Bonding to the Rebbe Rayatz by accepting a portion of the financial responsibility for the institutions, Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch, Machneh Israel, and Kehot, the support of which the Rebbe Rayatz had taken upon himself

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Instructions concerning the establishment of educational programs for Jewish children in North Africa

No. 634

This letter was sent to the presiding members of the 28th National Conference of Agudas Yisrael in America.

B"H, Erev Rosh Chodesh Tammuz, 5710

Greetings and blessings,

In response to your letter of 20 Sivan, 5710:

Any question concerning the life of the Jewish people, whether minor or major, requires serious attention on the part of any convention that is called to judge about matters concerning the Torah and Yiddishkeit. Nevertheless, questions arise from time to time that involve risk to — material or spiritual — life, that of individuals or that of many people. Hence they require special attention and that all one's powers be focused with extra ardor on the task of saving [lives].

The issue of the education of the children now immigrating to our Holy Land and how to save them from heresy and spiritual destruction, Heaven forbid, is one of these questions.

My revered father-in-law, the Rebbe, hk"m, led the Jewish people without [consideration of] any party affiliation [and carried out] his entire [life-]work with self-sacrifice over decades above all party factionalism. Whenever there was, Heaven forbid, a danger to the Jewish nation, he endeavored to use all the groups that could possibly help to save the situation. And during his lifetime, he had already begun gathering together different forces to save those children.

Even though the fruits of those efforts have already been seen, the situation of those children remains sufficiently perilous and the question of their education and guidance of the most [pressing] severity.

Therefore any gathering of Jews that concerns itself with the benefit of the Jewish people must be a platform where "a call from the high places is heard,"[558] a voice powerfully demanding the solution to this worrisome question in the most immediate future. Decisions must be made to use all the mediums available to remove all of the obstacles and stumbling blocks [that might appear] from all possible directions which prevent and negate these children's right to be educated according to the Torah and Yiddishkeit.

Indeed, in our country as well, the question of saving the youth requires great and wide-reaching efforts — one of its dimensions being a battle against the feelings of equanimity within the [Jewish] community which has already become used to the situation in which only a [limited] percentage of Jewish boys and girls receive a proper [Jewish] education. At the most, they sigh at this terrible state of affairs and leave it at that. Although the efforts of my revered father-in-law, the Rebbe, hk"m, in this field have also been crowned with great success, there is still a long road before we reach the desired intent. Much energy and resources are necessary to establish [Jewish] education in the United States on a proper foundation.

I would hope that the national convention [of Agudas Yisrael] will place these two questions — the question of the education of the youth immigrating to our Holy Land and the question of the education of the youth of America who are presently distant from traditional Judaism — in their proper place on its agenda, and that its voice will be heard and its influence will be felt in concrete actions, for "deed is most essential."[559]

With respect and with blessing to all the participants; may this convention bring them success in strengthening the foundations of our faith and spreading the Torah [permeated] with the fear of Heaven,

Rabbi Menachem Schneerson

   

Notes:

558. (Back to text) [Cf. Yirmeyahu 31:14; that verse continues "Rachel weeps for her children."]

559. (Back to text) [Cf. Avos 1:17.]

Bonding to the Rebbe Rayatz by accepting a portion of the financial responsibility for the institutions, Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch, Machneh Israel, and Kehot, the support of which the Rebbe Rayatz had taken upon himself

Table of contents

Search this book:

Instructions concerning the establishment of educational programs for Jewish children in North Africa