1917-1927: Revolution and Resistance
The Bolsheviks launch war on Jewish life
In 1917, the Bolshevik Party hijacked the Russian Revolution, consolidated power and almost immediately began targeting all forms of religious observance and communal life. With the zealous assistance of the Yevsektzia—the Jewish sections of the Bolshevik Party—this effort took on an accelerated pace in the Jewish community. Synagogues were closed, communal property confiscated and clergy attacked.
The Sixth Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, succeeded his father as Lubavitcher Rebbe in 1920, becoming spiritual leader of the emerging Soviet Jewry. He established the Rabbinical Committee of the USSR and under its auspices built mikvah ritual baths, founded underground Jewish schools and yeshivahs, and trained rabbis and shochetim (ritual slaughterers) to serve as communal leaders throughout the Soviet Union.
For this work he was arrested in 1927 and sentenced to death. Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak was ultimately released and exiled from the Soviet Union, but would continue working on behalf of Soviet Jewry for the rest of his life. Even as conditions in the Soviet Union worsened, his network continued to grow.
The Bolsheviks commenced the destruction of traditional Jewish life, aided by the Yevsektzia.
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Rabbi Shalom DovBer of Lubavitch and the Russian Revolution
In the face of tyranny and upheaval, Judaism’s future always remained the Rebbe's foremost concern.
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12-13 Tammuz marks the release of the Sixth Chabad Rebbe from Soviet prison.
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Marking 90 years since Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn’s international campaign
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A search for the story behind the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe’s lone Soviet portrait yields not one, but two photos
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Recalling an era and a leader whose heroism and holiness shaped her life and the future of Judaism
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Video | 51:22
The untold story of the secret Chabad underground in the former Soviet Union
Precious little is known of the tremendous devotion and self-sacrifice of Chabad activists in upholding Judaism against the oppressive Communists’ ruthless stamping out of religion. Rabbi Dovid Eliezrie shares fascinating insights and anecdotes to illustrate the clandestine and heroic activities of the Chabad underground that ultimately laid the foundation for the phenomenal rebirth of Jewish life in Russia today.
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Video | 23:28
The story of Jewish survival in the former Soviet Union
Defying rogue regimes, the Rebbes of Chabad-Lubavitch and their emissaries risked their lives to keep Judaism alive across the Soviet Union. Their efforts enabled the embers of Judaism to spark the transformation of Jewish life thriving there today.
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Short stories of Jewish courage amidst constant threat in Communist Soviet Union
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The Life and Writings of Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson—Part Two
This article covers the life and rabbinic leadership of Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson in Yekaterinoslav-Dnipropetrovsk during the first decade of the Bolshevik regime.
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Video | 6:30
In Sefer Hasichos 5702, the Previous Rebbe relates some of the struggle that Chassidim endured in the Soviet Union. Warned against practicing Judaism under threat of danger to their lives, the Previous Rebbe gathered his closest Chassidim and made a pact. They swore not to be deterred from their mission, in spreading and promoting a life of Torah.
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Video | 6:46
My father served as chief rabbi of Dnipropetrovsk, a major city in Ukraine, which supplied wheat to large parts of Russia. When the time came to prepare flour for matzah, people flocked from the surrounding areas seeking flour that was certified kosher for Passover.
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Video | 6:15
12 Tammuz 5745 • July 1, 1985
The Stalinist regime that imprisoned my father-in-law, the Rebbe, in 1927, was then a superpower. Despite that, he defied his oppressors. He did not budge an inch in anything that jeopardized his principles. Even at the train station, about to be exiled, he declared publicly: “Only our bodies, not our souls, were sent into exile.” And indeed, his defiance led to his release.
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The three emissaries from the court of death entered the room, dressed in their uniforms of red and black, rifles in hand, their belts filled with bullets and hung with a pair of revolvers and another pair of Cossack knives, with helmets of brass and their faces aflame
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With restriction on religion being officially released, the ashes, glowing for seventy years, finally burst into flame. The warmth of Judaism began to glow for the millions of Jewish men, women and children across Russia who didn’t even know the meaning of the word “Jew”
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