Letter of blessings for a good year and engagement wishes, handwritten and signed by Rebbetzin Chana Schneersohn. Brooklyn, New York, Elul, 1952.
Letter from the Rebbetzin, addressed to her friend Tamar (Ita) Gluskin, with blessings for a good year and congratulations on the occasion of her daughter's engagement: "…may G-d grant you much satisfaction as you wish, from her together with her fiancé. Now I hereby extend my blessings for a good and happy year, a year of life and peace, and all good in all areas. Seeking your wellbeing, Chana Schneersohn". At the foot of the letter, the Rebbetzin adds regards and good year wishes to all the members of her family.
Rebbetzin Chana Schneersohn (1880-1965) was the pious mother of Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneersohn, last rebbe of Chabad-Lubavitch. She was the daughter of R. Meir Shlomo Yanovsky Rabbi of Nikolayev (Mykolaiv), and the distinguished wife of the rebbe's father – R. Levi Yitzchak Schneersohn, devotedly assisting him in his activities under the communist rule. She was exiled together with him to Chiali, Kazakhstan, a penalty for their activities in support of religious observance. During this period, she produced ink from weeds, in order to enable her husband to record his Torah novellae, and later smuggled these writings with her on her travels, at risk of her life. The Likutei Levi Yitzchak series on the Zohar was printed based on these writings. R. Levi Yitzchak passed away in Almaty, Kazakhstan in 1944, and in 1946, the Rebbetzin succeeded in crossing the border from Russia to Poland, eventually reaching Paris in Adar 1947.
When her son, the Rebbe, who at that time already lived in Brooklyn, was informed that his mother had arrived in Paris, he immediately boarded a plane to be reunited with her, after a separation of twenty years imposed by the Iron Curtain. The Rebbe remained in Paris for three months to arrange all the documents required for her immigration to the United States, and in Sivan, boarded a ship headed for the Unites States together with her. Approximately three years later, Rebbe Rayatz passed away, and R. Menachem Mendel succeeded him. Until her passing, Rebbetzin Chana assisted her son, who accorded her tremendous respect.
She was very involved in the lives of the Chassidim and in the various activities of Chabad Chassidism, and served as member of the board of Neshei and Bnot Chabad in the United States. Her memoirs were serialized in the Di Yiddishe Heim newspaper in 1964, and she nobly asked the editor to omit sections depicting the suffering and torture her illustrious husband endured, so as not to distress her son, the Rebbe. Em BeYisrael, a biography of the Rebbetzin portraying her remarkable personality, was published in 1983.
Recipient of the letter: Mrs. Tamar-Ita Gluskin (d. 1987) was the wife of R. Naftali Gluskin and daughter of R. Shimon Moshe Diskin Rabbi of Lechovitz (Lyakhavichy), author of Midrash Shimoni. In the years 1944-1945, while Rebbetzin Chana was a widow living alone in Almaty, Tamar-Ita assisted her devotedly, despite the risk involved. In one of her letters, the Rebbetzin wrote to her: "I remember well how you treated me… at a time when no one wanted to be in my vicinity". Several years later, Tamar-Ita immigrated to Tel Aviv and settled in the Hadar Yosef neighborhood. A few letters from her correspondence with Rebbetzin Chana were printed in Kovetz LeChizuk HaHitkashrut – Tishrei 2014, but this letter was never published.
Aerogram. 30 cm. Good-fair condition. Marginal tears and wear, not affecting text. Stains. Wear. Folding marks.