Daas Torah - 1971 edition (Part I)

Recently the above publication was loaned to the Circus Tent in order to publicize its contents to our thousands of readers. We appreciate it, and thank the anonymous loaner for his help in spreading the truth all across blogosphere.

In 1971 the movement to free Soviet Jewry was in full swing, at least amongst a large segment of the Jewish population. Activists such as Meir Kahane would harrass Soviet diplomats, and make theie life here a living hell. Large scale demonstrations took place in Washington, DC. and abroad, and all sorts of pressure was placed on all sorts of world leaders. The frum world was nowhere to be found when it came to these issues, and those who were active did not like it one bit. They accused them of not caring about the suffering of their brethren in the CCCP, something the frummies adamantly denied. "We have Da'as Torah, and that's who we follow," they said, and we have our own ways of caring about Russian Jews. Demonstrations, especially loud ones are only detrimental to the plight of our brethren, so we won't have any part of it.

One of the publications put out to plead the cause of the frum was the above special edition of "The Tzeirei Forum" by the Zeirei Agudas Israel entitled "The Russian Jew," by a young team of Agudah writers and stam Yeshivishe guys who cared about their reputation and the reputation of their leaders. They banded together to put forth a response that would once and for all show the secular and Gentile world that we do have a voice and do speak up. The booklet goes into great detail explaining the history of Russian Jewry since the rise of the Bolsheviks until today (1971). Was I surprised to see that much of what was written there seems to have come straight from the offices of 770 Eastern Parkway! Articles about the Mesiras Nefesh of the Frierdige Rebbe and his Chassidim, and the Rebbe's view on what should be done to free Russian Jews. All this in 1971, not 1951.

What exactly changed from 1971 till, say, 1991? not much really. The Rebbe had made all the so-called sensational statements already, and the meetings with Shazar had taken place. The six-day war was proclaimed a miracle, and the Sichah of not sleeping in the Sukkah had been said that Tishrei. So what gives? Who in the American Agudah decided that Lubavitch and the Rebbe were to be marginalized? Or was it not the American branch that decided this? All this bears some investigating, IMHO. In the mean time take a look at these pages from the Tzeirei Forum.