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Chabad - The controversy about the leadership of...

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Chabad – The controversy about the leadership of Yeshivas Toras Emes in Jerusalem – Letters from the Lubavitcher Rebbe – 1953


A collection of letters of the Rebbe of Lubavitch Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, and the leaders of Yeshivas Toras Emes, in 1953, regarding the new management procedures in the yeshivah, and the termination of the authority of Rabbi Chanoch Hendel Havlin, as the director of the yeshivah. This termination did not succeed, and only in 1957, after a Din Torah between the parties, was the termination completed, and Yeshivas Toras Emes came under the Rebbe’s leadership.

The collection contains:

  1. Decisions (on 19th of Tammuz 1953) on the order of the classes and the management of the yeshiva, termination of the director’s position, inspection of his bank account books, the appointment of Ha’Gaon Rabbi Shlomo Yosef Zevin as CEO of the directorship of the yeshivah, and other details. Two letters were written on the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s letterhead, signed by members of the Va’ad Yeshivas Toras Emes.
  2. Letter dated 19 Tammuz 5713 (1953) to the management of the Va’ad Ha’Yeshivah, regarding the approval of the decisions mentioned above, with the Rebbe’s signature and nine additional words in his handwriting.
  3. The second letter with the Rebbe’s signature, dated 21 Menachem Av 5713, regarding additional rules and regulations.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •


Controversy around the leadership of Yeshivas Toras Emes in Jerusalem

Yeshivas Toras Emes was founded by the father of Rabbi Chanoch Hendel Havlin, Ha’Gaon Rabbi Shlomo Zalmen Havlin, in 1899 in the city of Horodyshche (Horodyszcz). In 1912 he moved to EY with a group of talmidim along with himself and settled in Chevron. where the lubavitcher Rebbe R. Sholom Ber directed him to open a yeshiva. This yeshiva was disbanded during the First World War and was re-opened in 1922 in Jerusalem, where it flourished and gained renown as a stronghold for Torah and Chasidus. The staff included Rabbi Yechezkel Feigin (the well-known secretary of the Rebbe Rayat"z).

According to Lubavitcher Chassidim, during the life of the Rebbe Rayat"z, he asked R. Shlomo Zalmen that the yeshiva be transferred to his ownership. Still, his son, Rabbi Chanoch Hendel, objected to this, claiming that the yeshivah was his father’s life’s work. The dispute continued after the passing of R. Shlomo Zalman (1936), and the Rebbe Rayat"z’s passing (1950). The rift was eventually resolved by a din Torah in 1957, where HaRav Elyashiv ruled in favor of the Rebbe and transferred the yeshiva to his ownership.


4 pgs. good condition

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