A message sent in 1949 to Viktor Abakumov, then the Minister of State Security in the Soviet Union, reported on the establishment of an “anti-Soviet center” in New York by the Frierdiker Rebbe, HaRav Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, z’tl, Chareidim10 reported.
The message, sent by KGB agents operating in New York, stated: “The American espionage system established an anti-Soviet center in New York under the cover of a Rabbinic training school, and it is headed by the Jewish tzaddik Schneersohn, who was deported from the USSR in 1928.”
The Frierdiker Rebbe was sentenced to death by the Soviet regime in 1927 for the “counter-revolutionary activities” of spreading Torah and Yiddishkeit.
International outrage and pressure led the regime to commute the death sentence and instead banish the Rebbe from his home in Leningrad to exile in the city of Kostroma for three years. This sentence was also commuted due to political pressure and the Rebbe left Russia in 1928.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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5 Responses
It is and was overly-convenient for the Soviets to claim that Lubavitch was ‘anti-Soviet’ – then, or now. Chabad is not against anyone. In the Soviets’ own minds, they need to create scapegoats when they go too far and exaggeratedly claim what they do is ‘for the good of the people’. Therefore, they create enemies for themselves with Jews of all types, and even with Lubavitch.
Unfortunately many frum Jews nowadays haven’t learned the lessons from history. Many frum Jews are still voting for the modern day communists, the Democrat Party, and are happy to suck at the teat of the Democrat Party, while losing their liberty, their right to self defense, their right to freedom of speech w/o censorship, their right to bodily autonomy (the decision of what they will put in their body), and now live in crime ridden NY. When will they wake up?
I once saw a book with this picture of the Rebbe on the front cover, but I’ve forgotten the title. Does anyone know it please?
Answer received: The Heroic Struggle.
What exactly is KBG?
I’ve a cousin or two in KGB, but I’ve never heard of KBG!