Letter of Good Wishes for a Wedding by Rebbetzin Chana Schneerson - The Lubavitcher Rebbe's Mother - 1953

Letter of Good Wishes for a Wedding by Rebbetzin Chana Schneerson - The Lubavitcher Rebbe's Mother - 1953
Letter in Yiddish, blessings for a wedding, handwritten and signed by Rebbetzin Chana Schneerson. Brooklyn, NY, Tevet 1953. The letter, dated "Motzaei Shabbat 17th Tevet 1953", contains congratulations from the Rebbetzin to her friend Tamar Ita (Tamarita) Gluskin upon the marriage of her daughter, and that the wedding should take place "at a good and successful time". Rebbetzin Chana Schneerson (1880-1965), mother of Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the last Chabad-Lubavitch Rebbe, was the daughter of R. Meir Shlomo Yanovsky Rabbi of Mykolaiv. Wife of the Rebbe's father, R. Levi Yitzchak Schneerson, she devotedly stood by his side during the Communist rule, first in his capacity as Rabbi of Yekaterinoslav (present day Dnipropetrovsk), and afterward in their exile to the village of Chiali in Kazakhstan after he was expelled by the authorities as a penalty for his religious activities to preserve Jewish observance. In Kazakhstan, the rebbetzin produced ink from weeds to enable her husband to write his Torah novellae, and later risked her life by transporting his writings while traveling from place to place. The Likutei Levi Yitzchak series on the Zohar were later printed from these writings. Rabbi Levi Yitzchak died in Alma-Ata (Almaty) in Kazakhstan in 1944, and in 1946, the rebbetzin crossed the Russian border into Poland, eventually arriving in Paris in Adar 1947. Upon hearing that his mother reached Paris, her son the Rebbe, who already lived in Brooklyn at the time, boarded a plane to greet his mother after their 20-year separation by the Iron Curtain. The Rebbe stayed in Paris for three months to arrange all the necessary permits for his mother's immigration to the US, and in the month of Sivan embarked by ship to the US. The Rebbe the Rayatz died three years later and was succeeded by Rebbe Menachem Mendel. From then until her death she assisted her son, who honored her excessively. The Rebbetzin was very involved in the lives of the Chassidim and in various Chabad activities, and served as a member of the board of Neshei and B'not Chabad in the US. In 1964, she began publicizing her memoirs in installments, written for the newspaper Di Yiddishe Heim, and thoughtfully requested the editor to omit the chapters in which she described the suffering and hardships endured by her great husband, so as not to pain her son. In 1983, the biography Em B'Yisrael was printed about Rebbetzin Schneerson's special character traits, recounting her life story. The recipient: Mrs. Tamar Ita Gluskin (died 1987), wife of R. Naftali Gluskin and daughter of R. Shimon Moshe Diskin Rabbi of Lachowicze, author of Midrash Shimoni. In 1944-1945, when Rebbetzin Schneerson was a lonely widow living in Alma-Ata, Tamar Ita devotedly stood by her side, in spite of the risk involved. The Rebbetzin wrote to her in one of her letters: "I well remember your care… at the time nobody dared to stand within my four cubits". After several years, Tamar Ita immigrated to Tel Aviv, and corresponded from there with the Rebbetzin. A few letters of this correspondence were printed in "Kovetz L'Chizuk HaHitkashrut - Tishrei 5775"; however, this letter was not printed. Aerogram. 30 cm. Good condition. Stains. Small tears and filing holes, not affecting text. Folding marks.