Intercession on Behalf of Russian Jewry

We already know of the difficult position of the Jews under the Czarist regime and how the Lubavitcher Rebbes continually interceded on behalf of their brethren, both with the Government and with the Court. Rabbi Joseph I. Schneersohn undertook many such missions and often traveled to the capital of St Petersburg and to Moscow.

When the Russo-Japanese war flared up in the Far East in 5664 (1904), Rabbi Joseph I. Schneersohn became active in the campaign inaugurated by his father to provide the Jewish soldiers on the Far East front with matzos for Pesach.

In the widespread unrest that followed in the wake of that war, a new wave of pogroms swept the Pale of Settlement. Rabbi Joseph I. Schneersohn was sent by his father to Germany and Holland, and was successful in obtaining the intercession of prominent statesmen on behalf of Russian Jewry.

In the year 5668 (1908), he again participated in the Rabbinical convocation in Vilna. In the following year, he went to Germany to confer with Jewish leaders there. Upon his return, he took part in the preparation for the next Rabbinical convocation in the year 5670 (1910).

His energetic and far-reaching public activities, his watchful defense of the rights of Russian Jewry and his constant fight against the local and central authorities aroused the displeasure of the Czarist regime at that time.

Between the years 5662 and 5671 (1902-1911), Rabbi Schneersohn was arrested in Moscow and St Petersburg on four occasions. Since Government enquiries elicited nothing incriminating in his activities, he was released each time with a stern warning.

These incidents did not deter Rabbi Schneersohn from continuing his work, but spurred him to even greater efforts. In the years 5677 (1917) and 5678 (1918) he again took a leading part in the assembly of Rabbis and laymen in Moscow and Kharkov.