Abstract
This article examines how the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Yosef Yitzhak Schneerson, redefined Chabad leadership through letter-writing in response to the challenges of the interwar period. With personal contact disrupted by Soviet anti-religious policies and Jewish emigration, he cultivated an epistolary community that sustained spiritual connection and reinforced Chabad identity. Drawing on the largely unexamined archive of R. Yosef Yitzhak, the article analyzes the social profiles, languages, and geographic distribution of correspondents, the thematic content of their letters, and the Rebbe’s strategies for fostering and sustaining this correspondence.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 357-381 |
| Number of pages | 25 |
| Journal | Jewish Culture and History |
| Volume | 26 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2025 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
UN SDGs
This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
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SDG 10 Reduced Inequalities
Keywords
- Chabad Hasidism
- Hasidic leadership
- Rebbe–Hasid relationship
- Soviet Jewry
- correspondence
- interwar Hasidism
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