kazanovski, and Nissan Mindel - should be there. If you have already included someone besides Judge Kleinfeld and Rabbi Kazanovski, I am asking you, Mr. Kramer, to postpone the visit with the judge to another time."

He writes to Mr. Kramer - as regards that organization, those people are involved, they're not supposed to be there - only relevant to that organization, to those people. So, except for the other people who have no connection with this - I want to ask you, my friend Mr. Kramer, that you should know that besides the leadership that pertains to those people who are involved in other things, which is connected to that organization, they have no connection with this citizenship matter, nor the arrangements. The matter of arranging citizenship for me is entirely the work of my son-in-law, Harav Schneerson, alone.

Then he writes to Rabbi Mindel further. This is the original - to Mr. Mindel, as a good example: two copies, in English. A brief letter to lawyer Kramer, and a copy to those people who should not be there. Special delivery, registered - "special" meaning special registered. "Okay. Tuesday, the 17th of Adar, 5709, 1949. Mr. Mindel, I am asking you to please write such a letter according to this content, in two copies, in English - one letter to lawyer Kramer, and the other copy to those people. Send both letters special delivery, registered mail."

So this is one page I read you, out of over twenty pages, that I will have to share with you - I don't know if next week, but in the future I will share with you this amazing inyan that the Frierdiker Rebbe wanted to convey a year before the histalkus.

Now, before I finish, I just want to mention one thing that I thought I'd mention to you. It's very interesting - the Rebbetzin's naturalization papers, when she became a citizen - the witnesses on her papers, here it is, I have - are Rabbi J.J. [?] and Rabbi Nissan Mindel. The Rebbe said that they should be the witnesses on the Rebbetzin's papers.

And it's also - I want to share with you - there's a document here: March 3rd, 1953, the 16th day of Adar 5713 - the same Hebrew date as the Frierdiker Rebbe's citizenship, four years earlier, on the 16th of Adar. This is the same date. So the Rebbetzin became a citizen four years after the Frierdiker Rebbe. It's also important to know that she came to America in 1941. So when the Rebbe, seven years later, went to France to pick up his mother, he came here - he arrived the same day as the Rebbetzin arrived. This, you're going to know anyway.

So I thought, since it was just Tes Adar, I thought I would mention to you about the citizenship, and there's much more to speak about it. You can only see the video pictures, but the inside of that is something that is written here, and I don't think people are aware of certain things. But I have no time today. Next week we'll continue our weekly program. Thank you.