“May the Almighty bless this great country which has been a [place of] refuge for our Jewish People”
For the sixth Rebbe of Lubavitch, Rav Yosef Yitzchok Schneerson — the “Frierdiker” Rebbe or the Rayatz — who lived through a period of unprecedented upheaval and transition for the Jewish People, American freedom and liberty were privileges he did not take for granted. During his historic 1929 visit to the United States, the Rebbe addressed the large crowd that greeted him declaring, “May the Almighty bless this great country which has been a [place of] refuge for our Jewish People.”
The Rebbe’s links to the country and to his chassidim there were well-established prior to the 1929 visit. Recognizing the necessity of organizing Chabad communities outside of Russia, the Lubavitcher Rebbe had formed the Agudas Chassidei Chabad of the USA and Canada and remained in constant contact with his followers there. When the Rebbe was jailed by Communist authorities in 1927, it was his American chassidim who mobilized US government officials to lobby the Soviets for his release.
In December, the Rebbe boarded a train for Philadelphia, the birthplace of American democracy, where he was invited by representatives of Mayor Harry Mackey to visit Independence Hall, home of the Liberty Bell. The Rebbe recorded his impressions of the large parade that accompanied him en route to Independence Hall in his diary: “A few hundred other cars followed us. All the streets were closed and we traveled with a police honor guard (unlike in the past, the one that brought me to Spalerna [prison in the USSR]).” At Independence Hall, the Rebbe was accorded the rare honor of sitting in George Washington’s chair and then taken to see the Liberty Bell.
The words of the pasuk (Vayikra 25:10) “Proclaim Liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof,” emblazoned across the iconic bell, are a reference to the 50th year of the Yovel cycle, when slaves receive emancipation. The subtle connection was likely noticed by the Rayatz — who was months from his 50th birthday and had recently been freed from a Soviet prison, through pressure from the United States government.
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